Day 2 road trip fun

3 hours and counting

then we are off to see the house of mud...can't wait to journey half way across the country with the boys and my camera...peace for now...new york and canada - here we come...are you ready?

do NOT panic

its 2:06pm and we are leaving in less than 24 hours and yet i am blogging (ie, procrastinating at its best)...breathe...pack...breathe...pack...how are we every going to fit all this stuff into the van?....

serious to-do lists today

i am a procrastinator...we are leaving for one month for summer vacation TOMORROW...i have a couple things to do today!!

• buy a bathing suit/golf socks for steve
• do 10 loads of wash
• pack for a family of five
• find passports & birth certificates
• close down office/back up office/transport office work
• pack ninetendo/gameboys/ds/leapster/batteries
• pack cell phone/laptop chargers
• snacks-some healthy, some not
• gifts
• get hair colored
• breathe..

peace in the excitement before summer vacation...peace in the road trip from texas to new york...peace in all the great pictures from the beach...

to-do list

• bacardi rum mojito recipe
• pack muddler
• buy bathing suit
• pack anna karenina
• pack chic flic dvds

4 days till we depart

and the to-do lists/the purchase-before-we-depart lists/dont-forget-to-pack lists/the work-piles-that-must-be-done-before-we-leave lists are written and overwhelming but its all good...got the camera packed and the game cube for the boys for the car ride...really what else to we need?? back to crossing off a couple things on the list...

evan almighty

we have gone to more movies in the last year at the theater than in my entire life...the boys are just at the perfect age, although a little does get lost on colin, but they understand the jokes/the plot/the theme/the moral...its really just a fun time...today we went to see this movie and it was a really cute family movie with genesis 6:14 woven into it...lots of ark/animals/special effects mixed in with the dance evan does...the boys laughter is such a great sound...such a peaceful blessed sound.

just hangin'

justin loves his new shirt...he has been wanting one of these sleeveless shirts for ages and i finally let him pick one out for one of his birthday presents...justin loves his new ninetendo ds too...i am going to have to put some time limits on this next week...its been a cloudy, raining week...not much swimming or tanning this week...getting ready for our big trip/big drive next friday...can't believe its only a week away...

tweenager lives here

justin turned TEN yesterday...it seems like just yesterday he was born...no, really it does and now hes into the double digits...yikes...i swear he even looks more grown up today than he did yesterday...we spent his special day doing everything he wanted to do...shopped for his special dinner which included fried chicken(store bought-thank God for HEB cafe) and stoffers macaroni and cheese...dessert was an Oreo chocolate cake with hot fudge sundaes...plenty of cards/gifts/phone calls filled the rest of our day ...mcdonalds for lunch and a nice game of family poker finished off the day....peace.

austin park and pizza

we celebrated justins birthday a day early due to the weather forecast at austins park and pizza and i can now cross off several things on my to do list such as ....play lazertag...drive a go-cart...ride in a water bumper boat and get completely drenched by the boys...spent 6 straight hours acting like a kid...all good stuff and the boys had almost as much fun as steve and i did...heres to just being a kid for a couple hours....

post fathers day fun

we had a busy fathers day...picked steve up at the airport at 10:30am after church...went shopping at HEB while steve took a nap and a shower...went to the hula hut for sun and snacks-it was beautiful outside...had world famous cheeseburgers for dinner...finished off the day with a game of family poker with steves very own poker chips-gift from the boys...great to have steve home...sometimes it is easy to take each other for granted-its not until you have a separation that you truly appreciate ones presence, even in the little day to day activities...peace to having you home again.

golden arches

Mcdonalds fun...something about going to mcdonalds when dad is away..a tradition...one we might have to stop pretty soon because justins food consumption is killing the budget...tonight he ate a 10 piece chicken nugget/1 double cheeseburger/1 soda/half of a hot fudge sundae and half of a m&m mcflurry...honest...

nathan has the gift

last night we watched night at the museum...we saw this at the theater when it first came out but the boys really wanted to watch it again and nathan has the same talent as steve....movie line memorization...he could recite the lines right before they are spoken...scary...even scary is steve demonstrated his talent while we watched animal house last week...its a gift that keeps on giving..haha...now if we could just work on nathan lyrictosis...

where in the world is steve?

look whos at yankee stadium...nice shirt...handsome guy... love you...safe travels...peace

errands take alot longer with kids in tow

just wanted to pick up a couple fathers day gifts this morning...estimated approx 1 hour...actual time 2 1/2 hours...can't just run into barnes and nobles without the boys wanting to look at every magazine, touch every board game, check out all the puzzle books, play with the thomas the train set-up, look for a captain underpants book that they are missing, listen to every musically fathers day card possible...then we had to run over to target because i was not buying a dvd at barnes and nobles that i knew was half the price across the street...again, can't just run into target without looking at the pokemon cards, checking out the video games, attempt to talk mom into buying a new movie for our collection...hence, a couple hours later we finally make it home...the good news, at least i stuck to my list and purchased only fathers day gifts/cards !! yah...no scrapbooking magazines, no new novels to sit on the nightstand, no new dvds to add to the shelf, no trading cards, no $1.oo specials at target - good job...off to the post office...peace.

julie mccoy

your cruise director...keeping these boys occupied without the use of video games is a full time job....yesterday we did some errands which included a trip to toys r us to look around...gotta throw a fun errand in their to keep them in line...hit the pool in the afternoon then went to gattiland for dinner...busy but fun...reporting to duty this am...heres to tuesday...

need a dose of self-control here please

after we dropped off steve at the airport yesterday, we stopped at taget on the way home to pick up milk and a birthday dvd for cousin graham and by the time i got to the cash register, i also had put into the cart (while eating a #1 combo - pop and popcorn for $1.00) a cd storage basket, legally blonde dvd set on sale for $10, the newest oprah book - middlesex, a bottle of champagne, a bob the builder truck for colin, a pack of yu-gi-oh cards for the boys....WHAT IS IT WITH THIS STORE! how come i can not stick to the list...needless to say, we pulled this shopping cart over and emptied everything out of the cart at a closed register except for the food and gift and the boys decided to use their allowance money to purchase the cards and colin used his gift card to buy the truck...i am addicted to target and i need help...must learn to drive past that parking lot...sorry about leaving behind that great pile of treasures yesterday...i'm sure that not the first time....

Happy birthday uncle mike !

this is the life

this is how colin loves to spend his time in the pool...just hanging around...sitting in his tube and floating around the pool...his biggest concern is what kind of beverage to get from the pop machine...gotta love it.

tgif

hello

Fw:

Iet me sleep in your bed!

airport run so soon

the oasis ringing

look who got to ring the sunset bell at the oasis restaurant tonite...our very own curly colin! it was very exciting for all - the waitress came over about a half hour before sunset and asked colin if he wanted to do it and of course he said yes...so he patiently waited till she came back to get him and off they went to the big bell in the middle of the patio and as soon as the last little piece of the sun was gone he rang the big bell and everyone clapped...it was a beautiful sunset especially after the afternoon downpour that we had...glad we had the chance to show ryan and julie the sunset capital in style - complete with the perfect sunset...peace.

Look who came to visit!