My Buddy & Me

Emma is attending theatre camp this week downtown at our performing arts center, so little man and I have 4 playdates planned.  Yesterday was the first day of camp, so my buddy and me made our way to a park.  

We ran, climbed, jumped, chased birds, ate snow cones, walked under the oak trees, talked about life, looked at the splash pad, giggled, watched helicopters, held hands and decided we needed to return with our swimsuits for some more fun.

Of course this boy never ran out of energy and I never took my eyes off of him because the park is surrounded by 4 busy streets.

I love how STINKY and SWEATY little boys get after being outside for 5 minutes, that wet puppy smell.

This boy explored every piece of playground equipment the park had to offer today and imagined that he was climbing a mountain.

Anytime Gavin is outdoors he always has his eye on the birds.  He dreams of catching a bird one day and was almost successful in Garner when he stumbled upon one with a hurt wing.

He brought his helicopter and red car with him to the park and enjoyed letting them both roll down this play structure.

Look at that sweaty little red face enjoying a snow cone in an effort to cool off on this hot summer day.  I can't wait to spend 3 more days alone with you Gavin Thomas.

We returned to the splash pad the very next day and it was BIG fun, oh the joy of a little BOY!

Garner Confessions & More

So many adventures in Garner, so many laughs, so many memories, so many first and so much fun.

The kids enjoyed catching these little fish on cane poles in the river with Leighton's help.

If you could have only seen the smile on his face when he pulled this one in, it was priceless and we were all cheering him on.

Leighton was so sweet and wonderful getting the cane poles set up and the hooks baited with worms.  Just so happens Gavin might have been running through the campsite and harpooned Cameron right in the belly with one of the cane pole.

Gavin thought Leighton was the funniest thing ever and loved to throw rocks with him and at him (oops)!

Emma loved her some big girl time with Jackie D and Emery.  Sweet Emery gave Emma a new hairstyle, french braid down the side and she loved it.  When we sat down for dinner at Neal's and she did not end up between these two, I got the look and quickly asked if we could rearrange the seating.  That is until Cameron arrived and she became her shadow.

Yep, one morning when we left our B&B headed to GSP I hear Gavin scream, "Mom, I have to potty now."  When your in the middle of potty training a very stubborn little boy you don't just stop on vacation, so what do you do?  You travel with a potty in the back of your SUV in hopes of preventing any accidents and you pull over whenever your THREE year old demands.  As soon as I got him settled I grabbed my camera and Emma says, "Mom, what are you doing taking pictures?  That is against the law, STOP now!"   

After he did his duty, I cleaned him up and loaded him back in the car.  I proceeded to dump the potty out, clean it up and put it back in its place (I am guessing Gavin never saw me doing any of this.)  When we drove off he started screaming, "my potty, what about my potty, you forgot my potty Mom."   This is a picture that I am sure he will dislike me for later on in life, but I could not resist.

Gelatto at Josh's was yummy and a great way to cool off before hitting the river for the day. 

I love this picture of my 2 sweet girls.  Cameron is my adopted child that led me to the DiStefano family 16 years ago when I first became a teacher.  Of all the students I have ever had, "chubby chubbs" is by far my all time favorite and the one that I have loved the most.  Just so happens she is the oldest child of the DiStefano family, so I got to see them all grow up after having Cameron as one of my students her 6th grade year.  I am only allowed to call her "chubby chubbs" publicly now because she is model beautiful!  I think Emma loves her as much as I do after our trip to the hill country.  Just so you can put it all together, the Mommy of this bunch is also our photographer and my kids grandma by choice.

My peanut eating boy concentrating so hard on how to get the nuts out of the shell, sometimes it was just easier to eat the entire shell.

No camping trip is complete without S'mores, right?  Little man was roasting his own marshmallow with pride.

Cameron was kind enough to introduce us to white chocolate s'mores that were so YUMMY, I might be addicted and make some in the microwave as soon as I get to the store. 

Check out that BLING on my girls finger.  We went to the Dry Fifty gift store in Concan and out of everything Emma chose this diamond ring because she said it looked just like mine.  She has not taken it off and continues to say, "I can not believe I have a real diamond ring Mom."  Well, $4.00 later I just smile and say, it sure is beautiful baby and wait for the green ring to appear.

Confession... it is true that we left Garner a little early for a room at the Hyatt on the Riverwalk.  The 6 hour drive left me dozing off a few times on the trip down, so I thought it would be a great idea to break the trip up on the way home.   Conveniently the Hyatt had a room open so Momma, Emma, Gavin and the potty decided to take them up on their offer.

