4th of July

Yes, I'm a "little" behind. :) Here is what we did on the 4th of July. It was, of course, a very hot day here in TX, so we hit the pool!

Here's Brooke all decked out in her red, white, and blue! Her hair even matches. ;) lol!Kate, Daddy, Carli, MeganMegan is quite a little fishBrandon contemplating the big first jumpSweet Daddy and Brooke!Have you ever seen anything so cute?!Love this one, too!Carli floating alongThe kids love having Ben throw them. Here's Kate!Brooke enjoying the water. She really loves it!Megan taking her turn.By the end Brooke was out! Daddy was, too.

Swimming

Summer has officially started when the pool opens! We have a week and a half left of school left, but we are already enjoying our neighborhood pool. We love it! The kids have a blast and we love to have friends come swim with us. If you ever want to cool off just let us know! Friday we had a bunch of friends join us and we had a great time. Can't wait to do it again!

Kate enjoying the cool of the poolMegan and her good friend SydneyBrandon and his buddies jumping inMegan relaxingBrandon and his gogglesCarli and her buddies, Madelyn and Allison

Swimming!

Yesterday we met a bunch of friends from church at our pool and had a blast. It was cooler so the moms didn't feel so much like we had to get in the pool. :) We just hung out and visited while the kiddos had fun swimming and playing with their friends. It turned out to be a perfect morning to swim. I decided to get some shots of one of our last swimming dates of the summer. Here they are:

Carli

Carli and Jill's Trevor
Lindy's Sydney and Allison
Carli again...LOL!
Brandon
Kate...what a look with the goggles
Jill's Trevor again. He's just so cute!!!
A bunch of them
Cate and Kate Girlfriends...is there anything better?

Megan, what a ham

The boys
Lindy's Madelyn
Jill's Courtney jumping
A small group shot
There were so many of us there and it was just so nice to hang out with each other and become better friends. It's always a treat to let the kids play with so many friends, too.

Florida III (and final!)

Here's the end of the Florida pictures. We had such a fabulous time and did so many fun things!

Girls' Day Out!!! We shopped 'till we literally dropped--about 8 hours. It was so fun--can you tell? We had a blast at a local outlet mall. It had every store you can imagine.

Trying on sun hats.
Our last night we tried some pictures on the beach. It was a little late and there was a storm coming so the light wasn't the best, but the people in the pics are pretty darn cute!

Here are James, Lybi, and their boys, Adam, Samuel, and Joseph
Cindy, Andy, and their little boy,Ryan
Wayne and Sandy, Ben's parents
We tried getting a pic with all the grandkids. It was pretty funny. This was the best one. LOL!
Me, Ben, Carli, Kate, Megan, and Brandon

The pools at the resort were so great. The kids had a blast with the dads playing water volleyball. We got some good action shots here.

Ben with Kate.
Carli is such a little fish. As long as she has her floaties on she swims wherever she wants to.
The water slide was the biggest hit with the kids. Brandon loved it!
Carli was dying to go, too, however, she was supposed to go alone. You are not allowed to have 2 people together. Kate took her up there, but she wouldn't go down as much as she wanted to, so Ben went up and put her in the slide and pushed her down. Well...she stopped herself before she even got halfway down and just sat there! The lifegaurd finally said her could go get her and bring her down. Notice her terrified look as they come out. She didn't worry about going down the slide again. :)
Me, Lybi, and Cindy at our dinner out as couples. Nana and Papa were SOOOO generous to watch all 8 kiddos and let us go out together. What a fun night.

Andy, James, Ben
It was this fabulous restaurant right on the beach called the Sea Watch. Seriously yummy seafood. I went for it all--lobster, shrimp, scallops...
Lybi and her "claw."

First Day of Summer Fun!

After piano lessons yesterday afternoon we spent a couple hours at our neighborhood pool. We had a blast! All the kids swam and had fun and hardly complained that they wre hungry. They always want to eat snacks when I bring them to the pool instead of swimming so I told them yesterday that there would be no food at the pool. It was totally great! They played the entire time and when it was time to go home for dinner they still were going strong, but the lure of pizza is too strong for my kids...LOL! Here are some pics from the evening.

Carli kept grabbing our fingers and walking us through the little pool. She would walk us up the step and out and then right back in and across and back again. It was too cute. She had so much fun!

Here's Brandon trying to paddle around with the squirter stick. Doesn't work very well without a paddle. ;)

Little toes all wrinkled! Too cute!

Wrapped up and ready to go.