Summertime

So it's been a while since our last post. In that month or so, we've gone on a couple of trips, celebrated Father's Day, and just been enjoying summer (but trying to beat the record-breaking heat we've had here!). We went to NC to visit Grandma Phyllis and Grandpa Tom in June. We celebrated Gram's birthday, went to the zoo, visited with lots of family, and had a really fun time with Grandma and Grandpa. Natalie, Owen, and Henry also had fun playing with their cousin Carrie, and we all got to meet baby Emily. The kids had lots of golf cart rides, enjoyed all of the toys at Grandma Phyllis' house, had fun in the pools in the backyard, and they all got to ride on Grandpa's big blue tractor - which Owen was talking about before we even headed up there! So it was a great trip. We also celebrated Father's Day - we tried to make sure Ike had a nice relaxing weekend. He liked his gifts, especially his special handmade gifts from school. I had to go to NOLA at the end of the month, and Ike held down the fort while I was gone. Natalie, Owen, and Henry have been enjoying their summer activities at school. Nat swims three times a week, and the boys have water play twice a week. Natalie has a field trip every other week, and she gets really excited about those. We went to FL for 4th of July to visit Grandma Laura and Grandpa Roger. We did a lot of cool stuff while we were there. We went on a pirate cruise (with real pirates!) one day and the kids loved that. Henry did spend a lot of the cruise trying to dive off the side of the pirate ship - he's a water baby! - but we all had fun. Natalie and Owen even got some pirate scars and tattoos. We went to the beach for fireworks on the 4th. We all enjoyed them - Henry was a little nervous at first (last year he barely noticed them), but once I held him and oo'ed & ah'ed, he started in too. We also went to the Everglades and went on an airboat tour. We went in shifts so that we could take turns keeping Henry - we didn't take him on the boat because that wouldn't have too fun trying to prevent him from diving off at every opportunity. But Natalie and Owen loved it (and so did the grown-ups!) and we even saw some alligators. We also got to hold an alligator after the boat ride. We spent a lot of time in Grandma and Grandpa's pool while we were there, and the kids enjoyed the toys at Grandma Laura's house too. We went to Grandma's neighbor's pond to feed the fish and turtles, which was a big hit with the kids. We also celebrated Grandma Laura's birthday a week early. So it was a great trip too. Last weekend we stayed around the house on Saturday trying to keep cool (bike rides and other energy-burning activities are reserved for the evenings if the mosquitoes aren't too bad), and we went to the beach in Galveston on Sunday. We can't believe July is half over already!