Cousins and friends

This past weekend was a lot of fun. It had EVERYTHING to do with the boys's cousins being here in town. It was nice for us to stay home for a weekend and just relax after the first week of school and spend some time with family. The boys love their cousins so much and have a blast whenever they're around. Taylor and Anna stayed with MaSha last week and we got to see them during the week a few times. Aunt Ashley drove up and joined us all on Friday evening and stayed through the weekend before heading down to Charleston.

MaSha, Taylor and Anna got to our house shortly after we got home from school pick up on Friday. Everyone immediately started playing! Aunt Ashley arrived shortly after that. Then we ate dinner out on the deck. I just love summer and being able to spend so much time outside!!!

Ryan and TayTay

Kids table
Taylor and Anna are almost
too big for the kids table!

MaSha feeding Ryan

Aunt Ashley loving on William

We love Aunt Ashley!

Stokes and Mama

Silly boy
(those are black beans on his face haha!)

Taylor and William

Saturday morning we met up with our cousins downtown at the Farmer's Market and walked around some. Lord, it was HOT on Saturday! We targeted any shade we could find and were so glad whenever a breeze would blow by us! We made our way down past the market over to some of the waterfalls to cool off and play a little.

William, Taylor, Ryan, Anna and Stokes

Dada and Stokes

Taylor looking over the bridge with Stokes and William

After wandering around downtown, we all worked up an appetite and ate lunch at Groucho's. The food was great, but Stokes's behavior wore me out. It's an ongoing battle/teaching opportunity, right?!?!?

We let the boys take their afternoon nap and then met up with their cousins again that afternoon at the pool! Everyone had lots of fun at the pool, but there were a few incidents. Taylor scraped her toes on the bottom of the pool and they were bleeding a little. The lifeguard got her some band aids but they didn't work too well after they got wet. Then Stokes found a bug on the ground and picked it up. It just happened to be a BEE. Yes, he picked up a bee, with a stinger, and yes, that stinger was in his finger. MaSha pulled out the stinger and the tears started up. The lifeguard then found us a wipe that helps with stings and it must have done the trick because a few minutes later, Stokes seemed to be fine. We kept the lifeguard busy that afternoon!

Anna and William

MaSha with Stokes

Dada with Ryan

Ryan was having so much fun!

William, I mean, a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle

Anna and Ryan, I mean, Captain America

Saturday evening, we came back to our house and Aunt Ashley made dinner for all of us! She's so awesome! The boys were worn out after such a fun day!

On Sunday we went to church and then met up with a new buddy, Jackson, at the pool in the afternoon. I just reconnected with Jackson's mama, who was an old friend of mine, and we all had a great time hanging out! I neglected to get a single picture of this pool play date, but I'm sure we'll have more playtime in the future and I'll have more opportunities to get pictures of all these cute boys together.

It was so nice to stay in town this past weekend and then getting to spend time with friends and family was just awesome. It was a great chance for all of us to recharge and get ready for this week!