Straighten It Out

Grandma Jo was brave/kind/CRAZY enough to keep the girls while the rest of our family went to Mexico this past week (post coming, of course), but I'm afraid she's created a monster out of my 4 year old.  While we were gone, she straightened Violet's hair.  Now, I haven't got the details yet, so I'm not sure exactly HOW she managed to straighten it, but she did it.  And Violet seems pretty smitten with her new look.  I found her this morning in the bathroom on the counter top, making all sorts of faces at herself in the mirror.

And the next thing I know, she's found a comb and has started working on maintaining her new look.

She's never really been able to comb her hair before (although she has successfully got many combs and brushes stuck in her hair!), so I can't blame her for wanting to try it out for a while.

 

I think she was a little surprised at how well she was doing with the hair combing.

 I don't expect the straight hair look to be one that we pull out all that often, mainly because I just don't have the patience that Grandma has to do things like this.  And also because, as pretty as she looks with her hair straightened, the curls are kind of her trademark.  People just wouldn't recognize her without them! 

 It's always nice for a girl to have options when it comes to hair, though!  Thanks, Grandma, for taking such good care of my girls and making it a special week for them!!

Oliver's Heart Buddy, Eli

I love being able to stop and see Oliver's heart buddy, Eli, on our way home from the lake each year.  Look how big these boys are getting!

It was a warm afternoon, but we found plenty of shady places to play.

Evelyn and Eli's little sister, Ellie, really hit it off.  Ellie is 11 months older than Evelyn, and they were two peas in a pod as they walked all over, holding hands and playing together.  It was too cute.

Eli showed off his new bunk bed to the boys. . .

. . . and then they all tried out Ellie's new horse that actually moves when you ride it.  She got it at a recent horse show, and apparently this is the smallest version.  They actually have some that are life-sized!

After they were done playing on all of the toy horses, we went and saw some of the beautiful Arabians they train in their stables.

We missed seeing Eli's daddy as he was at a horse show in Albuquerque.  But here is his picture in their hospitality room.  

The kids got to pet a couple of horses and watch the groomers re-shoe a horse.  They even got to bring home the old horse shoes!

We always love being able to visit Eli and his family.  I love that even if it's been a year, these boys pick up right where they left off and are truly becoming friends.

Lake Vacation Highlights

We've just returned from our "vacation" to Bull Shoals lake that we take each July with all of the family.  Kyle, Sara, and their kids were able to go this time, and the kids had a blast!  The weather couldn't have been nicer, either.  What a great week!  Here are a few highlights. . .

I'm thinking we should submit this picture to Super Soft life jackets so they could use it for advertisement.  They aren't going to find any cuter models, that's for sure.

The kids did their usual jumping off "Snoopy" but also found this other, higher, cliff to jump off.  They measured it, and it was 25 feet from the water!  These kids are fearless.

The whole crew back on Snoopy.

Kyla's first visit to Bull Shoals.  I think she enjoyed herself.

Russ' swordfish 'catch' -- no, we didn't cook it.

Grandma Jo treated all of the kids to ice cream from the marina.  Doesn't get much better than that!

Sidewalk chalk drawings in Grandma Jo's driveway. . .

Lots of relaxing boat rides. . .

Skiing. . .

Kneeboarding. . .

And of course, TUBING!  These kids could tube all day long.  Thankfully, Grandma Jo & Grandpa Denny and "Grandma" Lori and "Grandpa" Keith are very generous to give them lots and lots of rides.

Violet especially loves tubing.  Just giggles and giggles the whole time.

We discovered Kyla is a pretty big fan of the tube as well!

The older kids perfected the "tube over a tube" technique and actually went over each other while double tubing.  Crazy, right?

Sometimes just watching the tube rides was good enough, too.

There was LOTS of hide-and-go-seek tag to be played each evening.  My boys are really into this right now and play all the time.

Lake vacations are definitely one of my favorite parts of summer.  I've always enjoyed spending time at the lake, but it's become even more fun because of these 4:

A huge thanks to Grandma Jo and Grandpa Denny for once again opening up their lake home to our crazy crew, and thank you to Keith and Lori for being our second set of "Lake Grandparents"!  We had a wonderful week at the lake!