Hiking with the Scouts

We've had a lot of big Scout activities for the boys over the past few months. So there will be a series of posts coming up.

First up: Ryan's den went hiking in our favorite local spot, St. Edwards Park.  Just look how excited he was to be off on his first official Scout hike!

He packed his backpack full of the things he needed all by himself, and he couldn't wait to take off with his buddies.

Alex and I didn't go on this hike - we're trying our best to let the boys experience their Scout activities without their brothers as much as possible. But at least Carl took some good pictures for me to enjoy!

But the lack of a brother didn't mean Ryan didn't forget his membership in Team Danger.

A perfect day to enjoy spring.

Trying to Catch the Perfect Photo

One of my goals of Easter Weekend was to try and get a decent picture of Mom and her four grandchildren together.

But this was easier said than done.

Here are just a few of the outtakes it took to get one decent photo (and even so, Mom's head is still slightly obscured by Audrey, but it works... mostly).

Easter Sunday

Everyone at Easter Brunch together (Carl and Nanette hiding).

I didn't get the only-Pottery-Barn-Easter-basket memo from Julie and Robyn. ;)

Waiting for the egg hunt to start.

To make things fair, we color coded the hunts. Graham and Rocco searched for yellow and orange eggs.

While Alex and Ryan searched for blue and green eggs.

And the girls looked for pink and purple eggs.

 

 I think it worked well, when you consider the speed of the two year olds...

and the seven and nine year olds.

And then the epic cascarone fight began!

Everyone had a blast.

We went through almost two hundred confetti eggs.

Glad this was at Bobby's house, and not mine. ;)

Love the expressions of glee here on Audrey and Laurel's faces.

Trolley ride to brunch.

Loved spending time with all of my favorite people.

And this one was technically back at our house when I realized I didn't have any decent pictures of just Alex and Ryan together. Somehow it came out a bit American Gothic, but you take what you can get.

Villa de Cousins

Thanks to Bobby and his rental homes along the Frio River, we were fortunate enough to have lots of homes to house everyone when we got together. This trip, my family of four shared a house with Beau and his family, my cousin Julie and her family, and my cousin Lauren and her partner, Will.

Each couple had their own bedroom downstairs, and then the kids all shared this loft upstairs (minus baby Caroline and little Graham). Ten beds in one room!

The kids thought they had died and gone to heaven.

Outside, we had a sand volleyball court, which the kids used as a sandbox.

I tried not to think about the deer poop inside their giant sandbox.

We also had two great porches for lounging in the evenings after the kids went to sleep.

And this fantastic fire pit to warm us up.

I'm not sure who had more fun this trip... the third generation or the fourth generation.