On the Road Again...

Last week we spent the a few days on yet ANOTHER road trip (shocking, I know!). 

I've been making plans with my sister to come see her and her kiddos for a while now and I somehow managed to keep it a secret from Emery.  At first I just didn't want to answer a million questions each day from her about when we are leaving, where we are going, what's Camryn Joy doing blah, blah, blah.  But  then it became a challenge to myself, how long could I really leave this child in the dark about our trip?  Camryn Joy is her favorite person ever and she even told me the other night her "happy place" is Camryn Joy's house and I got super excited about surprising her with a trip to Dallas. 

I managed to get everyone packed and the car loaded without her knowing, but finally had to give her a little clue we were going "somewhere special" the morning we were leaving.  Matt was still home when she got up and he was taking Peppa over to Doggie Day Care and it made Emery really sad that Peppa wasn't going to be home with us all day.  She perked up when she realized Peppa had to go so that we could get on the road! 


So, we hit the road and by now she was REAL curious, but also wanted to be surprised by our destination.  She also knew were would be sleeping wherever we were going and she had a couple of pretty solid guesses by now, but didn't know for sure.

We stopped in Huntsville to get out of the car for a minute and to see the giant statue of Sam Houston.  I've driven to and from Houston a LOT and I've never stopped here and I'm glad I finally did.  They have a cute house and some trails and picnic tables.  I won't be stopping again, but now I can say I've done it.

There ya go, we came we saw we moved on. 

We all ate lunch in the car because Emery did not want to stop until we got to our surprise destination (which I was OK with- being by myself I try to get where we are going and spend as little time in the car as possible!).  After a little (VERY little) nap we arrived at our super secret surprise destination- CAMRYN JOY'S HOUSE!!!

This is literally when she realized where we were going:

 And then approximately 3.5 minuter later they were dressed up as princesses and making Amulets of Avalor!  (your welcome, Tyson!)

 Easton was asleep when we got there, but when he woke up I think he was surprised too by all the visitors.  He was SO excited!  Love these sweet cousins!

 We swam a little bit and made some pizza and went to bed- it was a fabulous first day!

The next morning we all woke up to some seriously cloudy, rainy weather.  Look at these sweet babies.  All lined up watching the rain come in.  Gigi was also on her way so that added an extra level of excitement.

After some naps the sun came out and it was perfect swimming weather.  We spent ALL afternoon swimming and it was SO fun!

 Some of us also may have resembled Albert Einstein (and made frowny face- presh!)

 Gigi left later that evening (after some yummy Tin Star) and from then on everything just kind of seems like a blur.  Thursday morning we spent some time playing outside- Sarah has a wonderful porch for morning play.  These sweet babies could have played and played all day.

 We also set up a car wash for them outside and this was a HIT!  All 4 of them LOVED washing the cars and bikes with soapy water- who knew that would be so fun?!?

 We took a little break (mainly because the mama's needed a break from being outside) for some mall time, lunch time, and nap time.  AAAAHHHHH...

It didn't last too long.  As soon as these kiddos were up they were ready to hit the pool.  Again.

 Friday morning we made more tiaras and hung around the house.  Again- tired mamas but NOT tired children.  Good tired though. :)

 The Maddi headed back to Houston on Saturday morning.  It was SO hard to leave (and to not sneak at least one of my sister's kids into my suitcase), but Matt and Peppa were waiting on us to come back.  We said our goodbyes and headed south.  We made it to a rest stop outside of Huntsville and had some lunch there (why can't my children make normal faces for me?). 

We made it back to our house around 2 and it was so nice to be back home and all together again.  Thank you so much, Sarah and crew, for a fabulous fun filled week.  It is always the highlight of my summer!!! :)