Cross Country Trip

Our next trip was Baby A's first airplane ride, well, make that his first 5 airplane rides. They don't offer non-stop from Texas to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan! We were headed north for my cousin's wedding.

I was a little nervous about the flights, but I had no idea what was in store for us. The night before we left I was up until 3AM making sure we had everything we needed, where we needed it. I wanted to be prepared for every minute of the two flights, 2 hour layover in Chicago and 2 hour drive to the U.P. Two hours later, our adventure began. After all was said and done, we ended up spending 6 hours in the Austin airport, 3 hours in the Chicago airport and then 2 and half hours in the car from Marquette to the U.P. As bad as it sounds now, it was actually a lot of fun. The kids did GREAT and N and I just sat back and laughed about it all. Luckily we invested in these carseat-to-stroller converters. They made the layovers so much easier!

Killing Time in ATX

He did great on the plane!

When did my baby grow up???

Bear crashed while at the playground at O'Hare

This baby couldn't be any sweeter

We were there for 5 days. We spent our time at the rehearsal dinner/party, the beautiful wedding, my cousin's lake house/beach, and my aunt's house. We couldn't have had a better time with my mom's family. There are so many cousins, second cousins and even third cousins! The kids had sooo much fun with everyone. We can't wait to go back!

Sweet Pea and sweet cousin L

Baby A and my mom's brother
My kids' generation of cousins

Baby A slept through most of the dancing

Can you see the joy in her face? I love this smile

Bear was a dancin' fool... Paci and all

We discovered banana boats - All I can say is YUMMY!

Baby A and my mom's older sister

Oh, and the few days in between our trips, N's cousin, his wife and their baby girl came for a couple of days. Baby A had fun with his sweet cousin.

Lounging in the pool

Lounging on the chair

Road Trip

The following weekend we ventured out on our first of two back-to-back trips. This one was our first long road trip with the three munchkins. What is important enough to make us drive with a two year-old, four year-old and a three month-old in a car for 6 hours, you ask? N's yearly family reunion. We've never missed it, so why would we miss it this year?

One of our pit stops:

So, we drove to East Texas to see N's grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, parents, sister, and nephews. The kids did great in the car (both ways) and they had a blast playing with their cousins. Of the little cousins, there were 10 boys (9 of which, were 6 and under)... and Sweet Pea. Needless to say there was a lot of wrestling and a lot of mud. Sweet Pea was a spectator for the wrestling, but she was right in the middle of the dirt pile. It was a quick trip, but it was good to see N's family. And we were able to snap a photo of the boys with their dad, granddad and great-granddad.

4th of July

The next weekend was the Fourth of July. I just love this holiday. When I was little, we would always watch (or usually ride in) the local city's parade, go to the city carnival and then hang out in the pool and watch fireworks (and light a few of our own). My mom was always very patriotic and festive, so I have a lot of good memories of the fourth.

Since we had just moved into our new house and we had two big trips coming up, we decided to hang low for the holiday. On the third, we watched the local golf course's fireworks from our big lounge chair in the back yard. We had a terrific view and the kids LOVED the show!

The next morning, we picked up donuts and went to the local parade. The kids loved seeing all of the floats and catching the candy. I loved watching them have fun and remembering how much my mom LOVED parades (I can't even count how many floats she designed and helped make for our soccer, gymnastics and cheerleading teams). The rest of the day we swam and cooked out. It really was the perfect weekend!

Our favorite "float":

Summer Post #1

I have so much to catch up on! Instead of posting a long, sporadic post to cover our summer adventures, my goal is to post a short entry, each day, covering ONE topic.

My last post was June 25th, which was a big day for us. Our baby boy turned three months and we closed on our new house. I LOVE new beginnings! The closing process was painless. And we celebrated by going to the house and swimming in our new pool with Pappy! It was a GREAT day.

Baby A at 3 months~

Pappy and his grandsons~

The next day, we moved in (we didn't waste any time - we couldn't wait to get out of the rent house). Thankfully, we had lots of help. MeMe and Pappy helped pack up and they helped with the kids during the move and that evening, Nana and Poppy came to town for the weekend. Then on Sunday, some friends stopped by on their way home from San Antonio. It was a lot of work, but with all of the company, it sure was fun! We even took some time to play:

On Monday, Oma and cousin N came to visit for a couple of days.