Visitors and Cousins BBQ

Rachel, Emma, and Baby Gabriel came to stay with us for 3 weeks starting on Saturday, August 7th.  Emma flew from Madrid, Spain to Phoenix to drive up here with Rachel and Gabe.  Rachel is helping Emma get situated here at BYU for school in a few weeks.  Gabe really does smile and giggle a lot, just not for pictures.

He is so cute!

Goldings hosted a really fun BBQ at their house for all the out-of-town cousins to get together on August

12th.  Amanda, Rachel, Emma, and Chelsea were all here.  Kelly and Mollie couldn't come because they had a wedding. 

What a cute picture of Lizzie and Afton.

We had 6 of the 10 babies born (in the span of a year or so) to cousins together at this picnic.  Jamie/Cora, Amanda/Paul, Chelsea/Afton, Amanda/Logan, Rachel/Gabriel, Shayla/Jocelyn.  So fun to have that many together at the same time.  (The other 4 babies were Preston Hutchins, Kenya Brown, Anders Neilsen, Elsa Neilsen)  What a fun bunch of cousins and babies!

The babies loved having their turn on the trampoline.  Amanda is in position to make sure Gabe doesn't launch himself off the tramp.

Jojo in mid flight,

Renae was helping Afton "jump" on the tramp.  (It looked more like a "stand" on the tramp.)

The teenage population of the party . . . . . Lizzie Golding and Dakota Green

Grandpa Joel with Cora Green.  Jessica and Jamie.

Grandma Nae and Pauly-Wog.  (We miss him terribly since they went back to Texas.)

Dakota had Afton laughing so hard while he was pushing her in the swing. It was so cute.

Joel, Kailey Green, Annette, and Scott Neilsen hanging out.

Renae, Jamie, and Jessica chillin'

Cory took 4 of the babies on a wagon ride.  It was so cute.  Here is Jojo, Gabe, and Logan.

Jojo, Gabe, Afton, and Logan.  Such cutie pies!

Rachael giving Afton a little swing.  How cute are they?!?!?

Afton loves bugs.  She found a potato bug and loved to have it crawl all over her hand.

We were so excited to see Lisa and Cory Brown and their 3 boys Riley, Blake, and Colton.  We haven't seen them for a few years. 

The next evening Goldings came over.  This is the only picture I got.  Lizzie had walked over from the Scera Pool so her hair was in a towel and Afton couldn't really understand what was going on with Lizzies head!

Fun times!!

Our trip to Texas to watch Lexie compete with Santa Clara VanGuard

We decided to DRIVE to Texas to watch Lexie compete with the Santa Clara VanGuard in Dallas and San Antonio.  Since Amanda, Jared, and Pauly-Wog live in Ft. Worth and Marlo lives in San Antonio, we were excited to go visit them also.  Marlo wasn't in town when we were there, but he was nice enough to let us stay at his house anyway. 

We loved being with Pauly-wog, Manda, and Jared in their cute apartment.

Amanda, Jared, and Paul went with us to the San Antonio competition. ( We went to the Dallas one by ourselves because the tickets are pretty pricey.)  It was at a high school stadium that was more like a college stadium. 

The start of Lexie's show.

After the San Antonio competition, the entire corp went to Mi Tierra for dinner.  We took Lexie with us and got there before all the buses did at midnight.  Johnny Erdman and his Mom sat by us in the restaurant.  He is Lexie's seat mate on the bus this entire summer. 

Paul was so dang tired.  (So was I!)

This is a lovely stick bug hanging around Marlo's house.  It was huge!!

Lexie got to spend her free day with us.  She only gets 3 free days all summer.  We loaded up and headed to Gruene, Texas.  We had such a fun day.

The Millers.  We were waiting to be seated at our favorite restaurant "The Gristmill". 

Ummmmmm the best onion rings and filet mignon on the planet! 

We walked down to the Guadalupe River and on the way was this absolutely beautiful Buganvillia tree.  It reminded me so much of living in Mexico.  I love this tree!

Jared, Pauly, and Lexie beat us down to the river and got in the lovely cool water.

Nothing feels better on a beastly hot day to stick your piggies in the cold Guadalupe River.  AAAahhhhhhh!

Pauly could have stayed for hours throwing rocks in the river.

We walked back up the hill and took our traditional pictures in front of the Gristmill sign.

On our way home from Gruene Lexie got a bag of Skittles.  If she had golden candies in her bag she would win $20,000.00!  She checked carefully . . . . . but no golden Skittles!

They had a blast playing with Marlo's Wii for the afternoon.

We had to take Lexie back to her bus by 9:30 p.m. in downtown San Antonio so she could continue on her tour until August 15th.  The next day we drove back up to Ft. Worth and went directly to the Ft. Worth Stock Yards.  It was very fun.

Two times a day they run these long horns down the middle of the road.  It was cool.

Pauly loved riding on these fun horses.

That evening we went over to my cousins house Lucy and Hugh Bangerter.  It was so fun to see them and their beautiful house.  She fixed a yummy dinner for us then we just visited for a while.  So fun.

Lucy's son James, Jared, Pauly, and Amanda

Such fun cousins.

Their living room is so beautiful.  Hugh has several big beautiful fish tanks and awesome fish.

The next day we packed up Amanda and Pauly and us and headed home.  Amandy and Paul came home with us so they could be here for Sam's baptism.  The first day we went as far as Amarillo, Texas.  The second day we went as far as Farmington, New Mexico.  We ate at this place called Three Rivers Eatery then we played at this little plaza across the street in a little water fountain thing.  Paul had a blast.

Paul was such a good traveler for 3 straight days in the car. 

So all in all we drove for 8 straight days for our vacation. We were glad to get back to our own beds!