4th of July- Part 4

Rock Band! While the kids were playing outside, the "old" kids were inside playing Rock Band. Cheri hates it, but we had a good time. After the fireworks, Hannah came in and wanted to learn how to play.

4th of July- Part 3

Fireworks! I wasn't sure if Hannah was going to like them, but she did. Of course, she didn't really sit and watch them. She mostly ran around the yard until it got too dark to see where she was going and then I think she went inside. But for a few minutes she was actually sitting in the tree house swing thing my in-laws have in their yard. They had one of the little kid swings sitting in it and Hannah thought it was great fun to sit in the swing and watch the fireworks. Goof. Clara slept through half of it. We had to take her in pretty soon after she woke up because she was not liking the loud noises. The weather that night, though, was awesome. It was the perfect temperature and there was a good breeze keeping the bugs away. This was the first 4th since I moved here that I wasn't sweating to death the whole time. It was so nice!

4th of July- Part 2

The kids spent the day swimming and playing on the scooters and running around like crazy. Later in the day, the older kids started doing sparklers and other small fireworks. At this point, Emily went over and dumped a bunch of the ashes on her head. That little girl is sneaky!

4th of July- Part 1

I tried to get cute pictures of the girls in their patriotic attire, but it didn't work out quite as well as I'd hoped because it was super bright outside. We got these outfits at Cracker Barrel. They were too cute to resist.

Dallas World Aquarium

We actually went to the aquarium with my dad while he was here, but I don't have any pictures of that because I forgot my camera! I was so mad! But about a week later, the kids and I went back with the Whitworth clan. Apparently we were the only ones in the family who had ever been to this awesome aquarium before. I couldn't believe it. It's one of my favorite places in DFW.  Plus, they've all lived here a lot longer than I have. But anyway, we went with my mother-in-law, two sisters-in-law, and all 11 grandkids. It was a little crazy. Luckily we picked a good time to go and there weren't very many people there. We kept having to slow the kids down. Abby, Brigham, and Isabelle kept running as fast as they could from one thing to another, not really seeing any of it. Near the end there is a Jaguar, and periodically throughout the day people dressed in Mayan costumes come out and do a presentation and then stay to take pictures. Hannah and Brigham were both so terrified they about peed their pants and would not go anywhere near them, so I didn't get to take a picture with them, but Natalie and Lacey both did. The other kids weren't scared, but poor Emily got whacked in the eye with feathers. It was a crazy morning, but it was a lot of fun!

 Trying to get 10 kids to look at the camera at the same time is like herding cats....

Cousins

Recently, my cousin Jeshua and his family were driving back to New Mexico after spending a few weeks in Tennessee visiting family, and they decided to stop in Fort Worth to see us. I was so excited. They are a lot of fun and I hadn't seen them in about 5 years. Their son Ben didn't even remember me. :( And Kayden is so grown up and fun to talk to. So it was fun to catch up and for them to meet Dan and the kids. I'm so glad they decided to stop by!

I think Ben was trying to be studly... Blue Steel, anyone?