Summer Wrap-up

It seems that summer is over. Not officially, I guess. I think that happens in September sometime. But today, is August 31st, the temperature here is only getting into the high 80s, the kids are in school, fall is in the air. So, I have decided to post one final, summer wrap-up. I take lots of pictures. Everyone knows that. It seems that I am more of a photojournalist than a photographer. I get a kick out of telling stories with photos, so here is our summer story.


First on our stop of outings and adventures, was a trip up I-35 about 30 minutes to a little blackberry farm for some picking. We made the trip with our neighbors (and Charles's best friend). We packed a picnic dinner, and after spending at least an hour picking berries, we had a seat under a big old oak tree. It was hot and sticky, and tons of fun!



Thomas actually enjoyed this little outing. I wasn't sure if he would when we set out. He tends to get bored quickly and easily with something like this. This time was different though. He got really excited when he would spot an exceptionally big, fat, juicy and dark purple blackberry. He thought it was funny to eat the not-ripe red ones that were VERY sour too.









I knew Joshua would enjoy this because it is right up his alley. He likes to eat blackberries for one, and when put on a task he is all business. He probably single handedly picked more than half of all the berries we brought home.

And then there was Charles (with buddy James). He LOVES blackberries, so it was an easy sell. He ate as many as made it into the bucket, got really hot, and had to fight off some ants, but boy did he have fun.

Next on our "to-do list" for the summer was to buy a cat. Why, you say? Well, it turns out the boys have been asking for a pet for years, specifically a kitten. Thomas asked me when Charles was 1 year old, and I told him "no". I said when Charles was older. Thomas pressed further, "like when he is 4 1/2?" And I said "yes" Guess how old Charles is? He is five, but at the time of this story he was 4 1/2. And I am one to keep my word. Steve was not thrilled, but he gave in, especially since I promised. So after many trips to Petsmart, much correspondence with the humane society, and meeting many kittens we finally picked two. Yes two. We couldn't get just one, we had to get two. These kinds of things just happen sometimes. The kittens were litter mates (brother and sister), one black and one gray tabby. We named them Tori and Tony. We actually adopted them in late June and had to wait THREE LONG WEEKS to bring them home. The boys were thrilled and they all really love the kittens. Steve secretly likes them too.



The day we brought them home, the cats quickly hid from us as cats do. Thomas found Tony under his bed, so he crawled under with him and read a book. He put a sign up that said "shhh...cat sleeping" Here is Joshua and Tori. She is a really cute cat, but not quite as much of a people cat as Tony. She wouldn't come out of hiding for days when we brought her home. She is very sweet though and has warmed up to us now. She also figured out how to use the cat door to the garage much faster than Tony. So, I think she is the smart one of the two.

Tony is lots of fun for Charles because he puts up with almost anything. We are trying to teach Charles not to pick him up and drag him around like a stuffed animal. But it is hard becasue Tony lets him. The older boys went off to camp a few days after we got the kittens, so Tony and Charles have bonded. They are buddies.




The cats are a lot of fun to have around. They play and fight and knock things over like kids. But they are precious and the boys are doing pretty well taking care of them.

When the boys got back from camp, grammy and papa came for a quick visit on their way back from Hawaii where they visited my moms brother. They were here for my birthday which was really fun for me. Grammy made me a gluten free brownie "cake". I even got balloons and flowers. Steve bought me a GPS and mom and dad bought me a kindle. What a gadget geek I am. It was a really great birthday!



After getting a gps, I decided to try out something called geocaching with the boys. We had a week with no plans, so I checked out the geocaching website, downloaded the treasures into the gps and off we went. It took a few tries to figure out how to work the gps for this type of activity, but when we did, we actually got quite good at it. Who knew there were treasures or "caches" hidden all over the world that could be found with a gps?? Joshua, Charles and I really had fun doing this. Thomas complained the whole time. But, he did get excited when we found our first cache. This was the first one we actually found. It was in the woods behind our local Kroger.



We finished our summer fun with a trip to San Antonio to visit cousins and celebrate Charles's birthday at Sea World. We had a jampacked week of activity. The first day there we went to Landa Park in New Braunfels. It is a natural spring fed pool with a rope swing and a big slide. We packed a picnic and took all the cousins. They really enjoyed this. Here is Josh on the rope swing and Thomas coming down the slide.


