Summer Vacation - Day One

Today we began our summer vacation with a trip down to Houston, Texas to visit Corianne and Jon and their family. They are there for the summer while Jon is selling security systems. We loaded up the van and left the house at around 6:30 a.m., which was a good start for us. The kids were both very excited. This is the first long distance trip we have taken with them in the last two years. We made the drive in about 11 hours and arrived around 5:30 p.m. Everybody handled the drive really well, and Tamara had to get after Noah only a couple of times.

The kids posed for a picture in front of a big Texas monument at a rest area in Texarkana on the state border. This pretty much marked about the half way point of the drive. We drove across Arkansas to Little Rock and then down through the state and down through Texas. It was all interstate travel up until about an hour past Texarkana and then it was highway until about 100 minutes outside Houston, which meant a lot of stopping and going through the different cities. On our way back we will go across Louisiana and then up the entire state of Mississippi.

When we arrived at Jon and Corianne's apartment, Noah and Shelby warmed up fairly quickly to their cousins. They haven't seen each other for two years. Kydan and Noah played together for awhile with a marble construction set.

Here's Tamara with Teegan. He looks like he's happy to be held by her, but really he's only smiling because he sees me. Teegan and I get along really well. He's the only Adams that isn't afraid of me.

I tried to get a picture of Ceanna with Shelby and Noah, but as soon as I pulled the camera out she ran back inside.

Here's a couple more shots of the smiling nudy-rudy Teegan.

Today we also got to take part in Paysen's birthday party. He turned three yesterday. A couple of Corianne's friends from the apartment complex came with their young children. I think they have a small branch here in the complex with just Rexburg people. It was funny to see so many 1M Idaho plates in the parking lot.

We also went swimming for about an hour in the complex's pool. Shelby, Kydan, Ceana and Paysen are all the little swimmers, but Noah clung for dear life onto me. He liked it, but it took him awhile to finally loosen his grip. He was shreiking the whole time in a really high voice. Although, it could have been because the water was a little cold.