Fun family times

We dressed up as cows and went to Chick Fil-A for free meals on their annual Cow Appreciation Day in July.  The kids had a lot of fun with it, and Rachel was excited to help make our costumes.  I just made spots out of fleece and safety-pinned them on, and made (pathetic) cow ear hats.  We went in the middle of the afternoon (after the lunch rush) and stayed for nearly two hours while the kids made friends, played in the play place, and watched as all sorts of cow customers came in.  We were still there when Brandon was headed home from work, so he met us there and we (mostly Rachel) convinced him to put on a cow sign and ears so he could get some free food too.

The only good thing about summer here besides swimming is the monsoon storms and haboobs (dust storms).  One Saturday when we were all home as a family, it rained really hard all afternoon.  I remember getting Andrew after his hap and taking him to the back patio and just sitting together watching the rain.  In the desert, we don't get much weather action other than sunshine, so it's exciting when something else happens!  There was so much rain that we later discovered there was a large river flowing down the sides of our street.  We grabbed our plastic boats and headed outside to play in the rain.  We all got soaked, but had so much fun sending things down the "river" and playing in the water.  It was one of those moments where I felt complete joy just to be with my little family of four (almost five), and I was just taking it all in.