as much as we enjoyed our company over the weekend, it was so nice to have a quiet afternoon yesterday sunday with just us two.  it was heavenly. 

however, we did have a good time with family.  the parentsIL and teenagers arrived around 17:00 on thursday.  we hung out on the beach for a while and wiied a bit before hubby’s sis and BIL arrived around 22:00.  wii continued to play until 02:00 when everyone gave up waiting on hubby’s bro’s family to get here.  he stayed up to greet them when they got in around 03:30.

by friday morning, there were thirteen of us in our little 1273sq ft condo.  everyone was up and raring to go at 06:30 which means i spent a couple hours clenching a pillow over my head until i finally gave in and joined the crowd.  there was wii fun before everyone headed for the beach.  i abstained, choosing to remain in my air conditioning reading a book rather than sitting in the sun since there was no chance of me getting one of my two umbrellaed chairs with so many visitors.  i feel it was a good choice.  i read and dozed and conversed with folks as they came and went for snacks and such.  as the afternoon wore on, a group of them decided to make a grocery run and the rest went their separate ways for quiet time.  hubby and i went down to the beach and napped under our umbrella for a bit.  when we all regrouped, a picnic feast was prepared and we all headed back down to the beach to grill burgers and dogs. 

thankfully, saturday morning stayed quiet until closer to 08:00.  when i got up, i got right to work on a birthday cake for nephew c.j.  for lunch, he chose a restaurant and we all had a nice meal out.  we even got a bit of a show watching the giant carp, turtles, and raccoon enjoying their lunch behind the restaurant.  the rest of the afternoon was actually fairly quiet as half the group took the teens out for go-karting and putt-putt. 

sunday morning, the crowd started packing for home around 08:00.  they had all departed by 10:15.  hubby and i walked his parents down to their car and then spent a couple hours cleaning back up.  after that, we held down the couch the rest of the afternoon (with the exception of me getting up to change laundry loads every hour or so).  it was blissfully quiet and comfortably spacious.  while we genuinely enjoyed spending time with the family, especially those we don’t often see, 2.5 days was quite enough of having that many people cramped into our cozy condo!

on the whole, i think everyone else had a good weekend too.  niece a.g. even declared that she was going to spend her whole summer break with us!