Summer lovin': Happened so fast! (aka the longest blog post ever)

We saw T's family a lot this trip, too.  Wednesday we went to H's graduation and ate wings and asphalt pie at the house afterward.

Thursday afternoon we met up with this talented guy for T's family pictures.  I haven't seen the photos yet, but I'm sure they are fabulous.  I'm surprised / glad that noone fell into the pond - though it probably would have felt nice.  It was SO hot.  The babies (everyone under the age of 10) all did really well.

Friday night we had a lovely visit with T's relatives in R-land.  Love that family.  True story:  I knew I liked T's Uncle R before I was sure how I felt about T.  When T moved back east the summer we started dating, one of the reasons I was sad (One of the reasons.  Not the only reason.  Or the biggest reason.) was because I wouldn't get to see this awesome family any more. 

When we arrived at T's parents' house Saturday afternoon baby E was screaming.  Not just crying, but crying and screaming.  He continued to scream for 15 minutes.  As it turns out he screamed himself and his father to sleep.  Quite a talent.  I wanted to take a better picture with a flash, but decided not to risk waking up a baby who is good at screaming.  My momma didn't raise no fool.

 We played with the twins for a bit.  They are beyond adorable.  Seriously.  The cutest things ever.  They are just so calm and chubby and happy and cute with the most beautiful eyes.  Even T couldn't get enough. They kinda / mostly have the sitting up thing down.  But it is pretty funny when you see them slowly falling over.  Tiiiimber.  T was too late to catch this timber. 

They are making eyes at T.  Back off girls!  He's mine!

SO cute.  I still have the hardest time telling them apart.  One of the saddest things about our trip is that we only got to play with these cute girls for about 10 minutes.

 
We gathered up some people and headed to R-land.  Side note:  On Thursday T and I went to Wal-Mart to pick up some things we forgot (razors - both of us) and I saw water balloons.  I told T that we should have a water balloon fight with the R-land family.  So on Saturday afternoon we did!

Filling up the balloons took forever.  A lot of us had sore fingers from all the tying.  N.J. made us separate the balloons by color.  We had around 450 balloons.  We put the balloons in several strategically placed buckets.

Everyone before the mayhem.  We played every man for himself.

Uncle R said he wasn't going to play.  Then he came out with a super-soaker!

Cousin K took all of these photos from the safety of the porch.

J tried to get Uncle R with a cooler full of water.  It was a big fail.  Uncle R easily avoided the attack.  Though in J's defense it is hard to maneuver a cooler full of water.

Uncle R fakes running away from J since the first time it was so easy.

But Cousin D caught Uncle R by surprise from behind.  Just after this picture J got him from the front.  Win!

The guys look pretty pleased with themselves.

We tried to pick up all the balloon remnants, but they are biodegradable so I don't feel too bad about not getting all the pieces.

I got a welt.  Those balloons would only pop on the ground - not on people.  Cousin D threw a balloon so close that it went through my hair but didn't actually get me.  It was pretty much a near death experience.  The water fight really did happen so fast. But it was SO worth it.

Then we went inside for some Leatherby's ice cream.  Yum...

Baby K wears other people's shoes just like me!  I love that even though baby T is wearing shorts, his legs are not exposed.

A bag of chips got knocked onto the floor.  So T and NJ ate them off the floor.  You stay classy, R-land.

Cousin K (who took the pictures) invited us over to her husband's family's pool for even more fun.  The water was super warm.  So warm that being in it made my face feel like it had an incredible sun burn.  But we had a ridiculously good time.  Thanks Cousin K (and her husband C)!

The twins' first time swimming (B on the left, H on the right).  They loved it!  They were so calm and happy - even when they got splashed!  Plus they have adorable swim suits.

At first Baby A was being a party pooper.  But then she woke up and got to swimming for the first time, too.

 Everyone was going off the diving board.  It was difficult to get pictures of the adults because they just get up and go.  But little kids stand on the edge forever so I have time to grab the camera before they jump.

Baby E is always hungry.  He's so hungry he's eating a rocket and a dive stick and his own life jacket.  Someone get this boy some real food!

We had to leave a bit early so we could go see T's friend and his wife.  They are expecting twins!  There must be something in the Utah water...

Then we came back to T's parents' house and did some laundry.  We left to drive back to SoCal on Sunday morning. So basically we had the best short trip ever.  I think every trip will probably be too short.  I think for it not to be short we would have to stay for a month. 

*Some things I forgot to write about from my family's big dinner:

We were playing in the back yard and Baby M said, "Where's your baby?" to me.  I said, "I don't have one."  She said, "Okay" and kept playing.

My mom was giving the grandbabies popsicles. Baby boy L was playing outside and saw that others had popsicles.  In a voice that sounded like he would die if he didn't get one he said, "I need a popsicle!"