Happy Birthday America!!

I love Independence Day. Seriously, its one of my favorite holiday's (I've tried to list Holiday's in order of which I like most, and I just can't do it)

Anyhow, we heard there was a big breakfast, games and patriotic fireside at the church (put on by the missionaries for all three ward units that attend at our building). They order in which items are listed is extremely important. It was a very long fireside (which isn't bad when its expected) and a few snacks - like one watermelon one meat/cheese tray and two pastry packs. Not enough food to even consider waiting in line for. We were bamboozled.

We sang the star spangled banner and busted out of there ASAP: we had a parade to get to.

So, we headed to Castroville and hit up McDonalds (with the rest of the ward/city) for the old-time parade.

 Surprise! My children didn't want to have their picture taken.

 yea, they are covering their ears from the noise of the fire trucks. . . . that's it.

 Of course we had to make a few patriotic foods:

 And drop a few dollars on fireworks: This was almost half of what we set off. We hosted again this year and it was AWESOME! I love being surrounded with friends, laughing, eating and celebrating

 Miss Kelsey enjoying the show:

 Just one corner of the counter, about a 1/4 of the cups we cleaned up.

Happy Birthday America! We love our freedom!

Farwell Dear Friends

While living in Texas we've been blessed to have great friends we consider family. And although we live in a fairly transient "military ward" and move in-outs are fairly common one family we became especially close to moved this summer which was much hard reality to face. Rylee's first best friend. She (still) talks about her constantly.

 see you later sweet friend. tear jerker right there:

 We definitely should have done the photo session before it was an hour past dinner time.

 It took a loooong time to convince Kelsey to sit by her friends instead of taking their fake picture.

 In other news Rylee has taken up nail biting. ugh.

 And in the 4 years we've been friends I think this is the first picture I have of the two of us. lame.

Good thing we have another reason to visit Wisconsin (not in the winter). Miss you dearly sweet friend.

Random Happenings

Here's a few random photos over the summer:

Sea World!

I have a love/hate relationship with that place. Aquatica was awesome though. My girlies love riding the rides and I'm usually the only parent that will ride with them.

"look Mom, we're holding hands!"

After a fast/testimony meeting Rylee was playing with her dolls and I overheard their own little testimony meeting "I'm Snow White. I know I'm a princess.  I know the Prince loves me." haha. So funny.

swim suit. sunscreen. water. goggles. princess kick-board. perfect.

This one was from the spring. Rylee's little pre-school group made fires and roasted "marshmellows" over them (tp roll with crepe paper, skewers and cotton balls:) )

princesses in "time-out" courtesy of our resident "nose in the corner" gal: Miss Kelsey (Rylee did this a lot too)

Clearly I let my children dress themselves. Even when we go out in public. Rylee is getting much better. As if we didn't look enough alike already, we cut bangs on Kelsey furthering our twindom look. It really is like watching myself grow up. Since then I decided if they are going to get less than perfect hair cuts it may as well be by me. 

A family trip to Home Depot. Kelsey insisted on bringing Anna and heaven forbid she not be buckled. The child of a car seat activist right there :) safety first.

Picking Peaches

We had so much fun picking strawberries in Fredricksburg earlier this year that we headed back during peach/blackberry season.

 Rrrreach!

 Miss Kelsey preferred to play in the dirt.

 They were probably fighting over who got to hold the berries.

We made blackberry syrup (a first, which is quite tasty) canned some, then froze the rest. Tasty! Its funny that we pay to go pick and 1400 miles away Grandpa is begging the Grandkids to come get peaches off their trees.

Go Spurs Go!

In case you didn't know- the Spurs did awesome this year: winning their 5th NBA title. And, yes, we caught the fever.

Its hard to live in a city that gets so excited to back up their team to NOT. After they won the conference final making it into the play-off Academy (a popular/local sporting goods store) re-opens to sell shirts. Its like Black Friday! Huge lines wrapping around the store in the dark to get the latest and greatest to support their team. 

Then, fandum was bumped up a notch after they won the final. We were watched at home and kept the tv on long enough to hear the actual journalist report that the traffic was so busy with cars driving down town to celebrate that they had to close 4 freeway exits for safely. "There were so many people walking around, parking their cars all over the street to get out and high-five each other. No fights, just a lot of people out side celebrating and having a good time." A little further away from the 'action' people just get in their cars to drive around and honk their horns. I can't make this stuff up.

We bought ourselves some shirts (we gave up on waiting for them to come back in stock and visited a roadside stand) and watched the celebration a few days later: which included a televised river parade. While attending a river parade is on my SA bucket list, and this was actually a free event I couldn't bring myself to brave the crowds.

 Who likes the Spurs?

Rylee even made up her own special song.

Michael's Weekend Part III

Father's Day

Father's day was a pretty chill day. More present opening and family time.

The girlies have a great Daddy we love him so much!

 We made one of these car shirts- the shirt has a city on it and they drive their cars on it like a mini back-massage. Sort of. I traced the pattern (and added a church, you know, a building we (thankfully) attend more regularly than the hospital/fire station). Rylee wanted to draw. I'm not exactly sure why I hesitated to let her. It was after all her gift.  She drew the family playing at the playground and then used each of the markers to draw flowers. Kelsey is kind of blocking it in the picture but it was very sweet.

We're so happy we get to parent these crazy cute kids.

Michael's Weekend Part II

The girls were beyond excited to celebrate their Daddy's birthday on Saturday. Rylee's main priority was taking Dad to Aquatica - Sea World's waterpark.  They added a lot to the park two years ago and started charging an additional fee. I debated getting passes for a while but I'm really glad we did. It was a lot of fun! There was a lot that both girls could do including several water slides (the new sting-ray included). We went a lot this summer and managed to go twice without the kids and ride what they couldn't :). I am still annoyed its already closed for the season. Its not even open on the weekends anymore :(. Don't they know its still HOT? And the entire city isn't in school? tough life.

Anyway, We got caught up there longer than we expected so we grabbed a quick bite to eat for dinner so we could quickly come home and make cupcakes, sing, and give their gifts. Kelsey didn't even make it out of the park before falling asleep.

 

Happy Birthday! We're so happy you were born :)