Fun with the Knouse Family

Last week I had the pleasure of going back down to my hometown with my favorite family of seven. My best friend Tara, her husband Kelly, her five precious kiddos and I packed up two cars and headed to Homestead. Kelly was the guest speaker at the annual Good Friday Community Prayer Breakfast that my mom helps to put on and we figured we'd all make a fun trip out of it. We got down their Thursday afternoon after a fun road trip and only two stops-which isn't bad considering we had 8 people with us! My sister Debi and her family of 3 met us at my parent's house so that Alex could spend some time with the other kids. But not before we all stopped at Robert's fruit stand for a delicious milk shake and the miniature petting zoo. She helped me babysit all 6 of them while Kelly and Tara went out to dinner with the prayer breakfast committee. After several hours of playtime, Debi and I had them all fed and in pajamas within an hour. I must say, we were a well oiled machine!
The next morning, we were all up early and headed to the prayer breakfast, which started at the crazy hour of 7:15. The kids were so wonderful and all of them were ready to go without even a hint of complaining. Kelly did a wonderful job of sharing the Good News and the hope of Easter with everyone at the breakfast, and I think everyone was glad they got to hear him speak. Following the breakfast we all headed to the Alligator farm for a little afternoon fun.








I think their favorite part was the airboat ride, although, getting to pet the alligator was a close second!
After heading back to the house for lunch followed by a good long nap, we loaded back up and headed for home. All the kids were so good and I think my parents enjoyed the fun chaos of a house filled with kids again. Which is good, since J and I are planning to send our kids to "grammy and papa summer camp" for at least a few weeks every year when we have them!
Overall, everyone enjoyed themselves and it was a quick, but enjoyable trip. And I'm pretty sure some new friendships were made...