Texas Trip

We had a such a wonderful time visiting friends in Texas last week (Sunday 7/19-7/21).  It's hard for me not to be sad when I think about the distance between all of us.  I think there's just something special about those friendships formed when you are a new mom...you are in the same season of life, things seem a little crazy but at least you are in it together.  You get to see your kids play and grow together, and you know you can count on these friends 110%.  It's still weird for me to think that our four families ended up in four different cities when I assumed we'd all be in Little Rock for a lifetime.  That said, it is always SO GOOD to hug these friends and just hang out together, even if it's total chaos.  Everyone always picks right back up as if no time has gone by since our last visit, and we laugh and have a great time.  

I've probably explained it before, but we all had boys first, then we all had girls...then I had Crosby.  :) But C's totally fine doing his own thing!  Here's the crew...I love all these kiddos:

Everyone met at Great Wolf Lodge in Grapevine for one night!  It was a 7 hr trip (with stops) for us, one family traveled from Houston and two live in the DFW area.  The kids all played so well together.  After check-in they played in the water park for several hours then we all had dinner in the hotel restaurant.

After dinner the girls did the magic quests, the big boys just hung out in one of the rooms and Lane and Crosby went to story time then went to the room for a bath and bed.  We were all so tired that night!

Crosby was really young last time we were at the water park, but he was able to do almost everything this time.  He had so much fun!

The moms (me, Lianne, Ali & Stacy) and the girls

(I wish we would have taken one group picture of all 17 of us.)

friends since they were toddlers

...and friends since birth.  :)

Crosby on the outdoor water slides, one of his favorite activities.

Monday morning three of the boys did the outdoor ropes course--they loved it.

The passes were good for the length of your hotel stay, so Rhett did the course again the following day.  Alexee and Crosby decided they wanted to do it then to.  Crosby had to have an adult with him to do the big course, so I bought a ticket and climbed up with him. (I don't love heights.  I only went so Crosby could.)  So we climbed up...then C decided he didn't want to do it.  I admit, it was scary!  So I went back down with him to help him start the smaller ground-level course.  He was happy there.

There goes Rhett!

Our friends all checked out and left Monday afternoon :( but we had one more night at the lodge.  These three played well together at the park.  (Crosby was disappointed in this picture because we'd just found out that the outdoor slides were closed.)

Monday evening we went to the Southlake Town Square for shopping/dinner.  Rhett and Lane wanted to go to Apple, I went to Anthropologie, then we stopped by Barnes & Noble before dinner at Cheesecake Factory.  Tuesday morning we went out for breakfast at La Madeleine, went back to the hotel for the ropes course and water park before check-out, then we had lunch at Snuffers and went to Trader Joe's to stock up on Crunchy Cookie Butter.  :)  We sure wish we had all these places close to us.

This is the only family picture we took during the trip...in the lobby on our way out.  I'm so thankful for this fun time together.  

We stayed at Lianne's house on the last night of our trip.  We got there mid-afternoon on Tuesday, the kids just played and we visited until dinner time, then we went to eat yummy BBQ and went to a cute little candy store next-door to where we had dinner.  The kids went swimming back at their house, and we just had a relaxing evening visiting by their pool--so nice!

Wednesday morning after breakfast we packed up for the trip home.  I'm so glad it worked out for us to stop at Ali's to see her beautiful new place (they just moved there this summer) and have lunch with them at a cute local restaurant.   

Long drive home...Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri.  The part through Oklahoma seemed to take DAYS.  We were so happy to see Fayetteville, AR!  

AND we were so very very happy to see Bogart that night!  A big thank-you to Mom and Dad for letting him stay with them for a few days.  He had a great time.  :)  Mom sent me these pictures while we were gone, and we looked at them over and over--we missed him!

I thought it was sweet that Rhett chose this mug as his souvenir from the GWL giftshop.  Friendships are a blessing.  We're looking forward to the next time we can all get together again!

July Catch-Up

July 11:  We took the kids to see Minions, went to The Track then came home to grill dinner.  The movie was cute, and everyone had fun at the go-kart track.  Rhett was tall enough to ride heavy metal high-rise without his cowboy boots this year :), Alexee was happy riding with Lane and Crosby was tall enough to drive himself on a bigger track than last time.  

   

They really liked the bumper boats.  They rode them twice.

And finally, bumper cars!

July 13:  The kids and I took Bogart to the vet for his check-up...that was a crowded little room.  Bogart is a healthy 12 year old.  :)

That night Rhett started football camp.  He's excited about playing football this fall.  It was very hot, but he worked hard and said he had a good time.

Group picture from camp

July 14:  My Mom's birthday--Happy Birthday, Mo!  We spent part of the morning getting an oil change and an inspection for my car, then the boys had haircuts.

Crosby also lost another tooth that day!

That night A and C started tennis lessons (postponed from the previous week due to the flash floods).  They both really liked it and would like to take additional lessons.

July 15:  We met a friend of Rhett's at White Water.  It was great to have someone to hang out with there. 

July 16-18:  Thursday night after football camp I took Rhett to meet Mom so that he could go to the Ranger Boats dealer meeting with Dad on Friday.  He always enjoys going.  They sent me these pictures of him test-driving boats at the lake.

With Dad and Granddad at the conference

July 17:  We decided last-minute to make another trip to White Water to meet a friend of Crosby's.  Alexee's friend AC was able to join us too!  Fun day!

Sweet buddies from kindergarten.  I hope they are in the same class this fall!

4th of July Week

Wow...where did July go!?  Catching up again:

The 4th of July was not very exciting around here.  Lane worked that night so we just stayed around the house all day until he went to work.  I decided I'd try to take the kids to see fireworks at dark, but that didn't work out like I'd planned.  We picked up Sonic drinks and thought we could park and watch the Lodge fireworks from a distance, but once we got there I realized there was absolutely nowhere to park.  It was very crowded around the lodge and traffic was already terrible so we found a way to turn around and decided to just go home.  As we were driving home we started seeing fireworks not far from the road, so we stopped briefly in a parking lot to watch a city fireworks show.

Then Rhett took some pictures from the car window on the drive home.  I guess there aren't a lot of rules here about where fireworks can happen!?  I was afraid something was going to hit our vehicle!  Yikes!

Lane's parents came up to visit a few days after the 4th.  It rained and rained and rained some more, so we went out to eat a few times and then stayed inside!  We'd planned to play mini-golf, etc., but we'll have to save that for the next visit.  The kids were supposed to start tennis lessons, but the park flooded, so that didn't happen until the following week.  Crazy weather!

Grammy & Rhett at Cracker Barrel 

Bobba & Alexee working a puzzle

Crosby reading to Bobba before bed

We also had lunch at the Keeter Center before they had to leave town.

Saying good-bye until next time :(

We enjoyed having them here!