Me Ma's house in Missouri!

Well...last week I ventured out with Alec, Ava and my niece Sydney to my Mom's house in Missouri. This was the first big drive that I have taken with the kids without Eriik. I was a little intimidated to say the least, but I knew that Syd being 11 would be at least a little bit of a help. It turned out to be a really fun trip (except for a few Ava tantrums! But hey that's just where we are right now in life.) We took the 11 hour drive in two days which we normally don't do, but with being pregnant and without Eriik I wanted to take it easy. It really turned out to be great we stopped around dinner time on the first night and got a hotel with a pool. The kids were able to eat a nice meal, swim and wear themselves out enough to get a good nights sleep. And then the next day of travel was only four hours! Well, I have tons of pics so here you go! I will explain the pics more in the captions.


The kids love to have Me Ma read them a bedtime story...she's pretty good at it, she got lots of practice since she was a preschool teacher for 25 years!

There was a fund raiser carnival at the catholic church just across the street from Moms house. The kids noticed it right away, so of course we had to go check it out. We went after church and lunch on Sunday.

The swings are always a hit.

Mom with the kids in front of the fun house!

The butterfly house was a huge hit. I didn't know what to expect but when we walked into the atrium butterflies were all around us, it was really beautiful..but a little too hot that day (at least the kids didn't care about the heat)

We saw so many brightly colored butterflies but this is the only butterfly pic I took that wasn't really blurry. Their wings were usually moving which made it hard to get a clear pic.

They had a little room with a butterfly library and activities for the kids.

They all got to dress up...so cute.

Alec's favorite part was the "Jurassic Bug" exhibits.
This one was some really gross roaches...yuck! Alec liked the giant terantulas and scorpians the best.

We swam over at Pam and Marios house one day. It was great to be able to swim since it was over 100 degrees that day!

Chillin at the Beach!

We spent all last week in Galveston, and had a wonderful time! It was kind of a last minute planned trip since we had cancelled our trip to Destin because of the oil, but it all worked out great! We stayed in a beautiful condo on the far east end of the island called Palisade Palms. It sat right on the beach, and the kids loved the pools. We loved that it seemed like such a short drive (it only took 4 1/2 hours) verses a two day trip to FL. And plus it was oil free..yay! Here are way too many pics..sorry...I did narrow it down from over 200 pics though! I explain more details of the trip in the captions.

Ava loved finding sea shells!

Look how wild the waves were on this day! The Ziesemers joined us this day at our beach.
The beach in front of our condo was never crowded..it was so nice.

We went with the Ziesemers and each rented this funny bike to ride along the sea wall. It was an adventure!

Ava and Eriik about to hit the waves...she loved "surfing"!

We went with the Ziesemers to Schlitterbahn for a day and the kids (and dads) loved it! Since I'm prego, I didn't go on any of the really fun slides...just kind of hung out at the kiddy places. Even Ava went down some of the big slides with her daddy...and loved every minute of it.

Back at our condo pool.

That is our condo in the background.

Here we are with the Ziesemers at the Rainforest Cafe. We loved having them with us for a few of the days!

A view from the third floor central patio of our condo. This was actually the only day it was a little rainy, and it was the morning we left. Perfect timing!

On our way back home we stopped at NASA...it was a quick visit, and very crowded that day, but the kids still had a great time!

Fun on the Fourth!

I've gotta catch up my blog a little. We had a really fun fourth of July! The night before we did our annual trip out to our spot off of Hwy 80 to watch the Longview fireworks. The Ziesimers joined us just like last year. It sprinkled a little, but we still had a great time. The fourth started off with church of course and it just so happened that it was my month to teach Kinderville, so I missed the service, but Eriik said that it was really good. We had the Ziesimers over for dinner for some burgers and hotdogs. It's always so fun hanging out with them. Then we headed over to The Myers house for dessert and fireworks since we can't blow stuff up here in town. Good times with good friends!

Alec loved these crazy glasses that made all lights look like fireworks...the flash about blinded him when I took this picture!

Ava sure is going to miss the Deboer's...we all are! They moved to FL shortly after the fourth.

Helping Ava with a Roman candel.

Nanny,Poppy and Swim Lessons!

We got to have Eriik's parents in for a week (Poppy got to stay for 2 weeks because of a work schedule change) this month and it was great having them! They were with us the entire time the kids had their swim lessons, so it was nice to get to take just one kid to their lesson. Nanny came with us some of the days too. The kids loved having their Nanny and Poppy to play with! I described more in the captions below.

Poppy helped us redo our master bathroom...he helped strip the walpaper and stain the molding that framed in our mirrors.

This might not seem like much to you, but it took awhile for her to feel comfortable standing in the shallow end without holding on to the edge because she is such a short little thing and the water came almost to her mouth when she was on her tippy toes!

Ava and Audrey "swimming to Dallas" as Mrs. Phylis said.

Alec loved his swim lessons, and did great!

Alec swimming

This pic was taken on one of the earlier days before she was comfortable standing without at least touching something.

All smiles!

Poppy taught Alec how to play chess....they did alot of this during their visit! Alec loves to wear his spider man costume around the house :)