Getting Into The Swing Of Things

The family unit and I headed down to Temple last weekend to visit Grandma and Uncle Jim. It had been a couple of months since our last visit, and we were all looking forward to the trip.

We loaded up the CX-9 on Saturday morning, and left our house about 9:00am. I was happy to see that the rain that had been forecast was keeping it's distance, and with traffic pretty light, we made really good time. We got to Grandma's house about 11:30am, and soon after unpacking, uncle Jim made his appearance.

As usual, the kids wanted to immediately go play in the backyard, but we all sat down and had a bite to eat first. After lunch, Jim and I set up the Pogo Swing, and the boys bolted outside and commenced playing properly. Here is a picture of uncle Jim sending Aidan for a ride on the Pogo Swing.


With all of the running around, the boys were a bit winded and decided to take a break. Here they are being nice to each other while sitting on the swing.


Grandma came out to join us, and I snapped a picture of her and the boys having some fun.


It was less hot in Temple than it's been in our neck of the woods, but I had forgotten how much more humid it is down there. You would think that 157 miles apart would not make much difference, but that's not the case. While it's not "Houston humid" (which is ridiculous by the way), it's still humid enough to make you rapidly perspire if you're not used to it. I'm not, and when Lori came outside and asked "Did you squirt yourself with the hose?", I knew that I would not be mistaken as a "local". Nope, I'll take hot over humid any day.

Because it was so hot, Jim and I decided to set up the small pool for the boys. As you might have guessed, there was no objection to this idea by our two aquatic monkeys. They were really excited, and were changed into their swim wear in record time. Here they are having some natatory fun.


Now I have told you in the past how rowdy Christopher can be, and here is a perfect example of his domineering personality. Now I'm probably just imagining things, but I thought I heard the words "you called down the thunder, now you've got it" come out of his mouth just before his pummeling of Aidan.


Now Aidan did not like that one bit, so here he is exacting his vengeance.


Oh.....the love of siblings...... Here is a shot of Aidan feeling empowered after his victory.


After swimming, the boys wanted to play on swings again. Here is a short video of both boys "just a swinging".


Mystic looks on inquisitively.


We stayed outside most of the day, and then retired to the air conditioned house for a couple of fierce games of dominos. After dominos and dinner, we were all tired and just relaxed. Here is my beautiful wife Lori having a cookie and relaxing.


Sunday was spent doing much of the same stuff as Saturday. When we all got nice and hot Sunday afternoon, we busted out the ice cold watermelon that Uncle Jim brought over on Saturday. MmmmmmMmmmmm it was cold, sweet, and yummy. It was a big hit with me and the boys.

We stayed until 7:00pm Sunday night, and then headed home. Once on the road, we ran into terrible traffic, and stayed pretty much bumper to bumper all the way home. Uhhhhhh....that makes for a long, stressful drive. After getting everyone home safe about 10:00pm, I lasted about 30 minutes more, and then hit the hay.

We all enjoyed ourselves immensely, and sure look forward to our next visit.

William

Zoo Know What? It's Hot!

It's been quite a while since I last blogged. Lori has been standing in nicely and she's done a great job with the last couple of posts. I am now however ready to return to the ring, and I'm looking forward to going a couple of rounds with keyboard.

Like I said in an earlier blog, it's been really hot lately. AFRICA HOT! Since we were already suffering the Serengeti like conditions, we figured what the hey, and decided to add the proper animals to the mix to make our Safari experience truly authentic. So, Wednesday morning, we loaded up the CX-9 bright and early and we headed West to the Ft. Worth Zoo.

The drive was not too bad even though the zoo is a good 50 miles from our house. We made it there in less than an hour, which was plenty of time for my three passengers to have a little siesta on the way. Not me though, oh no no no, I got to drive and stay awake........all by myself. Although it was only 10:45am by the time we arrived, it already felt like Prometheus had made a personal visit to the area. It was stinking hot, and just getting the jog stroller out of the back of the Mazda produced the days first sweat. Oh Joy! As I was getting out the stroller, Southside Johnny Cool stepped out of the ride, raring to go.


Once inside, one would think that all of the trees would provide plenty of shade, and make the visit much more pleasant. Yes, one would think that....except in this case, they would be wrong. You see, when it's 99 degrees at 11:00 in the morning, that temperature is taken in the shade. Yes, the same type of shade that the zoo's trees provide. So it's still stinking hot, except, these big beautiful tress all around block any and every wisp of wind from reaching human levels. Oh the tops of the tress blow..........back and forth.........taunting you.........as if their saying "Hey there little man, sure is a nice breeze today huh"? Grrrrrrrrrr..... There was no breeze, and after the first 30 minutes, I looked like a contestant in a wet t-shirt contest. "Must find Icee" was suddenly my battle cry, and we set out with a purpose.

