Oh my, look who is 4!!

Amazing!  That is all I can say!  Rhys is 4!  The kids loved playing together!  Add on pizza and cake, and boy was it a great time!  :-)  Love how it doesn't take much to make it a special treat.  It is so much fun to watch Rhys grow and her fun, silly personality is coming out more!  Amazing!

It is just amazing!

Happy Birthday Grandma and Grandpa!

This weekend we celebrated Matt's parents!  Fun times since their birthdays are just a few days apart (and since his mom is "19" a few years too!).  We had everyone join us for dinner and some ice cream Matt made at work, a great birthday treat and for national ice cream day!

It is hard to believe that there are now 8 Arnold kiddos running around (okay, Corbyn is still crawling but she will be chasing them down soon!).

And Anna and the birthday girl!

 

Baseball!

We joined my brother and his family today for a local baseball game.  The kids were thrilled to see and play with their cousins (it had been way too long!).  During the game the mascot walks around the stadium for photos.  When poor Rhys was asked if she wanted to go for a photo she jumped into her mama's lap and looked like she was going to cry.  She was screaming!  Poor thing!  Anna and Mason were excited to get their photo taken!

Michelle got this cute photo of all the kiddos (and Matt and I).

 And the three girls!  Anna loved having girls to play with!

A fun evening!  

Swim lessons

The kids have continued swim lessons at the outdoor pool this summer and are all doing really well.  Anna is still very uncertain about her abilities but we were excited to have her go on the diving board for the first time.  The first two times she went on it she "slid" in by sitting down and kind of falling into the pool.  

But she got braver and actually started jumping.  She really trusted her instructor and herself.  We are very proud of her!

Pre 4th of July fireworks!

This year we decided to check out the fireworks at the local baseball stadium, and, like last year, not try to squish into the stadium.  We played outside the stadium, we had friends join us (yeah!) so the time went quickly.  

 Soon the game was over.  The home team won!

And it was time for the kids to put on the noise canceling headphones.  After last year we realized that we should, and since they work as headphone we got some for the plane trip.  They worked very well for both purposes!

 And a couple of photos of the fireworks!

It was a wonderful evening!  

Homeward bound!

The kids weren't as wired for this early morning wake up call but were very good with all that we had to do in order to head home.  On the first flight they each got a window seat (it was a small plane, one side had one seat, the other side had two).  They all had on their new Alabama shirts.  Olivier insisted on wearing his new "Big AL" blanket.  Happy boy!

 Anna!

 And Mason!

The Houston airport has a fun tram.  The kids were happy to get up front!

Happy to see the last plane we will be taking arrive, so that we can take it home!

 We were all very tired for that last flight, and I think this photo sums it up very well.  He crashed moments before taking off and slept though take off, the flight, and landing.

Happy to be home!  A wonderful vacation full of wonderful memories!

Last full day!

We had planned on going to the beach.  The kids all went straight into the water (even Mason!!) but within a couple of minutes Mason walked out complaining that the bottom of his legs "hurt".  He couldn't really explain how but he was bothered by something.  He wanted to hang out on the sand for a bit so I went back into the water as Anna started walking out while grabbing her arm.  She said it was stinging and she shook off what looked to be a thick hair.  I walked to the shore with her and noticed you could see a spot on her arm.  

Mason mentioned that he wanted to go on the bodyboard again so I asked Anna if she was okay and headed out with Mason.  Olivier grabbed the other board and convinced Matt to take him out as well.  As we were getting the boys situated I had a sudden stinging sensation on my leg just as Matt said "I think I saw a jellyfish."  Uh oh!  That is what was going on!  Sure enough along the beach we saw two that had washed up.  We all got stung or a strange red spot.  Given that, we headed to the pool!

In order to protect their toes which had gotten raw from the pool sides, the kids put on socks which to them was all very funny!  The boys enjoyed doing cannon balls into the pool.  I managed to get Olivier mid jump on the first try.   

 It took a lot (okay, that is a bit of an understatement!) of photos before I got Mason in midair but it was well worth it!

 Anna wanted nothing to do with cannon balls but had a blast being a mermaid in the pool!