10th Annual Pool Party

It’s no Johnson pool party w/out amazing food to fill us up.  We had sandwiches w/ soft rolls, turkey, ham, pastrami, and cheese.  TASTY!

We also had the most incredible fruit salad (it’s just a large can of peach pie filling and a bag of frozen raspberries).  Y’all wouldn’t believe how sweet it tasted.  We also had this tossed salad.

However, my favorite dishes of the night were this chip dip and the mini cheesecakes for dessert.  Maggie makes this bean dip and I’ve tried making it before, but I can’t seem to make it taste the same.  I was so glad Aunt Sandy brought her mini cheesecakes that we had last year, b/c they are absolutely delectable.

After we all stuffed ourselves silly, the kids all gravitated towards the foosball table.  I’m not sure how it works to have 8 people playing all at once, but I guess they did.

Nate was trying to get the two little girls to give him a kiss on the cheek, but they just wanted to smile for the camera and then go get on swimsuits so we could go jump in the pool.

Here are some of the people jumping in at different stages of hitting the water.  Dad leaving the diving board.  Some of the pictures are foggy b/c of the steam that was coming off the hot tub.

Nate about to hit the water.  It was about 40 degrees outside.

Cora halfway in.  I think the pool water temperature was 44 degrees…nice and cold to the point of taking your breath away.

Warren making a big splash.

You might have to click on this picture to see my expression better, but it really was shocking to come up out of that water once you hit it.  Thank goodness we have the hot tub there to get warm again.  I don’t know how people in Minnesota or other cold states like that jump into lakes and then not have a hot tub to get in after.  That’s real polar bear swims, but I think I’ll just stick to our Texas version.

Here’s the crew relaxing in the hot tub.  We only made the little kids walk across the Shamu shelf in order to get a present.  In years past we would get to challenge someone if we wanted their present.  The presents haven’t been worth challenging for, but this year one of the gifts was a big package of pony tail holders.  Autumn LOVES putting those in her dolls’ hair, so she challenged for those by walking across the Shamu shelf and she was able to switch her oversized candy necklace for the elastics.

After we were all thoroughly frozen through, we went in and got dried off and got back in our warm clothes.  There were SO MANY little kids running around the house, so Dad was able to get them focused for a minute on using the little car racing track that Andrew got for Christmas.

Here are some of the party poopers that didn’t want to jump in the pool (but we’re still glad they came).

Look at all of these beautiful ladies!

Nick & Nate pretended to bust out the bubbly tonight instead of waiting for New Year’s.  Too bad for them that it’s just sparkling grape juice.  Should I be worried that they know how to make convincing drunk faces?

Autumn & Courtney disappeared for a little while and when they came back Autumn was wearing “wipstick” and was wearing Courtney’s 5 inch high heels.  Courtney tried to get her to wear some flats she brought, but Autumn only wanted to wear the high heels.  She’s actually really good at walking in them…she’s pure girl.

Nate put his hat on Brooke and we were trying to get her to look gangsta.  I think she could have pulled it off if it weren’t for the M&M juice she has dribbling down her chin.

After we all grazed on the food some more, the adults played Catch Phrase, which was a lot of fun.  Then, when everyone was leaving, the kids wanted Dad to do the “Climb up the apple tree” song.  It was all fun and games until Shane wanted to do it and he was wearing cowboy boots.

After all the company left, Autumn & Andrew spent some quality time w/ Papa  They played foosball and then they started a game where they lay under the sheets on the bed and then Dad reaches under the blanket and pulls them off of the bed by the legs.  They LOVED it and did that for a good 20 minutes, and were laughing the whole time.  It was such a fun evening and I’m glad we have carried on this fun tradition every year.