Aunt Joe and Uncle Jim set up an amazing art table for the kids in Elsie’s dining room. The girls spent hours in there over the course of the week and had a total ball! They don’t know how lucky they are to have gotten this privilege to do art with the very best!

 

 

 

Horseshoe Bay has a wonderful resort we hung out at one morning with all of the cousins.  Everyone was swimming, splashing, making sand castles… it was great!

 

I caught this cute scene unfolding with the Thurman kids at the sprinkler pole and enjoyed watching my girls explore on the shore!

Rara and Rose are pretty much stick tights… well, all of them are, but every time I turned around, Rara was helping me with Rose.  Thanks Rara!

This was the entrance to the pool area.  To our left was a huge rock maze that was the hottest biggest hot tub I had ever seen… it felt so good on my back!

Coco and Aunt E had a blast burying Mac!

 

Laney and Harper were having fun at the sprinkler pole too!  It’s used for washing the sand off of your feet before you go to the pool area, but the kids had just as much fun playing with it as anything else!  Rose just wanted to stand on the shore forever.  We kept having to move her over a bit because she kept sinking down into the sand, lol.

Noelle really wanted to buried alive, so Brother Man helped her out with that!

This is my happy-go-lucky kid who is just so happy to be wherever she is!

Noelle is getting so brave!  I love it!

Rose wanted a turn in the big chair!

Brother Man and Mac built a cool sand castle complete with a moat and a bridge!

I love to watch my baby prance!

 

The girls didn’t want to break for lunch… they were having a ball!

  

A lady walked by and said I needed to be videoing Anna Kate up on this rock.  She was singing and dancing.  It was hilarious, but I didn’t have my phone with me.

Baby girl loves to “swim” with her tummy touching the bottom!  She’ll yell out, “I’m doing it!  I’m doing it!” 

 

 

And that was just one morning of fun… this trip is definitely a summer highlight for us!

                   

The girls were sooo excited to finally be “at the 4th of July!”  At one point during the week, Anna Kate looked at me and said, “We’re in the 4th of July, Mom.” 

My cousin Hunter (Rara’s sister, Elsie’s son) has 3 kids close to our 3 kids ages.  They live in Ohio, so it’s hard to get together.  This was the first time all the kids met… and instantly hit it off, and played and played!  Coco is on the left of Rose and Laney is on the right.

 

I asked Noelle what her favorite part was about the 4th of July, and she said playing in the pool.  She loves swimming all by herself now!

Rose was a little dare devil in the water, but her Rara was right there with her helping her figure out her limits.  It was cute to watch.

Mac had so much fun getting a rise out of Anna Kate with the chomping alligator.  I was giggling so much to watch a little boy play! 

Here’s my sweet little hostess with the mostess.  She helped me plan appetizers and couldn’t wait to hand out snacks to her new friends!

Mom and her sister Elsie, with Rose and Laney.

Here’s a picture of Brady (Elsie’s youngest son) with Noelle right after she gave him the picture that she drew for him.  Her heart was so full!

Laney was so cute playing with Rose.  They were having fun… and this was the start to our fun in the sun!

      

My parents rented a really nice condo for the family this year… It was so wonderful!  Thanks so much guys for doing that for us!

The girls always have a blast running from room to room checking everything out!

I would love a bench like this at the end of our bed at home… the girls loved it!

There were three bananas when we got here, but before I could take a picture of this pretty set-up in the kitchen, one of them was already gone… love that!

My baby and me!

The day before we left, Noelle worked all day making a picture for each and every adult who was going to be at the 4th of July, all her idea, of course (17 in all).  It had their name on it and then, “I love you.”  She was so proud to pass them out the day that we got there.  It was truly a labor of love from the bottom of her heart. 

 

The girls get to get pedicures once a year, and they look forward to this fun tradition right before our trip to Horseshoe Bay!

  

Here are my sweetie pies taking it all in… they are so thankful!

  

You can’t beat $5.00 pedicures!  Hopefully Rose will be still enough to come with us next year.  I don’t know though, Anna Kate was awfully anxious.  She said it took too long at the pedicure place, but she had fun and felt like a big girl!

Too many July 4th pictures headed your way… can’t wait to show you our fun vacation week at Horseshoe Bay!  The girls have had enough fun to last until next year!

             

Beautiful one year pictures by Melanie Timmons!  Lovin’ me some baby Rose!!!

We haven’t been in the pool a whole lot during the summers because it is too hard for me with little ones, so Noelle hasn’t gotten a whole lot of practice swimming.  We are so proud of her for working so hard during swimming lessons.  She was determined to swim, and she’s got it!