Summer Happenings

We started our summer off saying goodbye to some really good friends of ours. Suzanne and I have been friends since high school and she and her husband just moved to Phoenix. The week before they moved I watched her little girl Kairi one afternoon so she could run some errands. Kairi is 1 and just precious. I love this little girl so much. Tobey loves her too and he was so sweet with her all day. I think they had fun together! We miss our friends very much!






These are some really sweet pictures of Tobey and Kairi at the arboretum a few weeks before they moved.




This is mid-may. The pool was still on the cool side but Tobey had some water fun in the backyard anyway......



.....and chocolate soy ice cream afterwards!

Announcing Zoe Roxanna!

Tobey's new baby cousin has arrived. She was born on May 27th and weighed 7 pounds and 7 ounces. She is beautiful and we are dying to meet her. I don't have any pictures but there are plenty on facebook for those of you who know Shan. Rodney's parents were with Shanna & Jeff for the delivery and the first week at home. We will not go up until the end of July to meet her. That seems so far away but I know it will go by fast. In April I got to go with Rodney's mom and sister Libby to Seattle for a little pre-baby fun. We went to one of Shan's showers, spent a day at the spa and then the day at a tulip festival. I snapped this great picture of Shanna standing in front of a field of daffodils. The picture is so Shanna or Shibbs as we call her or Neena as Tobey calls her although he is finally learning her real name. Congratulations Jeff & Shanna! We love Zoe so much already!

Bathroom update

So many things to blog about it is hard to know where to begin. But I do want to share pictures of our updated master bathroom. It has been a work in progress for the last two years and it is near completion. The only thing left is to install the shower door. Rodney has done an amazing job and I am so proud of him. He wanted to do the work himself and for the most part he did. He did require some extra hands and we are so thankful for those who helped him out. I did do a little bit of grout work in the shower and I painted some trim one afternoon. But Rodney has spent countless afternoons and even vacation time to work on this bathroom. His handiwork never ceases to amaze me. This last weekend we bought some decorative items and I am so appreciative of my new bathroom. Thank you honey for all your hard work! Here are the pictures. Drum roll please.....

A Day Out With Thomas

Several weeks ago Rodney went on a canoe trip with his best buds. I planned some fun things with Tobey while he was gone. Friday night we met our friends Jimmy and Melissa at the movies and saw Monsters vs. Aliens. Tobey had been seeing the trailer play on TV for weeks and was calling it the monster movie. He loved it. I thought it was okay too. Saturday morning we got up and went to Chick-fil-a for breakfast. We love their chicken minis. Then we headed out to Grapevine to see Thomas the Train. Tobey had been waiting for this day for weeks. We parked a ways out and rode a shuttle to the Grapevine Vintage Railroad. He was excited to ride the shuttle and got ecstatic as we neared the station and could see Thomas outside the window. He had so much fun that day. The weather had turned cold the day before and we were bundled up in our jackets and hats but that didn't stop him. There were 4 Thomas stations set up and we visited them all. I spent a load of money in the souvenir store. And then it was our turn to ride the train. We stood in line waiting to board "Thomas". Tobey was so cute. He loved it all so much. The train ride lasted about 30 minutes. So we just sat back, ate our snacks, and looked out the window. Afterwards we got to take a professional picture with Thomas which I purchased and spent more money on. Then we walked around some more and Tobey rode another miniature train. Then he decided he wanted a snowcone even though it was probably only 45 degrees outside. I give him credit though because he ate half before he decided it was too cold to be eating ice. We were pretty much done after that and rode the shuttle back to our car. Of course he was out before we left the parking lot. We missed Daddy of course but it was a fun outing for just the two of us.

Backyardigans

Spring is here and it is my favorite time of year. This is what has been going on in my backyard.....

Our palm tree is getting taller and taller. We may have to cut it down because it is too close to the pool and I am very bummed about it.

Our beautiful snapdragons that return every year with no help from me.

This is Scooter's favorite time of year too. He loves laying on the warm grass and rolling around in it.

Our birdhouse

Best buds

I always know Spring has arrived when the irises bloom on the side of our house. They only bloom for about a month but they are so beautiful.

Welcome Spring!

Plane throwing, bubble blowing, sand shoveling fun!

Just a day at the park....

Budding Artist

For Christmas Tobey got some new paints and paper. We have been doing alot of painting since then. Last week he got to go to his friend Ava's birthday party and it was at a Art House. All the kids got to paint a picture and keep it. It was very cute. Tobey had to put his painting up in his room so he could look at it.

He is an abstract artist

This is a face of sudden inspiration

I asked him to paint a tree

And he did!

Then he did another one

Or is it...

He ended up with this. Still quite lovely in his mother's eyes.

