4th of July

This year we went to Wichita for the 4th of July weekend. Almost every year the Amey family gets together at Ben's Uncle Virgil's house to shoot off some fireworks and visit (his house is out in the country). Since we didn't leave until Saturday morning and the get-together was that afternoon, we drove straight there. Ben's brother Brian and his family were there, as well as Ben's parents... plus lots of extended family.

I took this in the backyard.

Wyatt, David, Rachel, Lila and their second cousin, Ava

My niece, Nicole, wasn't quite ready for sitting on the steps with the bigger kids, but she wanted to!

The older girls liked loving on Nicole. This was a little wood bridge behind the house that the kids enjoyed playing on. It reminded me of the wood plank my grandma had on her farm. It was 2 boards wide, unlike this bridge which is maybe 7 or 8. It covered the ditch between her yard and the gravel road and led out to the mailbox. We have pictures of all of us cousins lined up on that thing. And we played some good dodgeball on there too.

They had fun jumping off the bridge. Notice Wyatt watching them.

He had to give it a try too!

(Wyatt was having some digestive issues earlier, and one time his shorts took a hit... thus, the uncovered diaper.)

It was humorous to me how Lila seemed more interested in Nicole, and Rachel seemed more interested in Piper. Another case of the grass being greener? Or just loving on your cousin who you don't get to see as much as your sister!

Unfortunately, Piper was tired, so she didn't last very long with the picture taking.

After this, it was too dark to take pictures, and I had to hold Piper (she's a mama's girl). So I didn't get any pictures of the fireworks. Both Lila and Wyatt watched each firework with their hands over their ears. When it was over, Lila would say, "Is is over?" and Wyatt would say, "Let's do that again!!" After the fireworks we continued on to Grandma and Grandpa's house in Wichita.

Lila has discovered a love for roly poly bugs this summer. So she was SO EXCITED when she saw how many of them were crawling around in the back yard. Here she is with a bucket collecting them.

On Sunday night, we decided to shoot off some smaller fireworks with the kids. The men were helping with a fireworks stand to raise money for the church youth, so it was just us ladies and kids. Rachel is holding a bunch of sparklers.

David with his sparkler.

Wyatt doing his sparkler.

Lila and her sparkler.

And Rachel with her sparkler.

Grandma was holding Piper, and we put Nicole in this old playpen so she wouldn't get too close to the fireworks.

A hug while they wait for the next firework. We decided to shoot off one 3 minute variety of firework. Basically it was a little column with a wick that shot a burst of color straight up for about 2 minutes... then let out a piercing screaming noise for about 15 seconds. We didn't know about that last part. Piper started crying, and I think all of the kids had their hands over their ears. Oops. On that note, we were done! :)

Piper in her 4th of July dress that our good friends, the Smiths, got for her.

Isn't she cute? (Yes, it was the same style dress that cousin Ava wore at the farm.)

Grandma had an inflatable pool set up in the back, so the kids cooled off in that a few times.

We let them swim before lunch one time because it was only going to get hotter as the day progressed.

Here's what Grandpa and Piper were doing while they swam. Grandpa did a good job getting her to go to sleep.

Then after the nap, Grandpa grilled burgers for lunch. I looked out the kitchen window, and there was Wyatt keeping him company! They were having a nice little conversation about something :)

Rachel and David came over later, and they all got back in the pool.

At first Rachel didn't want to be splashed, but I think eventually she gave up and started splashing back.

Four in the pool.

Piper found a toy car to play with on the floor.

Lila got a ride on Grandpa after dinner. Ben's Uncle Bill and Aunt Angie came for dinner that night and visited for a little while with us.

Pam went to help that night with the fireworks stand, so she left David and Rachel with us. Grandma read the girls a book at bedtime, but David wanted to look at an airplane magazine with Grandpa. In a few minutes, they were both out! That night was the 4th of July, so starting around 9:30 it sounded like we were in the middle of a war zone with all the fireworks being shot off around us. All of the kids fell asleep easily except for Lila who we caught a couple times trying to look out the window. I finally took pity on her (we don't see fireworks like that in Dallas) and let her come outside for a few minutes before sending her to bed. The next day we left Lila and returned to Texas. 

She finished out the week, and then on Saturday we met in Oklahoma City to get her back. I found this place online that was like a large McDonald's playplace, only it was connected to a gymnastics company. With it being 100 degrees outside, we couldn't play at a park. This worked perfectly to allow the kids a chance to burn some energy before we all got back in our cars to go home.

Rachel going down one of the three slides.

The other fun thing about this place was that adults were allowed on it too!

In addition to the straight slides, there was a curvy slide, balance beam and this bounce area. It was a lot of fun! Lila had a great time during her week with Grandma and Grandpa too. I asked her what was her favorite thing she did while she was there, and she told me "helping Grandma in the garden." Hmm... maybe we should try to put a little garden in our back yard next year? I'm not sure anything would survive our intense summer heat though!

