Reunited

          If you have not figured this out by now, Mandy and the kids are home from Qatar for a few weeks--or 6 or something.  Who knows--time does not have its normal value when she is home.  On Heath's first day off since she got here, we had all the kids over for a cookout and pool time.  They are all such hams, it is a riot to watch it all unfold.

 Crews has a crush on Heath---he kept swimming to him, which in itself is funny.  He is not even three but he is quite the swimmer already.  Mostly he sinks and swims under water, but it does not phase him at all and eventually he bobs back up to the top.  That is just how he swims.  It works for him.

 We finally figured out that the tapping on the back of his head is about water getting up his nose. We thought his goggles strap was irritating him, but instead, we think he is trying to knock the water out of his nose by wacking himself on the back of the head.  Makes sense after you think about it for a while, but it took all night to figure that out.  Ethan is really good with him too.

Crews likes being thrown in the pool as much as Gabi always did.  He is definitely a Clark--they both are.

        Gabe is as much of a water baby as the little ones are-- he spends most of his time jumping off of, being thrown off of, or flipping off of something.

    I am pretty sure that wears Ethan out after a while, but he is a good sport.

And thank God Heath has boy baby experience, because I sure would not have known what to do with a 2 year old in a banana hammock when he needed to pee RIGHT NOW.  Another sign Crewser is a Clark--he has no shame, and will strip off wherever and whenever he chooses, just like the rest of us.

Finally we got out of the pool to eat.   While Mandy Heath and I were caught up in the conversation in the family room, we noticed it was really quiet.

So we snuck up on them---they were all in their own individual worlds.

                                     
          It took about 15 tires to get most of them looking at the camera--I finally gave up. This is as close as I could get to getting them all looking the same direction at once.

I think some little man has a crush on a big one---- Crews is absolutely obsessed with Ethan.  It is pretty cute, and E is very tolerant of whatever insanity is coming out of Crewser's mouth at any given time.  He is a funny little man, and has found a good audience in Heath's kids. 

Mandy and the kids are jam packed with commitments while they are home, and are running all over the country for the next few weeks, so we will not have many opportunites to get everyone together, but we do have a few things slated to do this week.  Gabe asked about having them spend the night, so I am trying to put it all together for this weekend---