Fun with Cousins

We got to spend the day with Vanessa and Paul yesterday, and the boys got to play with their cousins, Asher and Madeleine. It was good fun. All the boys had to struggle with whose matchbox cars were whose, and there were some tears and scuffles over that, but otherwise they got along swimmingly.

Sam, Asher, and Ben watering one of the plants growing in our backyard. Zach showed Asher how to do this and he was very diligent about getting them well soaked.

Asher and Ben. You may notice that Ben's hair is all wet and matted, he had just woken up from a nap and we are going through something of a heatwave. And we don't have air conditioning, so it gets pretty hot in our house. Even with three fans going.

In fact, it was getting hot enough that Asher wanted his shirt off. I think he also wanted to show off his awesome abs to his cousins. He's been workin' out.

Ben said, "oh ya? check these babies out!" and took his shirt off too. He didn't even pretend that it was because of the heat. Sam, always the modest one, said that he didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings by revealing his amazing pecs, so he just kept his shirt on.

Later we headed up to campus to give them the tour. Here are the kids climbing around on the statues. Don't worry, they're copies.

They thought one of the statues looked like Jesus and said so. It was pretty adorable.

This is lil' Madeleine. She is so adorable; friendly and smiley. And did I mention photogenic?

She's got Vanessa's big, blue eyes. Isn't she a sweetie?

We thought we would try and get a photo of all the kids. We sat them down on the ground and tried to take a photo as quickly as possible. This was the result.

Sam was trying to get up and run around, which he had done by the time the photo had been taken. Asher had Maddie on his lap and fell over backwards and was trying to sit up again as Maddie started to fall sideways. Ben grabbed a handful of dirt and mulch from the plants behind him and threw it just as I took the picture.

I think it turned out pretty wonderfully.

Thanks to Vanessa and Paul for including us in their travel plans! It was so much fun to see you guys. And thanks for the pizza! You guys rock.