Keystone Lake

We had a great night on Monday. We met the GAG's out at Keystone lake for dinner. They are there for a little family gathering and they were nice enough to invite us to join them. It was so good to see everyone. It is not very often we get to see people in our neck of the woods. It was only about 20 or 25 minutes away.

They said Drew and John David had made a hundred trips back and forth between their cabins, and last night was no exception. Our kids joined right in.

We had a good dinner, and then George started a fire and everyone made smores.

The smores were a hit with the kids of all ages.

It was a like a little vacation on a Monday night. Thanks to the GAG clan for the invitation. We had a great time!

More Puppy Talk

Kayla has had this chart on her chalkboard before, but it reappeared last week.

There is a no on one end and a yes on the other. Kayla and Caroline are on the yes end, and D (dad) and M (mom) are in the middle. Andy shocked all of us on Saturday morning by moving the D and the M to the yes end of the chart. I was at a scrapbooking retreat all weekend. When I came home this is what I found:

This dog, Elfy, comes on loan to us from Aunt Jenny. I knew they were trying to find her a new home. Andy and I had been talking about it. We both agreed we should probably just try it. Otherwise, he and I would discuss it forever and Kayla would never get a dog. I just did not know he had made arrangements to meet his sister this weekend.

I said that she is on loan. I explained to Kayla this monring that we were going to try it out, but she may have to go back to Aunt Jenny. I am just not sure that I am a dog person. Do you ever get used to the smell? And I am not sure that our house is big enough for her. She is much bigger in this little house than she was at Aunt Jenny's house. Jenny said to give it a week to ten days, so that is what I will do. I promise I will try my best Jenny! Wish us all luck.

Puppy

As everyone knows, Kayla has been begging for a puppy for a while now. She has not given up hope yet. She so badly wants a puppy to play with and teach tricks to. For now, however, she has settled for the next best thing...

I think Caroline was getting a little tired of this game by the time I took this video. She had been crawling all over the place doing whatever Kayla told her to do. Poor Caroline.

Soccer Camp

Earlier this summer Kayla went to soccer camp at the University of Tulsa. I did not know anything about it when I signed her up, but I was very pleased. Kayla and Nic went to the half-day camp. They had a great time and learned a lot. It rained a good part of the week. They had a really nice indoor field that the kids were able to use when they were not able to be on the fields outside. I would sign her up for this camp again - maybe even the full day camp (they get to go swimming in the afternoons).

After the last day of camp, Paw Paw and Grandma Sue took everyone on a picnic. My Uncle Ed and Aunt Donna were in town from Chicago. The kids got to play at the park and have a fast lunch. I did mention that it rained a lot that week, and our picnic day was no exception!

Splash Pad

This is something I should have posted a long time ago. Back in June we met Gloria, Olivia, and Isabel at the splash pad. The big girls had a great time. Caroline, however, is not such a big fan.

Here is Caroline trying to keep her sister from taking her through the rainbow sprinkler.

She is much happier just sitting on the bench watching.

My Brother

Russell got a camera about a month ago. He has taken some great pictures and put them on a website. If you get a chance, check it out at www.rvwphoto.com I think he is doing a great job. I am pretty sure this is his first camera. I think he has a lot of talent.

VACATION

We had a wonderful vacation. It was a whirlwind tour of Texas. Here are the girls on the airplane on the way to Dallas. They look like they were perfect little angels - so we will just leave it at that!

We arrived in Dallas on Saturday and went to Carter's 4th birthday party. It was a fun gymnastics party. The kids all had a great time. I never thought I would see Steve do a headstand on a balance beam, but he did. Well, almost. After the party, the grandparents took the 4 grandkids to Waco. We hung out at Jenny's house for a bit, and then we headed to Waco for the ice cream social. There is always lots of homemade ice cream, lots of people, and mamaw's hot fudge. Delicious!!!

The next day we headed to Spicewood, Texas to the lakehouse. Steve's parents were nice enough to let all of us come and stay at their house. I think it was more of a resort. It was wonderful!

Everyone had a great time playing in the pool. I think Kayla would have stayed in the water all day if we let her. The kids were all so well behaved the entire trip.

Here is cousin Mark on the trapeze. All of the kids love playing with him.

Jenny and I headed off to the outlet mall on Monday. She is the best at finding bargains. I love my new Coach purse and wallet. I sure bought a lot of stuff considering I was just going along for the ride!

Tuesday we all went to Sea World. We really lucked out with the weather. It was overcast most of the day. By the time we left it was HOT. We had a fun day of shows, roller coasters, and dolphin feeding. I think everyone had a great day. After Sea World we went to pick up our rental car. Just getting to the rental place was an adventure itself. I won't get into that!

Here are the kids after a day at Sea World...

The next day brought lots of fun for everyone. There was swimming...

Sno-cones...

rides on the 4 wheeler...

Aunt Jenny and Grammy got the slip-and-slide ready...

then everyone loaded up to go and watch the men play some golf...

That afternoon it was time for the kids to go out on the jet skis. They had a blast. They stayed out around 45 minutes. The kids were controlling the speed and doing most of the steering. Caleb got up to 41 mph and Kayla got up to 52 mph. They shocked all of us!

Papa swam with Caroline while Carter was jumping off of the dock.

That evening, we got to go and eat dinner without our children. It was the perfect ending to a fun day!

On Thursday we drove to Houston to visit my sister and her family. I did not take many pictures while we were there. The kids had a great time playing together. We spent a lot of time at the pool. Kayla was doing front flips off of the diving board by the time we left.

This is Taylor's friend, Caroline, and Taylor. Caroline did their makeup.

Here is Shelby at swim team practice.

This is Tyler at swim team practice.

Shelby and Kayla are showing off their bows from http://www.robynsbowtique.blogspot.com/ (How is that for a plug Robyn?)

Here are 2 very tires little girls on the airplane ride home on Sunday. I don't know why we did not think to pull out the dvd player on the flight to Dallas, or even earlier on this flight. It made a world of difference!

We all had a wonderful trip. We got to play, swim, relax, and see alot while we were gone. I do think our trip was one day too long. It was really hard on the kids being gone that long, but they were great.

Yea-I finally posted vacation pics!!!