Time With Family

On our drive back to Vermont for our summer vacation this year, we decided the first part of our vacation would be to drive through Virginia and see some family. 

 

We were able to stop for a little while and see Robbie's cousin Erin and her cute family.  The girls were so happy to get out of the car for a bit, and even more pleased that they had someone to play with.  Rob and I really enjoyed the opportunity to sit with Erin and her husband Shea and visit and catch up on things.  We haven't seen them in years, so to have the opportunity to be there with them again, even though it was only for a short time, was fantastic.  I wish I had a picture from our visit there, but my camera was dead.  Hopefully we will be able to see them more often once we move again in December.

 

After visiting with Erin and her family, we drove on to stay the night with Rob's brother Ryan, his wife Hillary, and their adorable girls.  We don't get to see them often either...about every 2 years.  So it was wonderful to get to spend some time with them, and for the girls to play with their cousins again.  We enjoyed having dinner with them, the girls were thrilled to have a sleep over with their cousin Zoie, and it was so nice to just sit and visit with Ryan and Hillary and my mother in law Marj.  Even though our visit was short, it was really nice, and we hope we will be able to visit with them more often once we move.  I love being able to visit with family on our vacations!!

 

The Congdon Cousins

Splash Pad Fun!!

Another thing we did with my mother in law Marj before we went on vacation was a trip to our local splash pad.  The city built it recently, and we hadn't had a chance to go yet.  So we took the opportunity to keep the kids occupied (and keep my house clean before we left on vacation) and spent a couple hours there.

 

The kids were so excited...until the water shut off for half an hour after we had only been there for 10 minutes.  They found ways to keep themselves occupied though, like eating a snack, and playing tag with some of the other kids there.

 

Sweet little Genesis slept for the first 45 minutes we were there.  I ended up draping my beach towel over the handle of her carseat to protect her from the sun while she slept.

 

Finally someone came and checked the pipes and turned the water back on.  The kids went back to running around and playing and just having a blast.  You can see all three older girls in this photo-Grace off to the left in the pink bathing suit, Gwen in the middle in the purple suit, and Georgia off to the right in the blue and green bathing suit.

 

There were lots of jets of water shooting out of the ground, things to run under to get wet, and even a dump bucket in the middle.  The girls really loved the dolphin water guns.

 

Genesis finally woke up, so I took her around to a bunch of the jets.  She had a lot of fun playing in the water, and didn't really seem to mind getting wet.

 

In fact she seemed to have a ton of fun with it!  Sweet girls curly hair really puffed up after it dried too!!

 

As hot as it gets here, I'm glad we have places like these to keep the kids cool and let them have fun during the summer, and I'm glad we got to do it with my mother in law-the girls really had a blast with her!

Chuck E Cheese!!

We are lucky enough (or are we?) to live about 5 minutes from a Chuck E Cheese.  We had Gracie's birthday party there last year, and have gone back on occasion for FHE or school fundraisers. 

 

The girls love Chuck E Cheese.  So when Rob's mom flew out here a few days before we all (Marj included) climbed into our van to drive from Texas to Vermont for our summer vacation, the girls convinced me that we HAD to take Grandma to Chuck E Cheese.  My mother in law was so awesome to remember her camera and to take some pictures of my little g squad having fun!!

 

Georgia in the train part of the jungle gym...she would rather play in there than play games for tickets!

Genni on the carousel.  She really did like it, even though she looks less than thrilled here.

 

Gwen playing games...this girl loves to earn tickets for prizes (and loves to play the racing games too!!).

 

Gracie and her new friend coming down the slide.

The girls had a lot of fun playing at Chuck E Cheese with Grandma, and spending time with her at home afterwards!

Gwen Overcomes Her Fear Of Horses

On the last day of school back in May, Gwen was invited to a birthday party for one of the girls in her class.  She was so excited, because it was horse themed, and she has really gained a love for horses in the last year. 

 

She talked about it all week long, barely able to contain her excitement each time she mentioned it.  She was almost dancing on the day of the party because she was so excited...and then we got to the party.  It was held at a ranch on the outskirts of town that does birthday parties.  And part of the party was getting to ride one of their horses.

