Summer comes to an end...

The beginning of August Dave and the boys came for a visit. While they were here we did a couple of fun things and below are some of the pictures of what we did...

The kids at the Space Center Houston.

The Space Center had a special visitor that day...they were excited!

On another day we visited a fire museum...this is not the best picture but they were on a very old fire engine. This place was small and didn't take much time to go through, but was still interesting.

D getting ready to slide down the fire pool.

Back at the Space Center...C is being shown how to hold onto the trapeze before he climbed the stairs and swung high above. Then they let go and fall on a BIG blow-up thingy-ma-jig. He did a great job!

Emma and D climbed through the Spider Web. D did really well, and Emma did great herself. She kept at it and D even helped her.

This wraps up our summer of activities. Now we're getting ready for Emma's last year of preschool to start next week. I can't believe next year I'll be filling out paperwork for Kindergarten!

Pictures of California...

Cute Kellen. We just love her!

Emma and Jay enjoying their Popsicles

Daddy, Emma and her friends

Barry, Emma and her cousin at the Discovery Science Center in California

Cousin climbing the rock wall

Emma's got strong arms!

Kids being kids at the park

Emma and her newest cousin Kellen

All's Quiet on the Texan Front...

Well, we never got the hurricane, just lots of rain on Tuesday.

After a very fun week, and lots of activity, Dave and the boys flew home to CA on Saturday. Barry and I knew it would be hard to watch them go...it was certainly strange coming back from the airport and having it be empty and quiet in the house. Now we are adjusting to getting back into a routine and getting ready for school to start on August 27th.

I'll share more later about this week, but wanted to share some pictures from our trip to CA...

I'm Back...

Yes, it's been several weeks since I've blogged but I was on vacation in sunny Southern California. We left on Saturday the 12th and Barry was with us for a week and then had to fly back to Texas on the 21st, while Emma and I remained in CA until August 1st. The great thing was we were able to coordinate our flight home with my brother-in-law and his two boys, which are visiting with us until Saturday. The kids did so well on the plane, all three sat together and it was really sweet to watch them play, share and interact together. There was so much excitement!

We had such a great time in CA (pictures to follow) and now we're having a great time with Dave and the boys...they all get along so well and have been enjoying a slumber party the last few nights. Although, tonight everybody decided to "take a break" and all went to their separate rooms.

We're expecting a BIG storm tonight/tomorrow...there's a hurricane forming in the Gulf, so we've done some minor preparation for the storm to come through. We did have some rain, thunder and lightning early this evening, but not much of anything. The kids have loved standing at the window and watching the weather.

The kids and I made Monkey Munch tonight and then got to enjoy some of it. Yum...

I'll post pictures when I get a chance to take them off the camera...until then....

The 4th of July...

Yesterday we went to our friends house for a BBQ and fireworks. In all there were three families, with a total of 5 girls...no boys, except of course for the daddies! The kids had fun playing in the pool, the slip in slide, and the bounce house.

We didn't get Emma to bed until about 10:30 or so, but she did great and had soooo much fun. She even loved the fireworks...she is so excited to tell Jay (her cousin) all about it.

Emma and her friend "D" playing in the pool

All the kids played so hard and had a great time.

Isn't he handsome!

Barry helping Emma try out the roller blades. Now she wants her own pair for her birthday.

Enjoying the fireworks from the backyard.

Rainbow...

Barry drove to Austin last week and on his way he snapped a picture of this rainbow.

Visitors...

I was very excited to have my aunt and uncle from Washington here for several days. We had such a wonderful time with them. On Saturday (6/21) we went to the Downtown Aquarium. We were only there for about two hours, but it was the perfect amount of time.

Here are the two tigers watching everyone watch them.

This was the highlight..the train ride. It went all the way around the park and stopped in the shark tunnel. You literally have shark swimming over your head while sitting in the train and listening to the guide talk about the different types of shark they have. It's pretty cool. "Sorry Emma, you got lost behind Mommy's purse."

One of the fish aquariums. I think Nemo and Dorey were in there...

Barry with Aunt Marlene

If I remember correctly, I think this was a catfish????

Emma in her scuba tank

Barry in his tank