Rainy Play

You know you're in a drought when you're hoping for a hurricane to hit you.

While we're not aching for the water like, say, the farmers are, it has made things less fun for us. Remember the landscaping we did back in May? How lush and green it looked. Here it is now:

I leave the few green sprouts nice and long to camouflage the rest of it. Like a yard comb-over.

Back when we had laid the sod, we watered daily to make sure the grass stayed healthy. A few weeks later it was time to visit Colorado for three weeks. We thought, the grass is in a good place now, it'll rain a few times while we're gone. You know, like it always does during the summer. Nope. No rain. Dead grass upon return.

And it's rained here four times since. For about 20 minutes each. Until...

...over the weekend that my family was here, it rained two days in a row. I couldn't believe it and couldn't stop talking about it.

We took Liam and Dash out to experience the wetness.

Oh, that's why it rained! Dash did his tried-and-true rain dance! He must have done it while I wasn't looking yesterday, because we got a nice soaking (with hail!).

Liam's watching the water flow down the bayou. Actually flow. Even slosh a little.

We gave them a Julius Caesar look. It's okay since we're nowhere near the Ides of March.

Et tu, brute?

Here's where Liam found a puddle and I said, "oh no."

Then Dash followed and I said, "oh no."

Then I said, "Aw, just go for it."

And go for it they did.

With gusto. Should have brought out the shampoo, what with how wet they became. I'll know for next rainy day. Hopefully sooner than later.

Funny Faces: Extended Family Edition

Ladies and Gentlemen, are you ready? Because it's time for another edition of... Funny Faces! Yay! Woohoo! Yippee!

Looks like Liam caught a whiff of a not so pleasant aroma.

Yep, it definitely has something to do with the nose.

Sean tries to prove to my parents that their daughter married a smart man, all while trying to not slip off the back of the couch.

She's going for gold in the watermelon spitting contest.

It's the sleepy couch.

Ack, it's contagious!

While previewing the professional photos, Dash isn't too pleased as to how his turned out. We're always our own harshest judge

So he went to work practicing his pouty lips.

Gesundheit?

Are you done yet Grandma?

Chisos

Do you remember Chisos? Darren and Niki's newest pooch (named after a Mexican mountain range, pronounced chee-SOS)? We met her back in February as a pup and, although now full-grown, she doesn't look too different. That's the mark of a cute dog.

Chisos came to the family gathering too. She ran into our bedroom and pooped within 30 seconds of entering the house. Impressive. As Pogo was known to do similar things as a youngin', we just chuckled and dealt with it.

Liam and Dash were smitten with Chisos and followed her all around. A dog that's smaller than them! Wowee! But I wonder why she looks so nervous?

Oh, right, because she knew a mega-hug was imminent. Really, I don't think Chisos minded too much. She even licked their faces, which the boys thought was the berries.

This is the best: since the boys have been doing a great job of pointing to the right people when you ask where they are, we prompted, "Where's Chisos?" They both turned and pointed to this picture on the wall:

Close enough :)

And don't worry about Pogo, she got plenty of lovin' too. Sweet girls.

Darren Visits Too!

A highlight of the Mom/Dad/Jenny visit was when Darren & Co visited too! They were kind enough to drive down so the twinners could still get a proper nap.

During their visit, Dash insisted on wearing the white balance card lanyard.

So Liam, naturally, had to wear something around his neck, too. The only thing available besides the camera strap was my necklace. What could I do? He does look rather cute in it. (I love that necklace, I keep playing with the soft metal strands. Did you ever play with those pinpression things? It's like that. I discovered that both Jenny and Dad -but not mom- both enjoy the very same thing. Guess it's genetic.)

Not to be outdone, Dash donned his bracelets. We were calling them "weights" until Sean saw and called them bracelets. Way to feminize, Sean-o.

We all previewed the Beach Pictures we (finally) got from the photographer. Captivating, apparently.

We all watch in our own way.

Or not at all.

There was also a yummy dinner and a rousing game of Farckle. Though these boys didn't play. And the dinner rendered them shirtless. But it looks like they had fun, no?

When Family Comes to Town

Family came to visit!

I think it was originally conceived as a girls weekend, having my mom and sister fly out while Sean was busy at work. But Dad wanted to come too (who wouldn't?!) and Sean wasn't super busy like usually. So it was just fun awesome family weekend!

They all had fun chasing around the little toddlers.

They even watched the boys one afternoon while Sean and I went out for lunch and a movie! Contagion: two thumbs up for scientific accuracy!

We did do some girly things, like shopping (how was it that the poor med student's wife was the only one who bought clothes?) and watching project runway. But we also had fun at the splash park, played lots of games ("whatever you do, don't triple farkel!") and ate lots of dessert.

It was lovely. Look forward to more pictures in the days to come!

Wandering Through the Playground: The Rest

After we wiped all the sand we could off of hands, legs, and mouth, we tried out some of the playgrounds other features.

"Look mom, Imma cowboy! Yeehaw!"

"Atta squirrel."

"This playset is so... huge! We could fit our playset in here like eight times!"

"There's nothing like the weightlessness of the swing. I could do this forever."

"Uh, on second thought, I'm hot. Can we go back in the shade?"

"Nice dino. Nice nice dino."

"I'm just going to keep walking, if you wouldn't mind."

"Alright, I'll play on the slide like you want, mom. Only because of the Static Hair."

"Time to go already? Bye bye playground. Until next time!"