This was a great long vacation, so there are quite a few photos that need to be posted and or explained.
Grandpa Randy flew in for the weekend on Thursday night, and as usually happens when Grandpa Randy and his boys are together they went golfing. Diana and the kids and I were left alone to hang out by ourselves for the morning.
We tried to get a cousin photo, but well, this is the best one we got, 5 kids under 8 are hard to photograph.
While waiting for "the dads" to get back we went to the park in our neighborhood (I know dont we live in an awesome place, no really we do).
Allie and Jake enjoyed the monkey bars, let's just say these kids are awesome at the monkey bars!
Allie agreed that she was awesome.
Jake was also awesome at the monkey bars, seriously so fast!
Caleb wasnt a huge monkey bar fan, but dont worry he was still busy- there were things to climb and a slide, so many great options!
Ben as usual was sweet and calm. After a little while at the park we walked home to eat lunch and then go swimming, the boys got home around the same time. They stopped at Boots Burger (again) on the way home, and Diana agreed (we were shocked!) that burgers are pretty tasty.
After some lunch we headed to the pool, where Ben relaxed and ate his lunch. Seriously this is one cute and chubby baby!
This is an awful photo, but it does document what we did, hung out at the "little pool". Yeah with our floats and everything. Oh yeah, I did make Michael wear the life vest shirt in the little pool.
We pretty much took the pool over, it was friday and there werent many people there.
Aww... cute Al and my wonderful sister-in-law and
one of Michael's favorite aunts, Diana
Seriously this kid cracks me up, from the funny things he says, to how he is so smiley, I can't get enough!
Caleb told me all about his "Thomas swim suit", I gather from his frequent mentions of Thomas, that trains are one of his favorites, that and he told me. Seriously isnt this little guy (sorry Jared) so adorable!
Ben found these Koosh balls (think 1991) so fascinating!
Allie is learning to relax in the pool early (yeah the little pool in the baby boat). I cant believe she is so grown up!
Jake is also learning young, so handsome!
Jake and Al decided to stay behind with Diana and I at the pool while the little boys took a nap, it was so fun but we ended up a little bit crispy.
Proof that I actually went to the pool! I had so much fun with these not so little guys!
For dinner we headed to "Big Daddy's", the BBQ joint in our town, unfortunately for Michael I packed some jarred baby food (he rarely has it except for these type of occasions) and he missed out on the yummy food.
Caleb however was big enough to eat big food. The owner was sitting next to us before we got our food, I think there was a little part of him that wondered what kind of a mess and noise 5 little kids could generate, sadly for him, these are really well behaved kids and the chaos was kept in check!
Singing "Grand Old Flag" outside Big Daddy's
Jared was proud to have eaten another Texas meal.
The boys decided to golf again on Saturday morning, and Diana, the kids, and I hung out some more.
Michael and Ben were roommates during the visit. I have to admit that I was really nervous about this sleeping arrangement, Michael isnt the world's best sleeper and I thought he would disrupt Ben, but it turns out that everything was fine, and they had some fun together (I think). Since I am one of those obsessive mothers I have a baby monitor that I usually keep on while Michael is sleeping (just in case), usually I just hear Michael, but because I had the monitor I got to hear Michael and Ben talking to each other as they went to sleep and woke up in the morning. I have to say that these conversations were darling, totally worth having the monitor on! Another thing I learned with the monitor was that these two boys sound so simliar. I know that in general babies sound somewhat similar but these guys really do, it is their one similarity. I would go in thinking that Michael was crying or awake and find that it was Ben, crazy!
Ben liked Michael's bouncer, and Michael liked to look at him in it.
I tried to get a video of the two of them but every time I tried Michael would come over to me and play with the camera.
These boys liked to play together (well as much as kids this age do). It was funny to see their little personalities to come out while they were together.
We had some yummy donuts on Saturday morning. We finally tried the donut shop across the street from my house, and while I wont be dreaming of these donuts, I think they were pretty good.
Michael also got a donut, a plain cake donut, he was a huge fan.
In addition to all of our fun swimming, eating, and golfing, the boys did a little bit of "manly" work. Our fence isnt great at the posts needed to be reinforced. Brian, Jared, and Randy dug around a few of the posts and added some cement.
They carried all the heavy cement over (see how manly).
Added water, and waited. Now some of our fence is doing much much better. Great job boys!
After church on Sunday, we decided to have some Mac and Cheese. Well I mistakenly suggested it and the kids jumped on board, because what child wouldnt. Michael had his first box Mac and Cheese experience. He was ok with it, I think that someday in the not to distance future he will enjoy it again.
Jared said that mac and cheese is a childhood right of passage and totally blog worthy, so here are the photos, because some day Michael will be 35 and ask "Mom when did I first have Mac and Cheese?" and I can say, "when you were 11 months and your cousins came to visit" for the record I know this conversation isnt going to ever take place.
Caleb enjoyed his mac and cheese too.
Jake did too.
As per tradition we played a round of ticket to ride. I obviously lost (I had 43 points... I was like 50 pts behind the next lowest person). As usual it was competitive, tense, and all around delightful!
This got a little bit heated.
We decided to have a real Texas BBQ for dinner on Sunday. Diana made a yummy potato salad, and a spicy coleslaw. We had some watermelon and roasted corn, and of course some delicious ribs! Brian and Jared smoked 3 racks of ribs, let's just say they were so tasty!
So good!
After dinner we went outside to roast some smores (obviously not pictured here).
Diana was kind enough to take a few photos of us. Dont we look patriotic.
I can't get enough of this little guy, so sweet!
Back to the smores, since we didnt have a fire we used the grill, and guess was it worked great!
Caleb was a pro at grilling marshmallows
Jake made some tasty looking treats.
All the kids enjoyed their yummy smores!
Jared decided to start a marshmallow throwing game, it was great until Ben got involved, then it was still kinda funny.
Grandpa Randy and his grandkids. Michael is definitely the odd man out.
Last time Grandpa Randy was here Michael was terrified of him, this time, he was much friendlier.
Ben also got to try a smore, and wouldnt you guess he was a fan!
He wanted more smores.
And when his mom took it away he was pretty devastated.
Michael and Brian, they still look so much alike.
What a sweet Mike!
The relatives that came to visit, we loved having you guys!
Crazy Mike loves to be upside down.
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