A great trip to Poppy's

A few months ago I was on the phone with my sweet friend Allison, who lives in Orlando. We hadn't seen each other in nearly 7 years (since I was in her wedding), and I told her I really wanted to get together next time she came home to Mississippi to visit her family. Her hometown is about an hour from my dad's, so we set a date of Easter weekend to meet up! I left Chris home to do some turkey hunting and take care of some things on his to-do list, and the kids and I loaded up for our first long road trip in the new van. Quite an adventurous undertaking considering I am nearly 8 months pregnant!!

We had a great time, but I won't be sad if I never have to take the kids in another public restroom. That sure got old.

I was happy to see my brother--when I visited last year he was called out on a job (he works in the oil rig industry) so we only got to visit a couple of hours. This time he was home the whole time, and he got his three boys for the weekend so we could get the cousins together.

Aaron didn't really remember Uncle Ross, but really thought he was cool when they got out the tools to fix his loose training wheel.


When the cousins arrived on Friday morning, the kids took to the street for a little ride.


I was so impressed by Cole and Ethan on their big boy bikes! Cole is 7 and Ethan is about to be 5. Aaron is only a month older than Ethan.

The Cole-man



Aaron has told us he will NEVER be ready to take off his training wheels.


Gabe just turned 2 and I can't believe how much bigger he is!!


Claire just loves to ride her trike!


Then we took the kids to a nearby park for lunch. This park was awesome! I wish it was close to our house!

One of my all-time favorite pictures of Claire.




Look at the size of those slides!!


Ethan was hard to photograph, but that's him running...


How cool is this thing?


Cole and E-man


There were two fun zip-lines the kids really enjoyed.






Gabe tries to keep up with his brothers.


Snack time!




Claire had a milestone--she finally figured out how to pedal Aaron's bike! She was so proud and didn't want to stop!


The kids got filthy playing in the yard. Just the way it should be. I had to get Aaron to empty all the roly-polies out of his pocket before he could come in for the night.


Claire loves her Poppy, and Poppy loves his only granddaughter! (Only for now at least!)


Here's a slide show of all the pictures, if you didn't get enough!