Here is Emily My Younger sister. Her and her family came to visit this last week. She has 3 boys about the same age as my boys. Her and her husband flew in from Colorado last Saturday and stayed the whole week. We also got a surprise visit from Johns' Brother Kaylon and his friend Marie. I was a little worried where everyone would sleep but it all worked out just great and Kaylon and Marie were really good about playing with all the kids. Since Kaylon was in town Ammon and his family drove up from Clear Lake and Joined us for Family dinner. So we had 9 kids from ages 10-0 Kaylon was in town for work, so early Monday morning we took him to get his rental car. We then we didn't see him until later in the week.
Emily and I drove up to a place that I have wanted to go to called Washington on the Brazos. we got there and had lunch, but it was pouring rain so we weren't able to go and see anything. So we went to the bluebell Iceream factory that was 20 min down the road and had a good time eating ice cream there. up until 2 months ago I had never been there and now I have been 3 times. Emily and her family drove up to Ft hood to stay with Valerie. I went back down to Houston.
Then on Wednesday I met up with Valerie and EMily (and their kids) at Washington on the Brazos. this time the sun was shinning and it was a beautiful hot summer day. we had lunch at the picnic area and then headed over to the living historic farm. This place was really simple and it was perfect for all the kids.
the old farm house is adorable and felt so nice after walking in the sun.
the kids loved sitting up on the old porch.
here is em in front of the kitchen
and me.
the kids got to help wash laundry.
I need to set this up in my back yard. the kids washed all the little rags that they had and could have kept going.
then they had wooden blocks on the porch as well as other games, With all of my sisters kids and mine we had 9 kids ages 5-0 three girls and 6 boys.
Here are me and my sisters. Just missing Hillary who is on her mission in Kentucky and my brother billy who was just here last week.
We came home and all the kids crashed.
The next day we went blackberry picking.
the blackberrys were super ripe and juicy.
after being in the hot sun we were happy to come home and then we had a cousin party.
We all live spread out and so the cousins miss going to each others birthday parties so we came up with a cousin party Idea. Emily was in charge of all the games. the played balancing an egg on a spoon. and duck duck goose.
then David surprised them all with balloons.
Next was cake.
We let each child blow out a candle.
then we all ate cake and Pizza.
As if we hadn't done enough we all went to the splash pad. the kids loved this and so did the moms. I think Valerie and Emily took a bunch of pictures. I take my kids there all the time so I only took this one of Knoxx who kept losing his shorts. When we got home I took the bigger boys swimming at our pool.
then that night my sisters and I and our husbands (minus Brandon who is in Korea) all went to dinner without the kids! I felt really bad for the baby sitters. We have a hard time juggling all the kids and we are there moms. We weren't gone very long though.
On Friday after a bad nights sleep by almost everyone. We took the kids to Monkey Bizness. the kids hated it at first. Luckily I had made a few sandwiches and we all sat them down and had lunch. then they all went back out and played for the next hour and a half with very little issues. When we got home it was time for Valerie to pack up and head back to her house. It was funny to feel how much calmer the house was once we were back to having just the 5 boys. We went swimming for a while and then came home and just played until bedtime. This morning Emily and Her family all left to Finnish their vacation in Florida. They will stop by here before they fly home to Colorado.
