Reading with Grandma and Grandpa

Mom and Dad came early in December to help out toward the end of Raquel's pregnancy.  Of course the girls loved this.  The girls get to go to the parks more frequently, and Grandma and Grandpa both read to them.

San Antonio Conference

The first week of December Neil had a conference in San Antonio.  Despite Raquel being over 8 months pregnant, she decided she was good to go with so the girls could get out and go to a hotel for free.  Of course on the way there we made the requisite stop at Bucky's.  (For those of you who aren't from Texas, Bucky's is a Texas sized convenience store famous for their clean restrooms.)

Of course, the girls don't care too much about the cleanliness of the restrooms, they want to stop to see Bucky the beaver.

Fortunately Raquel didn't go into labor early, so the only other excitement on the trip was when the girls got to rough housing and Emilia got quarter sized lump on her forehead.  Neil got out of part of one of the speeches thanks to that one.  No lasting damage thank God.

Decorating for Christmas

Neil took the week of Thanksgiving off and we spent it at home accomplishing a few things, but mainly doing a whole lot of nothing.  One thing we did do was to decorate the house for Christmas.  The girls were great helpers of course.

At one point they had to take a break to make snow angels.

 Without assistance all of the ornaments end up within 3 feet of the bottom of the tree, so the girls got a little boost to reach the higher branches with a few ornaments.

 They paid close attention to Raquel on how to properly decorate things.

 The picture of a happy worker.

Halloween 2013

Raquel had costumes all set for the girls, but once in the closet, Julia saw these outfits hanging there and decided she didn't want her costume, she wanted to be Mulan.  Of course Emilia had to be Mulan as well.  Raquel purchased these outfits 8 or 9 years ago in Korea for Emily and Alaina and Rebecca returned to us for the girls.  We think they worked pretty well for Halloween.  Thanks Rebecca!

Happy Birthday Girls

We had a couple of birthday parties for the girls when we got home from Washington.  We had Emilia's cake eating party at home since we flew back the day of her birthday.  

Of course she just dove right in.

 

The first bite wasn't that big. You can tell from the small smear pattern.

 

 The cake was decorated with Winnie the Pooh characters.  Emilia is trying to clean off Eeyore.  Notice the smear on her ear.

Steve and Vicki also threw the girls a party as well.

 Emilia was pretty happy with it.

Yet more water play

One final water play.  Ryan took the boat out on the Columbia for a day and we had a blast.  Neil bounced around on the waves behind the boat, Raquel and Julia went for a ride, and Emilia had more fun playing in the sand.

Thanks for a great 2013 summer vacation everybody!!!!

Reading with Grandma

One of the things the girls enjoyed on the trip was reading with Grandma.

More (kind of) water play

We also got to go over the coast to visit the beach.  The girls enjoyed playing with their cousins in the sand.

Water Play

One of the joys of visiting with Neil's family is the opportunity to spend time outdoors that we don't get much of in Houston.  One afternoon we all went up the valley to Elochoman Creek for some fun.

The boys enjoyed themselves throwing rocks.  John was showing off - (check out the definition in those calf muscles).

 Emily was really good with Julia, helping keep her from falling in and getting all wet.

 

Of course that didn't prevent her from getting wet without falling . . .

 

 The adults stood around and talked about adult things while the kids played.

 

Well, at least some of the adults . . .

 Julia really enjoyed herself.  Even the ride (in the back of the pickup truck) was really cool.

Family Party Pics

We took the opportunity to shoot some group pictures while everyone was together for the party.

This is one of the shots of Great Grandma and all of her Great Grandchildren.  We're several shots in and about to do a "funny" picture.  Awesome jump by Grace huh?

 

 Here's funny poses of the great grandkids.

 Now with Grandma and Grandpa . . .

 . . . and funny faces with Grandma and Grandpa.

 . . . and now all of the Mommies join in . . .

. . . and now all  of the boys . . .

 . . . and now everyone all together.

More Party Pics

Of course there was lots of eating and playing around at the party.

Even great-grandma was able to attend.

Underwater Party

While John, Amy, Grace, and James could be there, we threw a combined birthday party for James, Neil, John, and Julia.  The theme was underwater, with the girls as mermaids and the guys as divers.

The costumes were a big hit.

 Julia even did a mermaid dance in hers.