The kids and I went with Morgan's parents on a week long trip to see Hannah, Will, and Frankie. These aren't even half of the pictures (we wanted Morgan to feel like he'd been with us even though he was home working while we were vacationing *smile*) but here's a random selection that will give you the flavor of the trip. You can see that at one point we were at an Aquarium. I actually didn't go, I got to visit some friends in a hospital, but Jess took lots of good pictures so I could see how much the kids enjoyed it.
Ever the comedian.... he lives in a "what if" world right now. Everything is "what if...." followed by something horrible. I guess this was "what if this baby alligator bit me".

Everything looked fine to Sadie, I understand, as long as she was perched on someones shoulders. Got a little scary on the ground at times. :)
Ivey was most impressed with the otter. She has drawn several pictures of otters swimming since we got home.

A little motel room fun. Here's a moment of confession. We were in vacation mode. The kids had napped late and we had a late lunch, so it was bedtime before we ordered pizza. By the time we ate pizza and were just visiting, it was getting sort of late but didn't seem that way to us. I was totally oblivious to the fact that the kids were running and bouncing around the room and there were people under us....until there was a knock on the door. Shane answered and the very nice manager said "Are your mommy and daddy here?" Oh no! We knew immediately there must have been a complaint. Sure enough, an older couple couldn't sleep and called us in. We were a bit sheepish and scuttled the kids right off to bed. Thus ended the motel room pizza party - but it was fun while it lasted! :)
A little backyard bocce ball - Sadie showing us all some fine form! :) If you've never played bocce ball, you should. Anyone can play, everyone has a blast. I promise.
I loved this - so it gets put on the blog. No explanation or reason for it. It was unusual that Sadie was still at all, I suspect she was watching toward the creek to see if the boys were on their way back from fishing.
The young girl of the house must have aspirations to be a school teacher. She had the coolest "school" I have ever seen a girl have set up. My girls were totally entranced! They were very eager students and Joni had a blast being a teacher and having students! She marched them upstairs to the "library" (bookshelf) to get books, then read to them. She had writing and science and who knows what else. All I know is that my girls cried when we left and are still asking if we ever get to go back to Joni's house. :) Shane was a student at first, but was playing like the bad student. Then Clay Brett asked him if he liked to play basketball and fish - he dropped out of school and they never saw him again. :)
Andy hooked his team, June and Babe, up and took us for a hayride. Hannah B was a pro on the lines! Oh, except when she started back to the house with a little too much pop and Shane fell of the back (he was sitting too far back to be fair). As he fell, he tried to grab at the folding chair that was on the wagon. It came off too! So he had to grab the chair and run to catch back up. Meanwhile, I had been standing up to take a picture of Hannah so expertly driving a team and when she took off, I fell down too! It was hilarious - one of our favorite memories of the trip! :)
Some great singing by Frank and Hannah one night....if they didn't remember the lyrics, Hannah just popped up laptop open and found them, then they sang.
I love this one of Andy taking the team to the barn....
It was too hot to be close, but Ivey wasn't going to give up on getting her marshmallow roasted!:)
Why is it that a bag of marshmallows and a fire hold endless delight for all involved? :)
A few monkeys we saw on the trip. :)
These pictures are totally out of order. This was down by the pond. We rode the wagon to the pond, then some visited and some fished. After Ivey determined there were "no fish in this pond", we had our marshmallow roast right here before heading back to the house.
I'm surprised we got Shane to come back with us. Three very nice guys introduced him to world of fishing! He caught one with Clay Brett in the creek one night. He was real excited about it, so Darrell and Jason asked if he wanted to "go fishin' at daylight". He thought he had won the lottery! Darrell made them a "guys' breakfast" of pancakes, bacon, and eggs. Then off they went to get lifejackets on, get in the boat, and fish! Shane didn't actually catch that day, but Darrell let him reel two in. He had so much fun!
Anytime there is a friendly dog, Sadie is going to find it and love on it for awhile. :)
Hannah told us that they had a little "fish" on their line for bait. After casting and reeling many times, Sadie commented with dismay "we keep catching the same little fish". :)

So....there is a peek of what we've been up to this summer so far. Now we're enjoying long summer days with kids playing so hard outside that when I bathe them at night, mud runs down their faces from the dirt in their hair. Oh to be a kids again, huh? :)