July Visitors

We were so glad when Grammy Jo, Bampa, and Cassidy and Truman were able to visit us in July. I think they actually got here on Isaac's birthday and left on Fin's. Grammy and Cass had made the kids these super cute fourth of July outfits, and I wanted a picture of the kids with their grandparents.
I wasn't very good at taking pictures while they were here, and that's how I remember what we did, so I'll just have to do my best. I know we went shopping at Kohl's one morning after we dropped Sareny off at reading bootcamp, and we all found some bargains. On Thursday morning, my mom and dad went down to Starpointe to exercise, then me and Cassidy switched off with them. I have realized that I would much rather run outside than use a treadmill--treadmills are just so boring, and the temptation to just step off and be done is too great. When I'm running outside I can't just decide to stop whenever I feel like it, or I would find myself a mile from home. Anyway, later that afternoon we all went to the swimming pool and had a great time.
On Saturday, the day they were leaving, I finally pulled my camera out of hiding and started taking some pictures. It was Finley's birthday, so she opened some presents.

She got some cute toys including a marble run, which Bampa helped the kids set up.

I wanted a picture with me and my little birthday girl.

Then we lined the kids up for a picture. It was pretty tricky to get one where they were all looking approximately the right direction and with pleasant expressions. In fact, nobody is actually looking at the camera in this one, but it was the best one I got.

Cassidy was visiting my mom and dad for a month from Hawaii while James was in Officer Training, so it was really nice to have her visit. How big is Truman going to be the next time we get to see them?? Way too big.

The kids all loved Truman so much, even though Finley called him Rhysie the whole weekend.

Cass played "ring around the rosies" with the kids.

One of our longstanding family traditions is the birthday spanking machine. Everyone lines up and the birthday kid has to crawl through the tunnel, getting spankings all the way.

We had to help her just a little to get under Isaac.

And I noticed that some spankers ran to the end of the line for another go.

We took a mother and daughters photo in front of our house.

And then we went to the movie theater to see Cars 2. Truman does okay at the movies as long as he stays in his stroller.

We had such a nice time with them, and it was so sad when they had to leave. I always hate for fun times to come to an end. The good news was, however, that I would be taking the kids up to visit them in just two weeks, so we tried not to be too sad.