Birthday in Beaumont

We went to SportsConnection to ride go-karts, miniature golf, and the batting cages for Harrison & Madeline's birthday celebration with Melanie, Dad, Jessica, M'mom, Aunt Missy, Uncle Trey, Chandler, Andrew, and Josey.

I think everyone enjoyed the go-karts the most.

Sights & Sounds of Christmas

We went to San Marcos to the annual Sights and Sounds of Christmas in the park on the river. We walked around, looked at lights, and ate WAY too much junk. It was hot but pleasant.

Susie & Jason's Wedding

We drove to College Station, TX to attend my friend from A'M's Suzanne Krenek's wedding. It was an outdoor wedding & was very nice. Susie had coloring books for the kids as you see here. We had fun going together & seeing TAMU.

Very big tree

This very large & pretty tree is at the park.

Pflugerville park

We went to Michael's for scrapbook stuff for a halloween photo album. Then it was off to the park for scooter riding and skating. We ate dinner at IHOP. What a pretty afternoon with family.

Halloween 2007

We took a trip to our friends Tania and James's house off Slaughter lane in Austin. We went door to door trick-or-treating. It was a blast. The kids enjoyed running around to different houses and filling up their halloween candy containers.


Melanie was dressed as Zoe, Madeline was a cowgirl, Harrison was a bat, Jessica and I were a prince and princess.

jack-o-lantern

We enjoyed carving a pumpkin on Tuesday morning. The kids helped by drawing the face & cleaning the pumpkin. It was a fun way to enjoy the morning after the kids spent the night Monday. Madeline drew the mouth and Harrison drew the eyes.

Mel on the slide.

Melanie enjoys curvy slides. Everyone swang as well. Not too hot either.

Another park visit.

We had fun at the park. We had more fun last night when Madeline & Harrison played laser tag & Melanie played video games with some friends.

Madeline gets earrings.

Today my baby girl (who's almost 7) got her ears pierced. She's very cute ' I'm feeling a bit old. I'm scared of her dating. But that's years & years away - I hope.

Morning at the park.

We enjoyed going to the park. After the park we went for a swim at the pool. It was a nice, relaxing weekend. We had much fun playing Wii, watching TV, and not driving anywhere.

Swimming

Swimming at the pool. We always enjoy swimming at the apartment pool. Today we did a lot of jumping in the water. We got a toypedo at Wal-Mart that has been really fun to send zipping across the pool underwater. Harrison and Madeline are getting better at swimming all the time. Melanie is starting to really kick well and can move around easily using her floaties. Next summer she may be able to swim without them.

Fiesta Texas!

Jessica, me, Harrison, Madeline, Melanie, Uncle Robert, Kailee, Aunt Missy, Uncle Trey, Chandler, Andrew, and Josey all went to Fiesta Texas on July 15th. We had a great time. We road rollercoasters, water rides, went down the lazy river at the waterpark portion of Fiesta. We plan to make it an annual trip!


Jessica sitting on a park bench looking lovely.








Robert & Kailee



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Trey, Chandler, Harrison













Andrew and Madeline with Melanie in the stroller.

4th of July

I met Missy at our mom and dad's house. Here is a picture of from l-r: Andrew, Harrison, Madeline, Chandler, Melanie, and Josie.

We went to Crystal Beach and stayed at mom & dad's RV there. We had a lot of fun, but it rained really hard the night we were there and the next day, so that cut our beach portion of the trip short.

Here is the RV and building my parents have at Crystal Beach. Across the street, they rent spaces for RV's.

Trip Around Texas

We left on Thursday, May 17th to ride around Texas visiting my family. Jessica and I took the kids to Plano, TX to visit my sister Missy, her husband Trey, and Chandler, Andrew, and Josey.

Friday morning, Jessica went to watch Hayden play in his school field day. The kids and I went to breakfast and lunch with Chandler and Andrew at their school. We had a good day playing around.

Saturday we went to one of Andrew's t-ball games. We enjoyed routing for our cousin's team. From their we ate at the purple cow restaurant, then drove down to Beaumont to visit my parents.

