Grandma, Auntie-Grandma and Auntie-Who's-Really-A-Second-Cousin-Or-Something come to visit

Three weeks ago my mom and aunt Susan were on their way here from Budapest. It was my mom's first time meeting her only grandbaby and we were beyond excited. Four days later my cousin, who lives in St.Petersburg, Russia, joined us. The vast majority of our time was spent either chatting, talking, visiting, conversing or gabbing, but there were a few blogworthy moments:
1.Lily laughed her first real laugh at my mom playing peek-a-boo. And I got it on video.


2.We went to to the lovely town of Trenčín, where above the square you'll find this amazing castle. Tomáš told me there wouldn't be any people there but I thought he was exaggerating. It was like a ghost town on this Saturday morning because ever since this eyesore has been built, no one goes to the old square. Just makes a gal sad. On the up side, though, I had a hot chocolate. And not the drinkable kind of hot chocolate. The eatable kind. The edible kind. The kind you eat with a spoon. The kind with real whipped cream so thick it's almost like butter. But in a good way. I had the horká čokoláda, the bitter chocolate. I also had a Viennese coffee.  My mom had a turkish coffee. My aunt had a cappuccino.  And my cousin had a gyro baguette. It was a cute little café that specialized in hot chocolate. And baguette sandwiches, apparently. Then before catching the train home we all went and had a Czechoslovak specialty...Kofola on tap. It was great. It was also the first time Tomáš had watched Lily on his own, and he did so great with her now we know he can handle watching her while I go to the aforementioned eyesore in search of some decent clothes. A coat, jacket, pants, shirts, shoes? I need it all. I think I must be about the only wife in the world whose husband is pushing her to go clothes shopping. But back to the point at hand...

3. We got to see the magnolia trees in bloom. I had never seen a tree like this until I moved here and I was absolutely blown away by it. I didn't know what it was at the time, I just told my mom it was almost like an orchid tree. The blooms were so huge. She's a florist and loves flowers, so I kept telling her I wanted her to see it, and started calling it ''her tree.'' And ever since I got pregnant and she started planning her trip here, that was one of the things we had been looking forward to. I had hoped it would be in bloom when she was here, but wasn't sure it would be. It literally (almost) fully bloomed the last day they were here. What a sweet surprise.
4. We got manicures. Somehow or other it got mentioned that manicures were really cheap here, so my mom wanted to get one. It's something we'd never gotten to do together, so on their last day here we took our chance and all four of us had our nails done. My mom got lilies on hers (awww). It was just such a sweet, girly time together. We laughed at the nasty nail designs in the book (airbrushed turquoise leopard print, anyone?) and James got her hair cut. And styled. To the hilt. I was so glad we got to go.
And I'm so glad they all got to come. They all got to meet Lily. Susan got to see her daughter, whom she'd not seen in almost two years.  I got to see my mom. They all got to know Tomáš a little better. And although the leaving was terrible, and the flat felt so empty after they were gone, I will treasure this time.