Spending Time with Cousins

Unfortunately I took almost no pictures of my kids with their cousins. I'm sure it would not have worked had I tried. They could hardly hold still for a second! 

The first three or four days we were there my brother Matt's kids came over each afternoon. Reid loved boxing with Max and Zeke. I think that might have been his favorite thing. Nell loved following Zoey around. Together, all the kids kept playing Tiger family. Ava is very good to play along with the younger kid's games. Their favorite Ava moment might have been when they went into my parent's crawl space under the house. I was surprised by Reid's bravery. Maybe he is turning a new leaf. Ava was too kind though, even when my mom tried to scare them, by making noises as the old lady who lives in the basement, Ava kept reminding them "It's just Grandma you guys. She's outside at the window." She was pretty protective of her five fellow adventurers. 

Reid also had a lot of fun boxing and wrestling with Hudson. Those two can be pretty funny to watch when they get all tough together. We met up with Kristina and her three boys two different times at the splash pad. They didn't play in the water much the second time, and instead just went out onto the soccer field and wrestled some more. I love how little boys play. We also had Chinese with them one night (Phil was at Guard) and there was Lehman's Cave. 

There were a few cousin-less days, when poor Zoey came down with pink eye. We all kind of spent some time apart to see where else it might lead. Luckily, no one else was infected. While she was down and out my parents did take all the other Grandkids to Finding Dory. Of course their favorite part was the little kid sized snack tray -- complete with popcorn, root beer, and candy. Reid and Nell mentioned that several times; they also gave me all the details about the seating arrangement (not sure why) and a couple of their favorite characters. 

Their favorite cousin night was by far our last night all together (my brother's went camping near the end of our visit). Everyone came to my mom's for hot dogs and hamburgers. Then we walked over to the pool for a family swim night. We were the only people in the entire pool for the first fifteen or so minutes. Nell was brave enough to go down the slide (I credit Hudson). I wish I had caught it on video. She looked terrified and it was hilarious! Max was sweet enough to stay in the kid pool and play catch with the younger kids for a while. Then Grandpa watched Nell and Zoey do ballerina jumps off the edge for a good fifteen minutes. Uncle Matt played some sort of shark hunt game with the middle aged boys (Reid was in heaven, I'm sure) and I spent nearly the whole hour holding a clingy Coraline. But she was pretty happy about it all. As long as I was holding her. Back at Grandma's we all enjoyed some root beer floats and a little more playing time.

The next day (when half the crew was camping) Zoey came over for about seven hours of play time and all my parenting responsibilities disappeared. I occasionally had to drag Coraline in from outside, or at least watch her while she played outside with them, but other than that I sat back and relaxed. Reid, Nell, and Zoey all played so well together. It was insane. They stayed outside nearly the entire seven hours. Zoey arrived in her swimsuit so my kids quickly joined her. They played water guns, jumped on the trampoline with sprinklers, ate milkshakes, and just ran around the yard for hours. It was lovely. The above photo was the end of our day when we settled them all down for popcorn and a movie. It was a perfect summer day.