The FOURTH Week of Summer

Fourth Week of Summer!!!!

(June 17th-June 23rd)

The 4th week of summer was a little bit quieter, as we had our BIG Florida & Illinois vacation coming up the next week, so we stayed around the house.....

Father's Day was nice & low-key with a movie (Bubba's first - Madagascar 3 and dinner out!).

And threw a surprise party for my sweet friend - her hubby was in on it and she wasn't quite happy with being plucked out of her home on a Sunday night when all she really wanted to do was put on her pjs and watch True Blood..... 

But she came around and had a great time!

On Monday afternoon, we had the pleasure of staying at the Lakeway Resort & Spa on Lake Travis for the night for R We There Yet Mom.

They had a gorgeous pool and b/c it was a Monday, hardly anyone was there - we had the waterside to ourselves the whole afternoon.

The slide was fun and we had a blast.
I went down the slide over & over and each time I slid around in circles.

They had a 21 & up pool - I'd be lying if I said I wasn't the tiniest bit jealous of these ladies drinking their margaritas.......

It actually was a gorgeous, peaceful resort that we loved staying at.  That evening, we had dinner in their "fancy" restaurant, where Bubba looked out the windows all dinner....

The view was amazing!

And THIS momma enjoyed a glass of wine....

I had a Shirley Temple!

After dinner, we took a walk around the resort and hung out on this balcony watching the boats on Lake Travis and the beautiful sunset - see what I mean about peaceful??

It was extremely loud - the boats. (??) I wanted to know why the docks were not connected to the land.

At one point, I found the perfect lighting for pictures, so I lined the kids up - Bubba is saying, "cheese" for this one.

But then something on the lake catches his eye......

BOAT!!!!

He screamed every time he saw a boat!
I wasn't paying attention......

The next day, we were asked to check out their Kid's Zone, where we found a GaGa Pit - my kids LOVE GaGa - it is basically dodgeball from the knees down.  And it is soooooooooo much fun.  I totally cam home wanting to build my own GaGa pit in our backyard - seriously, I looked up plans online......

Best. Game. EVER!
This was the first time I had ever played it after hearing mom & Sis talk about it for over a year! I played over & over.

The rest of the week flew by as we prepared for vacation - lots of laundry, cleaning, and packing.  But I did find time to make everyone some Car Ride Packs - snacks, activity books, 20 Questions, and a Traveling Photo Scavenger Hunt.

The hardest thing to find was a motorcycle with a sidecar.

We started out all smiles.....

I was so excited!!  Really??  I really was!

Especially this one - I am so lucky to have kids who don't mind traveling long distances in the car......

I attempted to get a picture of every state sign - I think this is the only one I got......

As soon as you drove into Louisiana, you saw swamps everywhere, so were were on the lookout for some alligators.....

We didn't find any though mom!

But all we found was this lonely tiger at a gas station.....  Apparently, it's a mascot?

Sissy provided commentary in pink.

Brody provided commentary in blue.

The FIRST Week of Summer

The SECOND Week of Summer

The THIRD Week of Summer

A 5th Grade Graduate

My baby girl "graduated" from elementary school in May.  I used to laugh at the thought of celebrating a graduation from 5th grade - I mean, big deal - everyone moves from 5th to 6th grade...what do we need a graduation?

And then you see a picture like this:

And you realize how much change and growth has occurred in the past 6 years.  ANd yes, there does deserve to be a graduation!

Sis started at this elementary school in 2nd grade.  On the first day of school, she met her best friend. They were wearing the same outfit and lived 5 doors apart.  They have been inseparable for the past 4 years.

We just had to recreate this sweet photo on the last day of school back in Mrs. Eddin's old room.  My how they have changed!!

Morganne has been blessed to have met lots of sweet friends over the past few years - just a great group of girls who care more about books and soccer than they do clothes or boys yet.  I know it's coming, but it can take it's time......

The last day of school was jam packed with activities - Pizza Party & Games, a march through the hall ways for the last time (not a dry eye out of these parents) and a countdown to the last bell on the blacktop outside.  Sis was all smiles...Mom? Not so much!

