July family fun!

Brian's company had their annual Royals game and tailgating fun for their employees.

It always seems to be a MILLION degrees outside when we go, and this year was no different.

We hang out at their tailgate, eat some great barbeque, then head into the game to spend some time in the outfield experience.

Not sure what this stage was set up for, but we used it to have some fun.

I love Maggie's sassy pose!

Colin wanted to play mini golf

And Maggie loved riding the carousel (some things never change)

And well, Eli, he missed his usual time for his afternoon nap, so he and I just sweated on each other while I held him and he slept on my chest.

Not really comfortable for either of us, but it worked for almost an hour!

Love these next 2 pics of Maggie - 

she dropped her sunglasses 18 times while at the ballpark, so eventually, one of the lenses popped out.  This had us giggling for quite some time...

What a goober!

Oh, and one more thing...

someone in this photo qualified for Conference in the 25 Free...

So excited for Colin - he swims on Monday!

More updates to follow!

Happy 4th of July!!

I can post about the 4th of July 10 days late, right?

We had a great LONG weekend and for the first year, both Colin and Maggie were super pumped about doing some fireworks.  Still nothing super big and loud, but they were willing to light other ones that would NEVER have been done in the years past.

Brian bought just a small bag of fireworks for the 3rd, then bought some more on the 4th and the 5th.  The kids had a blast doing smoke bombs, bees, zips, poppers, sparklers, etc.

And, they got to stay up super late one night as we were outside lighting fireworks, our neighbors stopped by, then another neighbor, then another...etc.  It ended up being a party in our driveway and the kids had a lot of fun!

Love the red, white, and blue!

Maggie can still 'barely' hold up Eli

We went to Grammie and Granddad's on the 4th for some yummy barbeque.

All the KC grandkids with Grammie and Granddad (minus Daniel, who had to hurry home for a nap and Maggie, who was resting on the couch inside)

The kids humored me and sat for a quick picture before bed that night

Some tired smiles, but cute kids all the way around!

Cooking classes and swim meets

For Maggie's birthday this year, Meemaw bought a "cooking class" for her.  This meant that Maggie and Meemaw went to a really cool downtown spot in Overland Park and spent about 2.5 hours cooking together.  The class theme was Mexican Fiesta.  Maggie made a quesadilla, guacamole, mini tacos, dulce de leche cupcake, etc.  She also got to bring home a mini pinata.

She had so much fun there.  She thought it was hilarious when Brian and I asked her what restaurant she got the food from.  We decided it would be called "maggie mae's".  So creative, I know :)

I snuck in to get a picture while they weren't looking

Meemaw, Maggie, and their instructor

Colin and Maggie had their annual eye exams.

And, guess what, Colin needs some serious glasses.  We knew that, but now that he's got one year of school under his belt, we really need to get on it.

So, we're off to get glasses next week.  Good thing Colin thinks they are pretty cool...

Colin and Maggie started doing some swim meets for our neighborhood swim team.

They love the water.  Both of them swam the 25 free. Colin dropped gobs of time off from last year, and Maggie finished without any difficulty.  That's a long way for a little peanut!

Before the meet, the little ones get to kick with flags on their kickboards during the National Anthem.

They thought that was pretty cool.

During the National Anthem - Colin smoked everyone and Maggie timed it perfectly to get done as they were finishing singing

Super cute picture of the 2 of them before their events

Maggie, all ready to swim her 25 free.

So cute!

In other news - Eli seems to like crawling into Moose's kennel.

He was so proud of himself!

We've been hitting the pool as much as we can lately, and the kids just love being tossed around by Brian.

Just hanging out, enjoying a summer night at the pool

Family vacation in Gulf Shores

We just returned from our Gulf Shores family vacation a week or so ago.  It was so much fun, the weather was perfect, the kids were (fairly) well-behaved, and we even endured the LONG car ride without any casualties!

Colin and Maggie LOVED the beach and ocean.  I think they are hooked!

It made it even more fun being there with all of our cousins and some of Brian's extended family.  The house was right on the beach and you could literally just walk a few hundred feet and be lounging on our own, almost private, bit of sand and sun!

All 3 of the kids had some minor accidents while there - Eli slipped on the plastic swimming pool and had a huge fat lip, Colin flipped his raft out in the ocean and hit the sand with his face and lip, and Maggie was going in to kiss Eli on his head and ended up almost biting through her top lip (lots of blood, but it healed up nicely!).  

We made it to Olive Branch, MS the first night and stayed in a hotel.

The kids just swam for a couple hours and we got some food ordered into the hotel room.

It was nice to be able to stretch our legs after 9 hours in the car.  Surprisingly, we only stopped once that whole day.  The kids were rockstars!

Swimming in the hotel pool

Olivia and Johnny also made their way to the same hotel that night and joined us in the pool

They are all little fishies!!

We were so excited to get to the beach that we took off early the next morning and arrived in Gulf Shores by around 2 or so.  

The kids wanted to head straight out to the beach, but we went to mass first, instead. 

Then we ordered some pizza and spent the evening outside.  It was perfect!

We brought along one big toy for Eli to play with, and Caroline had one, too.

This was definitely not a baby-proof house, we were so glad to have something there that the 2 of them could just climb all over.

Brian took all the kids out in the ocean every day.

I get motion sickness pretty easily these days, so I just 'lifeguarded' from the beach.

The kids had boogie boards and huge innertubes to play with in the ocean.

The first 2 days were 'red flag' days with HUGE waves and lots of jelly fish around to sting everyone.  Seriously though, everyone got stung at some point when they were out in the ocean, but obviously didn't care enough to stop playing :)

Colin was fearless and spent the whole day out in the waves.

Eli loved the water as well.

Grammie and Caroline hanging out on the beach

Katie and her girls

Eli and I enjoying the sun

After Eli's spill when he hurt his lip.  Poor kiddo!  He took it like a champ though!

Maggie and Daniel were pretty good buddies throughout the vacation.  

She was such a good helper for him, keeping an eye on him and tending to his every little need.

Dave and Eli on picture day (our family wore white shirts)

Daniel and Maggie Mae

Eli and Colin

The inner tubes were SOOO much fun for the kids

Maggie loved being on Brian's back out in the ocean - they stayed out there for hours!

We did some souvenir shopping while the boys hit the golf course

Outside of a restaurant named "bubba's".  It was fried food heaven.

(Maggie has a napkin in her mouth because of her bloody lip she got at dinner!)

One of my favorite pictures - love this one!

A great family picture from our beach vacation

The boys hanging out in the ocean

All the cousins (minus Daniel - who was having a 'moment' at the time)

Brian is such a good dad, spent all his time out there playing with the kids

Eli and I lounging on the deck on the house

The week flew by so quickly.  We played lots of Beersbee, Uno, and board games and had some really great seafood!

Marvin and Kathy got a wonderful house for all of us to live in for the week - we can't thank them enough for their generosity!  Very thoughtful and like I said, SO MUCH FUN!