And then there were four

We're home, safe and sound, except for a bunch of lingering mosquito bites. It's usually nice to get home after a trip, but this time it's just way too quiet with our puny group of four and we're all missing the Texas family like crazy. A few trip highlights, in pictures: The girls could not wait to get there. They asked if we were going to Texas every single day for weeks, then insisted on pushing the luggage cart since we were clearly too slow. They were little angels on the plane ride out there (the same could not exactly be said for the plane ride home, ahem): The eight cousins started playing like they'd just seen each other yesterday. It was a rare moment when they weren't all moving in a hundred directions, but we did get them all to pause on the stairs for a minute so we could snap a group shot: The weather in Texas was perfect this week, so we got to splash in the water almost every day, at three local waterparks (three!! the girls want to move there today): We ate well (understatement of the year). Ahhhhh: There were numerous injuries, too many to count. Here's Ree sporting her collision-induced bloody nose and tough-girl look: We found matching outfits for the kiddos and got a good shot of them all together. I'm thinking this one might get framed and hung on Ma and Pa's wall! We saw the TerraCotta Warriors exhibit from China at the museum, wow that was some luck. We also frolicked with butterflies and spent a lot of time counting mosquito bites, which according to the museum, could have come from any one of the 55 local species. And the kids played and played and played some more: The last day came much too soon, and we sadly said goodbye and headed for home: Great, great trip. We miss everyone and hope to see y'all again soon. I have about a zillion more pics, which can be seen here (thumbnails, detail, slideshow). All the pics were taken with the purse camera, since we didn't want to lug the big D300. Also, the quote of the trip came from Ro, who was walking around the museum surreptitiously scratching her hiney. At one point she came up to me, sweetly put her hand in mine, then looked at our hands, grinned up at me and said "Mama, my fingers smell like butt." Gah!!