Delighted In: August 2016

We were ready to leave for our flight to Texas; Amelia and Colleen were talking and....

Colleen just rolled over!

First flight! This was a sweet moment. She had a few other moments of meltdown, but generally flew fine. The big kids were great also.

After our arrival and a nap at Grammie & Pappy's house, the kids got to work on decorating cookies.

Then they made stepping stones for Grammie's yard.

Breaking up tiles

Enjoying the Texas heat

Mixing up the cement & putting in the tiles

We also made ones for Colleen and cousin Eli

Enjoying early Saturday morning with Pappy

We headed to a Children's Museum for the morning.
Grammie & Amelia tried out an interactive game.

Pappy & Daddy had to show them how to do it.

Giant game of Operation

They had a room set up like a hospital nursery. Amelia dashed for a coat and immediate started bathing and caring for the baby - like a doctor would.

The real baby just had fun watching all of it.

Giving Mommy the medicine kiss in an ambulance to make me all better

The space exhibit was awesome, even if the kids couldn't look at the camera.

They actually had an Amelia-sized jumpsuit, pack and cloth 'helmet'. Austin didn't want to wear any of it, but Amelia LOVED it.

A partially constructed home that you could put together the plumbing, siding, interior wall tiles, etc.

Pretending to be a teller at a bank

Campsite

Shopping together

We stayed awhile at the outside water table.

Nifty climbing structure

Getting giggles with Grammie & Pappy while her siblings played some more.

At a really nice lunch afterwards. Austin had fun wearing Grammie's sweater.

We went on a date while the kids had fun after naptime.

Grammie showed them her "sit upon" that she had made when she was a little girl and still uses today. The kids were able to make their own.

On Sunday morning, the kids helped Pappy make waffles. And Austin solo cracked his first eggs.

Interacting with Great Grammie

We headed to the drive-thru safari that we had all enjoyed so much at Christmas. I mostly held Colleen in the 3rd row; so there are not many photos. Austin had fun feeding the animals up front with Grammie & Pappy, while Amelia and Daddy fed from the 2nd row.

Later that Sunday afternoon, we headed to the house of my dad's coworker. Jim and his son, Andy, have two tortoises that the kids were able to feed.

This is Bertha. She is over 100 pounds. We slowly coaxed her out of her home with romaine leaves.

Apples are a treat for her. So she moved faster than we expected to obtain that shiny red apple.

We continued to coax her out with apples and romaine. Eventually she showed us that she can move quickly if she thinks your toes/shoes are apples!

The little one (still unnamed) was very shy and hid anytime the kids were nearby. But as soon as it had some space, it would chomp on its leaves.

Jim asked the kids if they wanted to stand on Bertha; Amelia said yes!

Andy picked up Bertha so the kids could see her underbelly.

Thanks Bertha for teaching us so much about tortoises!

(We had read up on them before our visit!)

Monday was Austin's birthday. Colleen wanted to get into his donut cake before he woke up.

The birthday boy was in love.

Later we headed to the base bowling alley to keep celebrating.

Grammie had gone ahead of us and decorated for the party.

Hanging out

Excited about the cupcake!

So at the last moment, Amelia blew out Austin's candle. He was very upset, and Amelia couldn't understand why he didn't want her help.

Candle redo

Later after rest time, the kids had a big project - chipping away at an ice block full of little toys.

Air rockets!

Months ago, Austin asked for a carrot cake with green frosting. So we set out to make one.

Blue sprinkles!

3 cakes in one day - what a special 3rd birthday!

On Tuesday we headed to Austin to catch up with some friends. First stop was fun with Declan and Laura. We spent the morning catching up and watching the kids play.

The rest of the day was so packed out that I didn't take any photos. We had lunch with Emily and her crew, and I spent the afternoon re-binding Elijah's quilt (it was well-loved!). Then some of our old small group got together for supper at Melissa's house. Unfortunately, we thought to take a photo of the ladies after Allie left. All 13 kids had a blast playing and climbing trees.

When we returned to San Antonio, Grammie & Pappy took the kids 'camping' in the living room. Austin only lasted a few hours before returning to bed; he and Pappy shared an early morning banana while Amelia still slept in the tent.

View of the waterpark that we spent Wednesday and Thursday enjoying.

Grammie took Colleen for the first day. I didn't take too many photos since I enjoyed playing with the big kids all day.

We discovered that Amelia LOVES tube slides. She went on this one (with someone) a few dozen times.

To get access to the waterpark, Pappy reserved a room for 2 nights using points. Patrick & I had spent the night there with Colleen. Around nap time, I took Austin up to grab a snooze. He was sleeping so hard when I woke him up after 2 hours return to the waterpark to play.