A Family Affair

This weekend marked the first time in three years that my two sisters, brother and parents were all together at the same time. We always seem to be one family member short when we get together because my sister Becca lives in Nebraska, my brother Brent lives in San Antonio and my other sister Sharon lives across town in Houston. And between the four of us we have 11 kids so coordinating can be difficult. If we could just get all of the spouses at the same time too that would be great.

One of our best family friends was getting married so we had the rehearsal dinner Friday night and the wedding on Saturday. What a fun weekend with the fam!! The rehearsal was at the Avia Hotel in Market Street in The Woodlands. It is a really neat new hotel boutique and the food was delish. After the dinner we headed back to our house and hung out.

Lonnie and Me
From left to right: Sis in law Laurie, Becca, Mom, Me and Sharon
Becca, Brent, Sharon, and Me(I'm the baby followed by Becca, Brent then Sharon)
Sisters!
The Olsons
Dad, Brent, Bro in Law Ro, Lonnie

Saturday we spent the day together at my parents swimming, visiting and just having a good time. We had our kids but everyone else was enjoying their kid break.

Saturday night the wedding was at The United Methodist Church in The Woodlands followed by the reception at the Palmer Course. The church brought back memories as that is where Lonnie and I got married. The reception was first class and had the coolest thing I have seen at a reception..a candy bar. I am so mad I didn't take pictures but it was a bar full of candy that the guests could take as their party favor. AWESOME!!
All dressed up

My vote for best dressed was Laurie- I loved her entire outfit!
My mom and dad. My dad won my male best dressed vote- lookin good :)

Everyone minus my brother in law James who couldn't make the trip. Hopefully next time. After the reception I went to pick up Case as my very sweet mother in law watched him and the girls for both nights. Unfortunately for her he is not the easiest these days at night and only wants his mommy. I was very appreciative though. We then went back to my parents, had some late night swimming and called it a night.

I so hope we don't go three years before our next get together as we had lots of laughs and a great time together. I love our family

San Antonio Friends & Family Vacay 2010

Last year when we went on our adults only vacation with our good friends The Perronis and The McKinneys we decided that since we had so much fun we would continue the tradition each year with one minor twist. Every other year we would include the kids. So this year marked our first annual trip with children to San Antonio. We used the website VRBO(vacation rental by owner) and rented a house minutes from the Riverwalk and not too far from Sea World. We opted for a house instead of a hotel to save money and so that the adults could hang out after the kids went to bed and this proved to be a great idea.

We arrived in San Antonio on Thursday afternoon and the house was perfect. Plenty of room and plenty of places to sleep which was important since there were 14 of us. We headed right away to the Riverwalk and took a barge with all the kids in tow. It was a neat ride but ultra hot. We ate at Rio Rio and after dinner decided meals would need to be a little more low key the rest of the trip as it got a little crazy with the kiddos.

Here is the gang on the river barge..Hudson peeking out in the back then Hannah, Morgan, Abigail, Isabella, Kate, Mallory and Case on the left
Above the girls at River Center Mall

After the River we were all pretty tired so we hung out for a while then turned it in since we were going to Sea World the next day.

Day 1: Sea World Adventure Park

Day One at Sea World: Kate(7), Hud(5), Abigail(5), Mallory(5), Bella(almost 3), Hannah(3) and Morgan(3)
This was Case most of the time at Sea World- hot and sleeping! He was such a trooper the entire trip.
I think one of my favorite things from the trip is Morgan kept calling Shamu, shampoo. Over and over she wanted to ride the Shampoo roller coaster again and see Shampoo- she even got a stuffed animal before we left and named it Shampoo
Shamu doing a flip- I had seen "Believe" the Shamu show when it first came out a few years ago and unfortunately this time it was not nearly as good. The trainers are no longer in the water with the whales and the show was only about 20 minutes. I know the changes were for the safety of the trainers but it was a little disappointing. Luckily the kids still thought it was great.
We happened upon the dolphin feeding pool at a time when there were no lines and we were able to feed the dolphins some fish. I think this was probably the kids favorite of the day. Above is Morgan with the dolphin.
Mallory petting her dolphin. She picked the dolphin stuffed animal when we left and named her Crystal.
Morgan wanted a picture with Shampoo

After leaving Sea World, we ate with the kiddos at IHOP- this was a lot calmer than the night before due to everyone's exhaustion. When we got back to the house we put the kids down and the adults played Pictionary. Lonnie and I always refer to pictionary as divorcinary and it was a girls vs. guys show down once again. And who would prevail??? The Ladies of course. We whooped em! On a side note, when we got back from vacay I had lost a pound. I will attribute this to the thousands of calories I must have burned from laughing on Friday and Saturday night. Seth could be one of the funniest people I have ever been around, a total knucklechin!!

