The Beach

Some friends from church invited us to go camping at the beach with them, so we said YES!!!!  This is a pic of the kids on the way there.  We went to North Padre Island.  It was beautiful and we had lots of fun!

Here is my bearded man.  Love him!

We went with a family who had a teenage son and daughter and another family who had a little girl and boy my kids' ages.  Here is kyler, Luke and Tyce playing in the sand.  I kept thinking they would eventually get sick of the sand and sun, but no!  They loved it the whole time.
 

I had a hard time getting my kids to take a picture, but Laney would pose for me!  Here is Laney and Brek.

Laney and Tyce

And all of my kids and Laney.

All of the little ones.  None of them would look at me!  Stinkers.

Tyce and Brek

Luke getting me!

Tyce and Brek

That night Brock did a little treasure hunt for the kids.  They loved it!  Here they are starting the hunt...

The treasure hunt took them under the landing where there was a big hole they had to get into.  I was a bit nervous.  But Brek and Laney got in and it wasn't as deep as I thought!

In the hole

They had to hop, sidestep, and run throughout the treasure hunt.  Here they are running to me.

X marks the spot!

Dig for the buried treasure!

And the loot!

Sometimes I am a little OCD about dirt and being dirty, and that night I started getting that way about the whole experience.  We were covered in sand and there was no way it was coming off.  We went up to the showers and rinsed off, then straight into the tent (pitched in the sand).  So yeah.  We didn't get all of the sand off, but it wasn't too bad.  Brock went off to fish in the night with the sharks while I laid down with the kids.  Luke would not lay down to go to sleep.  He kept saying "Daddy" and looking for Daddy.  Then he got Tyce all hyper and he wouldn't lay down!  Finally, (probably 2 hrs later) the kids all fell asleep.  I kept waking up all night with kids rolling and jamming their legs/arms/faces into me.  At some point, I smelled pee and thought oh great.  Well, nothing to do about it now.  In the morning, it turns out both Tyce and Brek had wet the bed!  Lovely.  

So of course Luke is up at literally the crack of dawn.  We were told that they would be releasing baby sea turtles at 6:30 AM, so I rolled over and asked Brock what time it was.  6:25.  So what the heck.  We're already up.  Let's go be awake for a reason.  I have to admit, it was so beautiful and peaceful walking along the beach at dawn. 

Here is the fam minus me walking to the sea turtles

Tyce and his belly button watching the turtles

Tons of people were there!!!!  We couldn't really see anything.  Just specks making their way to the ocean.

Some lady who was in charge took people's cameras to take pictures of the baby sea turtles.  I sent mine with her and got these cute pictures.

On the way back to camp.  I LOVE this picture!

I kept trying to get Tyce to go up with them so he could be in the picture, but he refused.

Tyce still refusing to look at the camera

There's my cute Tyce smiling for me!

Still not tired of the sand...

We had a lot of fun, but we have learned our lesson about camping on the beach...Don't do it with small children! :)  Jk.  It really was lots of fun.  You just have to be ready to be sandy with no chance of getting clean.  We were burnt and tired, but we had a blast!

Camp Get Fit

For the month of July, Brock was able to get a job as the camp director of a program they do through the schools here called Camp Get Fit.  It is a program to help kids get fit.  Imagine that! :)  Seriously though, it helps teach the kids about exercising and good eating and what not.  Halfway through (2 weeks in), Brock calls home one day and asks me if Brek would like to come up and join.  I asked and she said yes, so off we went to camp!  I was a little nervous about it, but knowing Brock would be there to look out for her, I thought it would be good for her (She can be really shy and I really want her to be comfortable starting school).  Anyway, she loved it!!!  She went every day until the end!  7:30 AM - 4:00 PM Mon - Thurs (long day!)  This is a pic of her one morning all ready to go!

 While Brek was at camp, the boys and I had a lot of fun.  It was so weird not having Brek there.  It was really quiet!  For the first couple of hours in the morning the boys would just play quietly with their toys.  I LOVED IT!!!  Yes, I am excited for school to start. :)  And miraculously our house was lots cleaner.  This is one morning the boys found a lizard (it was almost dead).  Don't worry.  I didn't let them stab it.  Although it stayed there and died anyway. 

