Fireworks

James did a great firework show over the water on the 5th. (We missed most of things of the 4th and the kids fell asleep in the car)

I was shocked that Nathan joined in with the sparklers. Fireworks have not been his thing thus far. Last year he was scared of them and this year he held his ears because of the noise. I was glad that he gave it a try!

Family Reunion

My grandma hosted the reunion this year. Here she is with her brother and sisters. Corky, Edith, Ben, and grandma. (not able to make it this year, Jerry Sue)

Here is grandma, mom, and her sister Jacquie. It was so wonderful to see Aunt Jacquie and her daughters Dawn (and her 2 boys) and Angie. It has been over 10 years since we had seen them, but I have great childhood memories with them!

Here is Jaycie and my cousing Angie! The kids loved all of our extended family members!

Grandpa Don Dobbins, the fisherman, did a wonderful fish and shrimp fry for us the evening of the 4th. We had the standard auction at the hotel meeting room and games in the afternoon. I won the "guess how many monkey finger puppets are in the jar" game. We had a good time with everyone together.

Kemah Boardwalk

There was an amusement park, shopping, aquarium, etc. downtown in the city of Kemah. We spent one HOT afternoon there.

We all met up and rode the train.

A "blue" snowcone saved the day while we were waiting on a ride to be fixed. Jaycie had been talking about riding on an airplane earlier in the day and it took us a while to figure out that the ride is what she was talking about. Great grandma had told her about it and we thought she was talking about a real one that some of our family members flew on to get here.

Finally...the airplane ride.

Beach walk with Grandma

We wanted a little bit more time at the beach, so we went another day for a short trip. It was very nice, but windy.

Jaycie was very much in to seashells. She took a waterbottle from the car and began filling it up. We found lots of them on the seawall that we had to have! It was a great little day trip.

Schlitterbahn!!

We loved the water park!!! Thanks to the reunion for paying for half of our ticket.

The kids were able to do so many things and we could do lots together too! Some of our favorites included the river that goes all around the park. There were waves that pushed us a long. Mom and I had 2 person rafts that had an enclosed kid side and we held on to each other. We also did a family slide where we sat in a big circle raft and went down a curvy slide.

Jaycie went on the yellow slide a million times, Nathan did it too and a few time they went together. We fit the blue one in at the last minute. I never expected her to ask to go on the blue one...it was a big girl slide!! I was so proud and she loved it. She is just like me as a kid.

Nathan really liked the kids areas the most and of course the little frog slide.

Galveston Beach

We went with everyone to the beach our first morning. It was very hot, but the water was nice. Here are Jaycie and Nathan with Raylee, mom's cousin hanging out in the shade of an umbrella.

Jaycie loved her cousin Samantha, and referred to her as her mermaid friend the whole time. Nathan didn't like the salty waves splashing on him, but he did enjoy the sand.

Texas Vacation

My mom and the kids and I drove a rental car to La Porte, TX for our family reunion this year. We stayed at the Best Western. Here we are at the pool, and this is part of the clan....

Darrel, Dawn, Tyler and Nathan, Jessica and Jaycie, Chance, me and DeAn in the back

Jaycie and Nathan in our room. Jaycie made a picture for her cousin Samantha.