Good Bye Summer

Today is our last official day of summer. Brinley starts preschool and Clayton starts back to MDO tomorrow! We have been very busy the past 3 weeks, sending summer off in style!


We closed out our YMCA family pool season on a Saturday. We normally go during the week after I exercise and isn't as crowded. Luckily, everyone must have been getting ready to go back to school, so we had the pool to ourselves! It was also a treat that Jason got to come with us. It was very nice to have him with me to chase the kids around!!!

On Sunday, Jason took Brinley with his family to the Astros game. Since Clayton would be no fun to keep up with at a game, he and I took my brother out to lunch for his birthday with my family!

Brinley at minute maid park watching the Astros

Brinley and Aunt Marian

Clayton enjoying his new helmet Daddy got him


On Monday, we went with my mom to the new waterpark in Baytown, Pirates Bay. It is really nice and the kids had a great time sliding, riding in the lazy river and splashing around!

The rest of the week was filled with all kinds of fun activities with Bill, Vickie and the kids who were visiting from Switzerland for the week. First, we headed to the Moody Gardens Aquarium in Galveston. Brinley has been several times, but this was Clayton's first time (that he would remember) and boy did he LOVE it! He was fascinated with the sea lions and penguins. He would stand there and watch them for 30 minutes without moving!

Grandpa with his grandkids

This picture pretty much sums up how wild and crazy Brinley and Wyatt are when they are together!!!!!!!!!

We also celebrated Marian's 15th birthday (how crazy is it that Jason and I started dating when she was 3 years old!!!!!!!!)

Hannah, Marian, Brinley, Lizzy, Wyatt and Max

We also went to Marian's High School band preview concert. The kids really enjoyed listening and dancing to the music! Afterwards, Grandma treated the kids to ice cream cones....at 8:30pm! Needless to say this was a long night :-)

This is how Clayton prefers to eat his ice cream cone!

Poor Liam was sick almost the entire trip, so this was the only picture I got of him on the last night when he was feeling a little better!

In the midst of all the craziness, the kids finished their summer gymnastics class.

We also attended Brinley's BFF, Addison's birthday party at the skating rink.

This last week has been uneventful since we have been trying to get back onto a schedule and get ready for school tomorrow! We did spend yesterday at the beach. Some friends of our got a beach house and had their daughter's birthday party there. It was wonderful and made me really want to get a beach house.....Jason's reply "get a job". Maybe someday!

This boy really LOVES cake

my little beach babies

riding the ferry was the highlight of her day!

Daddy teaching her how to boogie board

a boy and his wagon

PHEWWWWW! I am now tired just writing about all this! I am soo ready to be back on a schedule. The ease of summer schedules are great, but more tiring on me. We had a great time and can't wait for next summer!

a little trip to paradise

Jason came home from work last week and let me know he had booked a long weekend trip to Mexico. I was shocked at first, because we hadn't even discussed going to Mexico this year with our trip to Switzerland in April and our upcoming trip to Disney in December. He had a few days of downtime at work (a first in months) and the rest of the year looks to be very busy for him as well.

So my mom came over to stay with the kids and we took off to the Riviera Maya, Mexico for 4 days! We went to the same all inclusive, adults only resort we had gone to in 2007. Jason had looked at several other resorts, but when it came down to it, we were too spoiled at the El Dorado Royale :-)

When we got the airport, another surprise awaited me, Jason had upgraded us to first class with a private car picking us up at the airport to take us to the resort. It was my first time in first class and I must admit, I like having all the extra space! We got the resort and it was as breathtaking as I remember it. For the next 3 days, our schedule consisted of:

sleep late

eat breakfast

lay on beach/sit in ocean/read or sleep on beach

eat lunch

hang out in pool with bartender and drink

go back to beach

eat dinner

go to main bar for nightly entertainment

sleep

It was wonderful to have absolutely no responsibilities, eat a meal without getting interrupted, clean, cook, etc. By the way, my mom said the dog missed us more than the kids did! I got to read 2 novels, work on my tan (a little too much the last day!) and relax! It was a great way to unwind and have some couple time!