One morning Tyce was certain it was his birthday.  He was very adamant so I decided we could have a pretend bday party.  Here are the boys making the pretend cake (brownies).  They forgot about it after we popped the brownies into the oven which was a relief. 

Here Brek is on the last day of Camp Get Fit for their talent show.  

They did the macarena (sp?) and it was super cute.  I still can't believe she stood up there and did it!  So proud of her!  She is soooo shy!  (That is in big groups or when you very first meet her.  After that, she is my crazy loud one!)

Luke saw Daddy and just had to go be with him.  He is a Daddy's boy!

It was so good for Brek to go, and I think she is really excited for school to start now.  She always talks about her school and her playground now.  Yay!

Ready for Church

I love the Sunday mornings when Brock is here to help me with the kids!  It's the best!  These pictures are from a few weeks ago.  We were all dressed ready to go and the boys and Brek actually had their hair done.  (I usually don't bother with the boys hair, and Brek usually gets her hair quickly done after we have seated ourselves for church.)  So here are my cuties all ready for church...

 

P.S. Brek wears this dress EVERY Sunday for church!  I cannot get her to choose any of her other really cute dresses.  Any suggestions?  And to be honest, it's easier to just let her wear it then to fight her and lose precious getting ready time to try to get her into another dress.

So yeah.  We love Daddy and him being able to help us every once in a while get ready for church!!!

Grandpa, Grandma, and Uncle Brandon...hurrah!!

Oh, and we've moved...again!!!  What's new? :) 

Brock's family flew in on the 3rd at about midnight.  The next morning we packed, packed, packed and with the help of a ton of people we moved to our new home (renting) in Sabinal were Brock has gotten a coaching and teaching job.  The town is only 20 minutes from where we were so it wasn't a terrible move.  And we could not have done it without the help of Brock's family and all of our ward friends in Uvalde!  Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!

We spent the first couple of days just cleaning and unpacking.  Thanks for your help Bowens!  Then we finally got to go have some fun!  Here are pictures from our trip to the Alamo and the River Walk.

All of us in front of the Alamo

Uncle Brandon carried Tyce a good chunk of the day

(And Tyce is not a "little" boy)  Good thing Brandon's so strong

We stopped to look at the pretty fish

It didn't take long for Luke to fall asleep

Brandon with Tyce and Brek

River Walk time!  The kids were looking at some super cute ducklings right here.

Tyce found a crayon on the river walk and gave it to Luke for safe keeping (yes, he's still asleep).

I just had to post this pic bcz it shows how hard it is to get pics of my children.  

They will not hold still for anything!

Tyce stopped for one second!

Back at home...

The kids had so much fun every day playing outside on our new "playground" with Grandma, Grandpa, and Brandon.

Grandma pushing Luke

Here is a pretty good shot of our playground.  We love it!

It has 3 swings, a tire swing, a slide, and monkey bars.

Ah yes, how could I forget the chickens?  We now own chickens because our landlord has a chicken coop in the backyard, and they said we could keep the chickens!  We have 3 hens and a rooster.  The children have affectionately named them Boastus (rooster), Avery (take it as a compliment cousin, Brek names everything Avery), Octo, and Ado.  Amazingly, the names have stuck.

The kids didn't quite know what to do with chickens.  They are terrified of just about all animals.  At first, they would just sit back and clap at them.  Then, they would try to follow them around.  After about a week, they were chasing them around the yard and throwing things at them!  And we were so surprised when we didn't get any eggs for forever! :)  Boastus has started trying to attack Luke when he comes outside and even tried to get me a couple of times.  The kids now leave them alone and we've been getting 2-3 eggs every day!

Luke waving at Ado

Tyce clapping at Ado

Here's our little chicken coop/pen

While Brock's family was here, Brandon would go to camp with Brock in the mornings and work out with him then he would come home and play with the kids all afternoon.  I was amazed!  What a great Uncle!  And of course the kids got lots of quality time with Grandma and Grandpa.  Here is their fun in the pool...

Grandma with Tyce and Brek

Luke "smiling" for the camera

Grandma, Brek, Tyce, Grandpa, and Luke

And the kids loved reading with their grandparents!

My children (and Brock and I) got really spoiled having Grandma, Grandpa, and Brandon around!  It was so much fun and we miss them already!