Mary Louise Ruffhousing Eva

I mentioned in the previous blog that my cousin, Mary Louise, came to visit us, but now to elaborate.  Mary was out here on a road trip between jobs and moving locations.  We caught her leaving Utah, on her way up to Alaska.  We were so lucky to get a whole week to spend with her.  Since Mary and I hadn't had much opportunity to spend together as adults, it was so nice to have this special time to rekindle our relationship and get to know each other all over again.  We talked for many, many hours seeing that even though our lives are pretty different, we are so much alike!  While I'm a stay-at-home mom, Mary is venturing out into the world as a Geologist (how cool is that?!), but there is no doubt we come from the same family.

Anyway, more than anything, it meant so much to me that Mary Louise got to spend time getting to know the people in my life that mean more to me than anything else: Dana, Eva, and Rocky.  It didn't take long for Dana and Mary to find something in common...

And Eva made herself a new best friend very quickly...

Rocky got more cuddle time and attention than he's had in a long time (with no pictures to prove it, but if he had the chance, he probably would've jumped in Mary's suitcase and stayed there til he landed in Alaska).  Overall, her visit was happiness for the whole family.

In the end, though, I think Eva had the ultimate time for she finally found someone to live up to her ruffhousing ways.  As mommy would sit in the living room all she could hear is wrestling grunts, things banging around, and Eva laughing hysterically and saying "Again" over and over.  I finally couldn't resist and would find this...

It didn't stop there, though.  Eva swung around like a monkey...

Crawled through a leg tunnel (over and over and over and over again)...

and was so wiped out every day that she took the longest naps ever (3 1/2 hrs every day!).

We were sad to see the day that we had to part, but are so thankful for the time that we got.  Mary Louise, our door is always open to you, I hope you make it back this way again....we love you!