Dallas

 After our vacation at the beach, I headed up with my grandparents to visit Mom and Dad and the rest of the family in Dallas.  We had a great time visiting with my parents, as always, and were greatly appreciative of Grandma and Grandpa's company for the long car ride!

Jonathan got to celebrate his birthday early with a gift from his Nonnie and Papa.  The excavator of his dreams!  He was delighted!

 On Saturday we celebrated Heather's birthday and met up with more family.

 Joshua got to meet his cousin Erik, just a few weeks older than him.

Abby always has a heartfelt reunion with Bobcat and Tiger when she visits Dallas, because Bobcat lives at my parents' house.  When you're two, that's a big deal.

Nancy is thoroughly enjoying her newest grandbaby.

Lucy had a fun time with the family and enjoyed Joshua, who is also just two months younger than her baby Elliot.

I always get overwhelmed at big family gatherings and get maybe a handful of snapshots.  When I saw Kimie capturing such great moments, I pulled out my camera for a bit... but I get so sensory overloaded with that many people in a home and trying to at least know where all three of my kids are, even if I don't know what they're doing, that I can barely manage to compose a decent shot at the same time.  Kimie caught some great ones, though.  I'm so glad to have these, too!  

Saturday evening Daniel and Kimie invited Heather and I over to visit.  It was so nice to spend some extra time with them.  I love them dearly and wish we, and our kids, could spend much more time together.  The moments with Heather were a treasure, too, and I was grateful that my parents entertained the kids for stretches giving us some time to catch up.

Nonnie was so sweet to spend a wonderful afternoon with Abby.  She just loved having Nonnie paint her nails and take her out to play at the mall, and she returned home with new art supplies, which she LOVES!

It was technically still July, and I'd bought the kids July 4th outfits, on clearance the week after the holiday, intended for next year... though I'm not sure these will actually fit next year!

So that obligated an attempted snapshot.

Hey look, Papa matches, too!

As did Grandpa!  We're so patriotic ;)

I can't even recall how Abby got to dancing

She had her Papa singing and clapping out a rhythm for her, and she was in heaven!