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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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