Summer 2013 Part 1

We spent our summer in Lake Charles at my parents house like we've always done the past few years and had a grand ole' time!  Our days were spent playing with cousins and friends, shopping, eating at Chick Fil A, swimming, hanging out at water parks/splash parks and SOOO much more!

Dinner time with 3 kids is always crazy and quite frankly not always fun so we were always looking for ways to manage the chaos.  My parents backyard has a large slope going down towards the golf course that makes for an AWESOME slip n slide.  The kids have a blast sliding down the tarp and are creative with every slide.  Even Brooklyn got in on the action and went as fast as she could!  

I knew that I wanted to take advantage of our time in Lake Charles and found various activities for our kids to do to get new life experiences.  Our first big activity was Vacation Bible School.  All 3 kids were able to go since I volunteered to work VBS.  Gavin was in class with my niece, Neve and they got to spend the week learning about Jesus!  Miles and Brooklyn loved meeting new friends and went to their classes willingly everyday.

After VBS, the boys took swimming lessons.  I was so impressed with how much they learned, how quickly they picked up the concepts, and their eagerness to learn.  IT was precious seeing how proud they were of themselves.  Both the boys were in a group lesson with 1 other kid, but they each got the individual attention they needed.  Gavin was able to swim confidently by himself in the deep end and almost mastered his front stroke.  Miles learned how to hold his breath underwater, blow bubbles, and to let go of the side of the pool and swim out.  He wasn't even scared to try.  I'm sure it helped the boys having access to a swimming pool daily in Saudi, but this was great in teaching strategy and building up their confidence.  

Miles:

Gavin:

Along with swim lessons, I signed the boys up for a sports class- it's kinda like a Little Gym concept, but with older kid activities.  Gavin and Miles took the class together and I did it with them.  For the summer, I hired a girl, Stacey, to help me with the kids so she came along and was the 2nd parent with me.  It was so nice having another pair of eyes around.  The boys loved the class.  They especially loved the blow up tumble track.  Everything in the class was right up their alley- running, jumping, climbing, flipping, chasing, throwing.  The activities were great and kept their attention and when we left, the kids always asked when they could go back!

 

I signed Gavin up for a local golf camp to introduce him to the sport of golf.  He finally was able to use the real golf clubs he got for Christmas last year and was excited to spend the week with his cousin, David, too.  Gavin really liked golf camp and did pretty good from what I was told.  He and David were the two youngest kids by several years but that didn't stop them from learning and trying hard!

Part of our summer was spent away from daddy, which left me doing everything I could to make it by without him.  But kids are kids and they bring lots of joy and laughter regardless of where they are and who they are with.  We made lots of memories and had lots of FUN together- going to birthday parties, Mr. Gatti's, and local parks!  

Miles kept all of us on our toes and graced us with his ever surprising antics and goofy personality!!

So I flew to Borger one weekend to go house hunting with Brooks and my kids stayed with my parents.  They were having so much fun during the days, they decided to take baths outside!  HAHA

Gavin lost his first tooth, which he was NOT excited about.  He was actually scared out of his mind and cried when my mom finally pulled it.  We had been working on it and turning it and wiggling it for days and it just needed to come out!  Once he realized it didn't hurt and he was okay, he eventually calmed down and wanted to know when the next one was going to come out!  CAN'T believe he was 4 years old and lost his first tooth.











Lunch at Chick Fil A.  I'm pretty sure we ate at Chick Fil A once, sometimes twice a week.  It's just easy and manageable with all 3 kids.  They loved it too!

We spent lots of time with our cousins and played together!  The kids played in the rain, ran around outside,  took more baths outside, rode bikes, and just enjoyed being together.

We took advantage of seeing and spending as much time with our friends that we haven't seen often while we were visiting.  It was great to catch up with old friends and see all our kids playing together.  Every once in a while, thanks to my parents, I was able to get some mommy time and slip away for dinner with friends.  It was nice getting to catch up with friends who have been around for years!!  I got to spend time with friends at their kids birthday parties and even had Houston friends and Baton Rouge friends come and visit us!!

Needless to say, we had a VERY, VERY busy beginning to our summer and that wasn't even all of it!  

So my all time favorite picture from the summer might be the one below!  My mom had a friend come over to take her usual "Bench Bunch" picture of all the grandkids so we tried to get a few of siblings together.  This is how my kids felt about taking their pictures!  And no, Miles isn't really sleeping- that was just his response when asked to smile.  

