Vacation in the USA

It's currently 1 AM and I'm up blogging while Francis and Ellie play trains and eat peanut butter & jelly... so strike 1 for our first night back in Austria!

We just got back from 5 weeks in the USA, where fortunately the transition to the time change went much better than the current situation!

Our time in the States was filled with visiting lots of siblings and cousins (our kids have 43 first cousins!!!), swimming, drinking water with ice cubes, and eating a lot of doughnuts.

My (Courtney) siblings all had a baby this year, so we got to meet all the new additions!

Cousins!! Watchout for all the red heads, Isaac has 5 older cousins with red hair! ❤️

Ellie's swimming lessons paid off as she's mastered swimming without a vest, including off the diving board into the deep end!

We spent the 4th of July in Iowa, swimming and enjoying time with relatives!

Shortly after the 4th, we decided it was time for Francis' first big boy hair cut!!  Lots of emotions as I watched my toddler transform into a little man!

Ellie also got her hair cut.  The plan was to get her ears pierced but we were told she wouldn't be able to submerge her head under the water (in the pool or bath tub!) so we decided to pass on that and get clip-on earings instead! 

More cousin time!!

Our third weekend in the States, Brian hosted the Steubenville St. Louis Youth Conference in front of nearly 5,000 people!

That same weekend, 3 of the nephews/niece were baptized by Fr. Vu... the same priest who baptized Ellie!

Fun times with face-painting and making s'mores!

Isaac went from primarily crawling to non-stop walking during our time in the US, and he got his 1 year molars!

After 2.5 weeks in Iowa, we were off to Brian's side of the family in Steubenville, Ohio!

They enjoyed lots of time with grandma and grandpa, lots of cousins, and nightly popsicles or ice cream!

Fishing & kayaking with their cousins!

After a 1.5 weeks in Steubenville, where Brian hosted another conference - one on main campus where a bunch of his nieces and nephews are working for the summer - we were off to the beach!

Brian's side of the family has been doing a Beach Week in Topsail Island, NC for many, many years and it's definitely one of our highlights of the year!!  It was SO much fun this year to watch the kids love spending ALL day on the beach and playing with their cousins!!

We finished up our last day on American soil with some fun, matching family photos!!

Until next year, we'll be dreaming of fun back in the USA... well, once we start sleeping, then we might start dreaming ;)