Beautiful Summertime

Tomorrow is my very last day of summer vacation, and I might be just a little bit sad about it. This has been the BEST summer yet... The kids are big enough to actually DO stuff. Nobody needs a nap (except maybe for Dad...)So... in honor of the Summer of '10, here are just a few of the things we did this summer!

Went to a Ranger Baseball Game. (Kate did NOT catch a ball, much to her chagrin.)
Rode the train at the zoo. (Abby really like it.)
Graduated my final little pre-schooler. (Grace begins kindergarten in a few short days.)
Went to Six Flags. Twice!
Celebrated 16 years of wedded bliss with the best man I know. Went away WITHOUT CHILDREN to celebrate. It was WAY relaxing!
Went to Medieval Times. The kids REALLY like it!
Saw some awesome fireworks.
Babysat a VERY sweet 10-day old baby, Miss Berkley. It was so special to have a baby in the house again!
Went to the movies a few times...
Celebrated Lainey's birthday at American Girl in Dallas... (Lainey is Abby's BFF).
The girls attended cheer camp and had a blast. Go Bulldogs!
Rode to the Horny Toad with some friends.
Kate and Abby completed the 2nd annual Hamilton Kid's Triathlon.
Did a lot of swimming with my girls...
Attended family reunions. Here's me with my Daddy...
Went to the zoo. Grace LOVED the birds!
Went to the beach. Everyone except me got stung by the jellyfish on our last day! And, it IS true that if you urinate on the sting, it does not hurt any more. FYI. :-)
Sent away our oldest child to a sleep-away camp for the first time. It was a success!! She had a ball!
Picked some berries...
Celebrated Luke's birthday. He's 39 and holding!!! :-)
Believe it or not, there WAS more, but country-fried internet can only handle so many uploads at a time.

Farewell summer. I sincerely love you, and cannot WAIT until you come to see us again.

The last "Mini-Vacay" of summer

This is my last week before I have to go back to work. Actually, much less than a week, as I have to report back on Friday. :-(

I love summer, and am SOOOOO not ready for it to be over! I know it will be fine once school starts and we get back into our groove, but this summer has been WONDERFUL. The kids are old enough to really DO some things, and they have been so fun - I want summer to last forever! BUT... I know it can't... SO, Luke and I decided to take one more last "mini-vacation" before summer's over and gone!

We went to the beach at Galveston and had a great time. It was a quick weekend trip, and we all wished it could have been longer.

We took a side trip on the way home to NASA, and it was GREAT. If you've never been, you should go. It was really, really something to see. We WILL go back again when we can stay longer.

Here are the girls in front of the Saturn V rocket. It was huge!
Here are the girls on the beach at Galveston.
Here they are with their awesome balloon animals outside of Rainforest Cafe.
And here they are out on the beach.
We had a ball!! We love summer!!!

Cheerleader Camp!

In July, my girls attended cheer camp here in H-town. Here they are, ready for day #1!Let the "catch-up" blogging continue! :-)

Playing "Catch Up"

I am so far behind on blogging... But I am going to try and play "catch up" this week and at the very least upload some of my favorite images from the Summer of 2010.

Here's my favorite pic...
My Daddy and Me at the family reunion. Love my Daddy! :-)

This one's for you, Mom...

...because I KNOW you want me to blog often.

And because I KNOW you will find this one amusing!!

Today we went school shopping, and we were buying shoes and clothes and supplies and backpacks and all sorts of stuff. It took us ALL DAY LONG. It wasn't exactly a fun experience.

But I digress.

We were looking at backpacks, and Kate was trying to explain to Abby that she could get a certain backpack and have it monogrammed.

But instead, she said, "You could get this backpack and have it MAMOGRAMMED."

I couldn't explain why it was wrong, because I could not stop laughing.

Just a quick update to let you know I'm still alive.

Sorta...

We've been so busy that I have scarcely had time to breathe.

After picking up the kids from "Camp Grandma", we came home and immediately began installation of our sprinkler system.

That's right, you heard me... WE are installing our sprinkler system.

As in, "Dig a lot of holes, place pipes in them, and then fill in the holes" ...

We have NOT A CLUE what we're really doing, but we ARE doing it. Luckily, we have a friend who DOES have a clue, and is helping us quite a bit. (Thanks, Ryan!)

