Ocean Breezes

We are off to go on vacation! Updates when we get back 🙂 Happy 4th of July!

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Father’s Day

For Father’s Day weekend, we went to Nana and Papa’s house and relaxed. On Saturday, I went with Mom to a really neat function called Mimosas and Memories held by the Historic Old Town Shiner Foundation. It was a celebration of Shiner’s artists and we really enjoyed it. On Sunday, the Dad’s couldn’t decide what they wanted to do so we ended up going to a church picnic in the middle of nowhere (Ammansville). It was a really cute picnic! However, it was HOT!
Waiting in line for Fried Chicken:


She got to play Bingo and catch ducks (rubber ducks) in the duck pond:


Catching Ducks for a prize:

Playing Bingo:

Avery Loves Her Papa:

Nana and Papa:

Daddy’s Little Girl:

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Annual Frio River Trip

We’ve been going to the Frio River for almost 20 years and I don’t think we’ve missed one year. We left last Wednesday and came back Sunday. This is Avery’s 3rd time and she loves it just as much as I do. It’s beautiful and fun at the same time. We always go with several families totaling close to 30 people and there is never a dull moment. I always look forward to our trip and I know everyone else does, too. It’s so fun being able to experience this place with Avery since I grew up going there. I can remember when we use to camp in tents right along side the river so many years ago. Now we stay in nice cabins but I really cherish those memories of the camp fire and sleeping bags.

This year, Avery actually got to tube the river for the first time. I was really apprehensive because I wasn’t sure if she would like it or not. The first time, she wanted to swim the whole time and every time I pulled her up on the tube to go over the rapids, she would say “More Rapids! More Rapids!”. The second time she went on the float, she actually stayed in the tube with me and enjoyed the ride singing pretty much the whole 2 hours. Both times, she was smiling and giggling the entire time.

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Extraordinary Happiness on Ordinary Days

As I walked Avery to school this morning, I felt an overwhelming feeling of joy as she talked about the little things that we passed like the ants crawling on the sidewalk or the birds singing in the trees. On the most simple of days, I find extraordinary happiness often from Avery and Scott. Avery’s little happy personality is infectious and she is such a funny little person. She is constantly surprising me with her abilities. I wish I could remember all the cute little things she does but often I note them in my mind and they fade as the next new thing comes in. I should carry around a notepad.

Some of the memorable things of recent:
-She says ” I love you, Mommy” and “I love you, Daddy”.

-She is really a Mama’s girl right now which of course hurts Daddies feelings but I know that will change as she gets older.

-She says amazing sentences sometimes like this morning: “I want to get on this side.” while other times she says a beginning with jibberish in the middle and words at the end like “Oh, its (jibberish in the middle) a purse.”

-She loves Papa’s house which is the shop. She calls the actual house that they live in Nana’s house and the shop is Papa’s house so all week long she will ask to go to Papa’s house and she really draws out hou…..se.

-Sometimes she sounds like she is speaking with an accent from England
-She is the best manipulator! She knows when it is time to go to bed to start pulling out all the stops and by that time, we’ve already read three or so books so she starts calling out other books she wants to read and since that doesn’t work out, she says “poo poo potty” and I know that’s not true so then she says “Rock-A-Baby” so our new nightly ritual is to rock her like a baby in my arms and sing “Rock-a-bye-baby”.

-She’s did something while at the Frio which proves the above: We always encourage her to say “Please” and “Thank You” and she is often stubborn about it because she knows they are nice words. She was having a typical 2 year old tantrum and wanted juice and I told her to say “please” and she would not. I wouldn’t give her the juice until she did so we went back and forth for quite a while until she came up with an alternative so she wouldn’t have to say “Please.” She started saying “Cheese”. She is very capable of saying please so I was in shock at her creativeness and stubborness.

– She loves Dora and Nemo and while watching Nemo in the car, she will say “Teacher” every single time the sting ray teacher comes on and always yells out “Dory” when Dory swims around at one point in the movie.

-She loves naming things that she sees. As we drive or walk around, she watches around her and names things that are familiar. Yesterday, she noticed the two sticks on the side of the railroad tracks and used her two pointers to show me. Another day, she started saying “High Five” and we all started looking around and noticed the Big Orange hand at the cross walk that tells people when to stop or walk across the street. Of course, she never, ever misses a swing. Everytime she sees one, she wants to go swing!

This was in our new community right in the Town Square:

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Moody Gardens – Galveston

I’m typically only a week behind but the summer is always filled with fun and traveling so it is hard to keep up with our adventures. The weekend before last, we actually stayed in Houston some of the weekend which was a miracle in Scott’s eyes. I’m not one for staying at home. We didn’t actually stay at home much though. We had date night on Friday night and went to a nice dinner at DaMarco’s followed by Chocolate Bar. Saturday we spent the day relaxing and then went to a couple’s baby shower at Elizabeth and Brian’s honoring Alison and Z’s baby which is due in October. On Sunday, I had the urge to go to the beach so we set out for Galveston and went to the Moody Gardens Beach and then had a late lunch on the Sea Wall. I love summer weekends 🙂

Getting ready for the beach:

Don’t you just love the way she likes to wear caps:

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Alison and Z’s Baby Shower

Mariam and E hosted a baby shower for our friends, Alison and Zvonimir. They are expecting a baby boy in October and sadly are moving away from us this summer to Orlando. However, it’s an exciting opportunity for them as Z is a very talented head and neck surgeon so we are very excited for all great new things ahead of them.

Before the shower, I painted Avery’s toes to match mine. It was the first time she had all her toenails painted (once I put a dot on her big toes) and she was over the moon about it.

Her nails are so tiny! Luckily, she actually stayed still.

The parents-to-be:

It won’t be long until they have one of these to light up their life. E and Brian have cats so here she is playing with the cat toy that makes noise. She loved it for some reason.:

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Summer Adventures

We’ve been so busy with our little summer adventures that I have had literally no time to keep up with logging our memories. From Abilene to Schlitterbahn, to Galveston Moody Beach to picnics in small country towns, its been a fun whirlwind.

Long overdue pics of Abilene:

Also, Avery still talks about Colten and Conner 1 month later. They made quite an impression on her. Yesterday while driving to a small country church picnic, she started talking about them out of the blue.

We wish we could see them more often! Avery had a blast going to baseball games and swimming with the boys.

P.S. Somehow, Lovey wasn’t in any of the pictures 😦 but she was there.

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Schlitterbahn

Last weekend, we took Avery to Schlitterbahn along with Nana, Papa, and Hillary.  We had the best time!  Nana and Papa watched Avery for us while we went on some rides in the morning and early afternoon. Then we spent most of the late afternoon in the lazy river because she loved it! Avery was just beside herself.  She could not contain her excitement and giggled the whole time.  

We also went to the Shiner Picnic on Sunday.  Avery jumped in the Jump House several times, rode the choo choo with me and then with Nana, and did the fishing game and caught some interesting doo dads.   It was hot but it didn’t seem to phase her as she enjoyed her snow cone.

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