Surprise visitors

In the midst of my recovery from my appendectomy, we had two sets of surprise guests — both of which were great diversions from an otherwise monotonous period of time.
The first was my cousin, Frank, and his wife, Emily, and their two kids as they made their way across the country back to their home in Maryland. We knew they going to be coming but they ended up bumping their trip up a little and were here a week or so ahead of schedule. It was great to see them! I just wish I'd been able to be a little better hostess for them. Still, Lydia had a great time playing with her second cousins and I enjoyed the time catching up with Frank and Emily. Tragically since neither I, nor Emily, were feeling up to much, I didn't get any pictures of the adults. The kids were willing to hold still for a couple of moments for a photo though.

Frankie and Lydia

Katie, Frankie and Lydia

The second surprise was actually a surprise for my mom. My brother, Kevin, flew in with his family to surprise my mom for her birthday! It was so fun to have this bonus visit with them since I hadn't expected to see them again until December. It was fantastic!
Although, again, I wasn't up for much in the hostessing department, I did enjoy several late night chats, games and a dinner out to celebrate my amazing mom. Thanks so much Kev for making the effort to come :)

I can't believe this is the only photo I got of the entire time they were here and it doesn't even capture everyone at dinner. Leslie and Colin and Lydia and I were also there. Sadly, Derek was sick and had to miss out on the celebration at Rusty's.

I love this picture of Lydia and me. It's so rare to get a photo of her without a fake cheese smile lately and even more rare to have the two of us in the photo together. I've got to work on that...