Thursday, July 22, 2010

Monkeyin’ Around

My oldest brother and his wife are the parents of four fantastic kids.  Morgan will be a college freshman this fall and is working to save money this summer.  Zack (9), Grace (8), and Lillee (5) have been visiting us this week {“Cousin Camp” as we like to call it} and it’s been such a great time!  On our first day together, we visited the Krispy Kreme store to watch the doughnuts being made from their “observation” window.  Of course, we ate a few just to make sure their work was okay.  It was.  Feast your eyes on these cute little kiddos.  From left to right: Grace, Lillee, Luke, Sam, Caleb, & Matthew.  My handsome nephew, Zack, is way too cool for this silly photo opportunity.  He is super cool, by the way.

2010 340 After this fabulous outing, we headed to Wal-Mart for school supply shopping.  With lists in hand, we all worked together to find everything the school-aged kids needed.  My parents enjoy this annual event…and the parent’s enjoy this generous gift!  It was fun to see what each kiddo chose…all individuals, for sure. 

We finished the day off with some time playing outside, a yummy dinner, and grandma’s brownies for dessert.  We also made a quick trip to the park before a bath and bedtime.  Whew…we were all tired.

 

Day two of “Cousin Camp” took us to a local inflatable “jungle.”  Our 30 minute drive to “Monkey Joe’s” was worth the effort.  The kids jumped, bounced, slid, ran and all had a great time.  Check out Monkey Joe below with Lillee and Sam posing.  Such cuties.

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Zack proved once again that he is an incredible young man…following fearless little Matthew all around the place and helping him to climb up and through things.  Zack got a workout from shadowing him, for sure.  Matthew spent nearly 2 hours running from inflatable to inflatable…no “little jumpers” area for him.  Caleb was as predicted, more timid.  He loved being in the “little jumpers” area…it was safe, small, and he was content.  He did venture out a bit, trying some bigger inflatables.  When he did, he big cousin Grace was was right behind him to help.  She was amazing…and Caleb loved having her attention. 

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Zack and Matthew after the big slide.

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Matthew followed by Zack, & Caleb followed by Grace.

 

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Luke thinks that Monkey Joe’s is heavenly!  All the bouncing and running a busy boy like him could handle…and no one even says, “no!”

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Caleb happily jumping in the “little monkey’s” play area.

The kids were all really tired and hungry…so, we headed for a bite of lunch.  We filled our bellies and then came home to chill out a while.  The little boys napped and the big kids entertained themselves as follows:

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Zack tutoring Sam in the ways of Star Wars Lego video game.

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Grace lounging and watching the video game playing.

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Lillee and Luke reading books together.

We’re tired and the day isn’t over yet.  Hopefully, we’ll have a low-key evening of hanging out and playing together.  We don’t often have this much time together…living nearly 4 hours apart from one another.  I am so thankful that our boys have this special time with their cousins…what a blessing. 

1 comment:

Rick and Beth said...

Such a great thing to see your kids having fun with their cousins. Don't you love being an Aunt?!?