Orange Beach

The day after Bran and Kate's wedding, myself and the kids loaded up in our car, along with my mom who was gracious enough to ride with me, and we headed to Orange Beach, Alabama.  Brooks had to return to Saudi for 4 work days in order to receive our overseas benefits, only to turn around and fly back to the states to start his new job in Borger, TX.  If you ask me.. it was a STUPID, unnecessary trip, but the benefits FAR exceeded the inconvenience it was going to put on Brooks, who had just gotten over jet lag and basically "moved back already" as well as kept us away from him.  But, you do what you have to do even if it's something you don't want to.  

My sister in law, Anna and her two kids decided to come meet us and spent the week in Orange Beach with us.  After driving 8 LONG hours in the car, we finally arrived, after I got pulled over for "speeding".  I was literally going 3-5 miles over, but again, whatever!  My mom talked the officer out of it by telling him a long story of us just moving home from oversees, being in Arkansas, going to Alabama, but from Louisiana, and moving to Texas.  The officer respectfully let us go!  WOo hoo!    My kids were so excited to see their cousins and kept hugging each other the first hour they were together.

We decided to spend the week how ever the kids wanted.  When they wanted to swim, we went swimming.  When they wanted to go to the beach, we went to the beach.  The weather was iffy the whole time we were there, so we did spend some time shopping at the local outlet mall, took the kids to the movies, and ate at a few favorite restaurants!  The kids LOVE playing outside Lulu's restaurant and had a blast playing in the massive sand box!  

One morning we went to a Princess and Pirate Breakfast at another local restaurant.  Brooklyn was so excited to see the Princess walking around and the boys enjoyed dressing up as pirates during their meal.  After they ate, they got to go on a treasure hunt and found "gold".

This restaurant had a massive sand box outside so we let the kids play and hang out until they told us they had had enough.  To our surprise, the kids wanted to jump on the trampolines and even were adventurous in their playtime.

BEACH TIME!!!

Thankfully when the weather got really gloomy and the wind was blowing too hard to stay outside, my parents condo has an indoor pool!  Perfect for keeping the kids entertained and having fun!

I always love going to Orange Beach and getting to relax and watch my kids have fun out in the sun (or inside, too).  Another successful trip to OB with the family!  Next up on our summer trip- Lake Charles.  Finally, no more traveling (at least for a little while)

Arkansas and the WEDDING!!!

Anytime we fly to the USA we always struggle with jet lag.  We knew this was going to be an issue, but also knew we really, really needed to get over it fast since Brooks' brothers wedding was in a few days.  Gavin was the ring bearer, Brooks and I were in the wedding, and there were a lot of wedding festivities going on that we all needed to be alert, awake, functioning, and apart of!  Generally, our kids usually get sick the first week back, too so I prayed for weeks leading up to this time that they wouldn't catch any cold or anything at least for a few weeks!  Praise the Lord no one got sick and we had a great time hanging out at Brooks' moms place!  Mim and Pop came and visited, we played outside and enjoyed the tree house Brooks built, and slept a lot, too.  

Our time at Missie's was fast since we headed up to Solgoahachi where Bran and Kate were getting married and helped in the preparations!

The rehearsal dinner was at a local pizza restaurant that is similar to the TOM's shoes concept only with pizza.  For every pizza that is purchased, the restaurant donates food to a village in another country.  It was really cool and the reason Brandon and Kate wanted to have their rehearsal dinner there!  After dinner, every one went up to the mountain for the rehearsal.  The wedding was outside so Brandon built a stage as the alter and for the wedding attendants to stand on.  It was really, really neat.

Gavin was in the wedding as the ring bearer and during the rehearsal he decided to do a forward roll as he went down the aisle.  He said he was a ninja!  Brooks and I were shocked.  Everyone else just laughed.  We then spent a majority of our conversations there after telling Gavin to keep both of his feet on the ground the whole time when he walked.   After practice, everyone a part of the wedding party, family, and friends gathered together for dessert and enjoyed a sweet time of sharing stories and encouragement to Brandon and Kate.

The morning of the wedding, Kate's mom hosted all Kate's bridesmaids for a breakfast at their home and then all the girls were able to get dressed together.  Mrs. Missie and I were apart of the festivities and enjoyed watching Kate on her wedding day.  

Thanks to my mom and my sister in laws, my boys had precious, matching outfits for the ceremony, and Brooklyn got to wear her first "real" dress up dress!  They were so excited to see Uncle Bran and spend his day with him!  Bran and Kate did a first look reveal together before the ceremony and it was priceless to watch from a distance.  All I kept thinking was, "Thank you Jesus for letting Brandon get to this day in his life!"  The ceremony was beautiful and you could sense the Holy Spirits presence.  Two of the most powerful moments during the ceremony came when Brandon spoke the words In Sickness and in Health.  Those words were filled with meaning and struck every heart of every person sitting in the crowd.  After a moment of worship during the ceremony and Bran and Kate exchanging their vows they became husband and wife!  What a glorious day!