Making sweet memories!

We are having a fabulous time with the grandparents. An absolute blast! I've said it before and I'm saying it again, as a military family we are so blessed to live this close to family. The kids see (at least) 1 of their grandparents, (at least) once a month. Blessing!!

Mama's house is the best place to stay because we each have our own rooms, our own bathroom, the boys have a play area full of their toys (that stay here at Nana's) and the girls have one with their toys (that stay here too! - I love not having to bring a thing from home. They have closets full of toys here!) For a family our size, this is awesome! There's lots to do in the area and a pool 4 houses down. And since the boys have been taking swim lessons this summer, the swimming pool has been a huge hit. Every afternoon, the boys go down to the pool with their grandpa and spend hours there playing with him. He's convinced that he will wear them out one day and I say, "Good luck!" and "Not likely!" They are way more likely to wear him out! And they have.

It really is amazing how far the boys have come this summer with their swimming. While at the pool yesterday, Luke was running in, doing cannon balls and yelling, "Fire in the hole!" Last summer he wouldn't even get in the big pool and at the beginning of this summer he wouldn't put his head in the water. Yep, we've come a long way!

Here are some pictures of the kids with my parents at the pool:

Nana and Geepa with the sisters.

Sisters hugging in the baby pool. These moments are why I need a DSLR! Those girlies move too fast for my camera.

Little Kate

Brudders...

1 picture, that's all I'm asking for. Can you please cooperate and look at mommy? puhleeze?

Ella. Gosh this girl is so cute, but dangerous in the water! She is sure that she knows how to swim and is always trying to wiggle out of my arms to swim on her own. No fear. She's crazy!

Nana and Ella

Geepa and his girls.

This summer, while here at Mama's, we found the pool to beat all pools! It is about a mile from my parents house and we can use it because it is one of the 15 pools in their association. It is simply amazing. The kids and I were there for 2 hours this morning and then went back this afternoon for another 2 hours! The kids were tired and hungry, but having so much fun they didn't want to go.

I didn't get any pictures today because I was too busy making sure the Shishers didn't drown playing with the Darlings, but here are some from the other day when Daddy came with us:

A picture of the cute little pool, complete with life guards! The deepest section is over by the slide and it is 2 feet, so the girls could still stand and the water was at their armpits. The most shallow section was 8 inches.

Lily Kate on the slide. She was very apprehensive at first, which is so true to her personality. I had to push her the first few times to at least make her try it. I know, so mean. I knew, though, that if she at least tried it she would love it. And I was right. By the 5th time she was laughing hysterically!

Ella. Once again, NO FEAR! She went down the first time with no hesitation. By the end of today she was going down on her stomach. The other moms were looking at me like I was nuts (for many reasons, the 4 kids being the first! i really should be used to the look by now...) and commenting on how fearless Ella is. That child loves the water.

We would catch them at the bottom of the slide, plop them on the edge of the pool and they were off to the stairs to do it all over again. The LOVED it!!

Crazy Ella...

The brothers had a blast too! They really liked holding hands on their way down. They are so blessed to have one another!!

We'll leave in a couple of days, but are already trying to figure out how to get over here at least one more time before school starts. Oh, I'm SO NOT ready for school to start...