Labor Day Weekend celebration

We spent Labor Day weekend with the Sierra Family and I must say, it was a long time coming!  We have been trying to get together for at least a year now.  Our trips kept getting cancelled for one reason or another and I was beginning to think it may never happen.  When I got the call from Stephanie that they had left San Antonio on Friday afternoon, the excitement started building.

Six hours later we welcomed them to our home and everyone was all smiles! 
Our kids range from ages 1 - 5 and they all got along great.

After dinner, we gave Caroline and Sam their long overdue birthday presents.  Lila was so excited to give Caroline the baby doll that she practically opened the gift herself!

Lila made sure her daddy got that baby doll out of the box right away and immediately told Caroline that she would take good care of her.  Thank goodness Caroline was more interested in the teapot than the doll:)  After we got the kids changed into pj's, we headed north to the lake.

The kids woke up bright and early the next day and were so happy to be there.

The three oldest took a dip in the hot tub after breakfast...

and then we went down to get on the boat.  Yay!

Sam was pumped to get to hang with his buddy "Jack"...

and the girls loved making sand castles and playing in the sand.



J man took a 5 second timeout from playing catch to take our picture. 
He's becoming pretty handy with it, I think.  Jared and I had such a fabulous time hanging out with Mike and Steph.  We met when the guys were in law school at Tech and have been great friends ever since. 
I just wish that we lived closer!



Madison was so happy to find a little baby crab in the sand...



while Baby Caroline was content to just eat some sand.  We did our best, but the girl liked sand! 
Sandy goldfish, sandy cheezits, sandy drinks--she had it all!

The kids had a short meeting with Uncle Mike and decided that Lake Texoma rocks.

We went home for lunch and naptime and then these sweet little girls got back up and played in the backyard.

There was goofing off with the slip n slide...

and riding around on the scooter, too.

These two rascals kept messing with me and thought it was oh so funny for one of them to stick their tongue out!

After some much needed baths, we cleaned up and got ready for dinner on the lake.

Love these little rascals.  We hope that this is just the beginning of lifelong friendships.

We took a boat ride over to The Point Restaurant and the kids got to check out lots of cool boats.

The next morning our gang was ready to hit the water again.  We took a golf cart ride down to the lake...

and were on the water in a jif.

Captain Sam did so good driving us around!

We had some beach baseball practice going on .  Love how the majority of the team is wearing life jackets even though they're not in the water.  Safety First!

These munchkins were starving by noon and so thankful for their picnic lunches.

After lunch, Madison asked if she could take our picture.  I am so glad she did.  I had the best time catching up with my good friend.  Love ya, Steph!

Then Jackson wanted to take a picture and Maddie hopped in it, too. 
Happiness is my family at the beach.  We just love it.

That afternoon we took the kids tubing.  The boys had a blast.  Soon thereafter it started losing air rapidly, so our tubing afternoon was cut a little short!

The next morning our friends left early to get back home.  The weekend went by way too fast!  We were sad to see them go, that's for sure.  To help lift our spirits, we took the kids on one last boat ride for the summer.  It's so hard to believe that it's really over.  Boo!

"Kids, what do you think about having to go back home today?" 
Something tells me that they would live at the lake if given the chance.  At least for the summer.