And now for the southern part of the trip

We spent lots of time with family while visiting in the South. Here are Gram and Gramp with all 6 of the grandkids. AuntT stages family pictures every year, which is great because we have a record of how much everyone has changed over the year. For this year's "Cousins" picture, AuntT tried to get the kids to pose beside the fish pond. Miss S got a little excited about standing near one of her cousins and started a domino situation. The end result was 3 kids in the pond, a couple of pairs of soaking shoes, some wet clothes, and one little girls who did not find it at all funny. She was worried about the fact that she scared the fish when she plopped into the pond though. Anyway, after some drying off, the kids posed on the porch swing and we got some cute shots.
One of the highlights of the trip was Gramp's birthday party.
Here are Miss M, Cousin Z, and Cousin J checking out the fish pond. This was the day before the picture incident so the got to see the fish.
Here are Cousin H and Miss S "coloring" the Water WOW! Doodle books. I LOVE these books. No loose pages, and no markers or crayons, just water. And the pictures dry so they can be colored again and again. The girls have spent hours coloring in the 2 weeks that we have been back in France.
Here are the Misses with Cousins A and Z. We are counting the days until they arrive here in France.

And here are the Mommies - Me (standing), AuntB, Gram, and Aunt T.
We made a stop in our old neighborhood while visiting even further south. Here are some of the neighborhood kids that we miss so much! This industrious crew loaded the wagon full of rocks and moved said rocks all over the yard. When they hit a snag, like a hill they couldn't drag/push the wagon up, they regrouped, discussed, made a new plan, then executed that plan (and got the rocks up to the top of the hill). There are some companies out there that could benefit from this group's diligence and team work.
And here is the whole crew. The Misses are ready to move back home to see their friends.
And MY crew - AH, J, M, me, and AL. Once upon a time, while M and I were pregnant, AL organized us into a neighborhood Mommies group. We met monthly for just Grownup Girl time. We did fun, non-kid stuff. We had family cookouts. We cried together, and celebrated together. I honestly do not think I could have survived the first year with twins without these ladies. And it has only gotten better as the years go on.
We got to have a second family gathering with Grandpa. The highlight of that visit was the spaghetti and meatball dinner featuring meatballs made by Grandpa and Cousins Z and J. YUM!
We are fortunate to have family who live very close to our home state's zoo where we spent an enjoyable day with Gram and Gramp. Here is the zoo's only giraffe. It put on a great performance for us, bending up and down, stretching and turning around. We also got to see an elephant dance. I'll have to post that video soon. Too funny.
It was a really hot day at the zoo so the girls decided to try drinking from the water fountains. This was a first as far as I know. They did a pretty good job of it, especially after Daddy gave them a foot up.

Our wettest day was spent with AuntieW and Cousin C at their pool club. We jumped, splashed, floated, and giggled. The girls did not want to leave. It was such fun for me to watch them play with their cousin simply because they do not know him well, yet they acted as if they had known him forever. He was born just a couple of months before we moved to France so none of us have seen much of him. I just love that quality in kids - you're my size so let's be best friends.
Our last big outing before boarding the plane again was a walk on the Greenway trail at our state's art museum. All along this trail are different sculptures. The one behind the girls is a whirlygig. The whole things turns in the wind as do each of the separate parts. It was pretty cool. We also saw a biodegradable sculpture made from old newspapers and junk mail. It is set in a nice wooded area (which was too dark for a good picture), and had a plaque stating that the point of this sculpture was to depict paper in all of its forms - from tree to product back to earth and more trees.

And this was the last of the vacation photos. I hope you have enjoyed this journey with us. I know I have been smiling as I have been writing. Such good memories.