Easter week in Texas

Texas was great! Perfect weather, lots of family and cousins, birthdays, a surprise 60th wedding anniversary for my grandparents, Amber's baby shower, meeting Erin's baby girl, meeting "Scruffy," my parent's new child, I mean dog, so ugly it's almost cute, Easter brunch, Easter bunny pinata and egg hunt with flour filled eggs (!), staying at the beach house, visiting Fredericksburg and our old house and park, seeing the gorgeous wild flowers all over the Hill Country, reuniting with old friends, visiting Betty's 800 acre ranch, mini-olympics in the hotel, and too many sleepless nights! I wouldn't say that I came home relaxed or refreshed, quite the opposite actually, but we crammed a lot in 2 weeks and the kids have tons of great memories to carry them through till we gather again. I came home wishing my sister, Erin, and I lived closer to one another!

Our flight to Texas, though dreaded, was just fine. We had as near direct flights as you can get. Evan slept most of the way. The kids all did great. I had lots of snacks leftover from our Easter party so food was pretty much the entertainment. We were greeted at the airport by my parents, brother, darling neice Camilla, and the most adorable pregnant person on the planet, my SIL, Amber! The next evening we attended a baby for Amber at my parent's home which was really fun. We made lots of the food for the shower, and the one new thing we tried was the French Onion dip on 101 Cookbooks. It was sooo good!

Here are some pictures from our visit:


oh yeah!

I had the kids pack their own activities for the plane, but I never checked to see what they brought. Surprise, Rollin's backpack contained a football, a harmonica, and a stick. It's a good thing I brought food to keep him busy.

9 months pregnant and looking amazing!


Erin, Cathy, Amber and I at the shower.


Erin's baby girl, Naomi


Cousins Kate, Camilla, Tabitha, and Nina


Scruffy, with his one functioning ear, is fortunate Mom and Camilla saw his inner beauty and rescued him from the shelter.




Sunshine and roses all day long ;)


We transformed the living room into a romper room...still not enough big balls to go around though.


Serious cousin bonding...Jude, Rollin, Moriah


Nina became a more confident swimmer


Camilla, Nina, Moriah


plenty of silliness


Hours and hours sitting on blankets underneath the huge shade tree watching the kids play.

lots of popsicles


Kate and Tabitha's Birthday


Dad helping out


Erin and Naomi



When in Mexico (almost).....


When the little ones ran out of steam, Tyler and Bryce tried out some of their karate moves. This was one tough bunny!


8 dozen flour and confetti filled eggs and some very competitive family members! We hid lots of plastic eggs with goodies, but the confetti and flour eggs were a huge hit and ignited a big war in the back yard. No one was safe..except me (camera) and Amber (belly).



Camilla cracking a confetti egg on her Dad


Even Jude got in on the action


Cathy was shown no mercy by her family!!!


Jude traumatized when he saw Ryan crack an egg on Erin!


Sela was a target for Tyler, Bryce and Ethan.


More egg painting.


Camilla layed it on thick!


Enough of this egg stuff, time to paint our bodies!


The Easter bunny did find us in South Texas.