Our 4th of July Weekend

Jody was able to get some time away from class for the holiday weekend, so we were able to take a min-vacation to Cameron and Michelle's house to celebrate the fourth with them. It was a min-vacation because we only had four days, but we sure packed a lot in to them!

We spend our first full day visiting South Padre Island -- soaking up as much sun and sand (and food, or course) as is humanly possible! I got a little camera-happy. Please forgive me.... I'm pretty sure that Brielle and Shayla could've played in the sand for a week straight!

Except Jody and Breje kept snagging Brielle to play in the fun waves!

And then she had to make time for eating all of that sugar!

I love the way she looks at Andin like he is so soo lucky to be graced with her presence! He totally lets her play the role of princess to her hearts' content!

I love this one -- The kids had those looks on their faces for the majority of the weekend!

We filled the rest of the time with more good food than I can even begin to talk about, tons of movies, shopping, playing games (yes, there was Phase 10) even more food, and kids running around everywhere! My kids had forgotten what it was like to have so much space to move around in, and cousins to play with and they revelled in every moment.

They spent tons of time riding the boys' four-wheeler in the backyard. I snapped this when they got tired of waiting for the adults to come start it (it was seriously HOT outside) and so they were taking turns pushing each other on it. Is that fun? Apparently, yes!

I think the best part of the weekend (yes, even better than sleeping on a bed, eating at a real table, doing laundry IN the house, etc) was watching the kids' bonds with their cousins be strengthened by all that play time. They normally live pretty far away and it was good to see how quickly they become close when they do get a chance to be together!