Cousins come to visit!!

The Hindmans came to visit us this March!! For Spring Break their family took a road trip through Texas, and started things off here in Amarillo. We were definitely not the grandest stop on their itinerary (Dallas, Austin, San Antonio and Houston), but hopefully we were the best company :)

The kids were so excited for cousins to arrive. Even though I told Davey they would be coming late at night while he was sleeping, he still went outside to check for their car about 50 times that day. Once they were here it was a nonstop party. The kids played hard (with reasonable amounts of fighting) during the day, and then stayed up late talking in their rooms at night. I'm so glad they were able to spend some time together!

I wasn't the best at taking photos of all of our activities, but on Friday we went to the Cheer Gym for open play, then Amy and I went to lunch while the dads watched the kids, and then we did pizza and swimming at WT that evening. On Saturday we did a hike at Palo Duro canyon and then had dinner at the Big Texan. On Sunday we had a big cinnamon roll breakfast, and then had to say farewell until summer when we'll meet up again in Washington. 

Pizza party before swimming!

There was a big thunderstorm that evening, severe enough that the tornado sirens started going off. This photo was from a friend, but drove this road and stopped at this light on our way home from the pool right as the storm was starting and this exactly what it looked like. 

The storm brought a ton of rain, thunder, lightning and hail, but luckily no tornadoes. 

The next day was beautiful and luckily the canyon wasn't directly in the path of the storm so we were still able to go for a hike!

We made sure to get at least one photo of all the kids, even if some of them (ahem, Jack) weren't wanting to be part of the photo :)

The kids had a great time running all over

Jeremy and Dave took the big kids (minus Levi) on a hike up through a cave. They all did great on the way up, but got a little lost on the way down when Sophie and Will took over as the guides. Luckily the dads realized and were able to course correct, but not before getting pretty muddy. 

Sophie and Will, our brave explorers

Davey trying to keep up with the big kids

Jack eventually made peace with the fact that he wasn't big enough to walk and had to ride in the backpack

Luckily I can still carry Charlie pretty well in the front pack, although he is starting to gain weight again, so I probably won't be able to for much longer!

Most of the trail was clear, but there was some mud from the storm the night before that we had to work around. The kids did a good job avoiding it for the most part, but we still had to power wash all our shoes at the end of the day to get them clean again. 

Thanks for a great day Palo Duro!

Waiting for dinner at the Big Texan. We got there early, but it's a popular place so we had a short wait. The weather was nice so we took some menus and sat on the benches outside. 

Charlie was in charge of the buzzer

Our food was delicious, as always, and there were three people tackling the 72 oz challenge that night! Sophie and Anne left their seats about every 5 minutes to check their progress. Sadly we left before they finished so we'll never know if anyone was successful...

GG Grandma and Papa Gray Come to Visit

My Lambert grandparents came for a visit in the middle of October! We were so excited to have them and so grateful they made the trip all the way out here from California. It had been over a year since we had last seen them, and even though the kids didn't really remember who they were, they warmed up really quick and were all over them in no time!

While they were here we showed them our new house and around Amarillo. It was really cold while they were here, so we never made it out to the canyon, but still found plenty of other stuff to do. Highlights included dinner at the Big Texan, having Dave lead a tour of WT campus, lunch with Sophie at her school, a trip to Cadillac Ranch, lots of football watching, games, and stories.

Bedtime stories with GG. Davey also insisted that Papa Gray be the one to put on his pajamas and put him to bed. 

Dave gave us a tour of WT campus. We saw his office,  the classroom where he teaches, and the student center. Afterwards we enjoyed a yummy lunch at Braums. 

Dinner at the Big Texan! This was also our first time eating here, and it turned out to be really fun with good food! The Big Texan is famous for their 72 oz sirloin meal, that is free if eaten within one hour. There were three people that took on the challenge while we were there, but we didn't see anyone succeed. 

Our dinner was delicious. The rolls were light and fluffy and the meat was cooked perfectly. Dave and I split a prime rib dinner, and my grandparents shared a 36 oz steak, half the size of the competition sirloin. 

On the last day of their visit we went to eat lunch with Sophie at her school. You get to sit at a special table and Sophie loved having them there. We even picked up some munchkins from Dunkin Donuts as a special treat. 

Our last stop was Cadillac Ranch. It's not super amazing, but definitely a unique attraction that warrants a quick visit. The cars still had big puddles around them from all the rain, but luckily the walk out there was dry so we could still get pretty close. 

This was Charlie's first time meeting his great grandparents

I wish I had taken a picture of all three kids with them before church on Sunday, but I didn't so this one with the boys was the best I could do since Soph was at school.