Graduation was on Thursday - a wonderful celebration honoring academic awards and extra-curricular activities.

All A's and Perfect Attendance for the Whole Year!!  She also was the Secretary on the Student Council and a part of Safety Patrol, among other activities she participated in this past year.

She had a wonderful, sweet teacher that we loved - Mrs. Vandiver was the perfect 5th grade teacher - very encouraging and patient.  We loved her!!

I'm so incredibly proud of the young lady she has become.  She is sweet and helpful and empathetic and funny.  I love who she has become.

Am I nervous about her moving on to Middle School?  Yes and No.  I know she is ready - she is confident and excited to go.  But she is my baby girl - my first - and this is a big move.  She is going to be moving on to a big school with big kids and big talk....... How can I keep her sheltered?  I can't and I know that. I just have to be confident that I have raised her to make good decisions.  It's just hard to see your oldest grow up so fast......

In the meantime, I am going to enjoy every minute with her this summer.....my big girl.....

The THIRD Week of Summer

Third Week of Summer!!!!

(June 10th-16th)

The third week of summer was a BIG one for us!  Grandma Texas (or Ba-Ba as Ian calls her) joined us for a week-long adventure! We traveled down to New Braunfels for our first "official" press trip for R We There Yet Mom! Woo-HOO!!!

We made a quick stop at Cabela's on the way down.  This happens to be Matt's favorite store....... So we needed to check it out.  We honestly had the best time - they have this aquarium with HUGE fish that Bubba loved.

And throughout the store are tons of animals - yep, their stuffed - to look at in various settings.  OUr favorite was the Texas animals - they had all these unusual deer with crazy antlers.  We spent quite a bit of time there - more than I thought we would.
I really wanted an air soft gun but mom said no.

Day 1 of our NB Adventure was at Natural Bridge Wildlife Park. SO MUCH FUN y'all.  It's a drive through Safari - animals come right up to your car to be fed. I hadn't done this in years and the kids had never done it, so we had a blast.

The Zebras were hysterical - first you come across this sign that says, "WARNING - Zebras Bite!" so you are a little bit nervous when they come right up to your car window and do this!!  This guy licked my steering wheel, chewed on my rearview mirror and looked at me as if to say "lady, feed me!!" We laughed so hard - and tended to get a bit braver after that. My mom attempted to pet an ostrich who turned and hissed at her.  She may have shouted an expletive and told me to floor it after that.....
The zebras were so funny!
One of the animals stuck his whole head in mom's car.  I fed one food and he had the slimiest tongue.

After our adventures there, had a wonderful tour of the Natural Bridge Caverns.  These are my favorite caverns in Texas - there are so many beautiful structures to see. You go 180 feet below the surface and then climb back up.  Last time we visited I was pregnant with Bubba.  This time, I got to carry him back out again - all 31 pounds of him.  Whew.
I went on a zip line - it was the first one I ever did.

The first time we went, we didn't get to see the formation that looked like a jellyfish.

Mom made us take this picture too many times.

Day two in NB was a day at Schlitterbahn - LOVE this place - this is the second time this summer in 2 weeks that we went.  I hesitated taking the kids for the past few years b/c of Bubba - I figure there was nothing for him to do there - I was so wrong!  Schlitterbahn has 4 different parks that you can go in & out of - each one had something for the big kids that they loved and something for Bubba that he loved.
My favorite part was the torrent wave pool- the waves were gigantic - you could go over & over & over.
My favorite part was when I beat my Mom and Grandma Texas on the Falls.

It was a pretty full day........

Day three started at Naegelin's Bakery - New Braunfels is an old Texas German town filled with wonderful restaurants and bakeries - like this one - yummy donuts & kolaches!
The donuts were good.

We then headed over to the McKenna's Children's Museum. I love how many towns have wonderful, hands-on museums for kids to play at for hours on end. This museum was no exception.  It had a kid-sized grocery store, a teepee, an ambulance to drive, an ATM to take "cash" out of it - and a great outdoor climbing structure that we couldn't keep Bubba off once he discovered it.
This place was awesome. just awesome.