We were in the car for about 9 hours as we meandered our way around, stopping and checking out the scenery.

We had a pleasant trip but were excited to get to my parent's house.

Here we have a picture of Jessica blowing bubbles and Madeline and Harrison chasing them around my parent's backyard.

And here is Jessica and Melanie sharing a moment on the back porch.

Avast ye mateys

Pirate treasure chest found. We went on a treasure hunt complete with map for the day. We had a great time exploring and finding the treasure.

Here be the treasure...

Easter

We had a great time at Easter. Jessica spent the day with us. First, we dyed Easter eggs.

We went to St. Catherine of Siena for Easter Mass. It is the church that my friend Brad and his family attends.

After Mass, we headed home to pack a lunch and stuff plastic eggs with goodies for an egg hunt.

We then headed to the Zilker Botanical Garden for our lunch and Easter egg hunting.

The Botanical Garden was a wonderful place to spend the afternoon.

It was a very nice day.

Melanie's 3rd Birthday

Happy Birthday Melanie!!!

We had the party at Amanda & Greg's house in Pflugerville. It was very nice and a lot of family attended.

It was Pima's (Melanie's maternal great-grandmother) 95th birthday as well.

Everyone loved eating the Elmo cupcakes.

She got a lot of gifts, including her very neat Dora bicycle.

After the party, Dad, Jessica, Harrison, Madeline, Mom, Aunt Missy, Uncle Trey, Chandler, Andrew and Josie all went to Waterloo for dinner. The have a really nice playground outside for all of the kids to enjoy.

Austin Children's Museum

We headed downtown to the Austin Children's Museum to get out of the house and celebrate St. Patrick's Day. There was much to see and do inside, with activities focused on counting and categorizing.




The most fun exhibit was the dairy cow and milk interactive display.
Much time was spent "recycling" bottles through a compressed air tube - like the one at the bank drive-thru.

Later we made crafts in the creation station.


Austin was fun and crowded and we walked around the area for a while after playing at the ACM.

Kemah Boardwalk

After visiting Space Center Houston on Tuesday, March 6, we went to dinner at the Kemah Boardwalk. We looked around, played a bit, and ate at The Aquarium restaurant. The pictures I took aren't too good, but everyone thought the restaurant was really cool, the fish were amazing to watch during dinner. There was a lot of laughing and silliness as we wound down a nice day together with my sister and your cousins.

Space Center Houston

M'mom and Papa lived in Houston during the time of the Apollo 11 space mission when U.S. astronauts first landed on the moon. Papa was in the U.S. Air Force and was stationed at Ellington Air Field where the astronauts were flown after landing from the moon. President Nixon flew into town to meet the astronauts and Papa got a pen from Air Force One when he landed.

In fact, I was born in Houston on about a year and half after the Apollo 11 mission.

We had a good time visiting the center. We played on the "Martian Matrix" which was a very cool playscape with lots of levels, slides, and cool air powered ball tubes and guns that shot foam balls everywhere.

We looked at the Bones exhibits, the different space suits of the mission eras, saw the Saturn V rocket that was scheduled for Apollo 18 and looked

at the hisoric "Mission Control" center that communicated with the astronauts for the Apollo missions. It was a really fun day.

Texas Visitor Center

We visited the Texas information center on the border of Texas and Louisiana off IH-10 near Orange, TX. We learned about the Blue Elbow Swamp and walked through part of it on a boardwalk behind the visitor's center.

We found lots of information about fun stuff to do this summer from all the brochures we took home with us. Here is a picture from the center showing off the 6 flags over Texas.

March Madness visit to Beaumont

First day of fun. The cousins (Chandler, Andrew, Josie) got to Beaumont on Sunday. Here we are on Monday on the back porch playing together.

I found an old skeleton so we had to pose for pictures - of course.

If you look close between M'mom's elbow and Andrew you can see Josie.

Melanie had her tonsils out on February 21, so she was still feeling a bit slowed down. She is inside the house watching Shrek, again.