 

Gwen does not like animals.  At all.  She has a big fear of any and all animals, which amplifies considerably when she is in close range of them.  So, she wasn't too thrilled with the idea of riding the horse.  The man and wife who own the ranch talked to her about it, and explained everything to her, and promised that they would walk next to her while she rode the horse.  Gwen finally relented and got on the horse.

 

And had a BLAST!!  She got back in line over and over again to ride the horse.  She loved it so much that I have promised her we will look into horseback riding lessons.  Her grin was ear to ear each time she got to ride the horse.

After everyone had multiple chances to ride the horse, they had a train ride for the kids.  They hooked up these buckets that they had cut open to their lawn mower, and they took the kids on two rides around the ranch.  Gwen sat with one of her friends from her class both times, and she had a blast.

Between the two train rides they took the kids on, they also took all of us (parents and kids) on a hay ride up and down the road.  The kids all seemed to enjoy it, and we were able to take a picture of them before they took their second train ride.  They also let the kids paint their hands, then put their handprints on one of their other horses.  Gwen of course chose blue (her new favorite color).

Gwen had such a blast at the party.  She really wants to have her next birthday party there, but because it's the middle of winter, I don't think it will happen, but horseback riding lessons are definitely something we will look into in the future.  Yay for horses!!



Tape Town

 

I decided this year that I was going to try and be proactive about the girls being bored through the summer.  I found a bunch of different ideas, and planned one for every day of the week (except Saturday and Sunday).  I tried really hard to do something with them every day, and while that didn't always work out, we did a lot of fun things together.

 

One of the things we did was to make a tape and box town.  The first day I had the girls help me gather up a bunch of small boxes from around the house and garage, and then they decorated them to make them look like different community buildings.  The following day I laid out roads and parking lots for their buildings, and we got out all our toy cars (and the girls decided they had to get out their mini La La Loopsy and Disney Princess dolls to play with as well), and they just played and played.

They made a store, a mall, a school, a police station, a fire station, a post office, a hotel, and a couple of houses (I think there were a couple others, but I can't remember what they were).

 

 We kept the tape town and boxes out for almost a month, so during the times where we weren't doing something (or I failed to do the planned activity for that day with them), they could get their cars and dolls back out and have a blast!!



We will definitely try to do things like this again next summer!!

Time In Wyoming

Back in May, I had the privilege of helping my sister throw a baby shower for our brother's wife Jamie.  We took the girls out of school for a couple of days (and since it was the last weekend before the last week of school, they didn't miss much), and made the 2 day trip up to Wyoming to stay with my sister. 

 

The day after we got to Wyoming, we drove to Idaho to put on the shower.  My sister did an awesome job with the food, and I helped with the decorations.

 

Baby name banner above all they super yummy food.

Onesie advice cards, on a clothesline, with an extra invitation hanging among them.

Game/project table.  Story time subway art plaques, wishes for the baby cards, and supplies to make some hairbows for the new wee one.

The guys took all the kids to see The Croods while we had the shower, and afterwards we just relaxed for a while, went to feed the ducks by the Idaho Falls temple, then went out to dinner together before heading back to Wyoming.  We were super excited that my brother and his wife were able to come to Wyoming with us so we could spend more time with them as well. 

 

We were able to stay the following day as well before heading back to Texas, so we went to Sacrament meeting with my sister and her family, then headed back to her house.  We spent time with the kids while the guys went fishing.  The kids all seemed to have a blast together, playing games and make believe and just being able to spend time together.  The only draw back of the whole weekend was that Genesis would not go to ANYONE the entire time we were there.

 

My sister, Georgia, and my sister's youngest (she and Georgia are holding hands while watching someone play a game).



Georgia and my sister's oldest playing a Kinect game.

 

 Gracie "teaching" her class of beautiful cousins.

 

It was tons of fun to go and see everyone and just spend time with them all.  Hopefully we will be able to do it again sometime soon because we sure miss them all!!

9 Months Old

 

A few photos from when Genesis turned 9 months old.

 

Sitting on Mommy's lap, trying to drink some water.

Silly girl sticking out her tongue at Mommy in protest of having pictures taken.

Playing on Mommy's lap while taking a break during a long car trip.

Mmmm Oreos!!