family makes the best friends

Sooooo faaaaar beeehiiiinnnddd on my blog!!!! So, while my boys (and husband) are at camp I'm trying to play catch up. The very first full week of summer we took a weekend road trip to Wylie, Texas to visit Uncle Casey and Auntie Rae (and our cousins, of course!) at their new Texas home! The boys and I had visited once before but this was Brandon's first trip. On our journey down I-35 we COULDN'T RESIST stopping at the Arbuckle Mountains Fried Pies road side restaurant for a famous fried pie! Mmmmmmm! I chose apple, Maddox chose vanilla and Brandon chose chocolate. We all swapped and took bites of each others and they were all AWESOME!!!!

Ashtyn didn't want a fried pie and since it was raining he also refused to get out of the car...but I wasn't going to let him go undocumented on this trip so I just took a picture of him through the car window! It works!

This was Maddox's VERY FIRST fried pie! Whoa! He is most definitely in love! Now that we have family in Texas I think this stop will be on our itinerary much more often!

Maddox dozed off on our drive. He is the most hilarious car sleeper of all time! He almost always falls asleep on the road and every single time when he wakes up he adamantly DENIES that he was ever asleep! Ha! It can be a short 20 minute nap or a long 2 hour nap but without fail as soon as he wakes up he just jumps right back into whatever he was doing (watching a movie, playing toys, eating, etc...) and refuses to believe that he ever fell asleep! It cracks me up!

 

When we got to Wylie we met our cousins at Chick-fil-A for a quick lunch before the fun began! Chick-fil-A is ALWAYS Noah's first choice!

We didn't have too many activities planned for this visit. We just wanted a relaxing visit full of fun and some good restaurant food! The kids wanted to swim ASAP and so that's exactly what we did!

It never ceases to amaze me the differences between little girls and little boys. Since I only have boys I notice it most when we are with my niece who is just 6 months younger than Maddox. (She's quite proud that she is now taller than Maddox even though she's younger but Maddox doesn't find it as amusing so I wouldn't bring it up...) On this trip to the pool we yet again saw the vast differences between the way boys swim and the way girls swim. My boys (and even 2-year-old Noah!) spent the entire afternoon flipping, jumping, having their daddies and uncles throw them high into the air and landing in the pool with a huge splash and being told to "STOP RUNNING!" on multiple occasions while Elia spent the majority of her time lounging on the pool's shallow ledge and making up different "mermaid dives" off the edge of the pool into the water. She would call out "Ucka! Watch how this mermaid dives! Ucka! Now watch how this mermaid dives!" while she dove over and over and over again in a variety of ways. She did take a short break from her mermaid play to swim underneath the pool waterfall for awhile but then came right back to the ledge to show off even MORE mermaid tricks! Girls are so much calmer than boys!

After shower time, Elia asked me if I wanted a make over! OF COURSE I DO!!!! Elia pulled out her huge bag of polish, make-up, hair clips and brushes and got straight to work. We started with nail polish. She lined up all of her bottles and asked me what I liked best. After I chose a color she set it aside and said "Okay, that's one, what other color do you want?" This process continued until we had three colors as "base colors" (her words) and 2 glitter polishes to accent on top of the base colors.

After my nails were good and caked with puddles of pink and purple polish (and glitter too) we moved to make-up. My favorite part was when Elia asked if I "wanted a smokey eye or a regular eye?" She's such a girly girl! I just laughed and asked her where she learned that!? She said she didn't know. I am positive she did not learn it from her mommy (who is the least girly girl of my sisters) but she's obviously been paying attention! She's adorable and I'm fairly certain has a promising future in cosmetics and/or fashion! I'll definitely do my part to encourage it!

Elia's little brother, Noah, couldn't be any further opposite from big sis! His imagination is out of control and he thrives off being the center of attention and making people laugh. On this trip, the Noah-highlight was when I caught him watching cartoons while sitting on his inflatable donkey and wearing a pair of shark themed goggles! Who does that!?!? Noah does, that's who!

I love that my kids love their cousins and I love that we are able to stay in contact with all of them. On both sides of our family we try to make sure that our kids know each other and that we know each other too. Family is forever and I hope that we instill in our kids not only that but that family makes the best of friends too.

Before we know it summer will be over and all the big kids will be headed back to school full time. We won't get to visit as often and the countdown to holiday visits will begin. Until then, though, we will do our best to visit as many times as possible this summer. Next up...CAMP COUSIN 2014!!!! I can't wait!!!! See you in July Noah and Elia!!!!