The Big House

We're back! We, as usual, had a great time at "The Big House" Worth family reunion. The highlights were swimming in the pool, letting the kids run loose in a safe place with their cousins, Asher being old enough to make some new friends, Naomi's hula-hoop performance in the talent show, Richard's video-gaming with his brothers, watching the Olympics with such a big group, delicious food, great company, amazing West Virginia scenery.

This house is 5 stories and we counted 80-something doors. It's huge. But it's all a safe environment so the kids could really let loose and not be right next to us. Naomi is kind of a "check-back-in-with-Mom-every-once-in-a-while type of person but Asher really loved just disappearing. He had no concerns at all about being 3 stories away from us. We had to go looking for him every half hour or so to make sure he was up to good, not bad. But he was usually up to good. He made good friends with his cousin Ashby, which is funny since she is actually just older than Naomi. I think they have similar spirits - active, funny, free. I found Asher on the bottom floor once, sitting in the middle of the pool table surrounded by a group of kids at least two years older than him and joining in like he was one of them. What was really amazing to me was that the older kids accepted him!
Isaiah had a great time and became sort of the pet of several people. If he escaped from my attention for a minute it was always easy to find him because a trail of people would tell me which way he had gone. His cousin Sidni seemed to especially love him.
Naomi did a great job of blending in (something that she sometimes struggles with) and mostly stuck with her cousin Avery who is a Princess-at-heart like Naomi. She says her favorite part was "ballet and hula-hooping and gymnastic-ing".

Richard's family is wonderful and we love them all. It was so great to see everybody and get to know them again. My favorite part of the week was the talent show. The Worth's are very talented. We had magic tricks, juggling, singing, speech recitals, acting, skits, joke telling and more.

We were very sad that Richard's sister, Nancy, could not come. She was about 6 months pregnant and her blood pressure was dangerously high, so she didn't get to come. We were all very bummed about that. She stayed home, but her husband and three kids came anyway. Chris, her husband, did a great job with the kids. It must have been amazingly stressful for him traveling with them and handling them alone all week. Yesterday Nancy drove herself to the hospital and ended up having an emergency c-section. Her baby boy was born at just over 2 pounds. We are praying and hoping and praying that he will be alright. He seems OK now, but it's never really great when babies are that small. Nancy is doing well. We are so glad that she wasn't in a remote house in West Virginia when this happened. We're thankful to our Heavenly Father for leading her to be in the right place and to follow the promptings of the Spirit so Baby could be safely born. Nancy, our prayers are with you and Baby. (Hurry up and name him so we can call him something specific in our prayers!)

Pics are on Richard's computer, so you'll have to wait for those!