In Nature

Yeehaw friends and family,

The combination of perfect weather (10 sunny, mild days in a row) and hours each day of family time is producing an outstanding vacation. Nana's house is taking a beating as the tornado of kids creates a wake of destruction at a faster pace than we can clean up. I keep finding new toys stashed in cupboards and closets. The house obviously has seen a steady flow of cousins for the past several years to accumulate that big of a collection.

Kendra put Layla's hair in pig tails often. She looks like Red from Fraggle Rock as she bounces around the room. We called her "Flopsy Mopsy" for some reason this day.


Layla played with every single toy in Nana and Papa's house. She even gave badminton the ole' college try.


Easton attempted to hit the birdie as well, but he kept swinging downward. After narrowly missing my hand as I held the birdie it was time to call it quits. Maybe next year? He had much better luck at the Bass Pro Shops trying on camouflage gear. Where'd he go?


I had to throw in this random pic from the picnic because it shows how great of a grandma their Nana is. Cousin Daphne was afraid of the big, red slide so Nana was kind enough to go down with her. Now you see where I get my hands-on attitude from...


I talked Aunt Joanie into a nature center walk and I was surprised by the success. I expected a little more chaos and possibly a child or two getting wet because it crosses creeks, a muddy swamp, and several rolling hills... without any railing.


Aunt Joanie with baby Trinity strapped to her in the Baby Bjorn is not pictured in this next group photo.


Layla and Daphne stopped to smell the flowers.


We stopped by the creek to rest under a shade tree for a few minutes while attempting to keep five children from throwing rocks, getting wet, or injuring anyone including themselves. I was praying the entire time, "Please, God, nobody poop!" There were no trashcans on the 2.5 mile walk and there's no way I prepared to store a dirty diaper in my backpack. I breathed a sigh of relief when we finished the walk without incident.


Eli and Silas were very helpful in leading and holding hands with the toddlers. Those are two very impressive young men.


My best friend, Ryan, who I've known since high school came into town for the day to see the 4 Webbs. He left his two boys at home, but was willing to share the morning with me and the twins. We went for a short walk in a local park to get them outside and give Mommy a break.


Then Ryan and I spent the afternoon cruising around town reminiscing about how easy life was back in school. No job, no wife, no kids... The lack of responsibility was awesome in its own way.


We came back to Nana's house and found Easton digging into his first pile of Legos. Being kids-at-heart ourselves we squeezed into the corner and showed him how to build a space ship from spare parts. Oddly enough, our time in Lego-land was some of the most relaxing and enjoyable of the entire trip. It's fun to be a kid and having Easton is a free pass to act like a kid again.


Easton discovered the Star Wars Light Saber toy. The lights and sounds are very cool. He got a kick out of bashing it against the hard wood floor causing the various striking noises. I gave him a demo and he spent the rest of the afternoon trying to chop peoples arm off with it. Of course I had to throw out the Darth Vader line (modified), "Easton, I am your father..."


On a completely separate note here are two very cool gifts Aunt Joanie's crew gave us for the plane ride home. The first is a glue-sealed bottle, which contains lots of beads and various miniature other things. The idea is for the twins to spin it and shake it to make the items visible and find them. Very creative of them.


and this is a personalized ABC book. The book contains 26 pages; one for each letter of the alphabet. They cut out pictures from magazines and pasted them on the page corresponding with the first letter in the name of object pictured. The idea is for us to use it on the plane ride home, but then continue to fill the pages in with our own findings. Very thoughtful of her crew to do this for us.


There are so many pics to pour through from the vacation, but I'm almost done. I think one more post should finish it off in style. Speaking of style... we took our updated family portraits and they look incredible. Can't wait to get them in the mail.

See you soon!