The rest of May and first days of June

 We have had a full and busy summer!Starting with Mel's family and Anthony & Cara's kids coming for an impromptu "Cousin Camp". What a great group of kids. They played hard, helped with the cooking and clean up after meals, and kept us totally entertained.

 They had several days together, but somehow they didn't feel it was enough. Would it ever be? :)

At meal time we just gathered them up and ran them through a buffet line...easier on the moms. So the scene below was repeated a lot. :)

Airsoft played a big part in the boys' entertainment. Here they were taking a little break after a big session.

We were bummed Cara and Anthony's kids had to leave because Justin flew in the next day and we all went paintballing! Gear up, girls and boys!

'

 Morgan brought Justin straight from the airport to the paintball place to introduce him to our newfound favorite game. It was the first time they had gone - Mel was skeptical about the pain, but was hooked after the first round. She is still talking about how much fun it was to sneak up on Shane and make him surrender. I believe we'll be paintballing again with them when we get a chance. :)

 It was hard to get pictures of the guys. They came in, reloaded, and hit the field too fast. We girls at least paused for pictures. We all look tough with our caps on backwards....but had to wear them that way to wear the helmets. :) Chance and Dede met us and Alisa came down...it was a great group!

 Then we all cleaned up for Sunday morning meeting. :) After lunch we all went to Fort Worth and met Monte, Poppy, and ZANE!!! We have been looking at pictures of Zane since he was born in February, but hadn't met him yet. Isn't he a fabulous looking baby? We couldn't get enough of him!

 And something about seeing my brother walking around with a baby carrier strapped to him was so great. :)

 Hannah shocked us and showed up! Mel and Justin hadn't seen her in several years. We had a big time - one evening there was even poetry recitation by Morgan, Hannah, Wade, Sadie, and Ivey -  then Justin yodeled for us! I wanted to video it but then I'm sure he'd never yodel for us again, and that would be a pity.

                                         Cousins....they don't seem to ever tire of each other.

 We missed you, Monique!! Great to have most of the siblings in one place anyway. :)

                                          What a great little family...this was as we all parted ways. It happened to be on Morgan's and my 14th anniversary. Ironically, the way it worked, he and Shane left for Nevada right after we had breakfast. So, until he came back  a month later, I had fun telling folks that Morgan left me on our anniversary. :) He and Shane went to brand, so the girls and I followed Melody home and had a month of bouncing around seeing family and friends. I will post pictures from both trips soon.