And the cousins came.

The end of July brought an aunt and uncle and two cousins to amuse us.  They arrived via their monster truck and 32 foot (!) trailer in which they were making their Grand World Tour.   There was also a couple of frog stow-aways, live crickets, and a Venus fly trap acquired along the way.  Almost exactly like National Lampoon's Vacation.  No, not really.  Well, kind of.

We stashed kids in corners to sleep and it was a full house, sometimes a noisy house, and by the time they rolled out for South Dakota I found myself missing the noise.   The big boys and uncles caught a Cubs game at Wrigley Field.  Bummer the Cubs lost, but I think they enjoyed themselves immensely and now I find E is keenly interested in going regularly.

 A conversation with J...
J:  "Aunt Janna, you recognize you have an ant problem."
Me: "J, there's ants on the patio because you tossed your popsicle stick down instead of bringing it in to the trash."
J:  "But dude, you recognize you really have an ant problem."
Me:  "Okay.  I recognize this.  Also, I'm not a dude."

The kids were sad to see their chums go.  And we had a chance to hang with my sister and bro-in-law that we basically never get living so far apart.