Charles even got the nerve up to go for a ride on the rope swing (with a little help from cousin Christopher).



Next on our list of activities was a trip to Sea World. Charles had been asking for months to go to Sea World for his birthday. We hadn't been there in a quite a few years, and in spite of the heat it was a great day.

The Shamu show was fantastic. That darn whale always makes me cry. It's such a beautiful show.


Charles was absolutely mesmerized. He sat on Steve's lap eating cotton candy and whispered "Sea World is Awesome"



One of the best things at Sea World was feeding the dolphins in the dolphin tank.




The big kids ended the day at Sea World riding all the crazy big roller coasters while Steve and Charles saw all the rest of the evening shows. We closed the park down at 8:00 and headed home only to go to Schlitterbahn the next day. I don't have any pictures from Schlitterbahn, but boy was it fun. It is a massive water park that is so big you have to take a bus to get to the second half. It is built right next to the river in New Braunfels and part of the park actually uses the natural spring water. We had a lot of of fun there too, and will have to make this a yearly trip now that the kids are older.

We finished our visit with a little birthday celebration for Charles at Yvonne and Larry's house. It was a fun, exhausting trip and a great end to our summer.

First Day...all together

Today was the first day of the first, last and only time my three boys will be together at school. Charles was super excited to go to school with the big boys. He has never been a big fan of school, so I was really glad to see him pumped up. They all popped out of bed and got ready quickly this morning. After breakfast we headed out to fight the first day traffic.

We stood in line to get into Charles's Kinder class. There are too many Kindergarten kids this year, so they are in the process of transferring or hiring a new teacher. But for now the classes are stuffed full. Charles didn't care though. He went right to his locker, hung up his backpack then sat down and started coloring.

All Business.

He was so calm, cool and collected I hardly had a reason to get sad.
(by the way, all the scratches on his face are from a run in he had with Tony, one of our new kittens. Go ahead. Click on it to get a better view. Let's just say we think he has learned a valuable life lesson. "it is not wise to run away from ones brother with a cat in your arms")



Joshua told us goodbye and headed to his class, then Steve and I walked Thomas down to his 2nd grade classroom. No problems there. Thomas seemed a tiny bit nervous, but all in all happy to be back.



When the boys got home after school, I was asking them all (but especially Charles) how their day went. Charles proceeded to tell me that his "pork egg roll" from the cafeteria was not an egg at all. I think he was actually expecting a rolled up egg. God love him!

Our Summer Adventures:Florida

It is day three of Thomas's Tonsil surgery, and he feels pretty crummy. He's asleep at the moment so, since we are pretty much stuck at home, I thought I'd get caught up on the blog.

After school let out in June, we spent a few weeks at home and then headed to Florida to visit Grammy and Papa. As always, we had a lot of fun with them and were pretty busy too. This is a great summer vacation for us becasue they have a big boat that we usually get to go on, there are beaches nearby and lots of fishing off the dock in the backyard. (the kind of fishing where you actually catch fish)

We flew out on "standby" so we didn't know if we would actually get a seat. We ended up getting the last 4 seats (Steve joined us later) so all three boys were together in the back, and I was way up front by myself praying they would behave.


After we took off a nice lady sitting in the row across from them switched with me and we all flew close together. I'm sure everyone around them was relieved I was close, especially after seeing those lolli-pops!

The first day in Florida, the boys were itching to go fishing with Papa. So, the following morning he got up early to get some bait and everyone headed to the dock. The boys did this two or three times while we were there, even off the back of the boat a few times. Thomas gave up pretty quick on this day because of the heat. Josh caught one and Charles tried. Yep, even I caught one!



Next we had a short ride on Charlotte's Web over to a marina where the boys got to play in the fountains while Papa pumped out the boat. This was a quick 1 hour trip, but the water was pretty rough which was so fun for the boys on the bow of the boat!


The best part about any boat trip?...your turn driving of course. At least Charles thinks so.


And the fountains were great too.


Our next activity was a Fourth Of July Cooking class that Grammy signed the boys up for. It was held at a cute little local shop/cafe and it turned out to be one of their favorite things this trip. They made red white and blue punch, sparkler fruit kabobs and firecracker quesadillas. Charles was in rare form for the first part of our trip. Lets just say we were butting heads a lot. So Grammy and I were a little worried how he would behave in class. Turns out he was great for the teacher (of course) and REALLY loved the food. Which meant we had a cup of coffee and browsed the shop while the kids cooked.