Day 2: Sea World Lost Lagoon Water Park

We decided Thursday night that we would do two days at Sea World. This was brave of us! Just kidding. The kids were great on Friday and we thought trying to combine the water park and shows would be just too much for one day. So Saturday morning we woke up, drenched the kids and ourselves in suntan lotion and headed for the Lost Lagoon. The entire day was a lot of fun and they had so much to offer the kids- big slides, small slides, splash pad, wave pool, lazy river, tube rides, etc...The only negative was the heat and keeping track of all the little ones. Luckily about two hours in Paige found a shady spot so we relocated our stuff and were able to make it a little longer. Case once again snoozed when he wasn't taking a dip and was along for the ride.

Morgan and Bella striking a pose- matching suits that weren't even planned!
Hannah, Morgan and Bella
Surfer Case- he looks so grown up to me here
The gang minus Case
I loved this pic of Morgan so I had to include.

When we had all had enough sun and meltdowns(really there were very few) we left the park. We somehow found a Freebirds which made my tummy very happy and ate that on the way home. When the kids went to bed, the ladies made a run to Marble Slab for an early Father's Day present. We ended the evening playing Apples to Apples and Catch Phrase and had a blast. Earlier in the weekend I had filmed Case flipping over because that is his new trick whenever I put him on his tummy.

I will have to say all in all this family vacation was a great one. It was amazing to me how well the kids played together and how well they did at Sea World. We are so lucky to have such great friends and their families and I can't reiterate enough how blessed we feel to have them in our lives. We love you guys!

Next vacation minus kids: Kentucky Derby 2011!! (right now this is the plan and I so hope it works out because this one is on my bucket list)

Summertime

You think since it was summertime and I am at home that I would be better at blogging but not so much. I find the only time I have a few minutes to myself is late at night in between Case waking up and at that time I am usually too tired. I will try to be better! So far this summer we have been busy, busy. Case turned 4 months last week and he was 15 lbs, 2 oz and 26 inches long. (57% weight and 87% height) I checked his stats with the girls and he was same height as Mal and taller than Morgan but weighed less than both. I like to call him my "grazer". He likes to eat all day(and night still) which is different then the girls were- they stocked up. I hope he will soon kick this habit so I can sleep! His new things are: blowing bubbles(will try and get on video- had an unsuccessful attempt), eat his toes and hands, bring toys to his face and eat them, has rolled over a few times and loves to smile. I really need to get some pics of him doing that because it completely changes his look.

Catching some zzzz's
This was from our visit to Austin. Here is beautiful Taylor holding Case

Kendall and Mallory show Case is already a ladies man.

The first week we got out of school I had my summer volleyball camp. My niece Taylor(my brother's daughter) was old enough to come this year and she stayed for the week. Taylor is an AMAZING cousin to the girls. She is so sweet, patient and loving to them. We enjoyed seeing her so much. We swam at mammy's, went to pump it up and had her over for a sleep over.

Morgan, Mallory and Taylor
Silly face!!

I am so bummed I did not get any pictures of my former neighbor Kenna and her kids Jake and Eva who were in town from California visiting. I was so glad to catch up with her and miss her tons. I am hoping we can make it out to visit her some time soon.

This week we are taking our family vacation to San Antonio with our friends the Perronis and the McKinneys. I will be sure to post lots of pics from the trip- there will be 8 kids total!! fun, fun, fun

A Day at the Lake

This past weekend we went to visit our good friends The Gillenwaters in Austin. What a great weekend!! On Saturday we went to Lake Travis and had the best time. We cruised the lake, anchored(sort of) let the kids swim around and admired the beautiful water and houses. Maybe one day(I wish). Ryan was master on the grill and cooked great burgers Saturday night. On Sunday we went to the pool, got a nap in, guys went golf and had a great dinner at a very kid friendly restaurant called Waterloo. I am posting pics from the lake and will post ones from the pool next time. Hope you enjoy :)

Kendall, Mallory, Taylor and Morgan (Kendall and Mallory are only a week apart and have been buds since birth)
Morgan, Taylor, Kendall, Mallory- this one is too cute for words

Me and Tiffany

Tiffany and Case- he was so good the entire weekend

Lonnie and Ryan- best friends since high school and always a good time with Ry!

Cheese!

Ryan is a ladies man...haha HELP!

I have never heard so much screaming in my life by 4 little girls. I think we cleared out the lake a few times... most of it was Mallory.

Case wasn't quite sure what to think of the Lake but was a trooper none the less.

Snack time. Tif is a great mom and came prepared. Ms. Taylor helped set out snack for everyone

You can't have a day filled with fun and not end it passed out. See the evidence

Kendall on Mallory's toes

Mallory catching some Zzzz's

Morgan out like a light

Thanks Gillenwaters for the great hospitality and wonderful time. Can't wait to do it again!