There's nothing in the world like a cousin...especially this cousin

That's right, Allie and Andrew came to town and fun was had by all! They were here for about a week and we wasted no time. Whenever any of our friends or relatives come to Austin we like to take them to see the sights because there are still a lot of things that we haven't seen ourselves----it's a great opportunity to get out and find some fun.

We have known for quite some time that there is a bridge in downtown Austin that is home to millions of bats---that's right, bats. Every night at sunset the bats fly out from under the bridge to go eat a zillion times their weight in insects and it is quite a spectacle to behold (or so we had heard). We decided that while Andrew and Allie were here would be the perfect time to check out this attraction, especially because we knew that Bracken and Andrew would be fascinated by the creepy little creatures. So, one night we got all of the kids into their pajamas and headed for downtown. Justin had called "the bat phone" to see what time the bats would be making their appearance and we learned that it wasn't until 9pm which ordinarily would be way too late for an outing but for this we made a special exception. We picked up dinner on the way downtown and headed to the park to eat our food and watch for bats. Unfortunately we found out around 9:05 when the bats never surfaced that we were under the wrong bridge, the kids were a little disappointed but they had already had so much fun being totally weird (as is evidenced in pictures below) that they were fine with having missed it. I'm pretty sure that I was the most disappointed of us all.

In all of the pictures I have posted you will be able to witness what baffles Allie and me, where on earth did these boys come from?

both as weird as they come, doing some sort of Fiddler on the Roof dance

a random homeless child

again...weird

Tate knows something silly

just a cute boy with a harmless stick

On Guard!!

I give up on those boys!

I just think they are being so weird and embarrassing!

We consider ourselves so fortunate that our first summer here is literally the hottest on record in Austin history---clearly a great time to be 8 months pregnant. We go to the pool nearly every day at least once but due to naps for the younger ones we have been forced to become creative with our water play. At some point I had bribed Bracken with water balloons and they have become a very fun way for the kids to beat the heat.

water balloons...they took 20 minutes to fill and 20 seconds to go through

fun in a tub

my favorite picture from the trip, love the freckles and the big blue eyes

not as cute as Andrew's silly face

wrong game boys, there are no apples in there

Bracken after dunking himself

right before Bracken pushed Andrew's head under the water

and pretended he was merely after a balloon

three kids, three water balloons, danger for me

why does she always strike a pose?

very lady-like

so cheesy

Abbie trying to make the monkey face mommy makes

Andrew and the HUGE cricket thing, the boys spent some quality time trying to capture and kill

thumbs up! I guess they killed it

Bracken learned how to make his own water balloon

The water balloons were a blast but they were only a precursor to the real fun. Andrew turned six back in December but because his birthday is the week before Christmas he didn't have a party, Allie had promised him that he could have his party when they came to Texas over the summer, so we did. On one of their last days here we ordered pizza, bought cupcakes, and headed for a great park near the gym. Andrew was a little perplexed as to where his presents were but seemed to forget about them (temporarily) once we arrived at the park. It was quite the experience, as you can see.

yes, I know his shirt is backwards but he was so proud of getting himself dressed, he wore it like this all day

just having a little dinner

running a few laps on a track he created with a rake

(he seriously ran like a mile worth of laps)

pizza, the best birthday dinner choice!

Tatey loves trucks

the joys of digging

sand angel

another sand angel

Andrew's shovel prism (aka prison)

this was her problem

this was her solution

oops, I was the one who carried the cupcakes...

Tate, would you care to share a drink?

totally excited for the first bite

yummy

whose idea was the electric-colored frosting?

in case you can't tell what's happening, check the picture below

Andrew is indeed blowing his party horn with his nose

come on, you can do better than that...

There you go, really show us those tonsils!

Defeated.

How do children eat in such a way as to get frosting in the corners of their eyes?

Boy George?

Oh how we miss being entertained by our cousins down the street. We were so sad to see you guys go but we were so glad that you were able to come and visit!!!