Movin' on down to Searcy

After spending the first part of our trip with Adam's family we moved on down to Searcy to see my family. On Saturday everyone that was in town came out to mom and dad's house for dinner. It was good seeing everyone again, I just wish the entire family had been there. Jenny and Mary Evelyn were at church camp, Matt, his wife Beth and their son Brisco live in MI and weren't coming to visit until a few weeks after we left, and Craig now lives in VA where his fiance is going to law school. Hopefully one day soon we will all be together at one time again, but it's hard with so many of us living out of state and having different schedules.

Here is the kids table which is getting increasingly larger each year.

From L to R: Andrew, Caroline, Lydia, Eden and Ava

We were missing Mary Evelyn, Brisco and Jack Henry who was at the house, but he's not quite big enough to sit at the table. In October we will have yet another addition to our family when baby Harper comes.

Ava checking out baby Jack Henry. He was born on July 5. We are finally starting to add some boys to the group of great grandkids. We are up to 5 (soon to be 6) girls, and 3 boys.

I just love this picture. I was trying to get Ava and my Grandmother with Jack Henry (you can see his foot) when Sarah kissed her sweet Lydia in the background. Talk about perfect timing

Present time! Gigi (my Aunt Betty) and Granna (my Aunt Marilyn) brought Andrew and Ava b-day gifts. They had missed Andrew's birthday in May and of course Ava's is in a few weeks.

Andrew loves his new game. We have played it several different times since we've been home

Ava reading her new book with Gigi

Ava loved looking at Jack Henry, but she wasn't crazy about her Nana holding him

Andrew, Caroline and Eden playing in the sunroom

Sweet Cousins





A day or two before we headed back to KS we drove down to Little Rock with my parents and took the kids to Playtime Pizza. It's a lot like Chuck E Cheese, only better (in my opinion). They have a pizza buffet so we all ate lunch and then it was off to play games.

Andrew and Adam practicing their ski-ball skills

Of course Ava wanted in on the fun too

The kids had a great time. I wish I had taken more pictures, but oh well. I was a little distracted playing the games too :-)

After we got back to Searcy from Playtime Pizza we went over to my Grandmother's new house to see her one last time before going home. The kids love running around and playing at her house and of course she loves watching them.

Running, running everywhere

Andrew desperately wanted a picture with his sister in the recliner, but Ava would not be still. I think she was afraid she would fall asleep at this point if she got too still

Giving Grandmother some goodbye loving

We had a good visit with family but it was good to get home again. Hopefully we will be able to go back around Christmas to see everyone again. I promise to take more pictures next time :-)