O'Brien Mini-Vacation

After the youngest O'Brien's wedding we rented a cabin and, those of us who could make it, spent about 3 days playing and talking together. Mom was there (of course!!). Four of the sisters, one of which brought her husband, one sister-in-law, and eight of the grandkids (plus two in the bellies of two of the girls there!) were in attendance.

Esther and Maude chatting during our O'Brien family mini-vacation.

Maude:  Of course it was lovely to get some time to chat with my mom, some of my sisters and two of my in-laws while at the cabin.  We stayed up late and talked, played games, and watched movies.  My absolute favourite night was before we went to the cabin though when we stayed up and played Mafia - a game I haven't played in years - it was so much fun!!! 

Esther: And crazy! We all tend to really get into Mafia! Maybe those acting genes? I love role playing games. We stayed up so late but it was well worth it! I think we will be talking about that game for years to come :)

Maude: While at the cabin though we got to see Parent Trap 3 - that is a movie that Katharine, Lizzi and I used to act out as little girls.  It was amazing how much I remembered.  I could still quote most of it (we seriously had the entire film memorized as little girls and LOVED playing like we were triplets) but was surprised at a few parts that I had completely forgotten about.

The family members that made it to the vacation (Mom's taking the picture).

Esther: This picture was taken at Seneca lake (where our family camp was held). It has a special place in all our hearts.  The cabin we stayed at was just 30 minutes away from Seneca lake so of course we had to go visit! It was really fun to walk around and have my kid with me this time... I used to be the little kid running around there.  We decided to get a picture on Vespers Hill with all the kids (and their kids) who came to the cabin.

Maude: That isn't very many of us, is it?  Only five of the ten kids are represented but it still felt lively enough with all those little ones to chase around!!  There was one more kid than adult but sometimes it felt more uneven than that to me (maybe because there were two more in waiting - one of which was making me feel sick each morning)!

Esther: It was so fun having all the little ones running around... though sometimes it was a little bit difficult to keep up with them :)

Mom is monitoring as Maude's little one kisses Esther's little one.  We've definitely got some kissing cousins!

Maude: The best thing about the mini-vacation was the "cousin time" that all the little ones got together.  Sometimes it felt like the parents weren't getting much time to catch up but the great thing was seeing stronger bonds being tied between our children.  Milton had a wonderful time with his boy cousins and though he tended to play with the older boys more, the last day he spent a lot of time with one of the younger ones and he asked me how old he was because he was surpurised at how much fun he had playing with him.

Maeva had the time of her life though with Esther's Bug.  She absolutely adores him.  She has named her (girl) babydoll after him, she pretends to be "Baby Bug" where she wants to be held and rocked like a baby.  During the wedding she was always trying to hold him, she even wanted to give him a piggyback ride down the stairs at one point and although a year apart they are pretty close to the same size!  I wanted to get some good pictures of her with him to print out for her photo album (or her wall!!) and, as you can see from the above picture, that turned into the cutest montage of trying to capture a shot of a kiss.  Poor Bug - that photo will come out at his high school graduation!

Esther: I was thinking the same thing! I love it though. So sweet! She does just love him and it was so cute to see them together.  I enjoyed  watching the little ones play, the beauty of the place we were in, good food, and good conversations with some lovely people.