Tobey's First Camping Trip

We left on a Friday afternoon. Our car was loaded to the brim. On the way we stopped by Walmart for food and a miniature fishing pole for the boy. Rodney had to unpack the back of the car to make room for the groceries. I have never seen our car so loaded down. It looked like we were leaving for a month. Rodney commented as we got on the highway and headed west about our city slicker ways. He was a little embarrassed I could tell. I tried to make him feel better by reminding him that Scooter's travel crate took up quite a bit of space. I silently prayed for safe travel. Tobey would have been buried by camping supplies in the back seat if we had a wreck. We drove on. Even though we had tried to leave early enough to avoid traffic we managed to get stuck right in the middle of it. The stop and go quickly turned my stomach upside down and I made Rodney pull over so I could drive. I wonder why drivers never get carsick. Rodney and I had a discussion on this subject and decided that it is a control thing. If you are driving you are in control and can anticipate the movement of the car. Plus you are distracted and focused on driving. I don't know but it works every time. Within 10 minutes the car sickness was gone. The trip to Walmart had set us back a bit on time and it was getting dark when we arrived at the campgrounds. The ranger's station was already closed for the day but they had posted our campsite location. We drove around and found that is was not the area we had expected. It was only about 30-40 feet from the lake and there was only one tree to shield us from the wind. This area looked like it was more suitable for RV campers. So we drove around and found the more primitive campgrounds (we still had water and electricity so it wasn't that primitive). The gate was locked into that area but the first campground was very accessible so we parked and set up camp there. There was no one else around. I wrote a note and left it at the rangers station hoping they wouldn't be upset that we had changed spots. This new spot was much better. We were totally enclosed by trees and the bathroom/shower facility was only 30 ft away. Rodney quickly got busy unloading the car and setting up our tents and lanterns. Of course Tobey had to help.



I let Scooter out and walked him around and then tied him to a tree. You could tell our poor dog had not been on a trip for a while. He was shaking and whining. I think he was terrified that we were just going to leave him there. The rope was long enough that he could reach almost anywhere on our site but he he just followed us around. He did not enjoy the trip one bit I think. Shortly after we got our tent up a couple showed up and stopped by our campsite. They had a group of college kids from their church following behind them but they hadn't made reservations so they were just going to walk in a little ways and find a campsite (since the gate was closed and locked). I was secretly overjoyed that 1.) We were not lone campers anymore and 2.) They were breaking the rules too so we wouldn't be the only ones kicked out of the state park the next morning.

For our first night we planned to have hot dogs, chips, baked beans, and of course smores. Rodney got a fire going in the fire pit and we roasted our hot dogs. I spent most of dinner time yelling at Tobey to stop running so close to the fire. I was a nervous wreck. I could just see him tripping and falling into the fire. Tobey's favorite part was roasting the marshmallows. He is a marshmallow freak and I do not use that term lightly. He wants them for breakfast, for snack, for lunch-it drives me crazy. By the end of the day he usually wears me down and I will give him one and say sternly "do not ask me for marshmallows the rest of the day". At my sister-in-law's shower that we had at our house a couple of weeks ago we had a chocolate fountain. We set out marshmallows among other things that could be dipped in the chocolate. The house was full of people and kids. I was very frazzled and every time I would see Tobey he had a handful of marshmallows in his hand taking them back to his room to share with his friends. I finally had to move that bowl to higher ground. Here is a picture of Tobey doing a little campfire jig inspired by his first marshmallow roasting experience.





By the time we finished dinner it was already 9pm. We took Scooter for a walk down to the lake and back. Then we headed to the bathrooms to get ready for holing up in the tent. We knew a cold front was blowing in that night and we weren't sure how bad it would be. The bathrooms were nice and warm though so we figured if it got too bad we would just camp out in there. I wasn't too worried because we had brought our space heater from home to place inside the tent with us. As we were walking back to our tent we looked up at the stars and were amazed. To me that is one of the best things about getting away from the city. You forget how numerous they are and how breathtaking the night sky can be. Tobey was amazed too. We have been discussing night and day with him lately. There was not a moon that night and he was very perplexed by that. He also wanted to know where the sun went. He is a very inquisitive little boy and I love it. Back at the campsite we all crawled into our tent. We each had our own sleeping bag even Scooter. We played a game of Go fish and then turned the lights out. Tobey was out within minutes. Before long Rodney was breathing heavy too. I was very restless and couldn't fall asleep. I was warm and cozy inside my bag but I just wasn't sleepy so I read for a little bit trying to make myself sleepy. I guess it was around midnight when the wind started blowing in and never stopped the rest of the night. It was loud and hit my side of the tent the hardest. The tent kept pushing down on my head and at times the whole tent would shake and quiver. And it got colder and colder. I think the temperature dropped about 25 degrees that night. I finally fell asleep around 2am but it was not a restful sleep at all. Tobey never stirred and barely moved. I was afraid he was cold so I kept waking up to touch his face but his skin was always warm. I stayed mostly warm although by morning my feet had gotten cold. I checked my phone which said that it was 29 degrees outside. Brrrrr.... It was torture getting out of that sleeping bag. We gathered our things and ran to the bathrooms to thaw out. The sun was out and it warmed up to the 40's rather quickly but the wind was so strong that it felt much colder. Back at the campsite I found a note on our car from one of the rangers. They weren't kicking us out but they needed us to come down and register our vehicle. So I I set Tobey up with his breakfast in the tent while Rodney cooked our breakfast and then I drove over to the ranger station. They were very nice about us switching spots. I found out that the area we were staying in was actually closed for the winter which is why the gates had been locked. That area opened up the following weekend. We decided to cut our trip short and not stay another night. It was just too cold. We hung around for a couple of hours. Tobey was not interested in leaving the tent. We brought his portable DVD player and he was content watching his cartoons in the warmth of the tent with Scooter. I took a walk by myself down by the lake. We had planned on renting a boat and taking Tobey fishing. Looking out at the choppy waters I knew I didn't want to be floating on that surface. The wind crashed against me and whipped my hair around and took my breath away. I did get a good look at some of the other camp sites and picked out the one I would like to come back too (when it is much warmer). It backs up to this beach...

By noon we had loaded everything back into the car and we were on our way. It was alot of work for such a short trip but I am glad we did it. 

West Texas Cacti

Tobey climbed all over this rock while we loaded up the car