Day 2 of Houston- Kemah & Friends

The next morning we woke up to the sun shining and back to Houston humidity. I had never been to Kemah and I heard that it had been rebuilt since the hurricane. Let me just say that there was NO evidence of a hurricane ever destroying the boardwalk. It looked great and all the businesses were open. We started off with a little shopping while we waited for my college roommate (all 4 years) to get there with her 2 little boys.

Shonna with her 2 little boys, Shonna's mom, Nana, Riley, Alex, & April

After they arrived, I allowed the children to play in the splash fountain. At first, Alex wasn't too sure of it getting her wet, but eventually they were both soaked.

It makes me laugh to think how kids can have hours of fun with nothing but water!

Gampa had to do a little prompting to get Alex involved at first.

After they were soaked and Shonna had to leave, we headed over to the gaming area. I let Riley pick any one ride. He chose the train. I personally think he made a great decision because all of us were able to ride the train and it was about a 10 minute ride versus the other rides that last 30 seconds.

Everyone was really hot at this point and starting to get grumpy.

After the train we went to lunch at The Lighthouse for a seafood buffet. It was wonderful! Everything tasted so good and the air conditioning felt wonderful to us dry adults. Unfortunately it wasn't long and Riley started complaining of freezing. I guess that is what you get when you are soaking wet!

Now that our bellies were full it was time to head back to the hotel, change into dry clothes, and squeeze in some nap time. Following some much needed naps, we headed to see another college roommate, Amanda, and her family. It was so good catching up with everyone. Its hard to believe that at one time these girls knew everyone I did and went almost everywhere I went. Yet I hadn't seen Amanda since she was pregnant with her son and now she is a mommy of 3. Who would have ever thought?

Sadly the next morning was time to head home. On the way, we stopped to see Christy again and meet her little boy and see her gorgeous house. What a cutie pie that little boy was! It is funny he weighs the same as Alex but feels so much heavier. He is just solid, but so cute! I was really impressed with her new house. I think she is going to love that floor plan with a play room right off the family room for years to come. I can't wait to go back down there and spend hours in that room talking while our kids play in the play room. Hopefully it won't take me another 4 years to make it back to Houston.

NASA

My first week of summer my parents, the kids, and I headed down to Houston for a little sight seeing & catching up with old roommates. First stop was NASA. Our church's VBS this summer is space themed, so we thought how better to get it all started than to find out about the real rocketships & space. We arrived first thing that morning and met up with one of my best friends from college, Christy, and her little girl. The 3 kids hanging out in a rocketship
Riley & the astronaunt

As we entered the ticket taker, nicely made up a whole schedule for us to hit all the key spots in a great order. The only problem was that as we headed to the outside tour of Mission Control, it started to pour down rain. So much for our schedule. We wandered around and saw a simulation of the inside of a spaceship. Then the kids needed to work on some energy in the children's play area. Alex had a "ball" stuffing all the balls into the rocketship.

Riley & I had our own ball war

Allyson & Alex looking so sweet

Future President? This was the podium that John F. Kennedy delivered the first address about an American being in space.

Or maybe Alex is the first female president?

Nana, Alex, Mommy, & Riley

The whole family with the rocketship (minus Randy- who was playing paintball in OK)

By watching on TV, you know the space shuttles are huge, but I don't think you can ever truly grasp just HOW HUGE they really are. Unfortunately the kids were all hungry and tired by the time we reached this point on the tour.

Alex throwing one of her many fits of the trip. She is already going through the terrible 2's!

Did I say these things were huge???

Riley with a few strange space creatures, but I don't think these are the type we would really find in space.

Truck Races in June

The kids came home on Thursday June 3 and then my last day of school with kids was Friday June 4th. So that night we took Riley to the truck races. He loves cars and races, so he was really excited about heading out to the Texas Motor Speedway. We left Alex at home with Grandma Karyn and Papaw Richard and headed to the track. We hadn't bought tickets ahead of time, but we knew the track wouldn't be that crowded. Boy, were we surprised when we were standing in line to get tickets and a man walked up to us and asked us how many tickets we needed. We answered 3 and he handed us 3 free tickets. Did I mention how much I love NASCAR fans????

