Family Vacation to Alabama ~ Day 4

Oma/Omie Visits! Oh yeah, Uncle Frits, Aunt Carole, Jason and Isabella too ;-)

I think I spelled Omie correctly. That's great grandmother in Dutch for those that don't know and what my kiddos call my Oma. To express how exciting it was to see my Oma, I don't know that I have the words. I was just as excited to see all of my Missouri family as well although the last time I saw her, Jordan was 6 months old. Yes, Jordan is 12 now. She has only met one of my kiddos. This was a big deal and very exciting.

I'll probably keep saying my Oma as to not confuse her with my kiddos' Oma since I seem to always refer to Mom and Dad as Oma and Opa in my blogging.

Uncle Frits, Aunt Carole, Jason and his daughter, Isabella (who is a year younger than Jordan, I believe) brought my Oma to the beach house for a visit. In walked everyone. Lots of hugs, smiles and tears to say the least. My Oma hugged onto every one of the kids which was great to see. She had already seen Jordan and Jasmine the week before when they visited with Oma and Opa. She was so excited to see Jasmine, her girl, again. Everyone always loves Jasmine.

The cutest thing was her hugging Jeremy though. She thought he was my husband and of course, being family, hugged him too. A few minutes later, my Oma asked Dad where Jeremy was. Dad pointed to Boo and my Oma almost fell over seeing how big her Jeremy was. She had to hug him again. Adorable.

One thing to know about my Oma is that she goes NO WHERE without her camera. This was definitely a huge opportunity to take pictures.

Omie with all of her great-grandbabies



Omie, me and the kiddos (no Jacob isn't sad. That's just Jacob being Jacob.)



Boo, Jason, me, Oma and Jo



After pictures, the kids wanted to go swimming so we got them all ready for that. Opa and Uncle Steve got in the pool with the kids.



Jason got the pool with the kids for a bit which the kids had a blast using him as a spring board! Uncle Boo got in there too and he turned into a spring board as well. Boo thanked Jason. He he he.


Later on, all the Missouri family came over. Earlier in the day, I put together 4 pans of my famous stuffed shells. Ok, maybe not famous but Jamie loves them. My parents love them. My brother, who is a pickier eater than my children, loves them. Mom and Jo put together salad, bread and strawberry shortcake for later on. It was a great evening of wonderful food, family and fun. I even had a few requests for the recipe for my stuffed shells. Yeah! Go me!

Sheesh, I hope that post was too confusing. It's normally so easy to using Oma and Opa and not mixing them up. Which was pretty amusing during the visit as Isabella calls Uncle Frits and Aunt Carole, Oma and Opa as well. It's not very often that there is more than one Oma or one Opa in the room.

Family Vacation to Alabama ~ Day 3

Naval Museum in Pensacola, FL

Since the kiddos were burnt from the beach (bad mommy), we didn't head back out to the beach. Mom and Dad were planning on going to the Naval Museum with Uncle Tom and Aunt Janice. The kids and I tagged along. The kids really enjoyed everything. I think a big part of that is because their Opa knows so much about all of it since he was in the Navy. They thought it was pretty cool that Opa's ship was listed on the wall.

These two pictures crack me up. Check out Jenna's facial expressions. I would NOT want to be in her line of fire!



Here's another fun series of pictures for you. I always hear people say it's hard to get a nice picture of their kids together. You know, families with 2 or 3 kids. Try 6. Thanks James for always holding steady with that great smile in every picture! (Although this time around, even James was getting annoyed with his brothers and sisters.)