While looking for our Icee, we did manage to see quite a few animals. Christopher and Aidan both got a real rush from seeing the animals in their natural habitat, and zoo's always make me feel young. Here are some of the pictures that I took of the animals.


"Wow, did you see that gorilla mom"?

Note to self: Don't mess with lions! Got it.

We made it to the bird sanctuary, and Lori and Christopher went in, while Aidan and I stayed out and searched for our frozen Grail.

Christopher did not know what to think with that bird being so close, but he did know that he wanted to grab it. Luckily, Lori was quick enough to keep Christopher at bay, and we did not have any unfortunate bird incidents.

Aidan and I were finally able to locate our frozen salvation, and let me tell you, it was just in the nick of time.


After smiting the heat by downing our arctic beverages, we were indeed cooler, and the rest of our zoo visit was much more tolerable. Before we left, we were able to get one family picture. Here we are in Texas Town sitting in a real stagecoach.


Yep, it was hot in there too.

All in all a fun trip, well as fun as walking in a furnace with animals laughing at you can be. Laughing you say? I know good and well, if they could speak, they would be saying something like this: "Ummmmmm.....it's a 100+ degress outside. We're locked in, what's your excuse"?

William

PS. We traveled to Grandma's house last weekend, and I should have new pictures, movies, and stories posted by the end of the week.

Cuz'n Camp: Boys Gone Wild

We now have had Aidan home from Cousin Camp for 6 days and the normalcy of screaming, running around the house, and general chaos has returned. Aidan and his cousins were at Cousin Camp in Del Rio,TN in the Smokey Mountains , from June 23rd until July 5th. Christopher and I flew up up with the crazy monkeys on the 23rd and stayed for the first five days. The boys had an absolute blast getting outside, fighting, enjoying the scenery, fighting, helping with all of the farm animals, fighting, swimming, exploring, and creating outdoor adventures. The fighting amongst the boys was just a necessary part of having three boys together with two 7 year olds and one 10 1/2 year old. You can imagine the craziness I am sure but the fighting was usually short lived and then the fun would begin again.

First Day of Cousin Camp

Christopher & Nana Enjoying An Early Morning Donut

It is absolutely beautiful at the farm and it is easy to get lost out there, away from a lot of "civilization" so to speak.

View from the second story deck.

Shelly Rock Farm Creek

Nana's Flower Garden.

Christopher and I really enjoyed getting to be a part of the experience and being able to spend more time with Nana, Papa, Jackson and Wyatt. Christopher loved chasing and petting all of the 8 dogs, although some of them did not always appreciate his attention.


He also really took off with his language when he was around all of the animals, especiallye the horses, cows, & chickens. Christopher's favorite dog is Bear, a Great Pyronese that looks like a polar bear.


When he is not watching over the farm he likes to give big slobbery kisses. I also enjoyed visiting with Nana & Papa, although the time is never enough and the visits always seem short. It was wonderful to watch all of the boys delight in the outdoors especially when they were hiking, swimming, fishing, or working on their "Man Badges". The Man Badges were a list of badges they could earn while they were at Cousin Camp.

Earning their sucker badges.

Marco......Polo

How many boys can you fit in one tractor?

Christopher and I left for home leaving Aidan with his cousins, and Nana, & Papa. I felt very odd leaving Aidan behind but I knew that he was going to continue to have a wonderful time and that he was ready for some grown up boy time without Mom. William had stayed home so he was missing all of us as we were also missing him. I quickly learned how very strange it is to be home without Aidan. Christopher was no longer the pterodactyl and was much quieter without his big brother around. He was a bit confused though because he would continually ask and look for Aidan, then Nana, and then Bear. I even found myself looking at Aidan's empty room and missing him. I remember thinking what will we ever do when he goes off to college. Thankfully we have a little while to worry about that one. We would always talk to Aidan on the phone at night and hear the excitement in his voice talking about the fish he caught, the camp fire, working with the hay, and the most exciting thing: his rock collection from the creek.

Cricket flew up to take the second shift of Cousin Camp. She helped provide Nana relief after Nana and Papa had the boys for 2 days without additional help. Let me tell you the three boys are a full time job for anyone. Cricket had a great time at the farm and I know that everyone enjoyed her being there and being part of the festivities. Cousin Camp ended with an early birthday party for Papa and later that evening July 4th fireworks and festivities in Hot Springs, North Carolina.

