Friends Visit and Fourth of July

We had some friends drive all the way from Texas to visit us here in Indiana! We told them they were crazy to make the 40+ hour round trip drive just to see us....in boring Lafayette. The kids were excited to see one another (for theirs it was a surprise). Actually their visit was really fun and made me feel really good to know that we DO have some pretty amazing friends. We have met so many people through all of our moves but there have only been a handful that we grew close enough with to call good friends. Maybe we are picky, maybe we are too shy, maybe we don't feel like we are good enough........but with them doing something like this.....just for US, I would definitely feel safe to say that they are some of our closest friends.

Seeing each other for the first time in a year. Blake is just a little outnumbered.

Their girls are big in to dance, our girls like to dance......so they put on the longest dance show ever

It lasted over the course of 2 nights. This particular night it was a dance off between Allie & Lorelei. Avery and Mia were the judges.

Spectators

Since Allie was being kinda shy on the floor by herself we decided to put on Wii dance party.

On their first full day here we went to Columbian Park (playground, zoo, water park). We made a full day out of it. We also introduced them to Arni's and they had their first square cut pizza.

One other thing......our friends are night owls. Our kids are usually in bed by 7:30. We let them stay up late since their friends were here and they were nowhere near ready for bed by then......and as you can see our kids don't do well with little sleep.

For the Fourth of July we did our annual Brooks' Family Gathering....we spent the day at my Aunt Sandy & Uncle Mark's house along with the rest of the family. We cooked out for lunch, went floating on the river, played games, and had a wonderful dinner followed by S'mores and sparklers.

The kids loved riding around on the Gator.

Float Trip

After the float trip the kids played in the little pool

Bounce house fun.

Kid races.

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Breakfast before they made the long trip home

Goodbye pictures

Indiana Visit {Part 1}

I know Daddy is dying for some pictures of his babies so here is a quick update of our time in Indiana so far. Other than us being sick for the majority of the time it has still been a lot of fun and adventure packed.


The first several days were spent trying to adjust to the time/climate change.

We cheered on England......with no luck.

Enjoyed QT with Mony and Papa (Blake wants to call Mony Grandma though)

We all got our haircut.....it had been a long year without one. We are really going to need to find someone over in the UK to cut it b/c we can't go that long again! Oh, we also went to Mady's graduation party....got to see a lot of family there and meet baby Nora for the first time. We also got to see some family from Dad's side at a birthday party one night. Grandpa Virgin came over for a visit one day too! Cousin Kiya came over to play on one of the days we didn't have a car.

Mony & Papa have taken several days off a week to hang out with us. The weather hasn't always cooperated but we always find something to do. One day we went and played Monster Golf!

{Holiday World}

We loved Holiday World so much last year that we had to go again this year. There were a lot more people that went with us this year. It was a lot of fun but really HOT! Within the first couple of hours there Mony threw up and fainted. She wasn't feeling the best before we went but the heat definitely took it's toll on her. She had to be taken to the medical clinic by the EMT and Papa and GG eventually took her back to the hotel, where Mony and GG spent the next 2 days.

Little ones cuddling with Mony at hotel

Ended our Holiday World visit with a trip to see Santa

We also went to Tropicanoe Cove one day with our cousins Alicia, Alex & Abby

Allie's 8 Year Old Pictures

There is a beautiful poppy field right behind our house. I wanted to be sure to get some pictures of Allie out there for her 8th birthday before we head to the states. Here are a few of my favorites.

Last Week of School

The last week of school was full of fun activities. Tuesday was field day in the morning and a movie in the afternoon (with popcorn and juice!).

This was the station I was running. Something pretty cute happened here. Avery's class just happened to be at the station right next to this one when Allie's class was there. Avery rallied up almost her entire class to cheer on Allie. "Go All-ie, Go All-ie!!" It was so sweet.

Wednesday-- Avery's class had a birthday celebration for all of the summer birthdays.

Thursday-- was a half day. Both girls were so sad that the school year was over. I'm glad that they like school so much. Avery really, really loved her teacher and didn't want to let her go. Thankfully she didn't cry. I was really worried about that. She seems to think that she is going to be in Ms. Wotring's class again next year. It's true that we may have her repeat Kindergarten next year. We have to see how well she does with reading this summer. We're hopeful that she will improve with reading over the summer though!

1st Day/Last Day of School

Friday, after doing some packing and cleaning, we went to the family fun day at Mildenhall.

water zorbing

human foosball

learning to ride a Segway

And last, a picture of Blake! We have our windows and sometimes even doors open so much now that it's getting warmer. No air conditioning over here! Bad thing is, there are also no screens so we are getting lots of flies and spiders in the house!