Day 5: Being Flexible

Yesterday was glorious.  I had the house all to myself with nowhere I needed to go.  I worked all morning on finishing up sewing stuff for costumes for camp.  It was just a bunch of small things that needed time.  We had plans to go to an outdoor venue in Austin that evening and eat at a food truck and listen to live Bluegrass, and then the heavens let loose!  It is unusual to get rain in the summertime here, but we got plenty!  So we revamped our plans and tried to go shopping at an outdoor mall, because the rain was off and on...but it ended up being mostly ON!  This is me walking to the car while carrying my shoes.  

Then we headed BACK to El Mercado, but a different location.  It was still really yummy...but they were short-staffed so it look FOREVER.  

After that, we were stuffed to the gills and that's when things took a turn for the romantic.

Naturally when you are stuffed, you still have room for Amy's.  Oh how I love thee, Amy's!

We headed home, stuffed and happy and watched a movie that didn't end until 11pm and somehow I stayed awake for the whole thing.  I think I'm beginning to see why I usually feel out of energy....

And lest you think about our poor kids who are missing out, here are a few of the pictures we've been sent this week!

 Water-parking it!

 At the Perot museum

 At the Brookshire's museum

It is a good thing that they are coming back just in time to pack up and leave for camp or they would be expecting amazing entertainment when they get home!

The Best Week, Continuted

Also known as Camp Grandparent week!  Here's what we did on Sunday and Monday!

Sunday, of course, we went to church.  It was really nice to be completely focused while listening to Shawn!  Sunday evening after worship, we had a going away party for friends we love dearly that are moving.  I am not happy one bit about it...but I love them enough to send them away with a smile.  ha!  They are moving down to the coast so we decorated in a beach theme.  Them moving to the coast is the ONLY postive of the whole thing...now we have friends at the beach!  :)

I will miss this momma and this baby so badly!  We are both middle children with 3 kids so that in and of itself connects us...plus she's just funny and her kids are all adorbs!

On Monday, we were up bright and early slathering on the sunscreen for SCHLITTERBAHN!

This was us after 9 hours at a waterpark.  We were exhausted but content.  We had had our fill of water!  

Here's Maci and me in 2009 at Schlitterbahn!  We're waterpark buddies.  :)

 After we left the park we were STARVING.  We accidentally happened on a restaurant called El Mercardo in Austin.  Best accident EVER!  It was delicious mexican food!

And our friends had never had Gourdough's so we HAD to take them there.  It was the PERFECT end to a wonderful day!

June in Review

Somehow we not only survived this first month of summer, but we have actually zoomed through it!  The first week of June was just right and then we headed off to Tipton, Oklahoma for our annual service trip.  

The guys laid barbed wire fence and it was super hot, with biting ants and gnats and mosquitoes...sounds lovely right? 

I learned that a gopher fan is not for keeping gophers cool in the summer.

I learned to drive a fork lift!

I rode in one to get bird nests out of the lights that were way high up!

Elle learned to use a power sprayer.

It was an exhausting and wonderful trip!

After returning, we walked right into VBS and some how even though I did some super cute and fun crafts, this is the only picture I took...which has nothing to do with crafts and everything to do with cuteness overload.

VBS was over on Thursday and the kids turned right around on Friday and headed to their much anticipated week with grandparents!  We very much anticipate it too, because it kicks of a kids-free week for us!!  We will DEFINITELY pay this forward to our kids one day.  This is our favorite week of the year!  Here's what we've been up to so far.

We met Gramme in Corsicana which coincidentally happens to be where Collin Street Bakery is and cookies that I love!  Here they are waving goodbye!

And then we promptly drove to the Walmart because the battery in the van was pretty much dead but somehow we were able to start the car to get it to the Walmart!  Luck upon luck, our battery had 1 more month under warranty and so we got a new battery FOR FREE!

Then we headed to what is becoming a tradition; Vitek's in Waco where I had a pulled pork taco and Shawn had pulled pork nachos.  It hit the spot!

Then we headed to check out what all the hype was about at Magnolia in Waco.