The following day the 3 monkeys flew back home with Cricket. All of the boys seemed a little older, maybe a little wiser, a little crazier at least in the car, and they were already missing their Nana & Papa. Aidan was excited to see his Mom, Dad, and even his little brother much to his own surprise. Christopher was so excited to see Aidan that he immediately screamed and then began hitting Aidan with his Diego ball, definitely brotherly love.
Our quiet house had now been restored to the exhuberant and rowdy place with the pterodactyl and the monkey boy. Although Nana and Papa were exhausted after the monkeys were gone even they found themselves missing the constant activity and craziness.

Aidan and the boys are already looking forward to cousin camp next year and more time with Nana & Papa.


Thank you Mom and Steve for taking such good care of the boys and letting them come up and be boys in the mountains for 2 weeks! They all enjoyed themselves immensely and I know that they will always treasure their time at Cousin Camp. We all look forward to next year!

Lori

Three Score

This blog is long over-due but I wanted to take the time to pay tribute to an awesome lady, my Mom. We just celebrated her 60th birthday on on June 22nd, although by looking at her, you would never know it. I always have a hard time imagining her age as I always see the woman that would put animal barrettes in my hair after combing out the "rat's nest". I have so many wonderful memories over the years but what I remember most is all of the little things that she did to make us feel special. Things were not always easy and some days were harder than others, but we were always made to feel like the luckiest girls around. We were lucky to have a Mom that was always there for us. She made us costumes, helped with our homework, picked us up when we fell, put together the ever important Barbie pool, and she knew the value of sharing M&M's.

One of the first things that she taught me was that I could be anything I wanted to be despite the fact that I wanted to be a bunny growing up. Obviously I chose a different career path, but when someone would tell me that I could not be a bunny, I would emphatically respond that I could be whatever I want to be. Mom also taught me to stand up to bullies in the sandbox and to stand up for what is right. She taught me that you must have persistence and courage to achieve your dreams.
Most importantly she taught me about love and that no matter what disappointment or success that might lie ahead, she would always be there with us to share it.

Thank you Mom for always loving us even when we drove you crazy. Remember the time I "forgot" to tell you about my speeding ticket in San Antonio until my court date? I thought you were going to kill me by traumatic whip lash! And.... well there are a lot of other times like when I was going through my nasty 15 year old phase and I know that you could add plenty of stories. I will suffice by saying thank you for your patience and love through all of those moments. I love you very much and I am grateful for our memories and life together.

Now that being said on with the party! Cricket, Mom, and I originally started celebrating Mom's birthday on Saturday by having a fabulous time getting pampered at the spa. It was wonderful! We were pampered and relaxed and then proceeded for a much needed coffee break. Sunday of course was Father's day and we celebrated William and then proceeded to dinner at Abuelos for a combination Father's day and early birthday dinner. We took all the boys, so needless to say there was entertainment for everyone from the crazy toddler.

On Monday, Mom's actual birthday, we met over at her house she has around the corner from us, to get the much awaited festivities going. All of the boys had made special cards for Nana and we were putting them on display along with plenty of pink flamingos and 60 roses of course.

The boys even decorated the windows with the flamingo window gel stickers although Christopher kept trying to shred or eat them.....if we were not fast enough to catch him first. Cricket even put up a artistic version of Mom's baby picture to make the decorations even more special.

Decorations in place it was now time to open presents. The anticipation was mounting for Nana and all of us involved.

She first opened all of her beautiful birthday adornments including her sexy and sixty button. Next she opened her Nana M&M's.

You will have to look close at the photo to see the "Nana M&M's".

As I mentioned earlier M&M's are a big deal in our family, you can't beat them. One of her next presents was a digital photo frame filled with pictures of the 4 boys. It was done by Cricket the expert photographer, and she was able to catch the 4 monkeys sitting still and smiling for a few moments. Needless to say, she was excited.

She then opened her main present which was a watercolor picture of the boys framed on canvas and she seemed to be tickled. The final thing that we saved until last was all of the cards that all of her friends had sent.

She loved them. She laughed and enjoyed every card that she opened. The cards really meant a lot and helped to make her birthday that much more special. Here is a picture from one of the cards that I really thought was hilarious!

Overall I think that Mom had a fantastic birthday, and everyone there really enjoyed sharing it with her.

Happy 60th Birthday Mom! We love you!!!

Lori