Lots of visitors!

So, I see it's been a whole month since we posted last. That's pretty poor, I admit. Sorry to everyone we told that we would try to be better about posting! In our defense, we have been crazy busy this month.

The beginning of the month was time for visitors. Megan and Josh stopped by for a few days, and taught us how to play "Tour of Europe" (I think that's what it's called). You have to make train routes from one destination to another, basically. Things got a little heated at times, but everyone got over their losses and we had a good time.

Just a day later, my (Chrissie) mom , step-dad Paul and brother Paulie (the little one!) came out to visit us for the first time since we moved. They stayed for 5 days and we had a great time! During their stay, we got a big snowstorm, which delighted Paulie. We brought them to the cabin so he could sled and make his first mountain pie and s'mores. Paulie thought he was hot stuff, because he got to ride in the truck with his big brother-in-law (Brian). Because of the snow, they had to stay an extra day (yay!). Paulie made our sidewalk look lovely by raking the snow with the rake (new concept...looks nice, but not great for actually clearing the snow).

Over the course of their stay, Paulie seemed to have some issues with locking doors. The first night they were there, someone locked our door when we went out for dinner...after Brian and I discussed the fact that neither of us was bringing any keys. So, when we arrived home, we found ourselves locked out. We had no idea the house was so secure, as we had to resort to climbing in a kitchen window - the only one in the house that doesn't lock properly. Good thing Brian had left out the ladder I had been nagging him to put away for weeks. No one had any idea who had locked the door, so it remained a mystery...until a few days later. When I was at work, my mom called from the house and asked if we had a key to the upstairs bedroom where they were staying. I said no...why? Because Paulie had locked them out of the room. Whoops. I laughed and told my mom that we would figure it out when I got home. Then, she mentioned that the other problem was that Samson was locked IN the room. Then I had to laugh even more. Brian and I headed home and, sure enough, the cat was sticking his little paws out under the door, much to my mom's dismay. We tried every key we had, and attempted to pick the lock, with no luck. So, Brian grabbed a heavy case of ammo, slammed it against the door knob, and voila, an open door and a quite startled Samson. So, we figured Paulie may have also been the one to lock the door earlier in the week. Funny kid.

Anyway, they took off after the snow and narrowly missed getting stuck in the 78/80/81 shutdown craziness. Paulie asked repeatedly on the way home if they could just turn around and come back. He had such a good time, as did we all.