The First of the Siblings

And the winners are...Mike and Rachael!!!  Ed's brother and sister-in-law, Mike and Rachael, gained the title of the first of our siblings to visit us over here!  What a great time we had with them!  Two of Ed's brothers, Mike and Alan, work together and have a client in Germany.  Because they had work to do for that client this month, they and their wives made a vacation out of their work trip, and extended their time in Europe in order to "swing by" our very out-of-the-way-from-Germany town of Bardejov!  Mike and Rachael came here before their time in Germany, and Alan and Julie will be coming after it.

We loved every minute of the time we were able to spend with Mike and Rachael, as did our kids!  Mike and Rach were not able to bring their three boys with them on this trip, and although we were all disappointed to not have the cousins along, our kids made the most of the time with their aunt and uncle, and were so blessed by the attention and love that Mike and Rach showered on our five!  You'll see from the pictures that the kids basked in the attention!  So, thank you Mike and Rachael for loving our kids so well!  Also, they brought an entire suitcase filled with goodies from both them and Ed's parents!  These treats are always so fun for all of us!

Mike and Ed accomplished quite a bit during our week together.  They built some easels for our English camps and made a batch of the most delicious yeast breads I have ever tasted!  Very impressive and diverse talents in these guys!  And Rachael and I enjoyed going out to coffee almost every day!  We all enjoyed great times in our town: touring the town, the square, the historic church and tower, and enjoying the town's coffee and ice cream cafes.  We also took a drive to a huge castle ruins just an hour from our house, and enjoyed a day there.

Some of our favorite times during the week that they were here were the late night talks and card playing!  We have great memories of many nights back in Morton and Tremont, when we would spend evenings at one of our two houses, doing just that.  So, to have a whole week of it was incredible!

Mike and Rachael, thank you so much for coming to see us, for spending the extra time and money to see our world over here!  We loved catching up with you, having such concentrated time with you two, and making some wonderful memories together!  We really hope that someday you can return here, and this time with your boys...what fun that would be!  Thanks for the many laughs and deep talks!  Thank you for the great encouragement you were to us.  We love you!