The Remax Skydiving team during the opening ceremony.

Then it was finally time for the race to begin. The truck races are nice to take Riley to because they are not quite as loud and way shorter.

Still toward the end of the race, he began asking if we could go home now. What can you expect from an almost 5 year old? Then he told us next time we could just leave him at home with Alex. I'll bet next time we get ready to head to the track without him, he will change his tune!

Wedding Reception in Austin

Memorial Day weekend was Randy's buddy, Steve's, wedding reception in Austin. The kids were out of town for the week in Florida with Grandma Karyn, so Randy and I headed down on Saturday morning. The reception was held at a park in Pfluggerville, so we wore our shorts and just enjoyed each other's company. Tiffany & I


The Groom, on the phone with one of their buddies who had to work

After the reception, 4 of us headed to Sixth Street in Austin. While there, I decided that you were old if your skirt did not cover your butt. It is bad when even the guys were commenting on just how too short the skirts were. In spite of being old, we had a good time people watching. It was a bit concerning when as we were leaving, Randy reminded me that in 16 years our daughter will be old to enough to be on 6th street. Old enough, but NOT ALLOWED!

The next morning we got up and met some friends at The Oasis. The Oasis reminds me a lot of Joe T Garcia's because it has gorgeous views, with pricey food, and the food just tastes so-so. Either way we had a great time and enjoyed eating our brunch/lunch overlooking beautiful Lake Travis.
James & Jane

Randy & I

One of the beautiful homes built into the hills along side Lake Travis.

After lunch, Randy & I drove in to San Antonio to meet up with another set of friends. Greg & Christine, who have been dating FOREVER, had finally gotten engaged the night before. I am SOO happy for them. They are perfect together and now we will have an excuse for another adults only vacation to the beach! We weren't sure what all we wanted to do while there, but quickly came to the conclusion that we all just wanted to lay by the pool and be lazy. I haven't done that in ages without having to constantly watch the kids and make sure no one is drowning. After relaxing for a few hours, Christine and I headed in to take a quick shower before heading down to the riverwalk for dinner. Except mine turned out to be not so quick. I took my clothes off in the room and then walked in the bathroom closing the door behind me so that the steam could make the bathroom really warm. As I turned the knob on the shower, the whole thing broke off in my hand! First I tried to put it back on, but I couldn't get it to turn past cold water. So I got out of the shower and decided to call Randy at the pool. Then it got really interesting. I couldn't get the bathroom door open! I was naked, stuck in the bathroom with the only room key, and Randy laying by the pool!

Luckily after several forceful thrusts, I got the bathroom door opened. Quickly I called Randy. His response, of course, was "What do you want me to do about it? Call maintenance." So I got dressed and called maintenance. He came immediately, but was completely confused as to how to fix it. Randy finally convinced him to just answer his other 5 requests that came in while he was in the room and come back after we left for dinner. In the meantime Randy rigged it so that we could at least take a shower and head to dinner.

That night for dinner, we all decided that we had enough Mexican and wanted steak. I called Saltgrass to make reservations, but was told that they were no longer accepting reservations for that night. We decided to eat there anyway, even with an hour wait. Again someone was watching over us, because our wait was only 30 minutes. We didn't even have a chance to order drinks and get the cheese fries that we ordered. Interestingly we did learn that night that by eating on the riverwalk means that your normal meals costs $3-4 more a piece and NO STEAK SOUP! But everything was still yummy. Then we headed over to spend the rest of our evening at Pat O'Brians. We had a great time hanging out and just being adults with no kids. But by the time we got home, I was beginning to miss my babies. Luckily I had 4 super busy work days ahead of me to make sure that I did not have time to miss them too much.

Scarborough Faire

Bear with me a little...Now that school is out and we are home from our first mini-vacation, I am going to try to catch up with all our latest activities. So you may see LOTS of posts in the next few days.

