Annie goes to Texas

Annie had a fun week hanging out with Grandma & Grandpa before the rest of us drove down to join them. I got a few pictures from my mom...

Apparently this girl ruled the roost!

She got to play with her Texas cousins Wesley...

...and baby Owen!!

Grandma took her to the mall where Annie was in heaven making her first Build-a-Bear!

My mom told me that Annie asked her everyday that week they were together, "Did my mom send me here, or did you want me to come here?" We're hoping Annie just wanted my mom to tell her the story of how my mom begged me to let Annie come visit. Thankfully my mom made Annie feel super special so Annie didn't think she'd been banished from Colorado. :/

We took 2 days to drive to Texas. To keep Shannon's car sickness at bay, we only let her drink water and eat saltine crackers. We also gave her motion-sickness medicine for the first time! All of those together were a recipe for success. When we were a couple hours away from my mom's house, we let her celebrate her barf-free ride with a push-pop.

We stopped in a city on the north part Texas for Tyler to meet one of his friend from dental school's friends who is an oral surgeon. While Tyler talked with the doc, the kids and I explored the area a little bit. The decorated horse statues around town were... .... ... interesting!

We did enjoy a walk along a bridge seeing the aggressive geese and ducks though. Every time we'd flinch, they'd all come toward us thinking we had bread to throw at them.

Cole threw up multiple times during the final 3 hours of the trip, but he was fine after resting for a few hours at Grandma's house.

It was great to be in Texas an catch up with my mom, step-dad, and brothers that we don't get to see that often. We took the kids to a farm one day, and they loved it! The warm weather was awesome too. :) We were all in love with this gorgeous little baby Owen:

These animals were so tame!

The pony rides were the biggest hit. Shannon was in HEAVEN!

While we were waiting in line for the train, I noticed some typos on the Spanish sign...

...and then Tyler pointed out about 10 more typos that I didn't notice. Tyler and I get a kick out of these things.

Thanks for the courtesy waves and smiles, Lauren & Andrew!!

One night my brother & his wife had us all over for dinner. We were obsessing over baby Owen some more...

The kids spent countless hours in the backyard playing on the trampoline, exploring, (fighting?!), and just making memories with their cousins.

Poor Cole must have sweet blood, because the mosquitos sure targeted him. Tyler counted 49 bites on Cole one night. But that didn't deter Cole from hanging outside!