August 2017--week 2

As the summer winds down we only have a little bit of summer left.  We're going to try something new this year and we've gotten season tickets to the Allen Eagles Football games--I know, season tickets to high school football in our massive stadium--should be fun!

We enjoyed a day at Hawaiian Falls Water park.  First ride of the day Matthew walloped his head and had to have ice.  Kaitlyn and Sam were quite daring on some fun water rides.  I remember when we first got there the boys split up together and the girls split up together and I was left to sit alone and I was happy that they chose each other as friends.

This boy is trying to be my favorite child.  His assignment each week is to mow the front yard, but this is the 2nd week in a row that he's mowed his portion and his dad's because dad has been too busy.  What a kid!  So proud of him!

August 2017

One of our favorite outings in the summer is going to Little Elm Beach, a fabulous mothers beach not too far from us.  We were able to be joined by a TON of our close friends....

my car load stopped for ice cream on the way home...

Another outing was going to the video game museum in Frisco.  My kids enjoyed learning about Pong, and Oregon Trail, and playing on old school arcades

This is one thing that I am super proud of.  Lindsey's sweet friend Bella got baptized.  This is a story that is a couple of years in the making.  A couple of years ago, Bella's family showed up at a ward trunk or treat.  They'd been friends since kindergarten.  Bella's family came to Lindsey's baptism.  And from that time on, Lindsey began to pray for Bella's family that they'd get baptized and join the church.  She included them in every fast.  Well Bella's mom isn't ready to be baptized yet, but Bella was.  Lindsey was so excited!

End of July 2017

We insist on living it up this summer.  Dad was on a business trip, and K was still at Grandmas so we took in the Summer Sounds concert series which had FREE dinner catered by In & Out (Thank you!)

And I will never forget my Lindsey girl dancing it up right in front with the dancers of this great cover band who played so many awesome songs!

We had a fun excursion one day to the Dallas Aquarium.  It's small and old, but we did enjoy feeding the sting rays.  And then after we hit a fun place called Steel City Pops which makes unusual but fresh and yummy Popsicle flavors.  I had lavender lemon--Yum!!

Finally we enjoyed a boating day with our friends the Hess' and Teson's--we've wanted to get them out on the lake every summer for years, so glad we finally got it on the calendar--so fun!

July week 3

On our way back home after vacation, Kaitlyn took the opportunity to stay a few days with Grandma and Grandpa and be spoiled.  Kaitlyn and her Grandma McKneely are very very similar so they enjoy the same things.  They made eclairs and other "Great Brittish Bakeoff" treats, and sewed fun things.

In her absence these guys went out to Tyler to help clean up after some tornadoes

and got home in time for us to enjoy a Roughriders game with friends. 

Our Summer Vacation trip was to NASA and then to spend a few days on the beach.

We had spent the weekend with our cousins in Houston, celebrating Grandma McKneely's birthday and then Monday morning we were off to NASA.

Our first tram opportunity was rained out, but we got on the second one.  We really enjoyed seeing the Houston Command Center

We left to go to Whataburger offsite for lunch

Touching a moon rock

When we were done we went to a crazy busy Walmart to get groceries and stuff because our beach house was on an island and there is limited shopping there.  It was a Walmart in Galveston right on the shore and it was crazy busy!

To get to our beach house we had to cross by ferry.  This was fun.  We drove our van onto the boat and then the boat carried us across the bay.  What was a highlight, especially for Lindsey was seeing real dolphins in the bay jumping out of the water as we went across.

Tuesday morning dawned and it was raining.  So the kids played a game of Sorry! and we hit the beach in the afternoon.  We have a private beach area just a short walk from the house we're renting.

One cool feature of the house we're staying at is that it has this cool outdoor shower that allows us to shower everyone off completely before going back inside.

We tried to go out to dinner this night, we found a not so nice, smoky restaurant called the Tiki Room and we survived but it wasn't awesome.  

Then we went home and watched "America's Got Talent".

Wednesday morning dawned and we had donuts and kolaches from the local shop--yum! and then we went to the beach for a few more hours.  We even saw a shell that still had the crab inside it!