We had a good time on the Riverwalk eating dinner, taking the boat tour, going to the Disney store, people watching and of course my kids found a black cat laying beside the river that we had to go search for after our ride.

We got up the next morning and had breakfast beside the waterway, not a healthy breakfast but the only thing we could find open.  We enjoyed our good night of sleep in a comfy hotel room that was cold and dark.

We took advantage of the hotel pool that was on the 5th floor, giving us the perfect view of the entire city of San Antonio.

These two kiddos missed their Daddy like crazy, so after all the fun in Garner, Concan, Utopia and San Antonio we decided to pack up and head home.  Besides Daddy promised to take us to see Brave upon our return.  Looking forward to many more trips to the hill country and the traditions that will start from Emma and Gavin's first trip to GSP.

We {heart} the river!

Gavin and Emma loved the Frio and the Sabinal River more than I ever thought they would.   They did not hesitate to jump into the cold clear river to play and swim.

Gavin loved finding rocks, moving them, throwing them, catching them in his net and putting them in the back of his Tonka truck.

Garner is filled with beautiful hills, canyons, rivers, trees, wildlife and good ole Texas folk that know how to have a good time.

I got several text from friends that said, "send me proof that you are in Garner, I just can not see Emma being a Garner girl."  I am here to tell you that this girl embraced Garner like she had been going there her entire life and never complained about a thing, not even the Texas heat.  The only thing that would have made her happier would have been camping in a tent, seriously.

We did not camp, we actually stayed in a Bed and Breakfast about 15 miles away from GSP.   This cypress tree was located on the property and is the 3rd largest in Texas.  The trunk of this tree is 29 feet in diameter, it was crazy huge.

Our B&B was located on the Sabinal River and we walked down there one evening before dinner at the Lost Maples Cafe and July 4th fireworks in Utopia.

The water was too low in front of our B&B to float, but it was sure fun to play in and we decided to hike upstream the next day to see what we could find.

This boy could rarely be found without this net in his hand and he was so excited when he would catch something in it.

We all met in Utopia on July 4th to watch the Fireworks show and it was amazing.  Utopia's population is 375 people, so we were not sure how good it would be but it was almost as good as Disney.   The local firefighters got trained many years ago in pyrotechnics and thousands of people come each year to watch the fireworks display.  The locals ride down the streets on 4 wheelers collecting donations to fund the firework show for the next year.  It was awesome to see this little town put on such an amazing show and welcome people from all over.

This was our little adventure one morning, hiking upstream in search of driftwood/shell rocks and waterfalls.  We found so many waterfalls and the kids enjoyed throwing rocks in them and watching them tumble downstream.  We got to climb across large cypress trees that had fallen, jump across rocks to bypass the current and wade through waterfalls that had created themselves in spite of last years drought in Texas.

A little hard to see, but there is about a 3 foot waterfall behind Gavin in this picture.  The kids could not believe that people actually ride tubes over waterfalls like the one we had found.

Our B&B was also a wildlife preserve and every night around 7:45 the feeder would drop corn on the ground for the deer.  This was an awesome sight to see and Gavin tried to take off running several times to get closer to them.

These are the wonderful folks we hung out with on the river (minus Darla).   The DiStefano's are a one of my favorite families, each of their 4 kids brings a friend or two to GSP with them every year.  The Double D's have been going to Garner for 40+ years and it is a tradition their children love and appreciate year after year.  I am so thankful we were able to be a part of it this year. 

There is no adventure better than the ones you get to share with your sibling.  My kids were buddies on this trip, they reassured one another it was safe to move on, they held each others hands as they crossed parts of the river, they hid under trees and pretended they were forts, they caught fish and their imaginations ran WILD.

Our Texas-cation

We just got home from our getaway to the Texas Hill Country and it was peaceful, beautiful, fun and filled with lots of new memories.  Daddy could not join us because of work, so me and the kiddos headed out for some good old fashion fun.  We joined one of our favorite families, the DiStefano's at GSP and these guys know how to have a good time.

I tried to get Emma and Gavin to take a picture in front of this sign which is a huge Texas tradition and they both refused because Daddy was not with us.  Emma kept saying, "No Mom, we can just do it next year when Daddy is with us."

Gavin had a blast and definitely has a huge heart for the outdoors and the Frio River.  He carried this net around all week long and tried to catch whatever he could.

