The beach

After visiting South Padre with the girls I decided we really should take the kids to the beach.  I also realized that it’s only 20 minutes from my parents house.  I feel kind of bad that we haven’t taken them sooner because they really enjoyed it.  It’s hard to choose just one picture to show so I decided on a collage.

Homemade peach cobbler

We were going to Corpus for the weekend and our peaches needed to be eaten, why not take make and take peach cobbler.  It’s a lot more fun the more helpers you have and I did have some great helpers!

Poker night

We made cookies for Daddy’s poker night with the guys.  It’s educational especially when you count the cookies you are baking.  The only problem is that Channing probably is not the best teacher yet.

A visit from cousins

While we used to be a mile away, it’s quite a journey to get to Boerne these days so we were thrilled when the White’s came for the afternoon to play.  We fed the ducks then went for snow cones.  It was a fun day.  Come back soon!

Not feel like cooking

Well, there are only 4 of us, let’s go out and hey, what do you know, kids eat free and with only four of us, they are actually free! They were playing some rockin’ music in the restaurant and Gibson was dancing.

He’s a stinker

Still climbing up on the table but with a smile that is hard to punish.  It’s turning into a problem these days with him being 2.

And then there were two

The big boys left with my parents to spend the week in Corpus at Sea Camp.  It seemed empty in the car not to see two other heads in the seat behind Channing.

How we train our children

We start our day with a little push up training.

We found these glasses that Gibson got on his first birthday and he was a fan.

Picking peaches

Now that we are in Boerne, we are really close to go peach picking and it was a banner year for peaches.  We took Ramsey (our new next door neighbor) and Lincoln with us and had a great time!

Legos

When it’s quiet around our house I can normally find the boys like this. Playing on the floor with legos.

Smoothie

A smoothie mustache on this little guy is pretty cute.

All day babysitter

I had planned for a babysitter to come all day Tuesday so I could get some work and planning done on and for the house.  I had planned several activities for her to keep everyone busy while I was gone and left her with my point and shoot and Paige did not disappoint!  It looks like they had a great day!

Father’s Day

How sad!  I didn’t get a picture of Stefan with all the kids!  After church Sunday we went out to a fancy tepanyaki lunch.  All the kids did great and really enjoyed the show.  Luckily I had gotten a gift before we left because I certainly did not get out and do any shopping Saturday when we got back.

Much less eventful

The ride home was much less eventful.  Gibson slept on our long trip and the kids enjoyed watching movies on the ipads.  Gone are the days of looking for a dvd to put in the dvd player that runs out of batteries even if you charged two before you left.

A sweet gift

Carla made each of the kids a round pillow with a pocket behind to store a bunch of felt pieces to mix and match on the pillow to make faces.  It was a really thoughtful, well-loved gift.

Dismal Canyons

Since I’d seen Dismal Canyons and their “dismalites” or glo worms on a blog I follow I’ve wanted to go.  We went and spent the night in their cabin and hiked around the beautiful canyons the next day.  It was a great trip!

And one with Carla in it. 

Point Mallard

While it’s not Schlitterbahn, it is a waterpark with a huge wave pool.  The kids all enjoyed being outside in the water.  The boys stayed ALL. DAY.  I think they were worn out but had a blast.  How I got a picture without Gibson in it, I don’t know because it was the beginning of his obsessive clingy-ness.

Quite the jumper

Gibson learned to hold his own with the big boys on the trampoline but he still preferred jumping by himself.

The night night was never far away.

Pinterest, Carla’s friend

Linden was in craft heaven while we were in Alabama.  Carla had picked out a different craft/activity (or two) from Pinterest for everyday we were there.  This day, the kids made chalk paint and it really was cool.  We told them they could throw it up in the air when they were done.  That was the best part!

Great-Granddaddy Crafton

Sunday Stefan’s Granddaddy came over to spend the afternoon with us.  Channing was a BIG fan.  He was reading the paper and Channing climbed right on up next to him to check out the ads with him.

Krispy Kreme

Monday morning we took an early morning trip to Krispy Kreme.  There is nothing better than a hot doughnut, of course, Linden went for the lemon filled, Hadley the chocolate and Gibson and Channing, anything with sprinkles. Thanks for the treat G-daddy and Lala!

Uncle Jevon

Hadley was chomping at the bit for Mallory and Jevon to get to the house Saturday.  Jevon speaks Hadley’s sports language so they had a good time playing football/basketball and whatever else game they could come up with outside.  I wanted to take their picture together and this is what I got from them, totally unscripted.

Botanical Gardens and butterflys

We went to the botanical gardens and the kids have been there enough now that they have their favorite spots. Some of the spots have changed and they have new tree houses but Hadley’s favorite this time was the butterfly house.  He had been working for close to 25 minutes trying to catch a butterfly when Linden and Channing thought they’d give it a go.  Both of them caught a butterfly in a matter of minutes but Hadley did NOT give up and he was rewarded. 

1,410

That’s how many pictures Carla and I took in the 10 days we were in Alabama. Now there are too many to choose from….

Let’s start with day 1 or technically two but we just won’t count day 1 since I went to my room as soon as we got to their house and stayed there the rest of the day.

We went to the park, had a picnic, hiked a little and enjoyed being COOL because there was not any humidity and it was in the upper 70’s low 80’s.  Perfect weather.  We finished the day with bubbles.

The plane trip

 

Originally Stefan planned on going to AL with me but with a new job and a busy season that is going on during June, he just couldn’t afford the vacation time this year so I took all 4 children and flew by myself to AL for 10 days.  The one shoed wonder. If it made him happy in the airport, I let him do it.  It was survival time.

Pardon the blurry pixelated picture but here are the three big ones on our first flight to Houston from SA at SIX in the morning.  Yes, you read that right.  Stefan’s alarm went off at 3:45am and after he dropped us off at the airport he went to work.

On the second flight there would be no phone pictures because I got the stomach bug that had gone through our house the weekend before.  I thought I was safe from it until I started feeling bad during our layover.  It hit me hard during the 1 1/2 hour trip to Birmingham.  I freaked Hadley out, but we survived and it made for a good story!

Library time

The Boerne library is having special presentations every Monday and the kids are really enjoying it.  This week was a special dinosaur guy.  All 4 kids came back telling us all kids of stories.

Complete surprise

That’s the look on Hadley’s face when Stefan brought out the kayak we bought him for his birthday.  He may not have felt his best but he was pretty excited.

Cookout

The Henderson’s invited us over for dinner Saturday night but only 4 of us attended because Gibson had thrown up Saturday morning.  Channing was out swinging and it cracked me up to see the cows in the background behind her.  We thought we’d kept our germs to ourselves except that we got home and Channing threw up.  Good times, up until the throw up part.

He’s not too old

to lick the beater for his birthday cake.  Will he ever be?  I hope not.