We went bowling yesterday and WOW. Echo was so good at it! He rolled the ball super slow but boy did it go straight. In fact, he got more strikes and spares than anyone else. He won the first game and Mike won the second, but it was close! 
We headed over to the in-law’s for a BBQ. It’s the first time we’ve had one of our family get togethers at their house and it was a lot of fun. Walking in to a house full of food that I didn’t have to cook didn’t hurt. They had a trampoline and a little wading pool set up but the big hit was the fence along the back of the property. I took probably 100 shots of kids on this fence with sno cones, jumping, playing with shadows, etc. I realized after trying to review them that I had forgotten the memory card at home so none of them were saved. I think that is the first time that has ever happened to me! This one was taken with my camera phone, a test shot before using my much better but memory challenged camera.
Happy Belated Father’s Day to all the daddies out there. A special thank you to my husband for being a great dad and giving me all these wonderful children to love.
graffiti on pier at Corpus Christi
My brother was talking about getting married last week. At the last minute, I decided to drive out to his house so that he would have some family there. I had to rent a car and only had room for four kids so Mica, Butterfly, Jon and Echo came with me. He lives north of Houston and it took two days for me to get there. Once we arrived he found out that the marriage license required a three day waiting period. There is no way I could stay that long because I had to be back in time for FATHER’S DAY!
Even without the nuptials, we had an amazing time. I think this was the best vacation we’ve had in years. My brother took us to this little creek in the middle of the forest. It had a ‘waterfall’ that formed a big pool at the bottom. It was so fun! My brother’s four kids were with him for summer vacation and his fiancee has three kids. With my four, that made eleven little bundles of adorable energy. I was amazed because all the kids got along famously. There was no fighting or arguing. It was like a really great dream except I was awake.
The next day we drove down to Galveston to the beach. None of my kids had ever seen the ocean. I haven’t been to the beach in almost fifteen years. My back was killing me but I didn’t even care. As soon as we got there I jumped in the water and stayed until I had to get out and leave. I forgot how much I loved it. We needed to head home but I wasn’t ready to leave the water. We took the long way and drove down the coast to Corpus Christi where we spent the night. It was out of the way but I planned on a long day of driving Friday to make up for it.
About an hour away from Fort Stockton, I pulled over to take a picture of some windmills. I put on the hazard lights because there was a lot of traffic on the highway. When I pushed the button to turn them off, nothing happened. Blink, blink. I finally called the rental company and they advised me to stop in the next town and spend the night. They said the lights would ‘reset’ overnight. That is the craziest thing I’ve ever heard. I splurged for a nice hotel with an indoor pool so the kids could have a little fun. Even after I turned off the car the lights kept on blinking. When we woke up in the morning, the battery was dead. Surprise, surprise. I called back and they sent out someone to jump start the car. They assured me that the problem would have fixed itself. No dice. Johnny, the good ol’ boy that came to fix the car, disconnected the battery and looked for wires to disconnect but he couldn’t fix it. He told me to drive straight home and not to turn off the engine.
Two hours down the road I couldn’t take it any more and Mica pried the button out of the dash. It isn’t pretty, but it worked.
We had an amazing time, but I’m happy to be home. Oh, and did I mention that I fed birds? Out of my hand? I’m scared of anything with feathers, so that was a HUGE thing for me. I’m so proud of myself!
Sunday is family day at our house. We always have donuts and menudo in the morning. After breakfast, we all work on the yard. During the summer we party all day long, cooking out and playing games together. Yesterday was special because all of our extended family came over. I only took a couple pictures because I hurt my back and could barely move. The entire day I sat around and watched everyone else do all the work!
Mike set up the canopy for shade and brought out his big industrial fan. He hooked up the hose so that the fan sprayed mist to cool off the seating area. When I took this picture, he was amazed because he felt raindrops without a cloud above him. He was so happy… until Rosie pointed out that the drops were coming from his makeshift mister. Ha!
In addition to grilling ribs and chicken, Mike broke out his disk [discada] and made rice. He was excited to show me what he had been making for all the workers on the job site for lunch.
Mike: I cook chicken and rice in a broth and add seafood at the end.
Me: Like paella without the saffron?
Mike: Paella? What’s paella?
Me: A traditional Spanish dish where they cook rice, vegetables, meat and seafood in a big flat pan.
Mike: Dammit! I thought I invented something!
At least it tasted good. He can cook paella his invention for me anytime!
pictures with waterproof disposable, one over and one underwater
On Sunday, Mike decided we should go fishing near Ruidoso at Bonito Lake. It was our first outing of the season as a family. The kids always talk about outdoorsy stuff. They love camping and fishing and are forever debating the best type of lures, the best way to start a fire, etc. AB joins in the conversations as much as the rest of the kids, so I was surprised when he told us he had never been fishing before. Wow! That made the trip a little more special. We didn’t catch any fish, but we sure had fun trying.
When we got there, Mike told the kids to watch out for bear and snakes. I thought AB was going to have a heart attack! He gets scared easily when we are away from civilization because everything is strange and different. We didn’t see any bear, but as we were leaving Echo spotted a snake. He didn’t want to leave so he was walking far behind all of us. I sent Bleu back to walk with Echo and he started yelling. I looked back and Bleu was torn between getting away from the snake and going for his little brother. Echo was right up on the snake, trying to poke it with a stick. I swear that kid will be the death of me. He has absolutely NO FEAR!
See more pictures of our trip to the lake on flickr: set | slideshow
Yesterday Mikal turned fourteen years old. Wow. She is so grown up now. In fact, she is MUCH too grown up to have a party at home. Instead, she decided to take her three best friends to the brand new theater to see Monsters vs. Aliens. Instead of traditional invitations, I used this online sign generator to add the information to a theater marquee and had the photos printed. How cool is that? We had a cake waiting for her when she came home and some of the kids prepared this little song. Even though she has an mp3 player, she wanted an iPod so that’s what we got her. I don’t understand the difference, but that’s because I’m a mom. We are naturally clueless! After the cake we decorated Easter eggs. All in all, it was a really fun day.
I love you Mikal!
