Meanwhile, back at the Ranch...

(oops. This post was originally going to be directly after the first day of school post...but, I forgot I had already started the homecoming post...)

While the kids were at school, Aidan kept Grandma and Mom on their toes. No siblings to keep him under wraps meant Nutella all to himself...
...and plenty of Hide-and-Go-Giggle

Aidan also learned to use chop sticks...to eat his tropical fruit.

First Day of School 2009

August 24, 2009

First Day of School

Andrews, Texas

First grade, here I come.

Mighty, mighty 7th grader.


Okay, so he didn't really go to school, he was definitely ready for fun.

Andrews High School!

(I think he wanted to make sure I didn't try to take his pic, so of course I did...from the car...dude, I only brought the camera for Allie's school...no worries)

Aw...the one who still let me walk her in.

Telling us all the cool stuff in "lally's" class.

Autumn Time at our House

HAPPY FALL!!!

Although the temperatures here are mostly far from "Fall-ish," today is actually a colder day, so I thought these pics were finally appropriate. Yesterday, 85 degrees, Tomorrow, 75 degrees...today, a high of just 68 and rain and wind!

Side note, one wreath from last year, one from this year. I'm trying to convince myself that they are close enough and not buy another matching one from this year...anyone want to vote on it?

Sea World: How I Spent My Labor Day Weekend

After Hawaii without the kids, which I loved, I did feel guilty that summer vacation went by without some kind of vacation. So, I decided to get one last summer play over Labor Day weekend. We weren't able to leave until Saturday morning, so we spent the first part of Saturday driving to San Antonio. We were so happy to have gotten the annual passes since we went a little bit each day we were there, and plan to head back again at least once or twice before next September.
Thank goodness for Garmin. That city is a little bit crazy to navigate for first timers. (Add to that the fact that our navigation unit took us to and from our hotel at least 4 different ways.) It also took us to our beloved Costco, which we miss greatly being over here with only Sam's Club, but was unfortunately closed (as we thought it might be) for the Monday holiday.

Here dolphin, get the fish...

...or, we could just skip the fish and go for the fingers.

...

Trying to make sure we got pics of each person feeding and petting...

...

...

I made Dustin go to the other side so that we didn't have pictures of just sea lions and seals, but of us looking at them. I like it.

Sunning?

...and...back ...just before driving home...Allie insisted that we didn't get a picture of her feeding the dolphins...and scrolling through the camera, we found that she was correct. I was taking pictures, and I was helping her, so, no picture. Good thing we can go back again and again...

....

....

....

....

...and...THIS is THE picture we went back for!

One of the only rides Aidan is big enough to ride. The line is surprisingly short for this one. When we got to it, we got the "cool" operator, who was amazingly the same guy who we got on the Penguin ferris wheel. While the people in line ahead of us went around the ferris wheel twice, just before our turn, they switched operators. Alllie, Aidan, and Aimee went around at least 5 times. Then, when we got to the front of this ride, our cool guy happened to be rotating again. So, they got an extra long ride on this one as well!

...

Shamu express...Allie's first roller coaster.

Hawaii

I you haven't seen the Hawaii pics, check out my album on Facebook. You don't need a Facebook account, just click here for Lahaina, here for the volcano, here for the beach and the Banyan tree, or here for the Luau. There are just so many pictures, I'll leave that albums there and just share a few pics here.

We had a blast and would love to go back. Alas, next year we're going to have to stick to a continental beach. I'm trying to plan a San Diego trip already...and we'll even bring the kids!

First day. Before I discovered that I left my hair straightener at home.

The Banyan tree at Banyan Tree park.

The view from our balcony.

And again.

A walk on the beach...

On the way to the volcano.

Halfway up!

Oh no! Don't fall!

♪♫♪It's the end of the world as we know it♪♫♪

...or just the edge...

There were all sorts of places on the side of the road driving up to the volcano that just looked like they dropped off to nowhere...so I kept telling Dustin to pull over so that we could take a "falling off the edge of the world picture" which he didn't want to do. LOL...good thing he pulled over.

Easter Pics (LOL idk why I didn't post these earlier)

This is the first photo that we took and it is one of my favorites.

Each of the kids wanted to choose a "photo location" so we moved around the house,
in and out, front and back.This was actually Alex's location choice. Dustin had to work,
so Alex thought I should be in the pic via the mirror.

Since we were officially home from church,
Alex didn't want to have to tuck his shirt in again.
*sigh*

Our Sunday morning was surprisingly low key.
On Saturday, we found that the Easter Bunny had come a day early since our dad would be working on Sunday. After finding all the eggs, we headed over to the park to meet our friends for a barbeque. Our friend Serenda planned it perfectly to work around all of our husbands shifts and found a day that most of them were actually off. Unfortunately the weather didn't check out their schedule, so because it was freezing (by Texas standards, but still...) and very windy, we moved the barbeque to our house. Of course 45 minutes later, the skies cleared and the wind died down. But, Serenda had planned an Easter Egg hunt for all the children and we went ahead with that. Wow. Two hunts in one day. Way too much candy.
(And yeah, I threw a bunch away ... right in the garbage. I've become very good at that.)
So, Sunday morning, we just got dressed for church. Huh. Amazing. Of course, we still managed to be rushed and had to postpone pictures until after.

Happy Easter doesn't sound like the right way to end this post, but oh well.
Happy Easter! Welcome Spring! Welcome Renewal!

Homemade Water Slide: A Story In Pictures