Houston Reunion

We had a mini Carson-family reunion while we were moving from Fort Rucker to El Paso. Houston is exactly half way between the two locations, and both of Tyler's sisters live in the Houston area. We planned a three day stay in Houston during our move, and Tyler's parents flew out also. Tyler's brother's family couldn't make it for this get together, but we have an official reunion scheduled for the summer time where we should all be able to show up.

We experienced some mechanical trouble with our moving van so we didn't get to Russ and Adri's house until almost midnight. Adri welcomed us in and showed us to our rooms. She enjoyed meeting the twins for the first time, and seeing the rest of us again.

The next morning the kiddos had a lot of fun playing together. The Lees had recently gone to celebrate Mardi Gras, seeing as how they spent some time living in Louisiana. Sylvia couldn't get enough of the necklaces! 

Carson and Christian look so much alike! 

It was funny because Sylvia and Grace look so much alike as well!

Grandma and Graddad Carson showed up later in the day. They hadn't seen Christian and Melody since Christmas time, so they were very glad to see them again and see how much they had changed and grown. 

It was a wild and crazy house with all those little kids there. We all had so much fun and made such good memories. 

Fun family times!

Grandma always loves to help the grand kids make crafts.

And read together.

Granddad on baby/toddler watching duty.

It was a full house and an even fuller dinner table, but it was a lot of fun and there were lots of adults to help out with all the kids and do other things like prepare meals.  

The second day we spent at the Lees again, hanging out together and running some errands. The babies had a wonderful time, but they also got really worn out from all the playing.

Melody's hair was finally long enough to put up in a cute little whale spout hairdo.

Tyler bought his parent's 2000 Toyota Camry from them when he graduated college in 2011. His parents were the original owners, and it served them and us very well for the entire 18 years it was in the family. Tyler had wanted to upgrade to a newer/bigger vehicle for a while though, so we sold the Camry before we left Alabama. Most of Tyler's counterparts in the Career Course had big trucks, so he felt like it was expected that he get a big truck also, especially since we would be moving to Texas. He had been looking online for months and found one that he really liked in the Houston area. Tyler and Russ checked out a few different trucks in the area, but ended up purchasing the 2012 Ford F-150 pictured below!

 It actually worked out very well - Russ and Adri's van broke down right after Tyler bought the truck, so we left it at their place for a few days for them to use while we completed the move. The truck had as many seats as their van did, so after Adri got over the initial uneasiness of driving such a large vehicle, it served them well shuttling kids to and from school until their van got fixed. It was a nice way to help them out and say thank you for letting us stay with them for a few days. Another interesting side note, the truck was originally bought new in El Paso, and had only recently been bought by a dealer and transported to the Houston area. It worked out perfectly to let the Lees borrow it for a while as their van was in the shop and we finished moving, then have the dealer transport it back to El Paso for us. 

I'm not sure how we wrote more about the truck than the entire rest of this blog post combined, but anyway back to pictures of our fun reunion. The kids loved riding their cousins' scooters.

And playing with their wagon.  Grace and Sylvia were two peas in a pod.

We rode scooters and pulled the wagon up to the bus stop to pick up Sophia after school one day, then played at the nearby park before coming home. 

Later that day the Stinson's came over to the Lee's house. Here is a picture of the kids playing school in the loft at the Lee's house.

One nice thing about winter time in the South is that you can wear shorts and t-shirts in the winter time.

We spent about half of the time at the Lees house and the other half at the Stinson's house. The two houses are very similar floor plans, so looking back at pictures you can really only tell which house we were at by looking at the furniture. 

The next day we drove down to the Stinson's house to visit with them. Christian was happy Granddad was holding him.

The Stinson's have a fun motorized carriage that the kids liked to drive around the cul-de-sac. 

Andrew was surprisingly good at driving a car type vehicle despite his young age, and I love Sylvia's face in this picture.  Andrew liked to drive pedal to the metal.

Tyler and his oldest niece Kiera holding the babies on the truck tailgate. Who needs chairs when you have a truck? 

The Stinsons have a very fun yard to play in, lots of toys and other play equipment. Grandma and Granddad also brought some cool toys from their recent trip to Peru. They are hand carved bird shaped water whistles. When you fill the bottom up with water and blow in them, they make noises that sound exactly like tropical birds chirping! We had never seen anything like them before, so we thought they were cool and the kids had a blast playing with them. 

We were able to get a great picture of Grandma and Granddad with most of their grand kids!

The twins had a very cozy nap time set up!

Grandma and Granddad love snuggling with their grand kids. 

The grand kids love when Grandma sings her version of little bunny foo foo to them. 

The last day we were there was Sunday. We woke up, ate breakfast, and got ready to go to church with the Lees. 

Carson saw right through Sylvia's disguise, she wasn't REALLY Minnie Mouse, it was just his cousin. 

We remembered to get a group photo after church. Tyler forgot his church clothes in the back of the moving truck so he borrowed some clothes from Russ.

Grandma got some last snuggled in with Christian and Melody while getting them changed out of their church clothes to more comfortable travel clothes.

Granddad and Lissa got in on the action too. Here is Christian sporting his stylish Texas approved drool bib bandanna. 

Grandma Carson is synonymous with all things piano, so here is a picture of her giving Kiera a lesson while they were together. 

Cute Melody girl smiling and playing with a super fun baby toy that Grandma made for her.

Andrew LOVES playing with Legos and got some building in with Granddad before we hit the road again. 

Here is a better picture of the gang playing with Legos. 

We had such a wonderful time at the Carson Family Houston Texas Mini Reunion! Thanks to the Lee and Stinson family for hosting, and Grandma and Granddad for flying out to see everyone.