As we heard one male customer say "I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes."  This place is a mad house...PEOPLE.EVERY.WHERE.  And to set the record straight, I do not see what all the hype is about.  There are some cute overpriced home decor items.  Yup. (Well I did love a candle they had but I just couldn't spend $26 on it.  Would have been exciting to see Chip and Joanna, but that's about all that would have been exciting.

Here's me trying to give you an idea of the madhouse...the picture doesn't do it justice...it was shoulder to shoulder in so many places.

For dinner, we both were craving sushi so we headed to our new favorite sushi spot and gobbled up that sushi like we hadn't eaten in a week...and I still want more!

This morning, Shawn got up and headed to Starbucks to work and I headed to a shower for one of my sweet friends.  We had a lot of fun decorating for her baby shower.

Then we headed to Verts, where they were giving out FREE entrees all afternoon!  We ate lunch for FREE on our way to Cherokee...notice the balloons in the back.  We were headed to celebrate Phoebe's 1st birthday!

It was so great to see Valerie and her family and celebrate this sweet girl!

I love Cherokee's sign so we stopped to take a picture.

 After Cherokee, we headed to Llano for some exploring on the river and checking out the downtown.  Everything was closed which was probably for the best so I wouldn't spend $!  We headed back home and got some needed shopping done for camp...which is in a WEEK...EEK! We then ate dinner at about 8:30 which is such a luxury to do....usually I have hungry mouths to feed at 5pm!  So far, we have taken advantage of every single kidless minute to enjoy this time!  Today also happens to be our 19th anniversary...of being together.  Nineteen years ago on June 25th, 1997, I tricked Shawn into saying he was my boyfriend. 

A Big Accomplishment

We've already been able to check off something on our Summer Bucket List!  I taught Levi to tie his shoes today!  We only started working on it on Saturday and today!  I was so proud of him and he was quite proud of himself too.  At one point when I was pretty sure he knew how to do it but he didn't want to prove it, I told him that when he came to me with both shoes on and tied by himself, I'd give him a piece of candy and in this house, sugar talks.  He sat right down and about two minutes later walked over to me with his shoes tied!  For candy, he picked out licorice jelly beans, which surprised and delighted me since I love them too.  Another big thing to mark of the list of what I still have to do for the kids....it's a little bitter but mostly sweet!

Pedi Party

I hosted my 3rd nonannual Pedi Party last night!  I've been wanting to do another one for a long time and finally I just picked a date and went for it.  We had such a wonderful time last night.  I only wish it had lasted longer!  The women at my church are just awesome. We all get along so well and when we get together, there is so much laughter, just what this heart needs more of!  I had such grandeur ideas of photos I would take of the evening, but I was too much in the moment to take any!  I did take one of the whole group and someone else took the toes picture so here they are!

Love these women!

Our toes are much improved!

Jump for Joy

We picked the kids up early and surprised them with a trip to Jump Street!  Elle had been to a party here once and they were begging to go back at some point.  She had been signed up for a trip to Six Flags with the band, but the day they were supposed to go, there were bad storms so it got canceled.   We sold her Six Flags ticket and told her to pick what we did with the money and she picked Jump Street.  We just didn't tell them when we'd do it.  They were thrilled!!!

Here's Elle after she climbed the "Sticks". She also loved riding the mechanical bull and jumping onto a huge airbag from way up high.

Ava's making her way to the top also.

This is the best jumping picture we could get with a phone.  There was a LOT of jumping involved. Go figure.

I kid you not, after I had jumped for what felt like forever, I looked at my watch and it had been 27 minutes since we got there...and I was exhausted.  There is no telling how many calories I burned.  I made up for it at dinner though.  This picture truly represents how I felt.  

After our TWO ETERNAL HOURS of jumping, we were all exhausted and ravenous.  We headed to the only place that heals all wounds for Texans...Chuy's.  We ate and relaxed and stuffed ourselves.

Then we headed home and got a look at this.  Our 2016 Summer bucket list.  These lists keep me going for the longs days ahead.  

And then this came out too.  It has been revised since the last time I needed it.  We have a lot of war going on in this house with the 3 kids....so I came up with this.  We've been using it for 2 days and it is doing a good job so far.  NO one wants to get past lime green! lol