Then tonight Ted got some presents and got to indulge in his favorite cake, carrot cake.
All in all, a great week of celebrating Ted! Here's a few recent pictures of Ted and the kids that I really like...
Thanks, Ted, for being the wonderful husband and father that you are. We love you!
Paxton was very excited to see his big sister again. And she was pretty excited to see him too.
We also enjoyed spending some time with Mema and Papa,
and Auntie, 
and those crazy cousins!
Gee Gee took advantage of the fact that another adult was around and took us all to the zoo!
We went to the zoo in Lufkin this year. It was really nice and had a super cool train that you could ride around the zoo.
Waiting for the train ride to begin...
The only not-cool part of the train ride was the train whistles that Gee Gee bought the girls. What was she thinking? I think I have some permanent hearing loss.
Paxton liked riding with his cousin Ella.
Chillin' with the monkeys (the real monkeys, not just the girls...)
Taking a break to eat
Paxton thought Avery was pretty funny!
Gee Gee and the 4 "goobers"
Since it was ridiculously hot during the day, we did quite a bit of swimming too.
And Pa and Paxton got in some male bonding time.
Paxton loves the water and only got upset when he couldn't reach past his floaty to splash. But the girls splashed enough to keep him happy!
Madigan discovered that she could touch the bottom of the pool, so she would "swim" on her tiptoes across the pool.
We had a great time and only had problems when it was time to leave! Too bad Camp Pa and Gee Gee isn't year round. Of course, then the girls would never hear the word "no" and be ruined for life. :)
Thanks Pa and Gee Gee for all of the fun, love and memories. We love you and LOVE Camp Pa and Gee Gee!!!!
The girls reconnected with nature. 
Here's Avery playing in the dirt,
Ella making a masterpiece out of the sand,
and Madigan... playing her cousin's Nintendo DS.
Here's a shot of them in the trailer...with Madigan playing her Nintendo DS.
Thankfully, they finally broke her away from the electronics and experiment with some fishing. Ella looking like a real fisherwoman (and I should note that she DID catch a fish!)
Avery - a fisherwoman from way back...
and Madigan fishing?! Hey, everyone has their own style. :)
The girls had a blast "roughing it" (in the air conditioned trailer, of course) and had lots of good stories to tell.
On Tuesday, they arrived back at my parents and continued "camp" from their house. They had arts/crafts time each day...
and came home with some pretty cool stepping stones and sand art!
Avery, the oldest cousin, got to experiment with driving the Yard Bug. Watch out!!
Gee Gee also had them help with some clean up. 
As you can see, that went over well with Madigan.
In addition to all of the fun, the girls also ate...
and ate...
and ate...
and ate...
and ate. I'm not sure there was any food left in my parents' house by the time the girls left!
But probably the coolest thing for the girls was playing in the brand new playhouse that my parents had built as a surprise for the girls.
They let each girl decorate one board on the playhouse. Here's Madi's...
On Wednesday, Paxton and I crashed Camp Pa and Gee Gee's and spent 2 days hanging out. I have a lot of pictures from that, but I'll save them for the next post. Stay tuned for Camp Pa and Gee Gee's - Part 2!