Brendan's Visit

This past weekend, plus a few extra days, was great!! My third youngest brother, Brendan, came up for a visit. We had such a great time!

Our first stops, of course, were Dave's Pizza and The Shops of Grand River, with my mom who had brought him. It is one of the few, but good, places that allows pets. It was fun! And, the boys knew that about half way through the numerous stores they could get slushies and pretzels out of Grandma. Haha! Thanks for the treats, Mom! 

 

After dinner on Friday, Brendan and I ran to Target to get the needed goodies for us grown ups. This not only included Orange Fanta, gummy bears, and licorice... But also a taste of the Force:

Yes, that is a marshmallow Stormtrooper and a cereal TIE Fighter and X-Wing. Score!

Saturday, we introduce Brendan to the wonders of Costco! He was rather impressed with the sizes of things that you could buy. We even got a huge Costco pizza to take home! Yum!

While the boys played with Jason, he helped me get dinner started in the kitchen. I'm not sure if he knew I took this picture or not. But, you can only take so many of Brendan before reaching his personal quota. Love you!

Sundays are lazy family days around here. After Mass and lunch at Moe's, Austin went down for a nap while the rest of us played Super Mario Brothers and Wii Resort. I have been banned (by my doing...) from playing Mario with the boys. But, listening to all the guys playing, big and little, was HILARIOUS!

On Monday (sadly, Jason was out of town most of this week), we traveled a little south of Birmingham to check out the sights at The American Village. What a cool place!! I have had this on my list of places to go for a good while now. I'm glad Brendan had picked it out. Andrew and Alex loved it, too! 

The Colonial Chapel where we heard Patrick Henry's famous speech. Andrew thought he was pretty cool.

Where Patrick Henry stood in the Chapel. Beautiful!

Liberty Bell Garden

The National Veterans Shrine - Brendan's favorite place! He was able to speak with one of the Veterans while we toured this beautiful building.

Andrew and Alex went on a Scavenger Hunt to find some pretty amazing things inside the Shrine.

 

Liberty embracing the fall of one of Her men during the Revolutionary War.

 

Mount Vernon

Brendan hard at work in the Oval Office

Encampment

Brendan took Andrew and Alex down to see the Encampment up close

After some shopping was done in the gift shop, which YES! included a new addition to my coffee mug collection, we headed back up the road and stopped for lunch. Everyone was starving from all the fun that was had at the American Village. We can't wait to go back!!

Tuesday morning, we headed out to the movies for one of the summer $1 flicks. Brendan hadn't seen Mr. Peabody and Sherman. So, after watching the trailer for it on YouTube, among many other videos we had to share with each other, he decided it would be fun to watch. And, yeah! We got the butter soaked movie popcorn and huge drinks! We don't get out much... Ha!

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Wednesday came around and it was time for the fun to {almost} end. Brendan was heading back home today. Mom drove back up and met us at the Galleria this time. There was a "threat" of storms (which apparently decided to hold off until today...and for the 4th of July...) so our normal outside options weren't in the cards. 

Seeing an Ironman Transformer of some sort was cool.

But, since the Lego store is at the Galleria, the boys were fine with the change of plans. 

Well...Austin wasn't a fan.. He was told not to open the Legos until we got home. But, we knew a cookie would fix that frown in a heartbeat.

But, our time with Brendan was coming to an end... So, once we said our goodbyes, we all headed in our different directions back home.

Mr. Sleepy

Austin was pretty tired, so he took more of a real nap at home. The other two knew that the time has come for their new Lego sets to be taken care of finally! Here are two of them -Lunar Rovers (by the way, go Lego Store for the freebies to honor space exploration this month!). I'll have to get a better pic of Andrew's Snow Truck and Alex's Swamp Police set later. 

 Once Austin woke up he got down to business with his little pond set.

Busy builder man

It is so crazy to think that the next time we see Brendan... He will be a soldier of the United States Army. I am so very proud of him. We all are! He is one amazing guy and I am so very happy to call him my brother. And, I am so grateful for the time he was able to spend with us these past few days. Sure, he may not like his photo taken, but I grabbed what I could and I am so thrilled that I did. Here are my favorites that I will end with. We love you Brendan!!

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