Allred Visit part 2- Fun in Mtn. Home

We just finished a wonderful week in Mountain Home with the Allred cousins. 
The Drakes moved to Texas after our Arizona reunion and now they are visiting family in Mexico, so they couldn't join us. But we had a great week anyway.

We spent our first full day at the lake. My cousin Aaron came over with his son Blake too and we all got to boat together. 
The kids always enjoy feeding the HUGE carp fish at the lake while we get the boats situated. It's so funny to watch. 

Look at all those cute kiddos ready to ride the waves. 

We actually rented two boats. We anchored one and let some kids play and swim around it, while the other boat took kids out to tube. 

Blake and Tanner tubed together. 

 

Then Tucker and Max tubed together afterwards. 

 

 

Tucker also got brave enough to tube on his own. I was so proud of him. He's so big now!

 

But the one I really couldn't believe was Benson. I took him tubing first and he loved it. But then he wanted to tube all by himself. I couldn't believe it. I was so proud of him. 

 

Bailey loved tubing too. She kept letting go of the tube and doing it without holding on. 

 

 Then it was back to the other boat to switch kids and let the others play on the aqua pad. 

These cutie girls are the best of friends and I love it. 

 I sure love this boy of mine. He's such a momma's boy. 

We had a great time on the lake and went home with some tired kiddos. 

We ate dinner at home and everyone took showers. 
It's been fun to watch my kids bond with their cousins, especially Grant and Tanner. 
They have a cute little friendship. 

The next day was Max's birthday and we celebrated with a lot of water fun. 

The kids played on and off on the inflatable water slide all day and into the evening. 

After his party that evening all the kids went back out with the adults and we had a wonderfully beautiful evening. 

 

  

 

The sunset and clouds were so beautiful!

  

The kids had a blast playing on the trampoline with the sprinkler spraying them. 

These two played the longest and I loved watching them jump around and giggle together. 

 

 

After the kids finished in the water, they went inside for cake and then back out to play laser tag with Papa. Laser tag is a favorite for everyone and Papa is a great sport to always play with them. 

 

Oh and Tucker and Max found this adorable little frog. They were so happy with their discovery. 

This picture completely cracks me up. Aunt Sarah couldn't help but give Benson some snuggles when she found him asleep in my bed upstairs. The next morning we showed Benson this picture and he was so confused because he slept through the whole thing. 

The next morning we all drove up to Springfield, Missouri to go to the Aquarium. 

We've been hearing about this aquarium for months and we've been wanting to go. 
So we took a day and went up to explore. We had  a lot of fun. 

I love these pictures of all of us together. 

The first part of the aquarium was this "Wonders of Wildlife" area that had tons of animals. They weren't real animals, but they had tons of cool facts about them. 

 

Tanner loved this huge polar bear. 

Bailey's favorite animal is a big-horn sheep, so she was thrilled to see them at the museum. 

 

Then we entered the water portion. 

This octopus was monstrous and the sharks were terrifying. I don't know if I will ever not be scared of sharks.  

 

 

Oh my goodness, this crab was so massive. Tanner kept saying  " Those would be some good crab legs." lol. 

 

We all loved the stingray touch tank. There weren't a ton of fun interactions at this aquarium, but we enjoyed the stingrays. 

 

 

 

Tucker loved the sea shell collection. This one was his favorite. 

                                      

We also loved the penguins. They were so cute. 

The albino alligators were also a little terrifying. 

We loved the huge fish tanks. 

 

 

  

Right before we left, there was this cool room where you could color a fish and then they would scan it in and it would appear on the fish tank screen behind us. We loved it and we all colored our own fish and turtles so we could see them on the screen. 

 

We had a wonderful day at the aquarium and most the kids fell asleep on the way home. 

The next day was pretty chill we played outside and went to get ice cream at our favorite ice cream shop in Mountain Home, "Paradice Cream".

The next day we said goodbye to the Allreds as they started their long drive home and then we followed their example and headed home too. 
Chris didn't come on this trip so we were excited to get home and see Daddy. 

We had the best time with all the Nanny, Papa and cousin time. 

From here on out our summer will be pretty relaxed. We will have a couple birthdays and school will start in just two weeks. I can't believe our summer is almost gone. 

Stay tuned for the last two weeks.