Summer Cousin Time

 So after the beach and our whirlwind trip to South Africa, we swapped some cousins around to play.  First we met in Atlanta at a park where the kids could play and the doggies could meet for the first time.  Our dog is Max-black lab pictured above.  We bought him from friends of Chris and Jodi's who have a kennel in Chattanooga.

 Above is Joy and below are Blythe and Scott

 The chocolate lab below is Daisy-Chris and Jodi's dog.  They are just a few months apart in age-like many of our pairs of children and we call them the doggie cousins!

 We just thought it was hard to get a good picture of 9 kids-throw in 2 dogs and things get even more complicated and crazy!  We didn't stay long because it was SUPER hot-August in Atlanta!  The Gross girls didn't switch because they had to start school the next week. 

 Katie and Scott stayed at Grammy's house with her.
Jodi took Daisy, Ian, and Ryan to her house.
Maggie, Ashley, and Max came home to Greenville with me!

 We did lots of dolly playing, trampoline jumping, went swimming, and to the park.

 We rode on a train!

 Grammy and Katie wore Scott out-which is NOT an easy task!  They went to a Science Museum where he about walked their legs off, swam, and paddleboarded.

 Ryan and Ian always have a blast together-they played with legos (I have always thought we could leave them at Grammy's for days and they would never notice we'd left if there was food and enough legos!) and did fun Chattanooga things!  We stayed at Bev's for a few more days-Ashley LOVES to read and relax in this hammock of Grammy's!

 She is a terrific reader!

 We played at the train park near GG's house in Norcross-this is the same place I played growing up though the equipment has been changed out 4 or 5 times since then.

 Everyone up on the perch watching a train go by-I remember the days of 2 train OBSESSED little boys when we would have tears and wailing if no train came by while we were playing.

 We went up to the splash park in Duluth and had ice cream at DQ

 We had one final play day at the pool with the Gross girls!

 Made smores with Grammy one night and then went home-summer is drawing to a close-SAD!  Though I love new school supplies I am always sad to see the end of a free-er, less structured schedule come to an end.  It is fun having all 3 at home-days are long but years are short.  VERY hard to believe how old and grown up they are all getting!

More of South Africa

 If you don't like looking at pictures of animals, just skip this post now!  I couldn't help myself, I just kept taking more and more!

 Above is a lion we saw roaming free at the game ranch-we were REALLY far away but it was super cool to see one in the wild.

 Below are monkeys that were looking for snacks around the patio where we ate lunch!

 A mother rhino and her baby!

 Below are cape buffalo-I had truthfully begun to doubt their existence as our time was coming to an end.  The big five of South Africa are:  lions, rhinos, leopards, elephants, and cape buffalo.  Every time we thought we were seeing cape buffalo from far away, our guide told us they were wildebeests.  Greg said that when he had been there before on business, they had seen a herd from SO far away they looked like brown dots on a hill, but we did finally find some to see up close!

 Just the reserve that we saw had many varied types of landscapes-it was just a gorgeous place to visit!

 We had time to visit Mandela Square which is surrounded by nice malls and lots of renovation work while we were there, but we walked around a little and had lunch before returning to real life at home.  It was a fantastic trip and a fun way to celebrate being married over 21 years now!  May we have at least that many more!