At Our Cousin's house!

It has been a while since the kids and I have been to stay at Aunt Shanna and Uncle James’s house, or Aunt Shanni and Uncle Jamezer as I call them. From the time we pulled into the driveway until the time we left the kids played and played and played. When we got there at 10:00 at night the kids jumped out hugged everyone and headed into the backyard to jump on the trampoline with their cousins. The next morning my girls discovered “The Walnut Tree”! The place where they would spend the majority of their time while at their cousin’s house.

They were so excited that they could climb and play in a tree that was right in front the house. Shanna lives at the end of a long court where kids run up and down all day long. My kids have freedom at their cousin’s house that they don’t have at home. First thing in the morning when some of the kids headed outside to the front yard my kids looked at me like… “We can go play in the front yard???” Colby of course went out straight away. He hasn’t caught on to the fact that there are rules at our house. He still just does what he wants to do. About 30 min later there was a knock on the screen. It was Shanna’s neighbor bringing Colby back. He was all wet. I guess the city comes around once a year to open the fire hydrants to clean them out, and this happened to be that morning. Anyway with all the water puddles in the street, Shanna’s neighbor thought it would be fun for the kids go puddle jumping. So she took the boys that were out front and went splashing down the street. Colby was as happy as could be. The neighbor was at least kind enough to take off his socks and shoes so he didn’t soak them. Colby went barefoot for the rest of the day, which if you know him that is so opposite his norm. (He usually won’t even go to bed without his shoes on!) From about sunup to sundown the kids played in the yard and most of the time the girls were in the walnut tree. Colby just enjoyed the freedom of being able to roam wherever he wanted, in the house, out of the house, backyard, front yard, through the garage, etc. He was everywhere!

One of Colby’s favorite toys was this little lawn mower that was literally falling apart. The wheel kept falling off, but he would just stop try to put it back on and keep going. Sometimes the other kids would help him, but he always just kept on going. This also happened to be one of Alex’s favorite toys, which lead to some interesting lessons in sharing, like me finally just taking it away from Colby because it was Alex’s turn. Anyway over all it was a great visit, just definitely not long enough, which it never is! The kids had a blast roaming, climbing and jumping all day long.

I had a fun and productive visit, especially since Shanna called one of her friends over to help me figure out how to make a tie that I was attempting for Colby and Daxton to wear to Jayleen’s wedding. And just in case you were wondering… it turned out great! Thanks again Shanna and Rachel! It was great spending time with Shan as it always is. I do wish we lived closer or at least got to see them more than once a year. We always have a great time together and it seems we are always accomplishing some kind of project, sometimes hers and sometimes mine. It’s a great balance of fun and productivity! (ha/ha) Thanks again to Shanni and Jamezer for putting us up, and showing us such a great time. Hope to see you in Cali soon so we can return the favor!