Mom and Dad were headed this way in October and we threw out the idea of bringing Ellie with them. Once we realized it was actually going to happen, we decided not to tell the kids so we could surprise them...mainly Jaylie with the extra fun of a cousin for the week. We worked a pretty perfect plan where Mom and Dad came in the house and while the kiddos were jumping and screaming about them arriving, I snuck Ellie downstairs into the basement where Mom and Dad's room is. I put her in our giant suitcase and Mom and Dad told the kids they had something in their room for them. We had Jaylie open the suitcase and out popped Ellie. The reaction was absolutely priceless. Jaylie was screaming and hugging Ellie and asking a million questions. She said later that she didn't even know if it was a real Ellie or just a play Ellie at first. Q was a little disappointed....I think he was hoping for a really cool toy instead of his younger girl cousin who was clearly here for Jaylie. Ha!
Ellie in her hiding position!
This was the first night getting all tucked into bed. This was when J was still sleeping on her crib mattress so we got our other crib mattress out and they had a nice big bed. We decided this picture will probably be recreated when they move into their dorm rooms freshman year of college!
One afternoon we went out to the Amish store for ice cream and to stock up on jam and pickles!
Of course there were matching clothes involved....
This was a live action shot of them talking to each other in the back seat. There is no added drama for photo effect. This is their actual faces as they talk about whatever they talked about NON stop.
Both gals headed down the slides at the park.....
Kory, Dad, and Wes were moving cows one afternoon so Jaylie and Ellie decided to ride with Chief in the Ranger while Dad and Kory rode horses. I warned Wes that he was about to experience more words per minute than he could ever imagine and he assured me he was up for it!
Once they got the cows moved to the correct pasture, the girls decided to join them in the saddle for the ride home. Ellie was pretty nervous but we were so proud of her for hopping in with Uncle Kory and Cash for a good ride!
Juney rode Pharoah with Paw Paw
Back at the shops and not quite ready to get off.
Hay Bale Hilarity.
Window markers!
church buddies...
These two are thick as thieves. How many friends do you have that will hold your hair out of your face so that you can color without the bother of your hair being in the way?!
Aunt P is always good for a trip to McDonalds! Not sure what's going on with Q...maybe some disappointment in the Happy Meal toy?????
I got this picture from Kanyon's aide at school one day when they came to do fire safety stuff. He had a buddy helping him crawl through.
Paw Paw had just celebrated a birthday and Ellie's birthday was the day they left, so we had a little party for them one night!
Jaylie got Ellie a belt and helped her get it on.....making sure she was ranch ready!
Loving their fancy belts! (thanks to big cousins who pass down fun, blingy stuff!)
Crazy girls!
Its almost too much to ask these two to actually be quiet and go to sleep.
We got to return the gymnastics favor and Ellie got to do tumbling class with Jaylie!
A friend of ours was having a birthday so after tumbling we threw on some costumes for the dress up party!
Swinging at the park..
A little one on one with Quinn and Paw Paw.
They were here for our big shipping day so we had a fun day at the ranch with the Phillips gang! Aunt Sydni and Rico gave rides.
The Phillips Men...its always special to see them all together. These 5 have seen a lot of shipping days!
Chief keeping an eye on things in the corral.
Sayler, Hayven, Juney, and Chief taking a lunch break.
Murphy getting a little lovin' from Chief.
Lunch break in the shop.
Soooooooo fun having cousins from both sides in the same place!
It was a *tad* muddy in the corrals. The tracks from the hooves in the yuckiness was quite a work of art.
We said hello to Chico and the other horses.
We got to feed them some oats...working here on getting our hands nice and flat...
J opted to just shove the bucket up there and let this horse finish it off.
Cute little working girls.
With the comfort of a grown up close by, we had fun watching the calves go in the scale and come back out to load up the trucks!
That night we had our family shipping dinner!
The day before they left, Quinn and Jaylie had a soccer game and it turned out to be the perfect game! Quinn scored 2 goals, his first ever goals!!! So fun to have a big crowd. Our regular crowd plus Mom, Dad, Ellie, Clint, Syndi, Sayler and Hayven!
and this is a pretty accurate representation of how hard everyone slept this week....
This was such a special week for us. It was a blast to let these two girls have their time together and do so many fun things side by side. I wish we could've just kept a video camera on them 24/7 to capture all of the chatter and silly shenanigans they were up to ALL DAY EVERY DAY. We joked this would likely be the best week of their lives and they probably won't even remember it! We sure will! And it was just the icing on the cake of the fun we always have when Gay Gay and Paw Paw come to town!
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