Another Journey...: 4th of July and a Trip to Texas!

We had our 4th of July party on the 3rd this year bc Kailey had to drive back to Jeff City on Monday and that would have been really late to leave if they had the party on Monday. It was a HOT day! Luckily we had brought over Chloe's new water table and the little pool for the kids. They seemed to really enjoy the water, I wish we would have had a pool to get in as well! The food was of course good and there were plenty of desserts! I made a cherry pie and some chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwiches - they were fabulous! Unfortunately it started raining later in the evening, which helped cool it down some, but it didn't want to stop raining so we were very limited with our fireworks this year :(

On Monday, we left on vacation! We drove down to Tulsa and spent the day and night. We thought the kids would like to visit the aquarium there to see all the different water animals. It was quite an eventful day! We had to change both kids' clothes when we stopped for lunch and then Preston refused to take a nap on the way down so he was a little crabby! :) The aquarium was fun though and then we went out to eat and stayed in a hotel with a pool. Preston got an octopus stuffed animal and got attached to it immediately - I don't think he has slept without it yet! The kids were sleeping by 8:30 and we actually got to see some fireworks out the window!

Nemo and Dori tank!

Jellyfish!

Touching something

It was very sunny!

The Arkansas River - looks a little dry!

The next morning we got up and headed out to finish our vacation in Texas. We arrived at my grandparents house and that is where the majority of our vacation took place. It was nice to spend time with them and to see Granny and Great-Grandma Mowery. Preston really took a liking to Granny and wanted to spend most of his time with her. Chloe seemed to like Granny too and would always wave to her when she saw her across the room! The adults did a lot of game/card playing when the kids were sleeping. Overall we just hung out at home - it was nice to just chill! We left around 9 Saturday night and got home at 1:50am Sunday morning. I finish up my vacation today and have to return to work tomorrow - darn! I sure wish I was off all summer.

Chloe playing cards with us

Granny and Preston getting the mail

Crazy girl!

Sparklers!

5 generation Mowery side

5 generation Barker side

Grandma and Chloe

Sitting on Texas

Chloe and the Eiffel Tower

Attempted family pic

Paris' (Texas that is) Eiffel Tower!

Chloe is beginning to repeat words! She definitely says "all done" now when she is finished eating and several other things like "aww baby." She is walking full steam and at times is running. She has learned that shoes are required to go outside and will bring them to you and sit down when she is wanting to go out - and she just likes shoes in general! Definitely my girl! :)

Preston seems to have decided that he wants to use the potty now!! YES! I sent him to preschool this morning in underwear and he came home in them!

That is most of our updates. I am going to try to keep up with the blog weekly so I don't fall so far behind! Have a fantastic week!