The Hazard Chronicles

It has been such a great week!

We left off on last week’s post with the drive down to my sister, Haley’s, house. We spent pretty much the whole week there and had a great time. It was sort of cool because usually when we get together as family we are still the “kids” because my parents are there. This was really the first time that we have gotten together without them and we suddenly became the “grown-ups” and our kids were the ones who were playing together in the back yard. Sort of fun.

Here’s some of the stuff we did (get ready for a lot of pictures):

We’ll do these pictures first. My mom sent matching outfits for all of the grandkids and we thought we’d go out and take some pictures. It was pretty much impossible to get all the kids to smile at once but we got some good ones of each individual. We also took some family pictures that I think turned out pretty well.

We went on a lot of walks. It was nice to get out in the beautiful Texas heat and humidity and sweat a little.

There was a lot of back yard play. We roasted marshmallows in the fire pit and made s’mores, played in the tree house, and played in the water. Oh- and the mud. I swear that kids are attracted to mud. I was making breakfast and suddenly Evelyn was there looking up at me and saying “I dirty.” Yes, she was very dirty.

Evelyn discovered Ashland’s mascara. Enough said.

We visited Matt on the base in his new office and then we all went out to lunch together. This army base is incredibly huge- like, it could be its own state. I guess that we can expect nothing less from Texas.

We went to the children’s museum in Austin. I think that Jackson and Bennett were having a contest to see how much of the “sand” (shredded rubber) they could stuff down their pants into their diapers. Haley had a great time playing in the pretend kitchen.

And here is a video of our Jack. He could seriously fall asleep anywhere!

On Saturday morning we loaded up the car and went to College Station where one of Rachel’s cousins was graduating. We had lunch with everyone and got to show off our kids a little bit. They were very well behaved until Addy had a blow-out while Dave (Rachel’s uncle) was holding her. That was exciting. After the lunch we drove down to Dianna and Dave’s beautiful home near Houston (Woodland Hills, actually) where we will stay for the next few days.

Oh- and in keeping with tradition our kids got sick while on vacation. The joys of parenthood.