The rest of the visit....

And now we are at the last of the PA visit pictures! We can now move on to the beach! Yay! Just a few random pictures that didn't fit in any of the other posts. Here are the kids having dinner one night. A sister picture - minus Aimee. She was at work. :( Somebody always was.

Lydia was kind enough to have her baby while I was in town so I could see him before I left! :) Thanks Lydia! lol Grant Joshua. He is so cute!! But he didn't seem to like me much, he cried a lot when I held him.

I won't be getting the mother of the year award now that I am posting pictures of my kids playing on a shed roof. But, I remember playing on the shed roof when I was a kids (especially with the Johnston kids!) and we used to have a blast! Aimee took the photos though!
I don't know what it is about mom's swing set, but my kids play on it for hours. They never played on ours that long. But at moms, literally hours of just swinging on the tire swing and running around the play set. This spot will definitely be dear to their heart when they get older, rich with memories.

Kyle likes to be upside down.

I think this just might be Aiden's favorite spot on earth. On the tire swing.

We loved being home for a week. Thanks to my parents, who instilled deep family roots in us all, my family are my best friends. Family means everything to me and I wish we were closer to everyone. But since we can't be for now, visits will have to do. And we make the most of them! :)

Aiden's 7th Birthday

Once again Aiden got to have his birthday at his favorite place on earth - Mom-Moms. I didn't want to be away from home (and Jason) for his birthday, but it was the only way we could work it out with everything else that was going on and there were of course no complaints from Aiden. Who wants to have a birthday at home with just few friends when you can have a party at Mom-Moms with countless aunts, uncles and cousins?! It's a no brainer. :) The morning of his birthday he came downstairs to a decorated dining room and his breakfast request - donuts. Wonder what age they will start asking for things like eggs benedict or omelets? For now, it is easy on me and they are happy, happy, happy. (we don't get donuts very often!) :)We let him open a few presents that morning.Ryleigh wasn't complaining about the donuts either of course. Or Kyle.... :)Aiden convinced Megan to play the game Mouse Trap with him using the "but it's my birthday" whine. Worked like a charm.Ryleigh and Adam enjoyed the balloons.

His request for lunch - McDonald's. And everyone came along! He is one lucky loved little guy.Happy Meals with aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents.

Steve and Ashleigh didn't eat McD's. Steve says he only eats it when Ashleigh isn't around and looking. hehe But, they came to hang out! More family.

And some more.

Wonder what Adam is telling Ryleigh here? :)

This pose was Allie's idea. :)

Time for presents. Love that grin!

Sitting at the table contemplating a serious move with his new game "Sorry Sliders"

It was an intense game of sliding little game pieces..... :)

Me and my big boy! He is growing up so fast! I knew it was going to happen. Just still am not ready for it!

Creek fun

Since we took the kids photos at a park that had a creek, keeping the kids out of the creek while we did pictures was another big challenge. We promised them after we were done they could get in and have fun. They did just that. :) I tried to keep them from getting totally soaked. Not that I minded them getting wet, but I could just hear the moans of how cold they were on the way home.

No moaning going on right now.

Skipping rocks is one of the boys favorite things to do. Or should I say throwing rocks? Wonder how many times that day I said "Don't throw the rocks!"

Looks like he was really listening. For the record, Aimee was taking these pictures, so I wasn't telling him not to throw rocks and taking pictures of him doing it at the same time. :) Aimee caught these photos of Kyle and Allie. Love them!

Going all the way. Forget just getting your feet wet.

These pictures just say summer time memories to me! I think we did a good job of creating some great memories this summer.

All the cousins

Since we had all the cousins together while we were home visiting we decided to play photographers and try to get a picture of them all. We thought about taking them somewhere to have it done, but that sounded like a nightmare, so we just experienced the nightmare for ourselves, rather then put someone else through it! :) I really don't know how photographers do it. Getting kids ages 6, 5, 4, 2, 1 and 3 months to all look at the camera, smile and not run away was a huge challenge. But we actually got some great photos! Aimee was doing the actual picture taking, these were just snapped with my camera from behind her. For better shots, check out Chelly's blog. There they all are, Maddax 3 months, Adam 1, Allie 4, Aiden 7, Ryleigh 2 and Kyle 5. And this is just 3 Aguilar girls married! What will cousin picture taking be like 10 years from now????

Love this one and how Maddax head is just peeking up! Liz did a good job of hiding behind the post and holding him up! Our biggest fear with this picture: the boys deciding to climb up and jump off the bridge.

I love this one!! Just wish you could see that they were sitting at the entrance to a covered bridge.

We are starting to lose it here....
We are growing Aiden's hair out. I think it is a little of rebellion in me growing the boys hair long, trying to look as far from military kids as possible!
Our other long hair little guy. :) Aka - Skater dude.
Ah, such a Ryleigh face. Buddies!

Really never got it together here.....
One of the last shots we tried and to say the least, these smiles were forced!

Ryleigh chillin' between photos

I love, love, love this one!! We put them all in a line and told them to walk very slowly. It was hysterical. Starting with Adam at the end he just kept going towards the center until they would all be in one big huddle.
What a cute bunch of kids! :)

Aiden was SO careful holding Maddax here. We told him to walk tiny baby steps and he barely moved he walked so slow! He takes his job as biggest cousin quite seriously. :)

I guess by now you have figured I never reached my goal of getting all the pictures up of the PA visit before my family arrived. So lots of pictures ahead, rest of PA, beach visit, Ryleigh's birthday and house projects. But considering I didn't remember we were having company for dinner last night until 30 minutes before they were supposed to arrive, blogging is not looking so good. Desperately seeking a new brain.......