so exceedingly great was your joy (and your exhaustion)

There's a scripture in the Book of Mormon that says,

...Nay, he has poured out his Spirit upon you, and has caused that your hearts should be filled with joy, and has caused that your mouths should be stopped that ye could not find utterance, so exceedingly great was your joy. (Mosiah 4:20)

(Kudos to you if you know me and/or my family well enough to have caught the name-related pun in this scripture.)

If you replaced the word Spirit with the word family, and threw in the word exhaustion alongside the word joy, this would about sum up our weekend. In addition to my sister, Chelsea, my brother, Tyler, who was killing some time before he had to be in D.C. for a work-related conference, was also here with us. All of my siblings are spread out across the country, and it's a rare treat when more than one of us are under the same roof -- let alone my roof, which is one of the furthest away. We had a lot of fun, but it wore me right out.

Tyler arrived Friday evening (after Chelsea, the boys, and I enjoyed a day of shopping in Manhattan), but the real fun began the next morning when we walked across the Brooklyn Bridge. The bridge is currently undergoing some rehabilitation construction, so the views on this crossing were less than stellar, but, on the bright side, we were joined on our walk by a lovely young Swiss woman named Anita who is in the U.S. for a language study program. We met her when she asked us for directions to the footpath across the bridge just after we all came out of the subway. From where we were, the directions were a little complicated, but since we were going that way, too, we offered to let her join us. She did, and must have enjoyed our company because she continued with us all the way to the Manhattan side of the bridge. She was really great, and I'm a little sad that we'll likely never see her again.

Once in Manhattan we walked around the East Village and into the Flatiron District, stopping by a street meat cart for hot dogs and falafel for lunch, and then to Strand (to browse the bookshelves), Fishs Eddy (because it's awesome), City Bakery (for some delicious iced hot chocolate), and Anthropologie (a special request from Chelsea). By the late afternoon we were all hot, sweaty, exhausted, and ready to go home and eat the pizza Tyler treated us to.

But the fun didn't stop there. While the boys were in the tub for their evening bath, Caleb chucked a toy at Garrett's face, convincing all of us that it's all fun and games until Garrett gets a black eye. His face swelled up pretty bad, and gave him a lot of attention the next day at church. While he's still all black and blue, he's doing fine and the bruise is on the mend.

After church on Sunday, our house was filled with even more family, thanks to an experiment with a Google+ hangout initiated by my other brother, Riley, who just moved with his little family from Ohio to Georgia. I'm still trying to decide how much I like Google+, but must admit that the conference calling feature is pretty awesome.

Before we went to bed on our last night all together, we pulled out the birthday candles, stuck one in Tyler's brownie, and sang him an early Happy Birthday (his actual birthday is later this week). I don't know about you, but I love a good excuse to eat dessert.

Tyler left for D.C. this morning, and the house is now a little less crowded and a little more relaxed. But my exhausted heart is certainly filled with exceedingly great joy.

On the subway with "Uncuh Tyer."

All together on the Brooklyn Bridge. (Our new Swiss friend, Anita, took the picture.)

Now that the church has launched its ad campaign in New York, it's fun to play the "I Spy a Mormon.org Taxi Topper" game.

At the end of our excursion into Manhattan, the boys both did what I desperately wanted to do, too.

Nice shiner. The photo on the left was taken shortly after he got it; the one on the right was taken today, two days after he received it. The photos don't really do it justice.

Birthday brownie for the birthday boy.