Splish, splash, we were taking a trip

What a great weekend! My parents, brothers and their families, and Mark and I all met up at Del Lago on Lake Conroe for a whirlwind family vacation. **WARNING** This is a post with a lot of pictures!

Friday we all arrived and played like crazy at the water park. Then we all headed out for a boat ride to dinner.

Kevin, Anna, Adelynn, Abbie, Brooke, Bennett, Braiden and Melissa

Eric, Mom, Dad, Mark and Christy

Bennett loving on his
P-Pa

There were a LOT of us, 14 to be exact. That's what the friendly, yet very thorough and safety conscious Lake Conroe sheriffs thought too! On our way back from dinner, we saw those red and blue lights flash on the water, and we were a bit confused. Were we speeding? Missing a light? Did we run a red? Nope. They just wanted to double check everything! They put Eric through a safety drill. They made him show all 14 life vests, the fire extinguisher and the floating seat cushion, sound his horn (??), they double checked all the kids to make sure their life jackets were zipped AND buckled... and on and on... Thankfully Eric was uber-prepared and no one went to jail!

Saturday was full of more time at the splashing around the splash pad, floating on the lazy river (I LOVE that thing-even when a certain niece or nephew kept holding my tube under the waterfall!), and racing on the huge water slides.

After our "incident" with the lake police, we went out on the boat in shifts the rest of the weekend.
My adorable honey relaxing on the boat
Braiden giving me his best crazy face by the waterfall.
Sweet Anna giving some of the patrons a heart attack as she balanced on the railing.
Braiden, Anna, and Kevin- wild and crazy and making waves!

Please ignore the blotchy sunburn. Why can't I put sunscreen on?? Hopefully our baby won't be as
white as I am!

I braved a tube ride with Brooke. She looks way more relaxed than I do!

What a cutie! I'm so glad Adelynn chopped her hair and ended up with this sweet little pixie cut.

Brooke and Abbie were LOVING the tube rides (and each other)!





If you know my family, you know we are a BIT camera happy. Since we were all together, of course it was picture time! For some reason we waited until the last possible minute, so we were all fresh from the lake or pool, and are dressed in our finest car traveling clothes...

This is my new favorite niece and nephew picture. I don't know where Bennett was! Adelynn (4), Brooke (7), Braiden (11), Abbie (9), Anna (6)


While the adults were searching out the perfect picture spot, the kids were climbing the walls and hanging from the ceiling! Adelynn, Brooke, Braiden, Abbie, Anna, Bennett (3)



Here are my parents with their 6 grand kids. While I was taking the picture, Mark leaned over and said, "All that picture is missing is our little baby!" It crazy to think that the next time we are together for a group shot, our baby will probably be there too!


Every year since my parents were married, they've taken a family photo and sent it out in their Christmas cards. Many of you have probably gotten one of these! They have all 41 of the past years lined in frames at their house. It's so neat to see the family grow and change over the years. We used to laugh about the "torture" as we endured a roll of 36 pictures being taken to make sure we got a good one. Now that everyone has digital cameras, we no longer stop at 36 shots! It's been since before the boys got married since we got a shot of the original 5, so here's our re-enactment.

The group shot of everyone: (coming soon)

Today's adoption scare: I was at the pool with some friends I taught with in Garland. I had just finished telling them that the phone could ring at anytime and we could find out that we are getting a baby. Not 2 minutes later, my phone rang! It was an unknown number. Everyone was pretending not to eavesdrop and it was obvious that I didn't know the person. I was more than a little bummed to find out it was just our insurance company! Who knows where we'll be when we get "the call"...