Family Weekend

This past weekend, Brian and I were super blessed to spend time with the Stank Gang. Here are some highlights and pictures.

• Friday night we arrived in Richmond and stayed up late talking with Mom, Mike, & Blakely
• Saturday morning we got up at 7am (very early for Karen) and got to spend time playing with Pierce. Our favorite nephew

Playing with Pierce Saturday morning

• Saturday afternoon we drove to Spotsylvania and spent some time with Karen's other family - The Gregory's. We helped celebrate Hanah's 4th birthday and it was nice to see all the Gregory family.

Happy 4th Birthday to Hanah Gregory - Karen's Niece

• Saturday evening we enjoyed a delicious ham dinner courtesy of Karen's parents - it was delicious!

• Then we did the annual pumpkin carving - that was fun and hilarious. Laughter is something that is NEVER missing from Stank family get-togethers

Pierce's first encounter with a pumpkin

Pierce digging in :)
Karen and Brian working on their pumpkin

Mike, Blakely, and Shaun working hard.



Video of pumpkin carving

The finished products

• Pierce also enjoyed a bath in the kitchen sink to get all the pumpkin "yucks" off him. Uncle Brian was way more interested in helping with that than the pumpkin carving - If loves his own kid half as much as he loves Pierce, we will be good to go. :)Pierce having fun in the sink.

• Sunday morning got us up at 7:30am (another early morning) and we had another chance to spend time with Pierce and play. We were slacking getting ready, so we stayed with Pierce while Kate & Shaun went to church without us.

Uncle Brian hanging with Pierce on Sunday morning

• Around 10am we headed to Innsbrook for Celebration of Hope - it was a great afternoon!

Walking in Memory of Daniel :)

• After the walk, we got some shopping in to get Brian some new running shoes for his new job (more to come about that tomorrow).
• At 4pm we watched Buffalo kick butt - Yeah! GO BILLS!!!!
• Sunday evening, again we were blessed with a wonderful dinner - Mom's homemade spaghetti (food is never in scarcity at the Stank home).
• It was fun to watch Pierce enjoy Grandmas' spaghetti for the first time - He loved it!

Pierce enjoying Grandma's Spaghetti Sauce :)

• After dinner clean-up and sad goodbyes, it was time for us to go.
• Although this weekend was super fun, we really missed Kirsten and Keith - they were out of town on an anniversary trip - We really missed them and hope to see them again soon.
• Also, come Sunday night I was totally pooped out! I think the 4 miles we walked on Sunday had something to do with it, but I am quickly learning that more sleep is needed when you are 4 1/2 months pregnant. :) Although, I still haven't gained any extra weight (and actually threw up again this morning), this little one is sucking energy and calories from me. That will be something I need to get used to over the next 5 months.

All and all, it was a super blessed weekend! We love our family!!!! Can't believe it had been over a month since we had seen them! We can't wait to see them all again.