Hooray for Visitors!

It's been a crazy and wonderful 2 weeks in our new house. We moved in and 3 days later, we had visitors. We LOVE visitors! Mom, Kenzie, Aubry, Mya and Sadie came down for Kenzie's spring break and stayed with us for a whole week. We had the best time showing them around our city, neighborhood, and home. And they were really great guests, in spite of many crazy challenges of being in a new home. The ants of course, and also we lost electricity for 2 days of their stay. We spent plenty of time on the phone before they came making sure all the utilities on this house would transfer without a problem...but there were problems. Tons of food thrown away, no AC (luckily it wasn't too hot and we stayed out most of the day), and the kicker, all the fire alarms beeping all night long. We didn't have a ladder tall enough to reach them to put batteries in. A few flashlights and ear plugs later, we had a pretty good night's sleep. Good times. I'm just glad they were so sweet and such patient guests. Sheesh!
The first day they arrived we spent the evening at our duck pond.

We met lots of new little ducklings, little turtles, and even our strange rodent of unusual size. Not sure what it is...but it's not real pretty.The next morning we ran some errands, and spent some time on the phone checking on the electricity situation then after naps we headed to the zoo. I love going to the zoo. It has yet to get old for me. Especially with visitors! Tate loved having so many people around and showing off his zoo.

We even met a little pig wandering around on a leash.

And what is a visit to the zoo without a little bongo drums?

It was sure fun watching the kiddos playing together. I was pleasantly surprised how well they all got along all week. They played nice and were excited every morning that they got to play together again that day. It was so wonderful. We could all just sit in our little toy room and watch them play all day long.
The next morning we went to the downtown aquarium. Always a good time, especially when lots of coupons are involved. We walked through all the fun exhibits. Marveled at fish the size of our children.Mya marvelled at the snake the size of her daddy.

Kenzie tried to scare the puffer fish

and gave Tate some lovin'.

At the end of the exhibit we tried to get the kids to touch the sea creatures.Kenzie was super excited. Tate and Mya both passed on the sting rays but Tate loved these horseshoe crabs, and Mya thought petting the star fish was pretty cool. Sadie preferred the white tiger. Then it was off to the train through a shark tunnel. And then a turn on the ferris wheel. A very fun morning. Kenzie decided she needed to try the hurricane simulator. I was glad she did.

After the aquarium we took off to Galveston for 2 nights. We went to the beach that evening and all the next day. That first night we went to Stewart beach which was really gross and covered with sea weed. We'd only been there once or twice before but it was always nice. So the next day we just walked across the street to the beach by our hotel. It was really pleasant and the kiddos played in the sand all day and could have done so for days and days.

Finding sea shells, diggin holes, dumping water. It was little kiddo heaven.

Mom and Glenn stayed in the waves most of the day and could have done that for days and days. It was great to see mom's face when she's near the ocean. Certainly not the most beautiful beach she's ever seen, but there really is something about being near the ocean that just lights her up inside. I think I inherited it too.

We got home on Saturday, cleaned all the spoiled food out of the fridge and freezer and Kenzie, Mom, and I went to the temple. Kenzie did baptisms and crossed another temple off her list. She's been to far more than I have now.

The rest of the weekend we just hung out. Played with chalk, went to a fun park, lots of bubbles and a few attempts at grandkids pictures.

Looking at a little lizard.

On Monday mom offered to watch the kids while Aubry, Kenzie and I went shopping. We had a great time and scored some great deals. Then we had lunch at Cheesecake factory. Hard to beat a day like that.

They left Tuesday morning. It was pretty sad. We miss them so much around here. For a few days every time Tate heard a noise that might be the door he would say, "Maybe Nanna's coming to visit?" Still when I ask him something like, "Guess where we're going!" or, "Guess who we're going to play with!" He says, "To see Mya (Kenzie, Nanna, Aubry, Sadie)" It's kind of bitter sweet when they leave. While I'm kind of glad to get back to my house and getting things figured out around here, I realize so much more after they're gone how much I miss them. I miss having easy access to them. I miss my little guy being able to play with his cousins. I really don't like that Tate is growing up so fast so far away from them. He's missing so many little things and I absolutely loved watching him play with his family.

It was a great week. A few favorites in no particular order:
1. "Delicious, Mean, and Scary" We listened to the Tangled soundtrack in the car...a lot. Tate and Mya's favorite song the "I've Got a Dream" but it starts out, "I'm Malicious, Mean and Scary..." I like Tate's version better. Mya had most of it memorized and had some great facial expressions and actions timed to the lyrics.

2. "Um...I don't fink so." This was Mya's response any time I asked her if she wanted to do something and she wasn't quite sure what it was.

3. Kissing these cheeks. I mean, seriously. 4. Listening to my mom read stories and sing songs to Tate at night.

5. Moments like these.

5. Shopping with my sisters.

Thanks for coming you guys. Please come again! I promise we'll have electricity!