Continuing The Celebration

We were back over at Jason's parent's house on Tuesday to continue celebrating Independence Day. I guess for us it's "independence days" instead. We spent more time swimming, eating, and tonight the kids did sparklers and Grandpa let off some fireworks for us.

Cousins: (furthest back) Brad and Brandon, (next row) Luke, Christian, Nick, Nate, Caleb, Chloe, Sophie, (in the middle by himself) Joshua H., (front row) Josh N., Charlotte, Brittany, and Amanda (Noah was the only cousin not in the picture)

Grandpa was giving the kids instructions about the sparklers.

They all did a good job of being careful.

Look at all the smoke!

Sophie really liked the sparklers. She was timid about holding one at first.

Jason had a good time with the sparklers as well.

Charlotte was able to do sparklers too (with some supervision from cousin Brittany).

Me and Jay

I love Chloe's expression in this picture. She was NOT timid about doing sparklers.

Me and Sophie

Grandpa was letting off fireworks in the backyard and apparently the girls found some of them a little too close for comfort. They were seeking shelter from all the falling debris up against the house.

Some of Grandpa's fireworks...

Well done!

Independence Day!

Our annual 4th of July tradition is to celebrate at Jason's parent's house with a cookout and pool party. The great thing is that my parents and my sister's family are usually able to join us as well, so we get to be with our whole family! Jason's cousin, Angel and her husband, Fred, along with their three sons (Christian, Nicholas and Joshua) usually come up from Texas and spend the week with us. We love to have them here and always enjoy their visit! Aunt Jann (Angel's mom) comes down from Wisconsin to visit as well. It is so nice to see everyone! This year we arrived at the Nye abode around 12:30PM, and spent the day swimming, eating, and talking. Charlotte fell asleep by 7:45PM, and I was pretty beat myself, so I ended up going home to put her in bed. Jason, Chloe and Sophie joined the rest of the gang at Channel 13 to watch the fireworks downtown. I ended up getting a migraine and was very thankful I had not gone... although there was plenty of fireworks noise around our house! These are a few pictures from our day:

Uncle Rich was having "tea" with Charlotte. Notice all the little boys in the pool: when the Hernedez boys are here our girls are even more outnumbered than usual! But Chloe and Sophie love to play with all of them.

Jason jumped in with his nephews Brandon and Brad. They were trying to make a big splash, and they succeeded!

Papaw and Ruby (she only wanted the icing on the cookie)

Tom decided to get in on the canon ball/splash contest. The peer pressure was too much!

Sophie had a great time!

Noah was probably safer watching the action from his own pool.

Grammy was helping Charlotte and Audrey on the raft. Audrey kept laying her head on Charlotte's rear end like a pillow, and Charlotte was yelling, "Get off my butt!" I promise we have tried to teach her to use bottom or bum or bumper, not butt!

Sophie, Charlotte, Ruby, Chloe and Audrey... This was the best picture (and I took several). Charlotte had such a great time with Audie and Ruby, which is why I didn't take her home for a nap and therefore why she was asleep by 7:45, but it was totally worth it!!

Back to the Zoo

In an effort to make the most of our zoo membership and the gorgeous weather (that surely will not last), I took the girls to the zoo on Tuesday. We arrived right around the time it opened and stayed until about 2:30 in the afternoon. We were able to check out all the zoo exhibits and even the White River Gardens. There are beautiful orchids on display right now. We had a wonderful time! The weather was perfect and the girls were so well behaved. It was a great day for all of us!

Chloe, Sophie and Charlotte at the start of the day

Red ruffed lemurs

Ring-tailed lemurs: These are one of my favorites. This time of year the babies are always out playing. They're so cute!

Zebra

Greater Kudu

Baby giraffe

White rhino

Elephants

Charlotte

Gibbons (another favorite of mine)

Shark! I think touching the sharks is the girls' favorite part of the zoo... well, at least Chloe and Sophie. Charlotte just likes to watch them.

Chloe, Charlotte and Sophie at the end of the day

A stranger was kind enough to offer to take a picture for us. I was having a hard time getting all of us in on my own!

Family Photo

My sister, Anna, married Tom McCollister on a beach in Florida at the end of May. Since they had a destination wedding, they hosted a wedding reception/open house at their home on Saturday afternoon. My Aunt Chris likes to take a family photo whenever possible, so here is our picture from that day:

Anna, Tom, Dad, Mom, Ruby, Audrey, Aunt Chris, Grant, Chloe, Betsy holding Charlotte, Sophie, me and Jason

Pool Time

Saturday we slept in (recovering from our late night drive home), ate lunch out, and headed to the pool for some sun and swim time. Saturday was a perfect day to spend in the water! I took a few photos because I haven't yet this year. Chloe and Sophie have benefited from swimming lessons and also summers spent at the pool. They are like fish! Charlotte has made HUGE strides already this year. She went from playing on the steps to swimming around with her water wings in the past five weeks. Here are my bathing beauties:

Holiday World and Splashin' Safari

Jason, the girls and I spent all day Friday at Holiday World and Splashin' Safari with Christy, Lincoln, Nate and Noah and Rich, Caleb, Josh and Luke. We arrived around 11:30 our time (10:30 CDT, Santa Claus, IN is not in our time zone). We had beautiful weather and a wonderful time! There is plenty for all of our kids to enjoy in Holiday World despite their age difference. I really enjoyed sitting in the cool water at Splashin' Safari in the afternoon, and the kids had a blast in the water park. We ate and played our way through both parks, and left about thirty minutes after closing... That put us back here a little after 1:00AM. The kids were pretty tired after such a full day and slept on the ride home. Here are some photos (I didn't take any in the water park):

Sophie, Charlotte and Chloe (must have been a little bright for Soph)

Me and Jay

Charlotte riding the fish on Salmon Run

Charlotte enjoyed the Magic Waters in Holidog's Funtown (the little kids area)

Nate even got in on the fun!

Jason and Charlotte riding the carousel (she rode many, many times)

Uncle Rich rode the Liberty Launch while everyone else was on the carousel.

This is one ride that I would have avoided even if I wasn't pregnant!