Emma is definitely a "Garner Girl" and fell in love with everything the Hill Country had to offer.  She is begging for the Carnes family to return here next year for a family camping trip.  She thought the mountains were beautiful, loved the river, the current, fishing, the pavilion, the campground and hanging out with the big girls (Cameron, Jackie D and Emery).  She also said this is where she would love to celebrate her SIXTH birthday next year.

The kids enjoyed floating, swimming in the river, hiking upstream aside the Sabinal River, cane pole fishing, fireworks in Utopia, dinner at the Lost Maples Cafe, making S'mores, watching the deer eat, swimming in the pool, catching little fish in the net, being introduced to the Nifty Fifty, gelatto at Josh's,  admiring the hummingbirds, hunting for shell rocks/driftwood and a traditional visit with the DiStefano's to Neals. 

The Texas Hill Country had so much to offer and we miss it already.  I am so glad that we jumped at the opportunity to spend time in GSP and enjoyed every second of our visit there.  Emma & Gavin got to do so many things they have never done before, see so many things they have never seen and gain a deeper appreciation for God's country and all it has to offer.

Swim Banquet

We have just returned home from Emma's swim banquet, which happens to be her first official awards banguet.  She has been so super excited about this evening and looking forward to getting her first trophy.

We had big plans to go as a family, but Daddy has been very sick with a herniated disc and at this point can barely walk.  He is getting treatment, so we are prayerful that he gets better soon.

Emma and Lauren after they got their trophys.  Emma was "over the moon" and could not wait to get home and show it to Daddy.

My sweet girl filled with excitement about this big night and so ready for swim to start again. 

Coach Becca just got a new haircut and Emma can not stop talking about it and begging to get hers cut short.    We will be spending alot of time with Miss Becca soon, we snatched her up to be our new Nanny.

Coach John is our head coach and we LOVE him so much.  He is a legend in this area for getting kids to swim and love it, just so happens he is the swim coach at my HS too.  This man eats, sleeps, drinks and lives in the H2O!

Coach Conner was Emma's very favorite coach and the one that she secretly had a CRUSH on all season.  In the beginning it was a bad crush and she would do whatever she had to do to end up in his swim lane daily.

Coach Tommy was super sweet and Emma always enjoyed training with him, he would always help her get her flippers back on.

Coach Sandy is super sweet, she is the one that Emma probably learned the most from and swam the best for during practice and meets.  Coach Sandy helped Emma off the dive blocks her very first meet, while building her confidence to continue going off.

This is Joseph and he is one of our 6 year old boys that is unbelieveable in the water.  I am thinking Joseph might have a crush on our sweet Emma Lou!  He always comes up and hugs me and talks to Emma.  I was taking a picture of her tonight and he jumped in, put his arm around her and started smiling (good thing Daddy was not there, huh?)

Tonight was a great way to end the swim season and was one more example for Emma to witness how hard work pays off in life.   Emma, you had a great swim season and we are so PROUD of you.  You have added so much sweetness to the Stingrays this year.

PINKtastic Day!

Emma got FIVE tickets from us to see Pinkalicious at the local children's theatre as one of her FIFTH birthday gifts.  She has been super excited about seeing the play and could not wait to invite some friends to come along with us.  

She invited Melinda, Stephanie and Lauren to go see Pinkalicous with us today and these little girls were beyond excited.  Emma is a social butterfly (like her Momma), so she would have loved to fill the theatre with all her friends.

Before we headed to see the play we visited the nail salon and each little girl had their toenails and fingernails painted.  They were so cute and creative with their color choices.

During intermission we walked outside to the atrium and the girls started acting like they were dancing, their dance teacher would have been so proud.

These girls were so sweet all day and so well behaved during the play.  It is funny to sit back and listen to little girl chit chat.   They love to giggle and act super silly with one another.

When the play was over the girls could hardly wait to go up on the stage and look around.  They were so curious about where all the stage decoration were made and came from.

We waited in line to get all their play bills signed and of course they could not wait to meet Pinkalicous.  They were all convinced we were leaving there to go try to turn ourselves PINK by eating a ton of PINK stuff.  Pinklicous told them to use food coloring and they are ready to try it.

Guess it pays off to be last in line to get autographs, because these FOUR little girls were the only ones that got their picture taken with the entire cast.  These guys were super entertaining, talented and so age appropriate.

These girls all had a perfectly pink day that was filled with lots of giggles and good times.  As for her Pinkalicous Mommy, I look forward to having my car packed with kids for years to come.