Annual Holt Family Reunion/ Father's Day/ 10 year anniversary/etc...

Holy Cow, I'm finally back in town. June was jam packed! Luke and I headed to St. Louis to visit my parents on the 5th. We had a couple days of quiet shopping and hanging out. On Tuesday the 10th, Chad brought the big kids out and a couple days later the rest of the Holt clan started to arrive. Angi and Betsy came with their families on Thursday, then Danny and David got there Friday. It was a jam packed week, and a jam packed house. Tons of fun. We had kids and babies in travel cribs in every corner literally. Luke slept in the furnace room, Elyse and Spencer each slept in different closets, Gwen was in the study, kids on every bedroom floor, and in the family room, David even slept on an air mattress in the storage room. It was great.

Friday was Chad and my 10th anniversary! Yikes. Time flies when your having fun. We celebrated by taking our kids to the Arch and touring around. They've wanted to go up in it for a long time, this was the perfect opportunity.

First we took the kids to The St. Louis Bread Factory for lunch.

Then we headed to the Arch. Somehow I've deleted most of my Arch pictures, but here are a few.

We went to Sizzler for dinner on our 1st anniversary, so we thought it was only fitting to take the kids to Golden Coral for our 10th, yum.

In the evening we had strawberry shortcake and celebrated with everyone.Sunday was Father's Day. We came home from church and took our family pictures. My youngest brother David is getting married in August and these are the dressed the little girls are going to wear.

The original bunch.

Betsy took some family pictures for us to document our little family after 10 years. I wonder what we'll look like in 10 more?

The following week we went to the Zoo... Here are the boys at the zoo.
My sisters and I traded fabric and we each made dresses for our girls. It was so much fun. They are all a little different but coordinated so cute. They wore them to the zoo.
One day we went to the lake and the kids played on the beach for hours.
Grandpa was a serious sand castle builder. He even brought a real shovel.
Here's grandpa and Abbie building a retaining wall.
The kids spent hours playing in my parents back yard. My dad hauled a whole bunch of sand in and made an enormous play area with sand, a tree swing, benches, a beach and of course the creek to play in. He also made trails all over through the woods with lookouts, and cute log benches all over the place. It is a kids paradise.



Every grand kid has a place in the the yard named after them and with a cute sign.One day we celebrated all the summer birthdays. Chad and I made homemade donuts.
Here's Abbie and Lauryn getting a little manicure and pedicure.

I thought this picture was hilarious. My sister told Elyse to give Luke a kiss and this is his look of anticipation. Having a yummy ice cream cone.

Good Times!