Enjoying the Hatches

We spent today enjoying the Hatches. It was a really nice day because everyone was there. Michelle and her family are here visiting from Arizona. It was a real treat to see them and their new baby girl, Erin. There was lots of fun noise around everywhere. The kids seemed to be having a blast. I am so glad we were able to see everyone one more time before we left. I'm sure people thought Ashton and I were party pooper because we were sooooo tired. I don't think I put my best self forward. Regardless, it turned out to be a nice, relaxing day.

At one point Cindy wanted to take the kids for a walk to let them run their energy out. I volunteered to help. We took the big kids and left everyone else to watch toddlers and babies. I think we had the harder job!
Here we started off the walk with a very excited group.
The kids decided to all hold hands. Here are Ethan, BJ, Tylor, Matthew, Brandon, Nathan, Ashton, & Rebecca. Cindy and I had a pretty easy job at this point. Unfortunatily the children soon let go of hands and started to seperate into different groups. Those who were going to go very fast, those who were s..l..o..w, and everyone inbetween. At one point I asked Rebecca to catch BJ. He was way ahead of the group and getting close to a street corner. Once he realized she was running after him, he ran even faster. The really funny part was the group of kids right behind her started running too. Lucky for us, Rebecca is very responsible and had everyone wait for the slow pokes.
Later the kids enjoyed playing outside together. They threw around a football, played soccar, and some tag. This is a picture of Rebecca doing a 20 minute process to decide who was "it" for tag!

Soon it was time for us to leave. I did pretty good emotion wise until Cindy started to cry. The saddest part was when she said, "We will see you later...sometime" and then she burst into tears. It is so hard to make a change in our lives that takes us away from everyone. I just have to keep remembering that the Lord has a plan.

The next time I write we will be in Connecticut. The movers come tomorrow to pack us up, they load us on Tuesday, and then we fly out on Wednesday. We are soon off to our new adventure. Love you all and I will write soon.