Kim and her kids were in town (from Belgium!) and we were so excited to spend a few days with them. Steph and her kids also came to Houston so we'll call it a mini-reunion. We had 5 out of 8 of us together! Not bad!
Of course, we swam a lot. Max and "Laden" are still the cutest little buddies.
Seriously, their little friendship is adorable. It is not normal for either of them to be so cheerfully helpful, but when they're together they'll do anything. They were so happy to carry lots of pool toys back, and their moms were dying of shock a little bit.
A pretty sunset on our drive home. We were almost grateful for the random traffic jam we found ourselves in so we could enjoy it longer.
We thought it'd be fun to drive around Houston and see the houses where we used to live. I don't remember much about our first house, except that I shared a room with my 3 older sisters. We had 2 sets of bunk beds and we loved that we could touch both of them at the same time. I learned that it is an 1100 sq ft home and they had 6 kids while there! Amazing! I felt so humbled, thinking that sometimes I think we need more space, even though we have half that many kids and twice as big of a house.
It was so fun to take our kids there and show them our old stomping grounds. Max was there but having a tantrum in the car. Be glad this is a picture and not a video.
We also stopped by the closest Shipley's we used to frequent. My mom taught preschool in that house and we'd go there when the letter of the week was D. D is for donuts!
Then we went to the house we lived in after France and then again after Australia. This one I remember much better, but it's amazing how different it is now. Both because of my perspective and because the trees are huge! That makes such a difference.
I remember laying bricks to make this pathway to the back yard.
Still have this addressed memorized. This was the house where I broke my nose roller blading. So many fun (and funny) memories.
Then of course more swimming. Tim had been out of town and got back just in time to throw all the kids around in the pool. They loved it!
That evening we grabbed pizzas and went to the waterwall park. My cousin Shirley drove down from Fort Worth with her kids and niece and it was fun to see them.
Bubba bomb!
Saturday morning we went to my parents' church building to play games in the gym. Sarah taught us her mission game (can't remember the name of it, but it was basically ultimate frisbee with a football and the goal is a basketball hoop). It was really fun. Mom brought hot dogs to the church and we ate lunch there, then went back to their place to swim. We had two more cousins (Whitney and Charlotte) join with their families, so we were quite the crowd! Usually that would not have been a problem, but it seemed that someone else was having a family reunion that day or something. We almost never see anyone else using that pool, but of course on the day we had a big crew it was packed. So funny. We had a great time anyway.
We all loved meeting Kim and Caleb's new baby, Oliver. Millie was especially sweet with him and has since asked if she can have a baby sister for Christmas.
We went up for dinner on Sunday after church. Harvey and Zoe were "helping" Grandma make rolls.
Monday was our last day with the Bakers for a while! We had a quiet day at Grandma and Grandpa's, swimming and playing. We're so glad they came down to TX and can't wait to see them next time!
