Big Helpers!

Miranda is much better than I am at letting her kids be helpers in the kitchen.  It was adorable and fun to see the little kids help make brownies.  Despite the number of fingers in the bowl, the brownies came out delicious.

 Rylee is taking notes while Camden stirs.

Camden really is a good helper.  I was impressed.

This was Rylee's favorite part

Fun time with Miranda!

We drove to Oklahoma and made Miranda's house our last stop.  And, because I could, we stayed an extra day.  Mostly because I love my sister and her family, and I was really getting tired of driving.  We arrived Friday evening and settled in.  well, as much as one settles in for 48 hours.  Saturday morning, we went to the most fantastic Library event with Miranda's family.  It was really neat!  They brought every possible mode of transportation and put it on display.  The kids could climb in or on most things, and they did so with enthusiasm.

Rylee driving the fire truck.

 This was a really nifty plane.  You build it from a kit and it actually flies!  Not very fast and they said you don't want to fly in strong wind, but how cool! I want one!

 All the kids hanging in the (pink!) ambulance with Uncle Dan and Camden.... and the EMT.

Now Rylee is driving the cop car!

 Callie just wanted to pose in the police car.

 Who knew Tulsa needed an armored tank?!  I do not know what Joshua and Callie are doing.

Uncle Dan, Camden, Ethan and Rylee in the armored tank vehicle.

 Rylee is peeking out the hatch!

The bomb squad was there, showing off their robot.  It was pretty amazing.  Joshua was fascinated with it, and the guy was super nice, answering all our questions and letting the kids check it all out.

I love Rylee's face here.  She was impressed with the bomb root too.

 Most of the day you could go check out this helicopter. Rylee was sad that they closed it down as we got there.  Little did she know better things were in store!.

That helo took off and another flew in and replaced it! Awesomesauce!  Callie and her cousins are watching in fascination.

The new one is coming in for a landing.  I think the first one was a police one, and this was a news one.  Still, it is a helicopter!

  And one more round by the fire truck before heading home.  Isn't my sister the cutest?!  I loves her  And her adorable little boy too.

Then Callie had to have a turn.

And Marian made herself at home.  She was very disappointed that they had turned off the horn and sirens!

Heading Home! Wait, we have no home.

 Wednesday morning we bid a sad farewell to Mark and Star and the cousins and drove away.  We were heading back to Arkansas.  I know, you wonder why. That's another post for another day.  You know, once I catch up on the last 3 weeks of blogging!

Anyway, we had 4 days of driving scheduled.  Me and 5 kids in a van.  Whoopee.  It went remarkable well.  Star had an awesome tire guy who checked out my tires and swapped the rear ones- turned the insides to the outsides- and that made a huge difference.  Much less vibration in the car.   (He also mentioned that new shocks would be even more beneficial.)  So we were crusin, happy to be about done with most of our travels.

 We drove through Needles, CA.  Yikes!  It was an oven out there!  I would have to say that 109 degrees of dry heat is pretty miserable.  95 degrees of humid, Nola heat is about on par, just different kinds of misery!  We drove to Gallup, NM the first night.

We had a shorter drive, and ended in Texas the second night.  The GPS didn't really know where our hotel was, so we spent 20 minutes looking for it.  Just about the time we figured out where it was, we saw this rainbow  Can you see the rainbow in the picture?  It is hard to see, but it was very much there in real life.

The third day we drove to Oklahoma.  Hooray!

Water Park

After the American Girl Doll store, we headed back to Yucaipa to hang out with my sister in law ans her family.  It was a lot of fun.  The kids really enjoyed playing with their cousins and I was surprised how well Joshua got along with 3 more girls.   I love that I have so much awesome family that I like and LIKE spending time with!

We all went to the water park on Tuesday.  We went in the late afternoon to take advantage of the cheaper rate.  We stayed till 8pm, when they closed.  I spent the whole time hanging out with Rylee, who did not want to do much.  The rest of the kids scattered.  They played in the wave pool.  They floated around the river.  They rode the fun slides.  The played in the neat pools.  I sat with Rylee and didn't get to do those things.  Sigh.  But everyone had fun and the cousins had a blast together.  I'm tired, so no captions on photos.  Just..... here they are.

Yeah, I did it.

Delaney and Callie have been into American Girl Dolls in the last year. After Delaney's colossal issues with her Walmart doll, I thought maybe it would be worth getting the real thing.  I told the girls that we'd be in CA and we could go to the American Girl Doll store if they wanted.   Oh, they wanted!  Monday July 28 I met my darling nieces and my sister in law at the LA store.

Joshua took one for the team and hung out by the front door while the giggling mass of girls perused every item in the store.  And yes, when we left, Delaney's dreams had come true and she possessed her very own American Girl Doll.  (She is still working off her half of the doll, but is just about there!)

Cousin Ashley with her doll and Callie and Delaney having a good time at the store.

One ecstatic Delaney, and happy Rylee, and a photobombing Joshua.

 My kids plus their cousins. 

And the best part?  We went home with their cousins! Yay!