Trip to Houston

Derek had to go to Houston for work, so we went along and made a mini vacation out of it. 

One day I took the kids to NASA space center.

We learned a lot and touched an actual moon rock, but I think their favorite thing was driving the pretend Mars rovers.

We spent lots of time at the hotel pool.  The second pic is Cori eating a block of cheese in the hotel room.  We also spent some time with the Whiteside family, which was lots of fun, but I failed to get any pictures : (  Mary and Irene were even nice enough to keep the kids overnight so that Derek and I could go out for Cajun food and I could go to the Houston temple the next morning, which was really nice.

Derek had Friday off, so we all went down to Galveston.  It’s no Hawaii, but I do love the beach!  I love the way it sounds and the breeze and the waves.  Eli loved playing in the waves and Cori loved playing in the sand, so Derek and I took turns building and boogie boarding.  We buried the kids too, and we even saw dolphins.

On the way back from Galveston, we stopped at Kemah Boardwalk for dinner and a Ferris wheel ride over the ocean.  We also found some fun photo ops along the way.

Summer Fun

One Saturday we worked in the yard all day and then we got the sprinkler out and played in the mud.  It was a blast!  Even though I’m not in the pics, I got in on the fun too.  The kids loved putting mud all over themselves and us.

Lots of park visits.  They climbed, splashed, and caught crawdads.

We participated in the summer reading program.  We did several crafts, tried on the magicians magic hat, and got free ice cream for reading lots of books. 

We went to the zoo with my childhood friend Spencer’s kids, Braden and Ava.  The other pic is one days harvest from our garden.  To be fair, it was the best day.

Eli was the ring bearer for my cousin April’s wedding.  He did a great job and had a blast!  He became good buddies with the best man and spent most of the reception in the photo both with all the groomsmen or whoever else would take silly pics with him.  The rest of us had fun too.

At home or in the back yard, we played dress up, ate popsicles, collected rollie pollies, and swam in our neighbor Debbie’s pool.  We were headed to the pool one day and Cori came out in swimsuit and cowboy boots. 

They got their well child checkups.  I thought they looked cute in their paper gowns.  They did swimming lessons and they have both progressed a lot on their swimming.  Eli is completely independent now and loves to do belly busters and cannon balls.  Cori can swim 5-10 ft underwater.  I didn’t get a lot of swimming pics because it is hard to swim and take pics at the same time, but we swam a lot.

Trip to the aquarium.  Cori loved the Racoon and Eli put himself in the mouth of a shark.

Youth Triathlon

They both did great.  It was lots of fun and they were very proud of their medals.  They had lots of fans cheering them on including both sets of grandparents, Doug & Brooke, and lots of friends who were also racing.

Memorial Day Weekend

We had a busy weekend.  On Friday night we went fishing with the Southwards.  The kids both caught their first ever fish, with some help of course.

On Saturday we worked around the house and played with water balloons.

On Sunday after church we decorated graves in Henryetta.  Eli had been asking to do it, and my parents were out of town, so we did it.  I enjoy telling the kids about our ancestors and Derek is into family history, so he enjoys going too.  We decorated the Gastaldo graves too, but I didn’t manage to get a picture.

On Monday we went swimming and then had a cookout with burgers, corn on the cob, watermelon, and root beer floats.  If that’s not summer in your mouth, I don’t know what is!