AUSTIN and MATT

austin and matt came down Tuesday evening to

spend the night and than head to a water park the next day. i promised austin (the one on the right) about a year ago that i would take him and matt to a water park for their birthdays....and finally we got to go. Tuesday night we went over to NWC for a spell....the boys played basketball till, I quote; "my shirt is flaming hot lava" (matt). they also played 2 on 1 against one of the ball players from the mens team. i guess, according to the boys, they won 8-7 and the guy they played wasn't a good shooter. fun times. that night we went to Chucky Cheese and had some pizza and played some games! they laughed lots. and got to take home a little airplane and a bug ring from all the tickets they won.

as i tucked the boys in i told them to not be scared if they woke up in the middle of the night and to remember they were at my house and not theirs. they told me to leave the bathroom light just in case. so...at about 5:00 a.m. austin was tugging at me saying "joann, it's time to go to the water park...get up'. are you serious?...@ 5 in the morning. nutty how excited he was to get up and go play in the water. well while austin and i were having a conversation about how the water park needed to wait til light time Matt must have heard us and fell out of bed. he made a big noise. so when i went into the room i expected him to burst out crying and when i turned the light on he was still sleeping. are you serious....he slept through it. anyway - thank goodness they both went back to sleep til 6:59 when i had both of them tugging at the covers asking for breakfast and the water park.

finally- Grand Rios and the water park here we come. the first thing they did was stand under the big bucket of water than dumps out a whole lot of gallons of water on top of you. the boys didn't stop...they went from small water slides to the pool with the basketball hoop and surf boards, to the tube slide to the lazy river (or lazy lake is what austin called it). non-stop. i forced them to take a potty break, and they didnt like it. I also forced them to eat lunch- and they didn't like it. all they wanted to do was play. at one point matt took a pretty nasty spill at the end of the slide and it took me about an hour to encourage him to start up again. and every once in awhile i convinced them that the hot tub was the place to be....oh that was bliss! much needed bliss. chasing them around was a riot; and hard work too. but well worth it. there is something extra special about seeing your nephews smile from ear to ear, knowing that i (there old crazy aunt) had something to do with it. the cool part of the day was that when we arrive a lady met us at the door and offered us two free passes...i guess she got them with the hotel room her family rented but they were not staying to use the park and didn't want them to go to waste- so i scored huge....and saved my pocket book some major cash. love that! the boys were great. they did everything i asked them to do- and they didnt complain if they didnt get their way and they even shared....thats right, they shared! i am so proud of my nephews. and i love being around them. it makes me want to be a mom more, and that feeling is hard since i am no where near that happening....but i guess being a aunt is a pretty good deal. i got to send them home, and tonight (Thursday) i got to take a nap cuz they wore me out. big time. good times in the water. peace.