More Fun in the Sun!

The weather during the cousin visit was phenomenal... truly fabulous!! And, we took advantage of it.

We went to the zoo!


I'm looking at the above picture and wondering how that happened... how in the world did we get that BIG? The bench is full!

Hanging out on a turtle...

Such beautiful kids!

We did actually see some real animals... unfortunately all of the pictures ended up like this one...

My aim isn't very good!! But, we had a great time seeing the elephants, tigers, bears, lions, giraffes, monkeys, zebras and all the other friends at the zoo. Then we took our own monkeys home.

All weekend we kept hearing the ice cream truck in the neighborhood... we finally caught it!

Ice cream from a truck is the BEST!

On Monday we put our yard to good use. 12 kids and their parents came over. Woo Hoo! We filled the side yard up fairly well... now I've got my sights on a party that uses the back yard too.

The kids had a great time running between the swing set and the pools.

This is what summer is all about. Sprinklers and lawn chairs!

And, really cool cookies that Ms. Kristen made to look like hamburgers! YUM! What could be better??

After all the sun, I was pleased that the kids migrated upstairs to the train table... another huge toy that doesn't get a lot of love.

Tuesday we took a drive to the aquarium to see the sea lion show.

These penguins look familiar...

Hi Nemo!

This is the perfect aquarium for little people. Finally, something that Ryan could do with the big kids.

I felt terrible for Ryan during much of the cousin visit. He's at the age where he knows he wants to participate, but he's not quite ready yet. Tyler, Ava and Nora were able to go out to the swing set while the mommies were in the kitchen, but we couldn't let Ryan go. He'd stand by the window crying and watching. It was so sad.

But, he could be part of the group here.

Since we were close, we thought it would be nice for the kids to see Niagara Falls. Guess what... they weren't impressed...

But, they were very excited to go to the Twist of the Mist!! Natural wonder of the world or ice cream? No contest... ice cream wins!

Uncle Dan put the icing on the cake by taking the kids on a tractor ride. Such fun!

Rather trying for a picture of all five kids, we thought we'd get a picture with the mommies. With the exception of working up a good sweat from running back and forth to reset the camera, it turned out pretty good. Ryan thought it was a hoot!

Note to self... order the remote for the camera!

I'm sitting here looking at these pictures and I'm sad that they're gone. I treasure my time with my sister and neices. But, I'm greedy and I want more. Yesterday I received a real gift... something I never expected... the sweetest words in the world... "I love you Aunt Laura." Yes, it is sweet to hear it from my own boy, but I guess I expect it from my own. This was special. As was Nora walking in our living room to tell Dan and I "Hi, I'm happy." Or, to have her ask so nicely for a push on the swing. I hope they remember this visit too... and beg their mom to come back!