Last week was such a blast! My two sisters and their sweet kids came down to visit! They came in town on Tuesday and we started our week of fun! It was a pretty busy week, so I'll break the story up with the pictures.
The first afternoon, we just had fun visiting for a while. Then we drove to the big park in our neighborhood. The kids had a blast despite the insane humidity at 7pm (hence their red and sweaty faces). Joseph attempted to eat rock after rock, but I THINK I was successful in getting them out of his mouth in time.
From left to right: Annie, Luke, Gabriel, Jacob, Sarah, and Grace trying hard to hold a squirmy Joseph. :)
The next day, we went to the Children's Museum! We've been several times but also go to the toddler area upstairs. This time though, Joseph got to experience the big kid section with all his cousins! It was super crowded, but the kids all had so much fun. They played so hard and definitely wore themselves out. The museum has a "Kidtropolis" which is basically a little pretend city with pretend stores (banks, restaurant, vet office, weather channel, grocery store, etc) where the kids can pretend to work in. They all had so much fun! And Joseph had a blast with all the hands on stuff there was to grab (and throw...apparently he thought the pretend fruit at the grocery store were balls).
That night when we got home, I had bought stuff for all the kids to make their own personal french bread pizza. They all seemed to really enjoy it and it was cute to see how different they each made theirs.
 |
| Joseph and Luke on the rope bridge |
 |
| The cousins! (just missing cousin Annie who had to go to a doctor's appointment down the street) |
 |
| The kids all took turns riding the bicycle to see how many light bulbs they could light up with the energy they created |
 |
| Luke, Grace, and Jacob recording themselves dancing in the "news station" for the broadcast. |
 |
| Having fun building |
 |
| The kids with Aunt Katherine waiting for their turn to make their pizzas |
The next day, we went to Memorial City mall to enjoy the fun Playcastle. Again, the kids had so much fun. The big kids built a hide out in one of the tunnels and the little ones had so fun with all the climbing and sliding opportunities! After playing, we went for a yummy lunch at Panera and then to Crazy 8 for some kid clothes shopping!
 |
| The kids having fun in the playroom that morning |
 |
| Joseph, Grace and a little random girl in one of the tunnels at the play area. |
 |
| The patient kid crew watching cartoons while the mommies did some shopping! Joseph got some new shirts on sale since he is outgrowing all his 18 month stuff! |
Thursday night, my parents came in town for our planned trip to the Schliterbahn waterpark in Galveston on Friday! We left Friday morning and drove down - took about an hour and 20 min to get there. We got there shortly after it opened at 10am and went in and picked out a perfect spot under a big umbrella right by one of the kid areas. My aunt Kay and two of her granddaughters met us there, and Kat's husband Jim flew down from Dallas that morning. Michael was able to take the day off work too to enjoy the day with us!
The waterpark was really fun! We were all pleasantly surprised! They had lots of fun stuff for the kids and even some big waterslides for the brave adults. There were lots of lazy rivers too. We decided to take Joseph on one. He was sitting on my lap with his life jacket on, and despite our success in avoiding the whitewater river, we ended up on the Torent River. It was basically a river with a strong current and big waves. It was fun until one of those big waves crashed right on our tube just as we had turned around backwards. Luckily I had a good hold on sweet Joseph but it scared him pretty bad and we made our way quickly to the first exit. We found the true "lazy" river on the other side of the park and tried it later in the afternoon and he enjoyed that ride much more!
The kid area near our table was nice and shallow and had a big pirate ship. Joseph had a blast there and loved the water. Although apparently he thought the mulch in the nearby flowerbed was pretty fun too. :P
After we left the waterpark around 6pm, we headed to dinner in Galveston at a mexican food place and then put the kids in jammies and drove home. We all hit the sack as soon as we got home - what a fun day!!
 |
| The pirate ship near our table |
 |
| Little water baby |
 |
| Going down a frog water slide |
 |
| Me and Kat |
 |
| Kat with Sarah and Annie and Luke in the background while the big kids were off on the big kid slides |
 |
| Joseph and Daddy going down the pirate ship slide after playing up in the ship |
 |
| Mom and Dad |
 |
| Joseph loves his Grandma and Grandpa |
 |
| Kristina with Grace |
 |
| The boys at dinner that night with their margarita with a Corona beer upside down in it. I forget the name of the drink - Coronarita, or something like that |
Saturday, Kristina had to head back home with her kids to get ready for school starting on Monday. Later that day, me, Mom and Katherine went out for some fun girl time! We went to lunch at Cafe Express and then for much needed pedicures! It was so much fun to just have some time to sit and talk without any distractions. We had lots of silly moments and fun times - especially while we were getting our pedicures. So fun! And here is the finished product!
 |
| I'm on the left in case you are wondering - haha |
While we were away, the guys smoked some yummy meat and we had a feast that night in celebration of Katherine's birthday earlier that week. We had chicken, ribs, potatoes, corn, bacon wrapped shrimp, and jalapeno poppers that was all to die for. We all managed to save room for some birthday ice cream cake - yum! Happy birthday sweet sister!
 |
| Enjoying our feast! |