A few days later we packed up Charlottes Web for an overnight trip to Boca Grande. Boca Grande is about 2 hours away by boat (at least by our boat) and has a great beach. We were a little worried about the weather because they were predicting thunderstorms all day, but it actually turned out great. We did get downpoured on at the beach, but it passed quickly and was sorta fun.



This was our mode of transportation while on the island. Boca Grande is a tiny little place with just a few little shops, houses, a golf course and a great beach.

Here was our beach. Not bad!









An overnight trip in this boat is a lot like a trip in an RV. There is a full galley (kitchen) and two cabins. Plus the kitchen table turns into a bed and there is a couch too. We rented movies for the occasion and Charles was so excited to eat and sleep on the boat. After dinner at the marina we headed to the boat and did some fishing. Then we watched Iron Man and headed to bed.

Charles caught his first fish on this trip, and Thomas caught one too.



Steve had joined us in Florida in time to go to Boca with us. Here he is on the swim step in the back helping Charles get the fish off the hook.



Thomas really likes fishing, but he still won't get near it when he actually catches one. We keep telling him they don't count if he doesn't take it off the hook, but he isn't buying it.





The next day we headed home, and after acting up again, Charles was banished to "time-out" where he proceeded to konk out while Joshua caught up on some Harry Potter.



On the Fourth Of July, we swam in the morning and headed back out on the boat to see fireworks. The boys jumped in and swam a little bit, then we pulled out some glow stick. The fireworks were beautiful over the water.



The last thing we did before we left was celebrate Grammy's birthday. Dinner, presents, cake. The whole thing. That was fun since we rarely get to be with Grammy on her birthday.



It was a really busy and fun trip. We did a lot of swimming, movie watching and mini golf in between the boat rides. We will miss our Florida vacations if Grammy and Papa really do move back to Texas! One last thing...Grammy and Papa live a few houses down from the corner of San Mateo and St. Thomas which just so happens to be Thomas's name (he is Thomas Mateo Kall). It never dawned on us until this trip...so we had to take a picture of him by his sign. Too funny!

Removal of Tonsils, Take 2

I have been greatly neglecting the blog and have LOTS to post from our summer adventures, but first a quick update on Thomas. He had his tonsils out this morning. Since we did this with Charles in February, we weren't too worried. Here is how our day went:

7 am: rise and shine. No breakfast for Thomas
8 am: dropped off Charles with James (best buddy) and Joshua with Jeremy (another best buddy)
8:40 am: arrive at pediatric surgery center
8:50 am: mom fills out paperwork while boys play games


9:00 am: we go back fill out more papers while Thomas watches "Ratatouille" on a little DVD player (bad choice when you are really hungry). Then they give Thomas some "goofy juice".



10 am: They wheel him back to remove his tonsils. Steve and I go wait and read/play games on our electronic devices
10:30 am: Doctor tells us he is done and did great
10:45: we go see Thomas. He is upset and VERY groggy. Quite out of it.



He was crying a little bit and trying to sit up.



Thomas proceeds to eat two Popsicles and drink a can of Apple juice in the recovery room while he is in and out of sleep.

11 am: Thomas is more awake. Takes some pain medicine and I talk to the nurse about after care
11:30 am: we wheel him out to the car and head home. Thomas is still pretty drowsy and sleeps in the car
12:00 we arrive at home hoping Thomas will sleep all day. No luck. He is camped out in our bed, watching TV and EATING everything in sight.




So far he has had 5 glasses of juice and water, two bowls of ice cream, a bowl of jello, and a cup of pudding. It is 2:30 right now. I am trying to talk him into a pb&j sandwich, but he is holding me to the "all the ice cream he can eat" that we promised. I gave him a bell to ring when he needed something, and it is ringing non-stop for more refreshments! Steve is working from home, and the "service" bell is ringing so much, we can't stop laughing.

All is well, and I know when the steroids wear off in a day or so his appetite will be gone, so we are happy he feels good and is eating right now.

Thanks for all the well wishes.

ps. In the time it took me to post this, he has eaten a bowl of grapes, a cheese stick and another bowl of ice cream!