We had an infinity pool on our balcony!
This is the view we had for lunch one day

cheers to starting our vacation

Us at the candlelit dinner on the beach

Jason sleeping at our cabana on the beach

me and the beautiful ocean

the view from our balcony...not too shabby

Brinley's 4th birthday weekend

Last weekend was Brinley's birthday. Monday was actually her birthday, but we had her party on Saturday. For the last 6 months, she has been telling me that she wanted her party at Jump N Jungle and had to have a mermaid cake. Not once did she waiver on these two ideas! Here are pictures from her big day!

The mermaid cake she picked out and I made

Sliding down the slide at Jump N Jungle

Here is the crew that came to the party...notice Clayton crying and running out of the picture!

Time to blow out the candles

Present time. This is the lap board I made for her to color/draw on

Clayton enjoying the party (after lots of cake and ice cream!!!)

**on a side note, I need to say how NICE it was to have a party not at my house!!! No cleaning before/after and no food preparation (besides cake). It was the most relaxing birthday party day ever! I think this has ended our home party era.....famous last words :-)

On Sunday, we headed down to Galveston to eat at Brinley's favorite restaurant, The Rainforest Cafe. The entire restaurant looks like a rainforest with moving animated animals and rain storms that happen every 15 minutes! Lots of fun, even Clayton enjoyed it. After eating, we headed to the beach for the last few hours of daylight. It is really the best time to go because it is not hot and you don't get sunburned!

Brinley and the frog at the Rainforest Cafe

This girl is absolutely a beach girl! She loves to be in the ocean!

They did this for at least 30 minutes! She filled up the wagon, he pulled it out to the ocean.

splashing around

Monday, on Brinley's actual birthday, we met her friends at Chick fil a for lunch. The girls played and then we had cupcakes and sang happy birthday to her.

That evening, we gave Brinley our present to her, a big girl bike. She asked Santa for one last Christmas, but we decided to wait for her birthday when she could get more use of it with better weather. She was thrilled to see her new purple (fav color) bike! She loved the bell on the handle bars too! She rides around ringing the bell and saying "mail lady". Clayton is also happy because he now can ride her big wheels without her getting mad!

I love her face! She was sooo happy

The first of many rides together, although we need to get him a more manly ride!

Brinley, you are such a sweet and happy little girl. You are 41.5 inches tall and weigh 37 lbs. You love life and always have a smile on your face. Your imagination has really kicked in and you can play with your barbies or princesses for hours. It is hard to believe you will be starting kindergarten, this time next year!!! You love being a big sister and teaching Clayton new things and you can't wait to show him how to potty like a big boy. Dancing and dressing up is your favorite thing to do! You also love to help me around the house by feeding the animals every night and putting your clean clothes away. We are blessed to have you in our lives!!!

July 4th

We spent the 4th of July at my brother's house swimming, eating and popping fireworks! Thanks to hurricane Alex, it rained the entire week here. I think we got 10 inches of rain on Friday!!! God knew how to pick up our cabin fevered, water logged spirits by creating a beautifully sunny (and HOT) 4th of July.


We spent the entire day in the pool. Brinley enjoyed hanging out with the older kids (Reese and her cousins), while Clayton enjoyed splashing, throwing balls and diving sticks into the pool.

We also ATE the entire time we were there. To say we had a ton of food would be an understatement! Hamburgers, hot dogs, sausage, boudan balls, bacon tomato tartlettes, chips, queso, salsa, watermelon, ham and turkey roll ups, and grilled jalapenos stuffed with cream cheese. The desert counter (oh yea, I said counter!) included : oreo balls, individual cherry pies, Texas white sheet cake, chocolate chip cookies, pretzels dipped in icing, and homemade ice cream!!!!!!!! Lets just say I am still full this morning :-)

Once it got dark and we coaxed our sun burnt, pruned bodied kids out of the pool, we started the fireworks show. Normally, Blake's neighborhood puts on a fabulous fireworks show, but thanks to the rain, everything was waterlogged and rescheduled until Labor day. So Blake and Jason went the fireworks stand and like kids in a candy store, bought a large amount of pyrotechnics for our viewing pleasure!

I was worried how Clayton would take firework action since he hadn't had a nap, swam all day and eaten himself into a coma, but in true man form, he LOVED IT!

We got home around 11pm and now we are spending the day being lazy. It was a great way to spend the 4th of July!