5 cousins visiting!

We enjoyed a nice visit from my brother & his family the past few days. They live in Nashville, so we don't get to see them as often as we'd like, so we were excited that they were driving to see us. Josh was doing some work in AL, so Beth & the girls drove down to meet him there and then drove over to Houston, arriving on Tuesday evening in time for a late dinner.

Tuesday, 6/29

They got here around 7, and we ate Spring Creek BBQ that I had picked up and brought home. Of course, within 30 seconds of them getting here, giggles & screams filled the house. He has 2 girls, ages 8 & 4, so you combine that with our 2, 6, & 9 year olds, you get a very girly time!

Katie & Morgan enjoyed playing school. Here, it's 'dress up time.'

Gracie & Ann Ellise in the 'secret room' under the stairs playing the DS.

4 little girls ready for bed....well, almost anyway!

Wednesday, 6/30

Our plan for Wednesday was orginally to spend the day at our neighborhood's water park. However, Hurricane Alex had plans that involved rain and the threat of rain, so we headed to the Children's Museum of Houston. It was crowded, but the kids had fun!

Morgan & Katie at the 'news desk.'

Ellie driving the 'police car.'

at the Children's Museum

That night, we met Chris for dinner at Lupe Tortilla, one of our favorites, and enjoyed fajitas before church. They are so good!

Thursday, 4/1

I went into work this morning while Josh & Beth watched the girls. Beth put them to work cleaning up a bit which was good since we were having additional company that night. Since the rain was still ruining any chance of spending time at the pools, we headed to the mall. Beth had brought Gracie's birthday present but soon decided it was going to be too big, so she returned it and let Gracie do a little shopping to choose some new things. She was thrilled to do this! Justice proved to be the place to find the goods!

We ate lunch at the mall and walked around a bit more, trying to waste time since it was pouring outside! We finally just had to go out in the rain because it didn't look like it was going to stop anytime soon.

We dropped Josh and the big girls off at the bowling alley while Beth, Ellie, & I went to HEB to get groceries for that evening. Some of our friends here were friends with them in Nashville, so we had them over for dinner, along with a friend whose family was out of town.

The girls had lots of fun performing their play, "Toy Story 4," and talked Blake into joining them as Andy. He wasn't thrilled, but he participated and did great! :)

Ellie was well entertained by Bradley. He is so sweet to her.

Beth & I met some friends later that night to see Eclipse. It was good!

Friday, 7/2

Unfortunately, Ellie had started acting like she didn't feel well during the day Thursday. I was hoping it was a fluke, but she was warm after being put to bed that night. She woke up warm, so Chris called to get an appointment and took her in. She had an ear infection due to a virus. She felt really bad, so he ended up staying home with her this day.

We had plans to go to the beach, but of course Hurricane Alex nixed that plan! We decided to head to NASA instead. We were a bit underwhelmed in it, to be honest. It was gray, rainy, and just kinda icky all day, so I think that probably added to the underwhelmingness of it all. I'm still glad we got to go and may try it again someday. I wish Chris & Ellie had been with us, but it really was probably better b/c we ended up getting so wet with the open tram tour we took!

We got to see an old Mission Control room.

We were so cold after being out in the rain and then walking into the air conditioned building.

The girls had fun being together, despite the rainy, gray day.

We drove back towards Katy in Friday afternoon traffic plus tons of rain and stopped at one of our favorite Katy Mexican places, La Finca. It's not as good as some of the others we like, but it is really good! We got take out for Chris since we didn't want to get Ellie out.

When we got home, the girls played and cleaned up in an effort to find everything Morgan & Ann Elise had brought inside so they wouldn't leave anything. They ended the night watching a movie and playing til we finally told them they had to go to bed!

I tried to get a good picture of all 5 of them. Notice that each picture has at least 1 girl doing something a little 'off!' LOL

I let Gracie take the camera into the playroom to take some pictures. She got some cute ones.

The girls said their good byes last night since they were leaving early this morning. Chris & I got up to say good bye around 5:30. Their goal is to make it home before dark. I'm anxious to see if it will happen. Based upon texts I've received from Josh, they're making good time so far!