Grandchildren Reunion

Right now, only two of our children have children.  That will change in September, but for now we have 6 grandchildren.  When Allison said that she and her family would drive from North Carolina to Colorado to visit Sarah's family, I wanted to meet up with all that madness and join in the fun.

You can easily identify which kids belong to who:  Redheads belong to Sarah and blondes belong to Allison.  Kind of obvious, I guess.

We spent some time at the park where there were fountains that shot water out of the ground for the kids to run through.... sort of like a super sprinkler.

 Donovan

 Patrick (or Bubs, as he told me he preferred)

 Annie

Emaline

The kids also swam at the rec center where Gemma and Emaline took time out to rock climb.... a big deal for Emaline since she isn't fond of heights.

The kids had a great time together.  Patrick was enamored with Donovan, and Donovan doted on Patrick.  Emaline and Donovan became best buddies, as did Gemma and Annie.  Ainsleigh is not in a lot of the pictures because she was at a ballet workshop for most of the day, but in the evenings she joined in the fun.

Mark surprised us by showing up on Thursday night, and everyone was ecstatic.  Emaline put it best, "Just when I didn't think this trip could get any better, it did!"

We hiked to Devil's Head and Emaline made it up the flight of stairs to the Ranger Station, even with her fear of heights!

 Grandpa enjoyed helping Gemma and Annie make it to the top.

 Patrick, Annie, Emaline, Dono, and Gemma enjoy a snack before ascending the stairs.

 Dave Whitley, Sarah, Gemma, Emaline, Annie.  Allison waited below with Patrick until Mark and I could come down and switch with her.

 Done with the ranger at the fire lookout.

 Patrick did not go up the stairs, so after Mark and I went up, we came back down to hang out with him so Allison could go to the top.

When Mark showed up, he brought an arsenal of fireworks for us to set off on Friday night, leaving Saturday night for us to enjoy the Highlands Ranch fireworks display.

 Ainsleigh

 Annie really enjoyed her ice cream cone.

 Bubs

 Dono

 Sparklers!

Bringing out the big stuff!

Saturday night's professional fireworks:

On Sunday, before we left for the airport, we took a little time for pictures.

 Emaline doesn't really like having her picture taken.  She seemed more comfortable with Albus:

 Gemma

 Patrick

 Annie

Ainsleigh and Albus

I'm not sure how I missed getting a picture of Donovan, but I took one of him when I visited in April and posted it in that blog post, so I guess that will have to do!

Then we took some group shots:

 The grandchildren.

 Adding in Grandpa and Grandma.  And Albus.

The Whitleys:  Annie, Dave, Patrick, Allison, and Emaline.

I was there for five days and Allison's family was there for ten.  It was really sad for them to leave, but hopefully they can continue to meet up now and then for some cousin time.