Texas Bound -Summer 2015 (Day 8)

On this morning we took the kids to see Kartchner Caverns.  It was perfect for them and their attention span. They wouldn't allow us to take pictures in the cave, but got a great the visitor center.

Awesome bat ears.  You could actually put them over your ears to hear how magnified the sounds are for the bats.

Some mighty cute climbers.

Crawling through a pretend cave entrance. They were pretty impressed with how shall some of them were.

After our awesome cave exploring, we made our three hour trek to the house.  Needless to say we were all happy to be back home and see Steven.  It was an awesome trip and we were grateful to get to see family again!

Texas Bound -Summer 2015 (Day 5, 6 & 7)

We spent Saturday helping my parents around their house.  The kids were sooooo excite to spend time at their fun house!

They helped shell peas.

Kinley (3 yo).

On Sunday, we started our three day drive back to Arizona. We made it all the way to an oil town called Artesia, NM.  The kids were SO done, as you can tell in this picture.

There were several of these awesome statues honoring the cowboy life.

On Monday, we headed over to the White Sands National Monument. The kids had a blast sledding on the beautiful sand.  We waxed the bottles to make them a little faster.  This was definitely a highlight of the try for them!

Movie star Kinley!

Heading to the hills.

My mom and I even gave it a go. So fun!!!

Hunter's crash landing!

Love these girls!

They were a lot of work to climb up.

Even for grandma.

Grandma using her flip flops as hiking poles.

Hunter helping Kinley up!  He is such a good big brother to her.

We were so full of sand after this adventure!

Texas Bound -Summer 2015 (Day 4)

On this morning we made our way over to the shrimp boats and the Strand to show the kids the old ice cream parlor (and get some yummy ice cream of course).  The entire Strand was under several feet of water, but they have done a great job building it back up. 

The kids got to see a live blue crab like the ones I used to catch as a little girl.

This crab got buy phone and actually broke the protector. I wanted the kids to see how they grab things and it wouldn't let go. Every time I look at the crack on my phone I just smile inside. Brings back great childhood memories.  Crabbing was one of my top 5 things to do as a child!

Kinley wasn't so sure about the fish and crabs.

One of the fishnen let us get on their boat to see what they look like up close and explained how they work.  Very cool!

Turns out they had caught a hard head on the end of this string. The kids were completely fascinated!

They each took a turn pulling the fish out of water and feeling him swim away.

Our four beautiful kids!

The Pelicans were everywhere. It was so cool to watch them make a big splash as they would dive down to get their food.  These three looked like they just wanted their picture taken sitting there in a row like that.

Ocean oil rig platforms docked. We went on one last year and the kids thought it was the coolest thing.  It is so amazing how they can just plant the legs down in the ground and start digging for oil.

After seeing the shrimp boats, we headed over to the Strand. Grandma and the kids made up their own version of chess while Dad and I tried to figure out how to use the new parking system down there.

Love this picture of Alton.  Can't believe he is going to be 6 yo in a month!

Eating awesome old fashioned I e cream.  There were some REALLY old parlor artifacts in this store. Neat to see!

And yummy to taste!

It was so cold inside, so we all went outside to warm up.  

While we were there there was a diabetic emergency and a fire truck and an ambulance were called over. After they took care of their patient they invited the kids into the fire truck. The kids were SO excited!

What a fun surprise for them.

Kinley wasn't so sure about the whole thing.

The girls got side tracked Shule on the way to the restroom.

Kailyn the racer!

Cutie patooties!

After our fun time on the Strand, we headed over to ride the ferry to the Bolivar peninsula. It was finally time to head over to Granny Mullin's house in Beaumont (their great grandma).

The boys thought it was cool to watch the ferry pull away.

They wanted to go into these war ships so bad. It was way too hot to go in them (there is a battleship on the left and a black submarine on the right).

Silly pictures with Granny. She just turned 94 yo in May!  She looks amazing!!!!

It was virtually impossible to get a picture with them all looking and somewhat normal, but at least their true colors are shining through.

Texas Bound -Summer 2015 (Day 3)

We started off the day riding the Duck. It drive us all around Galveston telling us the history of things, especially damage from flood of 1900 and hurricane Ike.  We also plunged into the bay for a tour of the bay created after dirt was dug out to build the sea wall back in 1903. I never knew that that bay was man made and the reason for it. Such am amazing feat!

Hunter and my Dad.

Selfie with my cute princesses.

All 7 of us!

After the Duck ride, we headed back to the hotel to get ready for some more playtime at the beach. 

Every time they passed this wall they couldn't resist not walking on it. My little gymnasts!

Boys having some beach fun! 

Awesome Alton

Cutie Kinley 

My great parents just chillin' in the surf!

Hunter trying to body surf!

Kailyn collecting shells. Her favorite thing to do at the beach.  She is so much like me!

Kinley helping to fill the lake by our drip castle.

Silly face!

After spending hours at the beach, we headed over to the Rainforest Cafe for a yummy dinner. Re kids LOVED this place!

Sporting her frog hat!

Kailyn was in love with the moving elephants of course!

Trying to get a picture of these cute seats (and cute girls), but couldn't get them both to look.

After dinner, we rode the safari ride. Kinley was shaking like a lead the entire time. It was definitely not her favorite thing to do!

After dinner and the ride, we headed over to play a round of putt-putt golf. Kinley had never played before so she was quite a hoot to watch.  She eventually dropped the club and just rolled it by hand.

Kailyn has gotten much better!

Our two golfers, Alton and Grandpa!

This hole was tricky. Of course, my ball would be the one to go right into the sandpit.  Lost count of how many times I hit the ball on this one!

Awesome seashell! I'm sure Kailyn wishes she could have taken this she'll home!

Kinley got like 4 hole in ones in this hole!

Goofy kids!

Such a fun day. After golf we headed home to let them swim in the pool while mom, Kinley and I went walking on the beach one last time.