The museum was a bit on the young side, so Sis played with Bubba and Brody was busy making structures out of foam blocks the whole time.  His little engineering mind never ceases to amaze me.....
This ramp took me the whole morning to make - the museum people even took a picture of it.

We stumbled across the New Braunfels Railroad Museum while we were downtown and stopped in.  They had an incredible miniature train setup that was wonderful and real train cars to climb through.
I got to ring the bell of an old engine.

Day three continued with a ride on the Landa Park train - I used to ride this train as a wee one so it was fun to take my kids on it too.
The train was fun - the conductors fed the squirrels nuts.  Squirrels would run up to the train to get a nut - it was crazy!

Bubba was thrilled to go on the train.......

As was Sis....texting the whole ride - is this a glimpse of what I have to look forward to?
I was texting a friend mom!

We headed home on Thursday and had a restful Friday.  So restful, that Bubba asked for a snack and then proceeded to put himself down for a nap. Don't you hate falling asleep in the middle of snack?

Saturday we were invited over to the best party! Matt was asked to be one of 3 judges at a Rib Cook-off.  He said it was hard to choose and he was right - y'all these were the best ribs I had EVER had!

The winner won the right to keep the highly coveted silver spatula for the year.  We decided we will never compete - seriously amazing ribs - but will lobby to judge them year after year.....

So that was week three - are you picking up on a theme here???  Busy Busy Busy!

Sissy provided commentary in pink.

Brody provided commentary in blue.

The FIRST Week of Summer
The Second Week of Summer

The SECOND Week of Summer

Second Week of Summer!!!!

(June 3rd-June 9th)

The Second week of summer didn't start off as crazy as the first week.  Brody enjoyed Webloes Scout  Camp all week, so we took it easy and enjoyed the days of rest. Well, sort of.

Camp was fun - I liked the part where we got to shoot the bow & arrows.  And bb guns too.  Anything else? no.

Can you believe that I have lived in Austin for over 4 years and NOT been to the Austin Zoo? Had to rectify that one! The Austin Zoo is filled with rescued animals - I mean who takes home a tiger or a porcupine for a pet anyway?
Ian loved it.

It was a great little zoo with lots to see and plenty of shade (a necessity in the almost-100 degree heat of that June day).  We tried to get there as early as possible to see the animals before it became too hot.  And we succeeded.
It got hot but it was worth it.

The thing we loved the most about the Austin Zoo? You can get up close and personal to the animals.  This is the closest I have ever been to a lion - it was amazing.

That same evening was another first for us - an outdoor Austin concert experience - Foster the People, Kimbra, & The Kooks at The Backyard in Bee Caves.  Such a cool, cool experience.

We met fun friends there for the concert - it was a fun way to kick off summer for the adults.  Foster the People put on an awesome show - very entertaining.  The hour wait just to leave the parking lot after the concert? Not so much.

We tried yet another first later that week - we took a trip to the Pioneer Farms in Austin - 6 different settlements that span over 70 years of history are set up on the Farms.
This looks like a goat but it was actually a sheep - a hairless one that acted like a dog. 

Complete with docents who love to tell you all about the time period - how they farmed and cooked, where they slept with 13 children, how they black-smithed.  We all enjoyed it.
They still had all the tools that they used to cook and hunt - there was a 300 year old tree that had been struck by lightening.

It was a fun afternoon with the girls!

We quickly jumped back into the future as my pre-teen attempted to accessorize at the jewelry store - Not so much sweetie.
I looked like Elvis Presley.

One last FIRST for the week!! Every since we moved here, we had been told we MUST two-step at the Broken Spoke, one of Austin's original C&W bars - been around since the 70's.  Low ceilings, small dance floor, but big crowds of friendly people.  We had a blast.

I taught our British friends the Cotton-Eye Joe. (SO FUN!) My main man even took me for a dance or two around the floor.  We were pretty rusty - when we first dated (way back in the early 90s), we danced every weekend.  We were not quite Dancing with the Stars material that night, but we laughed our butts off - we needed the fun night out!

Definitely a fun-filled week of Austin firsts!  We didn't quite slow down, but we enjoyed it!

Sissy provided commentary in pink.

Brody provided commentary in blue.


The FIRST Week of Summer