We're Back

I knew I would get around to this again someday!  I was just thinking of all of the changes with the boys lately and decided to enter a post.  As I am cooking dinner right now, Benjamin is across the street playing with the neighbor.  We have lived here for one year, but just recently met the boy across the street, who is Benjamin's age.  This is the first time that Benjamin is playing with a neighbor by himself, and I assume he will come home soon!  Not sure, never done this.  

Sawyer is such a big boy.  Today was, in fact, the first day that he has gotten up out of bed and come down stairs by himself!  About a week ago we switched him to his "big boy" bed, and since then he hasn't seemed to figure out that he can just get up and leave his room (thankfully!).  He has continued to call us when he wakes up.  I wonder what the next days will bring!

It was a big day for Evan too.  He stayed overnight with his grandparents by himself for the first time.  They took him on a bus ride across town and stopped off for a few adventures on the way.  He was so excited to be getting this special time without his brothers, it was just him!  Lucky little guy.

Synopsis

The last couple of months of summer went by so fast.  Technically we are definitely still in summer, especially given those 100+ temps daily with no rain in sight.  However, Benjamin is already back in school!  Now that that he is back in school, and I have a little time on Tuesdays and Thursdays (yes!!!!), I have more space to do things like update blogs.

So let's go back a month or so...  Fourth of July was great.  It wasn't even that hot, and we were enjoying the delicious Black Krimm tomatoes that I grew from seed in the Spring.  We did the Westlake parade again and the boys were a hit.  We were also happy to find out that we get three days of fireworks, as the two country clubs near our house do fireworks on the 3rd and 5th of July.  Now that we know this we can plan to view them all next year!

Lance decided that we were ready to do some of our own fireworks this year.  That was scary for me but it turned out ok! Phew!

We had both sets of grandparents over for a Par-tay and Lance decided to have a little fun with the beverage options.  Amma and I enjoyed a nice watermelon martini with basil.  Next year we'll use our own watermelons, thank you!

A Most Delicious Evening

Lance and I enjoyed a beautiful evening at a new restaurant on the East side.  We ate at Eden East, which is a casual garden side eatery underneath the pecan trees and christmas lights.  The feature local fare, much of which involves produce coming directly from the garden surrounding you.  Just look at the beautiful food and surroundings!  By the way, watermelon goes really well with lamb. Yum!

To put a final romantic touch on the evening, you have to love heart-shaped peppers!

Random Summer Time Fun

Evan finally got to go on some field trips at school.  He was so sad last year when Benjamin got to go and he did not!

We haven't gone out to dinner with the boys as much since we moved further away from restaurants.  But we sure did have fun one night at Tres Amigos.

I was blessed with a visit from my good graduate school friend, Becky. We spent some quality pool time together and then attended our friend Kim's engagement party.

New Mexico Trip

We took our annual trip to New Mexico this August.  I keep thinking this will be our last year but my parents still haven't sold the house in over 6 years!  Maybe we'll be back.... This was the first time that we have driven with the kids.  I think it went pretty well given that we are all still alive and in relatively good mental health.  I'm so thankful for DVD players and I Pads for these type of occasions.

We saw a lot of "windmills", which is about all there is to see on this trip.

The boys were thrilled to see each other after a brief separation.  Benjamin had gone ahead with Papa a few days earlier.  

"Reunited and it Feels so Good!"

Lance thought this shot of all of the shoes represented the concept of being reunited.  Sweet!

New Mexico is a beautiful place, and we totally loved being spoiled by my parents while we enjoyed the much cooler and wetter weather.  I need my reprieve from August in Texas!  Little boys seem to love playing among rocks, which New Mexico seems to have plenty of.

We were generally lazy while at my parents' house, but we did make it to the "zoo" nearby.  When I say lazy, that includes photography, so we only got one pic on my phone!  Benjamin was lucky enough to come face-to-face with a Cara Cara that used to be kept as a pet.

Taos Getaway

I'm putting our Taos trip under a separate header because it was our big "date trip" of the year.  It worked great to leave the boys with my parents while we drove two hours north for a 2-day stay in Taos.  We started with a 4 mile hike in the Taos ski area.  It would have been much more awesome had we not struggled with the altitude change and had it not been raining and lightening for most of the hike!  It sure was gorgeous though.

I was much happier when we got to the hotel.  I absolutely loved our balcony with a view of the pond, waterfalls, and towering Aspen trees.

But let's face it, the most important thing about a trip to New Mexico is the food.  Ahhhh the food!!  The bad news is that we only one good food pic.  The good news is that it is a really great one!  Blue corn chile relleno with fried egg at Doc Martin's.

So it was a great summer overall.  It was pretty short since Benjamin started school on August 19th!  This time next year we'll be excited for Evan to start Kindergarten!

Port Aransas 2014

Things are always different in Port Aransas, and you never know what you will get from year to year.  Bottom line, it is never perfect but there are always several really good things about it.

Let's start with the good.  Benjamin and Evan loved the beach, and were both more adventurous in the water than last year.  Benjamin even asked to get a Boogie Board so he could learn to ride the waves.  No surprise that he was pretty good at it!

Evan was more interested in the sand than the water, but he definitely seemed happier and more independent at the beach compared to last year.

Sawyer did not love the beach, unfortunately.  He was sick with a cold and did not want us to put him down in the sand.  He was a daddy's boy for most of the trip.

The boys were thrilled to order from the ice cream truck twice.  Its funny to see how quickly they can eat it before it melts.  The boys were also plenty happy to visit the ice cream shop one evening after dinner.  There was simply no shortage of ice cream on this particular trip.  

Now to my favorite part.  The birding center was awesome this year.  I have always loved it and think it is one of the very best things about Port Aransas.  It is quiet and peaceful, with little signs of tourism.  It is a place just to view nature in the raw.  We always see varieties of birds that we have never seen before.  Well, this particular visit was the most special.  The lighting was great, there were no mosquitoes, we viewed the changes that took place with great multiplication of large rodents, and we FINALLY saw the Alligator.  Of course, we connected the appearance of the alligator with the abundance of yummy jumbo-sized rodents. Actually, we believe he was stalking them at the time, just waiting for nightfall to attack.

No lack of excitement here!

There were lots of things to see.  Especially one particular, very big thing...

We were trying to see his head, which was under the pier.  We did see the head, and the beady little eyes were locked on a poor little nutria.

 Lots of other creatures were there.

The nutria, a large rodent that frequents marshlands, had taken over the birding center.  We saw about 100 of them, whereas last time we only saw a few.  It seems they had mowed down large areas of reeds.  I can't wait to see what it looks like next year.

 Guess we did eventually run out of light, but look at this happy face!!

There were a few more cute photos.

Somehow this blue hat just works for Evan.  Oh, the many faces of Evan....

We had the pleasure of riding home with Sawyer while the "big boys" went with my parents to the Aquarium.  It was some nice two-on-one and kissey time.

Speaking of my parents, here they are doing their classic beach thing.  We owe them so much for all of their love and support!

Oh, Sawyer, please have mercy on us and stop being SO DARN CUTE!!