Luke took off of work last week to work on this little project. We worked all week last week...

... and we're still working.

*SIGH*

I'm tired, but we're almost finished. Ryan said today maybe 2-3 more evenings of work and we'll be finished.

I hope he's right.

In the middle of all of this work, we ran off last weekend to Luke's family reunion on the river (which was fantastically fun, as always.)

Then when we got back, our church's Summer Music Camp began. It is currently in full swing. All of my kids are attending, and all are enjoying it so much. I am working in the "crafty" area.

SO... I'm crazy busy, and have no time to blog. But I have been taking pictures, and SOMEDAY I will post them.

Someday... :-)

Shhhh....

Listen!

What's that you hear??

It's the sound of *SILENCE*.

All my children have gone off to "Camp Grandma" for the week.

That's right.

All my children.

All week.

At my Mom and Dad's house.

Without me.

As in, I am here, all day long, ALONE.

What ever will I do???

Hmmm....

I'll think of something!! ;-)

Sweet Summer Time!

We've been doing a whole lot of hanging out at the pool......with family and good friends.
And, MAN! Do we have style, or what?!?!?!?
Good times. Really good times. (And special thanks to my friend AND photographer, Shelley, for these photos. She NEVER forgets her camera!! :-)

Lefty Cat

We've had kitty drama at our house this week... Monday night when we got home, we found Lefty the cat outside and he was in BAD SHAPE. We thought he had probably been caught by a coyote, as his chest seemed to be punctured badly in about 4 places. He was bleeding slightly, and not breathing normally. He couldn't move and would just cry out when you touched him. I just knew he was dying. The girls came out and told him good bye, and many, MANY tears were shed. (Here's an old picture of Lefty when he was a kitten with his brother, Poncho. Is that not just pure sweetness?? Love it.)After the kids went to bed, I went out into the back yard and sat with Lefty so he wouldn't be alone when he died. I know, I know... I'm a sap. Luke came out and checked on him, too, but neither one of us could "put him out of his misery". We covered him with a towel and gave him some water, which he lapped up. We would pet him, and he would lean into our hands and try to purr. It was very sad. Finally, we decided we needed to go to bed, but Lefty was still hanging in there. We couldn't leave him alone and defenseless in the yard, so we finally decided to move him to the laundry room. We thought that way he could pass away quietly. It was sad, but we thought it was best. Luke had some liquid antibiotics, which he gave to Lefty. He drank a bit more water, and we left him for the night.

When we woke up in the morning, we went to check on Lefty, who was still alive. He had used the little litter box, and, even though he still looked really bad, Luke felt like maybe he had a chance. Luke loaded him up in the car and took him to the vet.

After the vet looked at him and shaved down his chest, he discovered that Lefty had in fact been bit by a SNAKE. Scary, since those fang puncture marks were HUGE. Anyway, the vet called and said Lefty was still alive, but he only gave him a 50/50 shot at survival. He put Lefty on IV antibiotics, IV fluids, and IV steroids.

Lefty held on for another day, but today, he died. The girls were sad all over again, but Luke promised them he would bring the body back home, and we would have a feline funeral. (In case you didn't know, Luke is an EXCELLENT pet preacher... I am so thankful, as I LITERALLY can't get through these pet funerals without bursting into inappropriate giggling fits.)

SO tomorrow, we'll be burying and saying good bye to a very good cat. RIP, Lefty. We will miss you!

Softball

Kate's softball team has had a ROUGH year this year. They've been playing since April, and they're still playing. They have gotten beat EVERY SINGLE GAME, and often, they have been beaten BADLY.

When the season started, none of the girls knew how to pitch, and this is a "kid-pitch" league. Like I said, it has been rough.
UNTIL TONIGHT!!!

Tonight, they WON, and WON BIG!! I was so proud of them. They all played extremely well, and never acted or played like they were anything other than champions. Kate even pitched a couple of innings, and she did well. I was so very, very proud of her! What I was MOST proud of, however, is that at the end of the game, they ran over to the opposing team's dug out and cheered and clapped for the other team, and told them they were proud of them. It was a fabulous display of good sportsmanship.

Our season ends Friday night. I hope these girls can pull out another great game to end their season on a high note!