Randy and I were able to steal away one day sans kids and finally dress in garb for the first time in a year. This was our Blazing Sun Crew Day at Scarborough Faire. Our day was cut short because we felt it was important to be at Riley's soccer game that morning. But then our afternoon was filled with friends and fun. We didn't take in any of the shows, but we did walk the whole park, and learned a new dice game at the East Wind Games Booth. Randy, Me, and Curtis the Red, our Ship's Captain

These armor pieces were bought pre-children days 8 years ago. It is pretty amazing that they still fit, although not quite the way they did the day Randy proposed to me.Oct. 4, 2003

Sky Ranch Camp

Sky Ranch camp was awesome this year! I wish I could say it went off without a hitch, but nothing ever does. Since I have been to camp several years in a row, this year I was most facinated with the wildlife (and I don't mean the ones we brought with us from Bluebonnet!). Plus they don't mind if you post their pictures on the internet. So here is some of the fun things I saw. In our Limnology class, we saw this turtle. Last year I got to hold him, but this year he has new partner that he does not like! Needless to say, his area was really stinky and I had no desire to hold him! Then on our way back to the cabin the first afternoon, I saw this little fellow.
During our game of Clue, I found these wild creatures. Actually they are better known as my fellow teachers and principal. Can you guess which one committed the murder? I heard it was the Chef in the kitchen!

At dinner the first night, we had 2 kids get sick from dehydration and then our principal twisted her ankle. Mrs. Rutter performed our medical duties. Although I don't think we needed the masks. We were looking for a first aid kit, but all we found was the contaminable blood pathogens kit.

At breakfast the next morning, I had to take a picture of this strawberry. I seriously think they were put on steroids!

While the kids were playing during Skrazy time, we were watching the mama bird feed her babies. I don't think she cared too much for us sitting there. She kept flying back to check on her babies before finding another worm.

Our 2nd day is all about walking! Actually it is the Native Americans class & Texas History, but we have to hike a ways into the woods to get to the classes.

At the end of the Native Americans Class, they have a naming ceremony and a friendship face painting. The kids are so quiet. It always amazes me. This year the teachers got their faces painted too! Here were the 4 of us that attended this class together.

On our way back to headquarters, the teachers got distracted and decided to try out part of the challenges course.

We returned home on Wednesday tired, but with lots of great memories. It may be a TON of work, but it is so worth it to see the smiles on the kids' faces.

End of Soccer Season

Oh my, we(mostly I) have been so busy lately. So I am way behind on posting updates. For starters, Riley's soccer season ended two weekends ago. We had a make-up game on Friday night and then the final game on Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately the last two games were against some really weak teams. Poor Riley was actually bored on the soccer field. I know that he was bored because he was running in circles and singing on the soccer field!!! But he still managed to keep his game scoring average around 6 goals a game. We are so proud of him! This game also marked the end of his days in the 3-4 year old league. Saturday was truly a bittersweet day. Life has been busy and I was glad for the end of soccer season, but oh how I missed having the game this Saturday. Then I know that he will move up into a new league with some talent. It will be interesting to watch how Riley develops & handles having some real competition. After the game we rushed out to help my parents move. My parents moved from their house of 35 years! This was the only house I had ever grown up in. I am super excited for them getting a new house and I LOVE having them only 10 minutes away, but it was kind of sad to leave behind all those memories. We spent all day Saturday moving boxes! (The movers moved the furniture on Monday)

Alex decided that she could help carry the chairs too!
Sunday was Mother's Day, but I didn't hardly have time to think about that. I had to pack and make sure everything was ready for camp. On Monday I left for 3 days to go to Sky Ranch Camp with 120 kids & 30 chaperones. This was my first year to be in charge & I was so nervous about everything. Sunday was spent running errands and playing catch up. We did manage to squeeze in a visit to some friends of ours who had just had a newborn baby boy! He was so sweet & big! 9 pounds! We joked that my kids were 3 months old before they were that big. It was nice to hold a sweet newborn, but my mommy instinct did not kick in. I am officially done. My two keep me busy enough! After our visit, my parents met us at Sake. It is a great Japanese Hibachi place in South Arlington that we all love. Again I did not take any pictures. But I can tell you that my kids LOVE Japanese & Chinese food. They make me laugh with how much food they will eat! It was the perfect ending to a busy mother's day. Randy did manage to buy me a card, but he forgot to sign it. I guess I can't say too much, I never bought my mom a card. It was just too much going on!