We decided we hadn’t done anything too crazy for awhile, so we thought why not fly with 4 kids to Texas to visit Paul’s family to liven things up?

We lucked out and got TSA pre check for our flight to Texas, and that made life about a million times easier.  

We got lots of stares and comments walking through the airport and boarding the plane.  I forget that 4 kids outside of Utah is actually a lot. :)  I got lots of “God bless you” from fellow travelers and “Oh my, you are brave”.  

Overall things went pretty smoothly.  There were some running to gates and dragging kids behind us, lots of corralling children in corners while waiting to board, and once again ipads and suckers saved the day.  

The kids had a blast with Nana and Opa.  

and were so excited to see all their “big cousins” again.  


Miles could not leave Michael alone.  

He also could not remember his name the first day, so there was lots of “Where the one I like?!”  

Michael was a saint and let Miles crawl and hang all over him.  

Crew had his birthday while we were there and had an amazing day with everyone.  


We went to the splash pad and then Dairy Bar for lunch.  


And then he got to play with his cousins the rest of the day, it was a pretty good 3rd birthday.  

While in Lake Jackson, we always have to stop at the Sea Center.  

Ruby loved her first visit and got to use her newest word “ish” a lot. 

Since we are kind of a tornado, we rented this adorable little A-Frame beach house to stay in, while the rest of Paul’s family was in town too.  

The kids loved their loft.  


And I loved being right on the beach.  


The kids could not get enough of boogie boarding. 

  

Macey loved being big enough to go out deep with Paul and I, and got quite good at catching the waves all by herself.  


Miles loved diving and swimming through the waves.  There was no fear from any of them.  


Paul also taught all the kids to skim board, while Ruby and I just watched.  


The kids couldn’t wait for their “big cousins” to come play with them at the beach.  



  


It was an absolute blast.  Love all these kids.

The main reason for the trip though was Granny’s 90th birthday and Granny and Granddad’s 70th wedding anniversary.  

The entire Olgilve Family was able to make it and it was awesome to all be together.  


I didn’t get any pictures at the party cause I was constantly chasing kids or chatting with people I don’t get to see often enough.  

When we got in the car to drive back to our beach house Miles said, “That was the best party ever!!!!”.  And I had to agree with him.  It was one of those moments that reminded me why the stress of traveling with my 4 kids was worth it.  It was pretty great having everyone together.  

A few other random things:

Ruby’s hair was crazy curly from the humidity and I was in love with it. 


One of the best things about visiting Texas is all the amazing food.  My favorite being donuts and kolaches from Shipley’s, which I got to enjoy almost every morning.  


We ordered some seats from the Astro Dome, which Gipsy kindly picked up for us and then helped us take them apart to check as baggage on our flight home. 


These kids had their moments of driving me to near insanity on the trip, but it was most defiantly worth it.