Summer Happenings

4th of July @ Steven & Tarah's Ranch




Awesome fireworks show!

Kenzie and her sparklers.

Cousin Tyler jumping haybales.

Henry and I hanging out.

The ranch that Steven manages. Beautiful!

At the shooting range which looks like an old saloon.

Uncle Steven took us on a hay ride. We got to see a ton of deer and exotic animals.

Garrett and Makenzie on the hay.

Marley and friends at a super fun youth group event.

Kenzie and Sadie hanging out.

Father's Day @ the beach

Henry actually got a little surfing in!

Marley working hard digging a hole.

Kenzie making sand castles.

Garrett catching fish with his very own cast net.

VBS (Vacation Bible School) Kenzie's first year!

Marley and friends trying on prom dresses. FUN!

My friend Cathy came in from Dallas and we all met at the new pizza place Grimaldi's for dinner and shopping.

Henry discovered a new cooking website (http://www.pioneerwoman.com/) and has been using us a taste testers!

Marley had friends spend the night and they ended up playing with playdoh for 2 hours! Cute!

First day of summer....tickle fight!

Henry's summer project. Growing a pineapple.

Cousing Dylan came to visit!

He was sooo cute. Every time we would hold up a camera he would say "cheese"!

Rocking out on the Wii guitar.

Kenzie and her whip cream mustache. Loving us some Andy's!

Guadalupe River Camping

Garrett and I set out for our annual 2-Guys Summer Camping Trip hitting Guadalupe River State Park. This year the trip seemed to focus on learning new things.

Before we even cleared the city limits, Garrett learned he liked Zingers.

With clear skies and hot temperatures it didn't take us long to find the river. Garrett practiced his bait catching techniques with his cast net. We toobed a section of the river and spent a lot of time just hanging out in the middle of the rapids.

We left the coolness of the river a few times to go hike and bike the trails. On one trek we were startled by a large hog that was laid up under a tree right next to the trail. I told Garrett to stay still as I began reaching into my backpack for the camera. After a few seconds I noticed the hog wasn't fleeing and was actually a big ole' sow with a couple of small babies. A feigned charge towards us was all it took for us to forget about the photographic opportunity and move on down the trail (quickly).

Another lesson learned regarding animals; if you remain motionless for too long of a time in your hammock, buzzards (or at least one buzzard) will gather.

Our last night there continued with more education in the way of animals. As we sat in the dark around our dying camp fire, a raccoon bravely walked up to see if there were any scraps around the fire. It was only about 8 feet away. It then wandered over and tried to get in our cooler. I snapped a few pictures and as a thank you, we tossed it a Chips Ahoy chocolate chip cookie. It ate the cookie and wandered off.

Little did we know that the 'coon was actually on a scouting mission, probing our perimeter and seeing what we had to offer. About 1 am I woke up to the sound of our cooler lid opening. I grabbed my flashlight and, shining it out the tent window, saw several raccoons. One had our cooler open and was balancing on the edge with his head down inside of it. I hollered at Garrett that raccoons were raiding our camp, tried to get the tent open and put shoes on all at the same time. I managed to get out there and scare them off but they had already taken ALL the meat out of our cooler! While the coons had a night of sausage, hot dogs, lunch meat, etc., we had pop tarts for breakfast!

That's the bad guy, right there by our cooler!

It was a great trip. I really enjoy getting to experience it all with Garrett, he's a great camping partner.

Everybody Dance Now

Marley's Jazz Recital 2010

Tonight is Marley's jazz recital. I can't wait to see all of the girls (and boys) dressed up in their cute costumes and perform their hearts out. I really love all of the 3, 4 and 5 year old ballerinas that just stand there because they forgot what to do and the ones that wave out to the audience to their moms in their cute tutus.

Last night was the dress rehearsal so we got some shots of Marley's class doing their run through. This year her costume is a very bright orange color. Makenzie said she looks like a pumpkin or candycorn but I'm going with traffic cone! They all looked very cute!

Marley and her class.

Marley and her friend Lauren.

Garrett doing his best jazz move!

Makenzie striking a pose!

Springtime.

Spring is here and we have been taking advantage of the nice weather. The kids have been out on the trampoline a lot. It's fun watching them get creative and actually playing all together without fighting! Water balloons were a hit and their newest thing is loading it with tennis balls and seeing how high they can bounce them. They already are working on their tans. Makenzie is darker than I am. I need to get a new swimsuit so I can catch up!

Only 25 days til summer break! I am just as ready as they are. We love to stay up late and sleep in. We will be at the beach a ton this summer so if you call and we're not here, you know where we are!

Happy Spring!

Spring cleaning the trampoline. I think that they got more soap on them than the trampoline!

SKATING!

We went to Kayla's 11th birthday party and had a blast. Marley and Garrett got the hang of it and Kenzie rode the scooter all over the place. I even laced up some skates. It's like riding a bike!

EASTER FUN!

Marley's favorite egg.

Garrett's favorite egg.

Makenzie's favorite egg.

Our beautiful eggs!