Back in July...

I want to post new pictures, but I have to recap Craig's brother and his family visiting in July first! I'm just so, so behind. This is going to be a picture-heavy post simply because I don't have the time to write it all out. But I love looking at images on other people's blogs, so I hope you do, too.

First up, Madeline's first trip to Chuck-E-Cheese. She. Loved. It. She is usually reserved in new situations, but not this time. There was a section just perfect for her with riding toys and she was honestly content just running around like crazy, which she did. She even ate some pizza (rare for her). We will definitely be taking her back sometime.

 Skee-ball will eventually be a fun game, but for now she just loves climbing the ramp and throwing the balls in places she shouldn't.  Whoops.

 But she came by it honestly, her tia and tio totally encouraged her to climb up the ramp :-)

 A feeble attempt to teach Madeline to toss the balls up the ramp.

 Riding a horse with Grandpa!

The boys were virtually a blur in CEC...Christopher and Andrew were literally all over the place! They apparently know how to work it at CEC :-)

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Josie graciously planned a splash park outing with all the kiddos and since Jeff's family was in town, Craig's cousin (aunt, I can never really keep it straight. They're five days apart in age though, so Lisa grew up as a cousin), and her family joined us! They live in Miami, so it was a real treat to see them all!

And this is Madeline in typical Madeline fashion. She did not want to go near the water. She was content to just watch.

 The boys, however, couldn't get enough of it. Including Jeff :-)

 Gabriela, the newest edition to the family, slept the majority of the time, but Craig got in a new snuggles.

 Yes, these are kissing cousins, but it's waaaay too cute to not post. Madeline was finally warming up to having other kiddos around.

 Grandparents with their finest: Christopher, Madeline, Andrew and Gabriela.

 And one of just the little boys. Noah is on the far right, he's Lisa's son.

 And I have to post a few of the adults, too. These four have a ton of history together.

 And now one with the boys with their wives and the parents.

 Oh, and by the way, this was taken on our 4th anniversary <3.

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Following the trip Jeff and his family made to visit us, Craig and I traveled to Alabama to spend more time with Laura and the kids. Jeff had flown back to California and Laura stayed at her parent's house for a couple more weeks. Since we rarely see them, we wanted some more quality time with the kids and Laura. Laura's family opened their home to us and made us feel like family. We've crashed their family reunion every year we've been married to see them, and this time we crashed the week after. It was a great time and I really enjoyed getting to spend the extra time with family we are lucky to see once a year now. The kids just grow up waaaay too fast.

This is probably my favorite picture. That's a lot of kid weight Craig's carrying, but the kids loved it!

 Cousins: first boy and first girl in the family.

 This is more difficult to capture than you would think :-)

 And the next morning before we left...one us us and all the kids.

I know this was a whirlwind of a post, but I've been meaning to get this out there for, oh, more than a month.