Good Bye & Graduation & Shrek

We woke up this morning all bright-eyed & bushy-tailed.  We had pancakes and Blue Bell ice cream for breakfast.  Why?  BECAUSE WE CAN!  That has been the theme for our vacation. 
Why are we eating out? 
BECAUSE WE CAN. 
Why are we sleeping in? 
BECAUSE WE CAN. 
Why are we going shopping?
BECAUSE WE CAN.

Anyways, Ashley got cleaned up and then I got cleaned up.  When Ashley was fixing her hair and putting on her make-up, Autumn climbed up on the bathroom counter and wanted Ashley to put some make-up on her, too.  She’s such a little diva!

Yesterday, Autumn  let Ashley braid one side of her hair, but wouldn’t let her finish the other side.  Today she let Ashley do both sides b/c we wanted to get pictures of the girls in their matching dresses that Ashley made for them.

We got them dressed & went over to Mom & Dad’s to get some pictures.  It was SO HOT & HUMID outside and it was only 10:30 am.  The girls did pretty good and we had to take about 30 pictures just to get one good one, but we did get a few that worked.

This one is my favorite.

We went over to Curt & Mary’s to see if they had any cool backdrop areas that we could get some more pictures.  They had some baby kitties that we tried to get a picture w/ but the kitties were scared and kept running away. 

Our girls are so cute and I LOVE their matching dresses.  Ashley is so talented at sewing!

We were all so hot and sweaty and miserable after 10 minutes, so we walked back to Mom & Dad’s and tried taking some pictures of the girls in the house.  However, as you can see in this picture Miss B was DONE taking pictures.

I cannot get over how sweet and adorable and precious (and every other cute adjective you use to describe a baby) Bianca is.  I just wanted to sit and kiss her cute little cheeks all day long.

For our last meal together, we went to Napoli’s so Ashley could try the chicken aristocrat.  Then, it was off to Sam Moon’s to exchange a purse she had bought b/c the zipper kept getting stuck on the fabric.  After doing that, we went to the airport and said our good byes.  I am going to miss Ashley & Miss B SOOOO MUCH and will have to plan a trip to Utah to see them again sometime soon.  I am so thankful that out of a horrible & wretched situation for both Ashley & I that we were able to become such great and life-long friends and that b/c of us Autumn & Bianca will know each other and hopefully be life-long friends as well.

After the airport, we rushed back to party w/ the Monzingos.  Jocey graduated from high school today, so they came over for a swimming party.  We had a shrimp boil and then had a super yummy cake from Costco.

The boys worked on their canon balls, and I like this one of Reggie the best b/c of the look on his face & Maggie’s face in the bottom left hand picture.  She was soaked after this picture.  Nate was so hot when he got back from working that he just jumped in the pool in his clothes.

After swimming and getting cleaned up, we headed out to the ballpark b/c Dad’s work was sponsoring a movie in the ballpark.

The scary mascot that sent me into hysterics last time I was at the ballpark was there again and was down on the field going around and saying hi to the kids.  Lexie went over there w/ Autumn & Andrew to say hi and I stayed far away and just used my zoom lens to get a picture.

It was so fun to be sitting out on the field on blankets.  The grass out there is SO NICE and was just like carpet…nothing like wretched Texas grass that’s just weeds and is full of fire ants.  So, we took our shoes off and enjoyed the nice grass.

They were going around and offering to put rub on tattoos on the kids and Autumn didn’t want one until she saw that Papa had one on his  forehead!  That would be hilarious if he couldn’t get that off before church tomorrow!

They showed Shrek on the big screen and right as it started, the staff at Dad’s work all came around and handed out these green florescent necklaces and called them a “Shrek-lace.”  Such a cute idea.  All the kids went crazy over them and had a blast playing w/ them (especially once it got dark).

Autumn did good about sitting and watching the movie for about the first 20 minutes and then she started to get restless and wanted to “braid” Aunt Lexie’s hair so Lexie would look like her.

This cute little boy was sitting in front of us w/ his grandparents and he and Andrew became great friends and had fun running around together.  Then they finally got worn out and laid down on the blanket together to watch the movie.  I was worried that it was going to be way too hot b/c it had been 100 degrees today.  But, it cooled way down and there was a nice breeze and it was actually really nice.  We had such a good time and it was a great way to end a great week.