4th of July 2014

Summer is winding down.  School is starting in less than a week, and I'm still stuck back in June.  Go figure.  I know the idea of a blog is to write things as they happen, but with this blog I feel like I'm on more of the old fashioned mail schedule.  By the time the news arrives it's outdated.  Oh well.  My priority is to get things posted and journaled and recorded.  I know most people don't blog anymore, but I can't give it up.  I'm realizing more and more how important this family journal is to me.  My kids LOVE to see themselves from years past and to see what they looked like and the silly things they did.  If I can ever get my rear in gear I want to make blog books.   But that'll have to be jammed in somewhere between dinner/piano practice/church/cleaning/playing legos/exercise/homework/Saturday sports games etc.  

Anyway, back in time we travel to the happenings of nearly two months ago...

Chris's mom decided that she was going to have special grandma time with each of the grandkids this summer.  Madison and her cousin Ethan got the first shift.  They went up to Arkansas for a few days at the very beginning of July.   They had a blast geocaching, visiting various tourist attractions, eating junk food, and staying up way too late every night!

While Madison was gone we had fun having a boy party.   We went swimming, of course, because that is what we do here in Texas.  Colton has perfected his cannon ball.  

and Hudson's favorite game is being thrown in the air above the water.  Steve and I like to play catch with him!

We went bowling.  

Hudson tried out the hipster look.

Hudson turned 7 months old.  Seriously.  Just looking at this picture makes me hungry.  He is just so darn edible!

Jaxon made this super cool spy head set.  And those stupid athletic pants are part of his uniform.  They are major high-waters, but for some reason he insists on wearing them when he is a spy.  They have finally disappeared.

And, just to spice things up we went swimming at a DIFFERENT pool (I know, I know, we are crazy over here).  

This is Colton's new favorite thing:  he likes me to build him little tents at the pool to hide him from the sun.  Sometimes he actually falls asleep.

For the fourth we went up to Arkansas to switch out cousins and have some fun!   We spent the day of the fourth on the lake.  Jaxon got to ride in Nathan's wheel chair all the way to the lake.  He thought that was pretty awesome.  

Cousins on the boat.  

More cousins.

Hudson in his patriotic get-up.  Hudson actually did really well all day hanging out in his pack n' play.  

Five of our six kids for the weekend.  Jon and Cristina stayed home, so we had two extra kiddos!  They all behaved very well, though.  My only complaint was that it takes FOREVER to put sunscreen on 6 kids!

Another tent for Colton.

Uncle Steevo has a gopro camera, so we had fun taking some action shots on the lake while we were out boating.  We've and a lot of fun with that thing.  It's waterproof, which makes it super fun in the summer!

One of the other things we did over the weekend was to visit a cave.   We've been to this cave before, but the kids really love it.  It's called the spanish treasure cave and the kids are so intrigued with the legend that there is treasure buried here.  

Jaxon got a souvenir rock at the gift shop, and, as you can see, he was so proud of it.  He had that thing proudly displayed in every single picture.  

The kids even got to "pan for gold" at the end.  They got some cool rocks, which they really liked.  

We also went to a baseball game.  

Notice that Chris and Steve are making the same face in this picture.  Those boys.  Having Steve live with us has been funny because I see how much they are alike in some ways!

We also tie-dyed shirts.  They turned out great.  And we kept saying to each other "how did these shirts get so vibrant".  Then I came home and realized it was because we never washed the dye out.  Thankfully I realized that before I dyed all our laundry new colors!

We celebrated Uncle Sean's birthday.  

And we did some sparklers.  

This is the best shot we could get of the big kids all doing sparklers together.  Note to self: next time splurge for the good sparklers that don't burn out in 5 seconds.  

Then it was time to leave Jaxon and Austin for their fun week with grandma.  I kept asking Jaxon what I would do without him and he said we could take a picture so I could remember him while he was gone.  Sweet blue-eyed boy,  I love that kid.