Time in Texas

I had the great priviledge of going to my sisters this summer for a whole two weeks. Unfortunately it was to help her recover from open heart surgery. She was amazing and the Lord truly blessed her to have a successful surgery and a great recovery. He blessed me in making it possible for me to go and help her. My wonderful sister-in-law Kelsey, who had just graduated from HS happened to be coming up here to visit for the summer and was so kind to watch 4 of our 5 kids for 2 weeks so I could go. I hope I was helpful to Angie, but I mostly had a great time with her and her family. I took Rebekah with me because she was too young to leave for that long plus Angie's youngest is just older than Rebekah and I thought it would be fun for them to play. So we found out for sure that even on a cloudy day - and I mean totally overcast, you (or in this case our little girls) can get a sunburn. Poor little lobsters.
Swinging in the backyard. The Texas heat makes it hard to want to go outdoors, but we managed to spend a little time playing in the backyard.
The only one here who actually used a pacifier at the time was Rebekah, but Julie was a big tease and liked to snatch it from her and so we found some extras for fun and then even Anna wanted one. She said "It makes your mouth look pretty". So funny!
Angie was supposed to do some walking everyday as part of her recovery routine so we decided to kill two birds with one stone and do our walking at the outlet mall ;) The girls thought the most fun part was riding in these little toy rides outside - actually we only put money in one and Julie hated it. In Texas it gets HOT so everyday we tried to include somekind of water activity and some Sonic drinks (especially since we don't have Sonic up here in NY and I needed to get my fill, hehe). Just got out of the pool, Rebekah and Julie getting some snacks and getting cheesy with the camera. One of my favorite memories is of a girls night out my mom planned for us. Her and my Dad were able to come down for the weekend and my mom got us tickets to see Wicked. I had no idea what it was about, but heard it was good. I just loved it and recommend it to anyone. It was so fun to have that time with my mom and my sister. Thanks Dad and Kevin for watching the little girls so we could do this!!Grandma with her granddaughters. So fun for her, so fun for them!Angie feeding our "little birds". She looks way to good to have just had open heart surgery, huh?She's amazing! (and okay, modern medicine is amazing too)So cute! What a precious time for Angie and I as sisters and for our little girls as cousins. Hopefully as they get older we'll find ways to get together so they can really get to know each other and be friends! Thanks Angie - we had soooo much fun, and I'm so glad you're okay!