Allen Cousins

We had so much fun visiting our Allen cousins in Utah.

Look at those cute boys.
So sweet.

California Trip

I can't believe it's almost October and I still haven't finished my vacation pictures. Here are some pictures from California. Everyone came to visit so we were all together. The kids had fun spending time with their cousins.

We celebrated Kade's birthday. He wanted an ice cream cake.


I took Kade and Grace to the park one day with Melissa's kids.

John and Grace are like two peas in a pod. Grace is so tough that she can hold her own with the boys. I loved watching her interact with John.
Picking Grandma's roses.

Lela with Lydia.
We got out the baby pool one day. They loved it.

Grace is really into princess things now. She loved putting on the dress. There were only two princess dresses so we had to work on sharing.

All the Hackworth cousins.

Fun in the Sun

I didn't get many pictures of the kids with their friends but here are a couple.
We were in California for a week and a half, and we only went to the beach once. Sorry kids. I convinced Melissa that she wanted to go with me up to Silverstrand Beach in Ventura - quite a drive considering we could have just gone to Huntington Beach. The kids had a blast though.


Grace and John were so fun to watch in the water. This is the perfect beach for little kids because the waves don't get too big. John and Grace had no fear of the water. I was sitting up by all our stuff and Grace was running around in the water.
Grace found this hole that was filled with water so she would stand in the hole, bend over to get the top of her head wet then she would run out into the waves. She just kept doing this over and over again. It was pretty funny to watch.


Kade doesn't have any desire to play in the water. He is a sand castle kind of guy. He dug in the sand the whole time we were there.
Josh with his buddy, Chris Anthony.
Jack and Jeremy

The Grand Canyon

We decided to make a detour on our way home from our vacation and see the Grand Canyon. None of the kids had seen it before.

We stayed at a cool motel in Williams, AZ. I thought the kids would have fun seeing the animals and playing with the teepees but they were all way to tired from sitting in a car all day. I thought it was cool.


Everybody loved the Grand Canyon. I'm glad we stopped. We only had enough time to spend a couple of hours, but everyone loved it. The boys had fun taking pictures of the Grand Canyon. They did a great job.
We were only there for about 10 minutes before Kade was complaining that he was tired from all that walking around. That was about the same time that Grace was done too. She wanted to push her stroller but didn't want any help and got mad every time we steered her away from running into people or toward the edge.




Grandpa Greg gave each of the kids $5 to get something from the Grand Canyon. We couldn't leave until we found a gift shop.

The Rio Grande

On our way home, we were able to see the Thatchers and stay with them one night in New Mexico. Here we are overlooking the Rio Grande River. I thought it would be bigger but still cool to see.

We're Back in Arkansas!

This is not Chicken Pox. This would be mosquito bites.

It was so nice to be out west for a few weeks - I loved the weather and lack of bugs. The scouts went on an overnight camping trip when we got back, and Jack got eaten alive. He had bug spray on but it didn't seem to matter. This is from the boys in his tent going in and out at night and not being diligent in zipping up the tent. It was so hot that Jack slept with his shirt off. I told him he better not do that again.
On Sunday, Jack leaned over to me and said, "Mom, I have 61 bug bites on my one arm." Wow.