Girls, Girls, Girls...

 After the whirlwind trip to visit the boys and Jenette 

I flew to Texas to see my girls.

 I was "supposed" to get there at 5pm, 

but with engine complications and transferring to another airline

I got in around 10pm.

And LOOK! 

There were fairies there to greet me!

- one of which appears to be a T-rex version - note the curled hands.

Which apparently makes it difficult to work the back of a fairy outfit with a skirt.

 The girls had made a nice little welcome for gramma.

(the t-rex pose will be an ongoing thing as you will see).

I only had one day in Corpus before we left for the "roadtrip" to Idaho.

So, we made the most of it. Aunt Gloria had made it easy to pack -

she had washed, folded and matched outfits ready for the girls.

She is amazing. She also had been having the girls practice their penmanship

And Leyla was eager to show me her skills.

They vied for time on the coveted ipad- 

I sometimes wonder if they are more glad to see me or the ipad?

Best not to ponder that too long...

 

 We met Kelsey for a birthday lunch.

 I missed her birthday by one day- but we had a great time anyway.

Leyla was excited about her drink.

And look at the lovely birthday girl!

We got up early the next morning 

and after Chloe took this photo of us 

the girls and I set out for the three day road trip to Idaho.

We had packed lots of "stuff" to keep them occupied 

and for the most part got along great.

I don't know how people managed before the days of video players and electronics.

Though a few sugar treats along the way provided some short term entertainment.

 The first night we ate a a little Mexican restaurant 

after the girls had worn themselves out swimming.

Doesn't Chloe look like she came straight over the border in this photo?

And Leyla - well, she has that t-rex thing going on.

One thing I will say for Texas - they DO have some lovely flowers.

And cacti.

That first day was pretty much all this...

with an occasional stop for petrol and the potty.

 

At the motel after killing the scorpion that was chillin on the wall,

Chloe spent considerable time worry about whether her tooth would fall out.

 The second and third day was pretty much a repeat of the first.

with some coloring and videos, eating, potty/petrol stops and what not.

 

 We saw stuff like this...

 And this...

 And this...

 Until we finally saw THIS!

The girls were super excited to see Lincoln (and be out of the car). 

He was fully prepared to show them his domain

 and even allowed Chloe to pull him around a bit.

 Angel had some little mini cupcakes that the girls inhaled.

(Lincoln had one too- but the only picture I got of him with his had his hand in from of his face.)

The sugar gave them some much needed energy for some calisthenics with the x-box

Tyson's disco ball lights were a big hit.

Then it was time for some Ipad action.

Lincoln was pretty patient waiting.

He has some sweet Ipad skills.

We finally made it to Idaho.

And after unloading things went in to see G&G Whittier.

From there we headed over to see Sarah and her menagerie.

She has some pet chickens and was SO patient with the girls.

  Chloe wanted to hold one of them.

Here is one of her new chickens from this spring strutting his stuff.

The girls were thrilled to see her massive, friendly, Great Pyrenees?, 

which is as big as they are.

We left with some colorful, fresh eggs - 

and Chloe said that was "the best 5 minutes of my life!"

Thanks Sarah!

I have a summer tradition of getting up in the morning

 and playing a solitary game of banagrams while I enjoy the peaceful early morning air.

The girls wanted to give it a go - indoors.

Chloe had some good words started there.

Leyla was more into making cool patterns.

Leyla was a great helper and was all over the mopping kitchen deal.

 

Chloe helped with putting away the dishes.

Both girls used the fleece throws a lot while they were here.

Apparently Idaho tile floors are colder than in Texas .

I did have a few treats for the girls.

They loved the strawberry cheesecake Fat Boy ice cream bars.

If I want to torture Kelsey - all I have to do is mention a Fat Boy and it gets her.

They don't have those in Texas.

(Yes, I DID send her photos of the girls enjoying these-

I'm mean like that.)

 Both girls spent a lot of time making art while they were here. 

This little note Chloe wrote cracked me up.

That making art is hard work.

When we went to town the girls wanted to wear hats "like gramma".

They are MUCH cuter in those than gramma.

I had made arrangements for the girls to take swimming lessons again this year while they were here.

Yup!

Chloe lost her tooth while in the pool.

However, she DID manage to keep it and put it out for the tooth fairy.

Whew!

Last year Leyla wouldn't float without howling her head off.

This year both girls were jumping into the deep end, diving to the bottom to retrieve rings

and swimming across the pool.

 

It was amazing to see the progress they made with Paige and Kari.

We spent a wonderful week together and on the weekend Kelsey flew in from Texas.

 And Lincoln, Tyson, Angel and tall grandpa came up from Utah for the Holmes family reunion.

Lincoln loves him a Mickey pancake. 

Dad and grandpa like em too.

While they were all gone to the reunion Chuck finally came home from his last

two week desert annual training of his army career.

He was NOT sad about that one bit.

The girls were super excited to see him and

 one of the first things he did was make a  

grampa Chuck PBJ special -

 one piece of SOFT white bread folded over 

with a massive amount of peanut butter and jam crammed inside.

His specialty.

We also made a quick trip to Mackay.

We got in on the tail end of the raspberries.

But there were berries to be found.

And grandpa Bob helped in the hunt.

 

 We stayed and visited for awhile 

and then headed over to auntie C's house for the night.

On the way there we saw these guys.

Chloe spent some time composing a magnetic poem on the fridge.

Sleeping in the tent was a HAIR RAISING event.

 We got there without pj's for Leyla so 

a tshirt of gramma's with a hair tie closure worked just fine.

 They loved sleeping out and made it "most" of the way through the night by themselves.

 We love our auntie!

(and Leyla is pretty pleased with her eye popping new animal too.)

Before she left Kelsey DID partake of a Fat Boy.

(See, I not totally mean.)

All too soon it was time for them to head back to Texas for school and work

I had a blast with them here.

 And was sad to see them go.

They had a great trip home and I would go on a road trip with them again in a heartbeat.

With or without fairy wings.