Family Reunion

Back in June, we drove 7+ hours to southern Missouri (Table Rock Lake) for a family reunion. Everyone on my Mom's side was able to be there except for a few cousins. That's my 86 year old Grandma in the middle holding Piper on her lap.

The camp we stayed at was really nice. Between all of us, we stayed in four cabins for three days. My little family was in their own (smaller) cabin. This playground area was in the middle of all the cabins. That's Wyatt holding an empty water bottle he's filled with gravel...a little boy's paradise!

My sister rode along with us. It was nice to have her help with the kids on the long drive... and we enjoyed her company too! She stayed in a cabin with my parents, brother and his family. But she managed to get some Piper time :)

The kids quickly found a "sandbox" to play in... the horseshoe pit. Here Lila is playing with my nephew, Heath (right), and my cousin's son, Logan.

The cabins were right next to a lake. One evening we rented some paddleboats and took them out. Here I am with Lila, Heath and my brother. Wyatt didn't nap at all during our trip. Because he had been going, going, going all day, by the time we got to the paddleboats he had reached the meltdown point. Which meant he refused to put on the life jacket, then cried when he didn't get to go out. 

So we brought the boat back in and tried going back out with Ben and Wyatt, but as you can see, Wyatt wasn't happy.

Since we were all in different cabins, we decided the only meal we would try to eat together as a large group was supper. My sister and I planned those meals. It was an undertaking, but everything went pretty smoothly. We assigned everyone a job - either prep one night or clean up. Here two of my cousins and their kids are doing the clean up.

My cousin Brad holding Piper.

Lila enjoyed the freedom of being able to run around and play outside.

My cousin Amber's little boy Logan, who is 6 weeks younger than Wyatt.

One night for dessert, we made S'mores.

The older kids were pros at making them.

This was the supply station. (The girl on the right holding the marshmallow stick is Emily, who was 2 at our wedding. Now she is 12.)

Lila enlisted Aunt Janina's help in roasting her marshmallow.

"What did you DO to my marshmallow?!!"

She didn't much care for how brown it got on the bottom.

But she decided it tasted good anyway.

(That little purple butterfly ring on her finger was given to her by my aunt Lorna. She was very upset when she lost it the next day.)

Logan trying out the S'more.

Wyatt trying to figure out a way to eat it without getting his hands all sticky.

The "older" kids. My aunt Sara brought glow necklaces for all the kids.

Aunt Janina and Lila, wearing her glow necklace and bracelet - blue, of course.

Piper hung on as long as she could but Daddy's shoulder was just too tempting.

Enjoying the outdoors. The temps weren't too bad, but the bugs did get us despite spraying repellent.

My aunt Lorna and cousin Megan.

Keeping the fire alive.

Wyatt and my cousin Jeff's son, Jamie. 

I hadn't seen Jamie in several years, and when I first saw him I thought he looked just like Jeff did at that age. Of course Wyatt is a little replica of Ben, so I shouldn't be surprised.

We stayed in a 2 bedroom cabin. Lila and Wyatt shared a bed (their first time doing that!), and Piper slept in our pack-n-play in our room. She did pretty good sleeping, only waking once in the night. Now she sleeps all night long, woo-hoo! Lila and Wyatt did pretty good sleeping together. Of course, there was some talking and giggling before they finally fell asleep, but that is just part of vacation, right?

We ate breakfast and lunch at my parent's cabin. This is a picture of my brother, his wife Sarah, and sons, Jim tickling Heath.

Lila, Heath and Wyatt played pretty well together. I can't remember exactly what they were doing here that resulted in this tackle.

Aunt Janina brought along some nail polish, so she painted Lila's nails during some down time.

Lila was thrilled. There was also a pool on the premises which we visited each day, but I didn't take my camera along then.

While they were doing that, Wyatt blew some bubbles.

Another thing we did one day was take the kids fishing. Or I should say tried to take them fishing.

Here's Lila holding the pole.

But that only lasted a few minutes. What she was REALLY interested in doing was taking care of the large worm in the bucket that we had found for bait.

Wyatt also took a turn with the pole. He really liked reeling in the line. But his idea of fishing was to smack the pole in the water, so he didn't last too long.

Mom and her boy.

Ben, however, did catch a fish. 

Lila wanted to touch it.

Then she wanted to be the one to put it back in the water, so here Ben is making sure she has a good hold of it. (I was very impressed by her desire and willingness to do this!)

Grandpa also came along to fish.

One of my favorite pics from our trip - except for the tree growing out of Grandpa's head. If only I had shifted over a couple feet! Oh well.

On our last night there, we took the large group picture at the beginning of this post, and then we took this picture of Great-Grandma with all of her great-grandchildren. Then we took individual family pictures.

Grandma held onto Piper and Wyatt while I took pictures (and Ben grilled burgers).

We quickly squeezed in a family shot before Ben went to man the grill. 

It was fun to see extended family we hadn't seen in a long time. It was fun to relax and be surrounded by nature... to be surrounded by trees. And it was my kind of "camping"... air-conditioned cabin with a full kitchen :)