pics with friends

Here are a few pictures that my friend Rachel took of the kids. The first one is from a trip to the zoo. Clearly I'm not too impressed with Graham here. He truly is a character from the Little Rascals.

We also had a play date at her house and the kids just played in the sprinkler.
Graham had a blast with Hayden and Haley had a great time with her bf Ashlyn.

The kids loved being back in our home church (Philadelphia Baptist). The kids went with my mom since we were in Louisville but from what I heard, Graham gave "big" hugs and this is how it turned out. No shock there...
Alex also got the chance to play basket ball with some guys from church. The kids played in the gym and had a great time. They even worked on running relay races. We ate dinner with Josh and Rachel and Haley made banana pudding for us! The boys loved licking the bowl.
Haley, Graham & Hayden playing a little ball. Trying to get 3 kids to look and smile at the same time is not too easy.

Gulf Shores 2009

We ate with Tommy (Grace's man) and his parents at the Hangout the first night. The atmosphere was great for the kids. Thanks Stantons for dinner!

Sisters (Grace)

Sisters (Abbie)

Graham and Grace share a Twizzler!

Graham loves his Aunt Abbie. I love this pic!
Abbie had the idea to put this on his head and it worked great to keep his shaved head from burning and he just looked way too cute!
Haley O and E!

Haley playing in the sand. She loved the "white" sand vs "brown" sand at South Padre.



Tommy took some great family pics for us! I can't tell you the last time we took family pictures like these! Thanks for your awesome picture taking skills Tommy.

On the road again...

Well after less than a week of free time we hit the road again. My dad left on Saturday the 6th and we hit the road for a LONG road trip on the 10th. We left on Wednesday morning and headed to Gulf Shores to meet my mom, Grace, Abbie and Andy for a short vacation. We made the trip in two days with an overnight stay in Lafayette, LA. We stayed in a hotel and Alex took us to a fun restaurant called the Blue Dog Cafe. The idea was great-we love Cajun food, but the food was just not all that. We (Alex and I) were so excited to eat gumbo and etouffee but when the gumbo tasted like peanut butter and the crawfish etouffee had canned Rotel tomatoes we were not too impressed, not to mention a pricey bill. Anywho, enough complaining.

Day 2 was going to be a shorter day till we decided that the Garmin did not find the fastest way and we thought we could "beat the system". We did not understand why the GPS had us going through Mobile, AL and not just down to Dolphin Island and driving over "the bridge" into Gulf Shores. Wanna know why? THERE IS NO BRIDGE. We thought that we would be able to cut off about an hour of our trip by going this way so we headed south to Dolphin Island. Once we got there, we found no bridge(because there was no bridge) and ended up waiting 45 min to catch a ferry that ended up costing over $20, took 45 min and ended up being an hour and half late and wasted about 30 bucks. Go Team!

We spent the next few days in Gulf Shores and had a blast! We stayed in a small condo, I say this b/c there were 8 of us, and just played on the beach and pool. We also had the chance to go to our favorite restaurant (formerly Zekes, now Wolf Bay)! A big THANK YOU goes to my Uncle Jimmy for the meal!!! It was way yummy.

The next stop on our trip was home to Birmingham for a few days. We spent time with friends and family and then left the kids with our parents and left for Louisville, KY on Thursday the 18th. We are still here now and its been a great trip. We have the privilege of speaking at Auburndale Baptist Church (Alex is struggling with the name) and To Every Tribe also had a booth at the Rebelution Conference. I'll post more about the events of this weekend in a later blog.

We go back to Birmingham tomorrow, we are ready to see the kids, and then we are on the road back to Texas Thursday the 25th. We will be stopping by Hattiesburg, MS to visit and spend the night with Alex's brother and sis-in law, Travis and Michelle, and then we are driving to San Antonio to speak at a church for the weekend. WOW, we have lots to do over the next week and we will be ready for some much needed down time!

A visit from the Collins Clan

The day after our Orlando trip my Dad, Angi and brothers came to visit us in Los Fresnos! We had a great time! They stayed at Isla Blanca Park (its on South Padre Island) so we spent lots of time at the beach. We also ate a the taco stand (YUMMY), went to Schlitterbahns water park, Alex and Dad played 27holes of golf, visited the zoo and spent a day in Mexico! It was a fun filled week for sure! Angi took lots of pictures but I can't find them! Once I do I'll post more!

Orlando fun!

Memommy and Dodaddy (Steve and Dinah) took us on a family vacation to Orlando a few weeks ago. The ENTIRE family went. Steve and Dinah, Spencer and Brett, Travis, Michelle, Cam and Cole...and us! We had a great time. The condo has lots of cool pools and slides. We also went to Bush Gardens one day. The kids had a great time with there cousins! Thank you soooo much Dodaddy and Memommy!!!!!!

We went to this restaurant that had a guy who walked around and made balloons for people. He could make ANYTHING. Haley wanted Belle and Graham wanted Lighting McQueen. He did an awesome job. He also made a ladybug, tree, a diamond ring, and a Zeke balloon.

Haley and Graham ready for a day at the pool!

Haley loved the slides at the condo. It was all good when she had her ring on but when we "made" her take it off she went crazy. Alex was there to catch her but she is just not the risky type.

Now as far as Graham, he would go down with or without floaties!
No fear!

I tried to get a family picture but I could not get EVERYONE to look and smile at the same time.