He Came Home

It's been awhile since I've posted our happenings in the Ritz family. It was another busy summer, and I promise to catch up soon. But the first thing we need to talk about is that our missionary came home...

We were all super excited to see our Cody return. We even made a sign and Kaitlyn and Alex on a stick, since they couldn't be there with us.

Some people grew up a lot while Cody was away....

And some people just wanted to play...what was the big deal anyway...

And we had some major life changes as well. We had a wedding. We had college graduations. We had a major deal of a wreck and recovery take place, and so 2 years seemed almost like 10 in our world. We were very very excited to have another reason to celebrate life and enjoy some long awaited family time with our Cody.

First things first...A stop at his very much missed(almost as much as he missed his family(but not more...I'm sure)) - his beloved El. Sol - They did miss him while he was gone. He was a pretty permanent fixture there before he left. It was another good(long-awaited) reunion.

FUN FACT: Cody had another missionary in his mission who was also from Georgia. They met at the MTC and were fast friends during their time in Montreal. They didn't have a chance to serve together, but they loved every chance they had to chat about their DAWGS or the GA heat or all things GA. His mom contacted me once we received their itinerary, because they were seated next to each other. The flight was only a little over 2.5 hours, but how fun to be able to share it with a fellow missionary from your home state.

We are Family....

A few weeks ago my brother and his family stopped by for a short visit. They live in Idaho and were on their way to Florida, so they decided to make a quick trip through Georgia. Yay!! Andy and his family also came in to join the fun. It was so nice to see everyone!!

We played at the park, ate some good eats, and enjoyed spending time together!

Greg and Darci wanted to eat somewhere with authentic southern food, so we took them to the Butt-Hutt where there's a good variety of southern barbeque to choose from. They loved it!

We also made it out for a farm tour with Dr. Casey as our guide. Jaelee thought it was cool and even found a quail egg to take back as a souvenir, but Jayse could only stand so much of the smell before heading to the door for some fresh air - I'm right there with ya bud!

It was also Memorial weekend, so we thought we'd take a quick patriotic photo with the cousins. It was hot and Josh wasn't in the mood for posing, but we still managed to snap a picture of these cuties!!

Monday it was really warm, and we would have loved to go to the lake or the splash park, but Mondays all water parks are closed for maintenance, so we resorted to the good ol' sprinkler. Everyone seemed to have fun.

Thank you Greg and Darci for stopping by to see us in Georgia!! We loved spending time with you all!! Come back anytime!!

And thank you Darci for taking the cute photos, most of which I used in this blog post!

Happy Mother's Day

Andy, Janelle and the boys came for a visit over Mother's Day weekend. The weather was beautiful, so we enjoyed lots of fun outdoor activities.

We started at the Strawberry Farm. It was a beautiful day. We picked just enough strawberries for us all to enjoy throughout the weekend!

Josh was pretty excited to get started.

He was the very best sampler.

And a great picker as well.

Ryan and Seth also helped out and filled a bucket - Great job boys!!

Josh's birthday was coming up, so we decided to celebrate a little early!

He wasn't too thrilled about us singing Happy Birthday...

But he came back up to open presents.

We also made it to our favorite Mexican eats. Seth and Josh were both tired and decided to nap while the rest of us ate...

I managed to grab a few selfies with the birthday boy(he's basically the only one willing...)

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And one more selfie with my oldest and my youngest - whoa, reality check...I'm getting old!

We ended our weekend with a skype call to our Canadian Missionary, because it was Mother's Day! It was so fun to see him and be able to talk to him. He has loved his time serving in the mission field. He will be home soon(July), and I cannot wait to wrap my arms around his neck and hug him super duper tight!! We love love love our missionary!

Another Happy Mother's Day is in the books!