Visit from Family & water play

I forgot to post that 2 days before we moved we had Victor's family in town!  His mom, dad, 2 brother's & family came to stay for a few days.  It was pure madness as goes most Sutherland visits, but packed full of FUN! :)  Here we are on a walk with most of the crew.

Later that night we finally used our fire pit for fun instead of only burning extra branches.  The kids were pretty excited to catch fireflies.

Tommy roasted his first marshmallow. (love that Grandpa is in the background!)

He didn't end up eating it as you can see he found it more fun to drag it around in the ashes.

The next day we went to the park & zoo.  The petting part is Tommy's favorite.

Here is his cousin Autumn helping brush goats.

Yep. All the people in this picture are all part of our crew!!!

I had to snap one of myself to prove that I was there!

Later everyone went up to Chicago to go to a baseball game.  I kept the 5 youngest home so we had a water party w/ icee pops, a movie outside, and nail painting. My niece told me this was the best day of her year! Haha, who knew it'd be so cheap?! :)  Here they are in our tiny kiddy pool with their "party hats" on.

I pulled our bouncer out for their baby, but Tommy & Whitney (who never even liked it much as a baby) decided that it was a great new toy.  Tommy watched an entire movie in this position!

 The kids weren't very interested in this baby slide anymore until I put a pool at the bottom & now they are nuts over it and insist it be part of their daily routine.

 Most of the time Whitney just wants to sit on the side in her favorite chair & watch.

 Whitney loves riding the train, but unfortunately for her Tommy thinks it is great to play bumper car with her & push her around. Poor girl puts up with a lot!

 The last few days Tommy has got excited to get ready for the day by himself & when he's come out of the bathroom from brushing his teeth he did his own hair as well.  Hehe, this kid cracks me up! 

 And here is his hairstyle the next day. (He just found a big flower & shoved it under a headband!)

 Whitney has decided she loves to wear sunglasses inside or outside.

 For playgroup I organized a group to go to our local water park. 

 Whitney isn't a big fan of water so this was her favorite spot. (snacking of course)

 Tommy on the other hand thought he was in Disneyland & cried when we had to leave after a full half day.

 The next day Vic had a business meeting by a fun little lake town so we tagged along.

I thought I'd get a cute picture with Vic & the kids because the sunset was so pretty, but of course Tommy was more interested in dumping sand on everyone. 

 This isn't the best picture, but it's the only one of me on the trip!

 Vic hasn't aged a bit in the last 6 years!

 The kids LOVED chasing the ducks around.

 I love walking pictures as this is our everyday view of each other all the time.

 The kids played until we couldn't see anymore.  They loved playing in the sand. I think this was their first encounter with it.

 The next day while Vic was in meetings I played with the kids in the hotel pool. Whitney only wanted to touch her feet in it once so that made it easy to swim with both of them.  I think Tommy will be easy to teach to swim as he naturally kicks his arms & legs if I hold his belly.

 We ended our trip with a Mexican lunch party. We planned on heading back to the lake, but I wore the kids out too much at the pool that morning so they fell asleep right away.