Monday-10:15am: Family Visit

I remembered to take pictures--so you are forewarned--LOL!  My mom and dad (Jane and Kelly)...

 ...and my brother and his wife (Blaine and Kathy) arrived at my place.  We gabbed for a couple of hours here and then headed over to Dagan and Leah's.

I haven't been there since spring, myself, so I am amazed at how many more houses there are now!  I stood toward the end of their driveway and took pictures.  I started facing to the left... 

...and slowly turned in a circle. 

They're building right across the street now. 

Houses everywhere! 

My dad was taking pictures, too, but when he got in the house he realized his batteries had died!  Dagan and Leah had to cut the weeds in their yard with a scythe!  Been too hot to sod yet.  They'll probably have their cement patio poured and grass by September.  The yard has to be leveled first.  Lot of work to a brand new house.

Those of you who were around a year ago may remember when Dagan and Leah's house was being built and there was nothing else around but one house and one in progress on this other street. 

Talk about a huge neighborhood popping up in no time! 

I was anxious to see the shelf unit they picked up in the Twin Cities at IKEA.  It is so cool!  Fits exactly into that spot. 

They're using Ariel's table and chairs as long as she moved in.  Might as well wait to buy a dining room table and not have even more to store. 

Dagan and Leah chatting with Kathy.  Blaine is petting Sammy. (Never saw Annie all day, their black cat who's shy.)  

This is the main room of the house... 

...kitchen, dining room, and... 

...living room.  (You may notice a plate mounded high on the end of the counter--Leah made some chocolate chip cookies that morning and I even got a few sent home with me, too.)

Off behind the kitchen through the archway is a small hallway with a bathroom...

...and the pantry!! 

This pantry is a dream for anyone who cooks and bakes! 

And very organized, of course. 

Then we made our way upstairs on the tour.  Ariel was sleeping (works nights).  We tried to be quiet, but I am shocked we didn't wake her up.  We tend to be loud and all talk over each other (but we can follow more than one conversation at a time--no lie!).  Quite disconcerting to people who aren't used to quite that volume of gregariousness!  ;)  

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At the top of the stairs they have bookcases now... 

...and a plant and Ariel's desk.  There's a smaller bedroom and then...

...Dagan and Leah's bedroom on the back end of the house. 

You go through the walk-in closet to get to the bathroom.  This is the short wall of the closet... 

...and this is the other deeper side. 

I love those red sinks! 

I was taking pictures of all of us in the bathroom and it suddenly cracked me up...

....picturing the seven of us trying to stand and talk in my bathroom--ROFL! 

My dad was standing by the door to the "water closet".  ;) 

I took a couple pictures out a second story window.  That's a newer church across the field--and just to the right... 

...are all the houses crammed around the soy bean field. 

On the other side of the upstairs is Ariel's bedroom (right where I am standing, actually) and on the right hand side of the hallway are... 

...a bathroom... 

...and the laundry room.  (Love the terra cotta walls!) 

At the end of the hall is the tall room with the three little windows you see outside from the front of the house. 

This is their gaming room. 

Very bright in there. 

They have a group of friends they've been gaming with weekly for many years. 

Their group runs a suite at ValleyCon every October at the gaming convention that's held in Fargo.  (And Dagan and Leah also store stuff for their Valley Con suite out in the garage.) 

Then we made our way down to the unfinished basement.  Some long storage under the entryway hallway. 

 The cat boxes under the stairs.

The main room... 

...all Leah's brother Aaron's things (he just went into the service in December) and more of Ariel's things and some of theirs.

Aaron's furniture makes a spot to sit with a laptop. 

Hard to see--but in the back there where the light is--that's the furnace room. 

I didn't get pictures of their garage, but it is pretty much like this, too.  And why they can't fit any cars in there until they get some of those hanging ceilings for creating "attic" storage in the garage. 

This is the view from the dining room table... 

...where we gabbed and gabbed and ordered in from Granite City (delicious!)...and I totally forgot about the camera after our tour.  :):)  Was a wonderful visit!  I haven't seen Kathy for soooo long!  Now I've seen all my immediate family again.  :)

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My sister was busy.  Her son, Joel, who was up last summer with Jozette--well, they're getting married in two weeks!  Dagan and Leah will drive down for the wedding (and take lots of pictures, I hope).  I'm glad I got to meet Jozette, too, last year.  Sweet girl.  :)

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So that was the family visit for 2013.  

Have a wonderful week!  :):)

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"I find family the most mysterious and fascinating institution in the world."

Amos Oz