A stormy and hot fiesta!

This past weekend, we loaded up and headed to Indy for a fiesta with my grandma and aunt and their families.

Obviously, panda came as she (he?) is an integral part of our photos. The surprise was that tia and I had filled up a whole bunch of water balloons to surprise everyone with, hence the basket.

Great Grandma and Sydney girl

Of course we did Mexican food! My aunt and uncle did it right too.

Mexican pizza appetizer

Grilled chicken and beef tacos for the main course (with lots and lots of fresh pico and guacamole!)

And of course, grandma's secret recipe cookies for dessert.

No sooner did we get the chicken off the grill, a HUGE storm came rolling through. And, the power went out. So, we ate in the dark.

Fortunately, we got electricity back and we got to get the main event out for the kids.

Ready to pelt Connor with a water balloon!

Preston mid-shot.

Madeline LOVED this blow-up. 

She flew down the slide!

Getting ready to get Connor!

Got him!

HAHAHAHA!

The kids fed the bunnies.

Sydney got the royal treatment with a huge tent to cover her up.

And, of course, we got a panda cousin pic!

Love spending time with family!

Home sweet home

After two fantastic weeks in Cape Cod, it was time to say goodbye to Chatham and get back on the road. This meant we traded this...

For this!

This was Maddie a little after 6 in the morning, when we got on the road. All smiles. 

The trip back was a lot longer than the trip going. There's always so much excitement when you're going TOWARDS vacation. This was a 16 hour drive back to home and work so we were already a little "meh" about getting on the road. We decided to drive straight through this time since the hotel experience going down was so rough.

Our 16 hour drive turned in 20...so...needless to say we were all a little cranky when we hit home at 2 am!! There were multiple accidents and a highway closure which added time. Not to mention, SOMEONE threw a huge fit that made us stop the car. 

It was her.

She's practicing her heel stretch here, but at the time, she was SCREAMING. We didn't really want to stop though, because big sister was doing this.

Literally, Sydney is losing her mind and Madeline is so oblivious.

Turns out, her belly was upset. She just had to go to the bathroom. As soon as we stopped, she did, and we got back on the road a short bit later.

Oh, please. It wasn't THAT bad. I only turned purple a few times. 

Plus, you try pooping in a car seat. I don't think so.

We had a wonderful time visiting family in Chatham and we are so thankful to nana and grandpa for taking us on such a wonderful trip! We love you!

Since we've been home, we've been up to our usual tricks.

Crafting.

Lunch at Chuy's.

Ice cream with Hudson.

Biking.

Filling up the pool.

Shopping. 

This cart is so ridiculous. But, Sydney can only sit still for about 11 seconds in a regular cart, so it's perfect for me because it actually constrains her. 

And! This was fun. We went to Old Chicago for kids night. Madeline got to make her own pizza at our table!

She loved picked out her toppings and putting them perfectly on her pizza. The server took it to the kitchen and brought it back ready to eat. Fun!

Cape Cod Wrap Up--when we weren't at the beach...

We spent a lot of time at the beach, but we still had lots of fun away from the sand and sea!

We love to go shopping downtown.

Madeline was walking round with her lamb in her shirt like it was a front carrier. She makes me laugh!

Maddie loved the candy store! What a special treat to fill up her brown paper bag!

Us 'big kids' got to go on a date.  

Maddie did her princess sticker book.

And her princess puzzle...

Sydney spent some time in the jumper.

Maddie and Dane watched Paw Patrol.

We hung out with our cousins. Maddie and Dane love cousin Sean.

Maddie asked Sean to help her tie the bow on her dress. He was so sweet to her!

We spent a lot of time trying to get a good shot of all four grandkids. Also known as what I like to call "impossible."

We had AMAZING food!


And, we took pictures. Lots of them!


Look at this beauty!

And this one!

I think that's it for the Cape trip. I have one more post of us driving home (brace yourselves, people. It took us TWENTY hours.) and then back to the real world.