The Best Summer Yet

With every passing year, I feel like I say things along the lines of "this is the best (school year, Christmas, etc.) yet." As much as I hope the trend continues, this IS by far, the BEST summer yet. Both boys are at a terrific age. Jackson is 6 1/2 and Grant 4 1/2 (going on 6 1/2)! Thanks to the wonderful swim teachers at Houston Swim Club where Jack and Grant have attended since they were 2, they are fully capable swimmers and best of all, I don't necessarily have to be in the water with them! Finally I can sit on the side of the pool and watch their antics without being in fear of losing my bathing suit top from one of them clinging to me like baby monkeys.

And aside from Grant breaking his arm THE DAY after school was out for the summer, he's been relatively calm. One ER trip is not too shabby in comparison to the 4 we had two summers ago. He was able to get a waterproof cast and was not slowed down one bit. The weekend after school let out we took the boys to SeaWorld with our good friends Angie and Todd Drouin and their two little girls, Ava and Kate. Ava and Jack are the same age and Kate and Grant are too so both kids have perfect playmates. Jack and Grant LOVED SeaWorld, especially the killer whales. The killer whale trainer wore a necklace with a carved wooden whale tail (this was surely a gimmick to sell the same $20 necklace that was in all the shops to all the tourists). My sweet boy Jackson came home and immediately begin drawing whale tails on paper and cutting them out, punching holes in the top and then wearing them on a string around his neck.

Jackson's been able to do several camps this summer and has thoroughly enjoyed almost all of them. He's done a movie camp, a clay workshop camp, baseball camp and most recently an art camp. The baseball camp was a struggle, it was quite warm outside and it just wasn't really his thing. But he's been having a great time and it keeps him busy.

At the beginning of the summer Grant forgot, as I'm sure most little kids do, that he could swim. He kicked and screamed and was sure he would drown if he even stuck a toe in the water. He was supposedly on the neighborhood swim team the "Gators" but needless to say was asked politely to retire as he kicked the coach mercilessly when put in the water. After that, Heath went swimming with him one time and he remembered. Now it's all I can do to keep him from constantly doing flips off the side of the pool. He's a fish. The only bad thing about that is that this summer at the beach it was a little harder to keep up with him as the fear was gone.

In June we were invited to the Krhovjak's lake house on Lake McQueeney. This was only a week after the flood that nearly devastated the area and we were so pleased that their house suffered no harm. The boat house had water in it and the pontoon boat went over the dam, but the new ski boat had yet to be delivered and was thus spared. It was a wonderful trip, Keely and I succesfully took all four kids (she has two little girls) to SeaWorld to the waterpark and I'm thankful to report that there were no incidents.

In July we packed up the Suburban and the kiddos and drove the 13+ hours to Florida to visit my parents. We had a great time there and the boys loved the beach. The great thing about the east coast is that the water is nice and cold. Great for when the temp is in the upper 90s. The beach there is very big, meaning that from the dunes to the water, even at high tide, it's probably about 50 yards. The kids had a great time building sand castles and looking for the "perfect" shells too. They had a great time on the boogie boards and most of all "fighting" the waves, which they did by running head-on into the surf slashing the waves with their plastic swords. I'm sure my parents enjoyed their visit and we had a wonderful time too.

Half-way back to Texas we stopped in WaterColor on Santa Rosa Beach on the "Emerald Coast" portion of the Gulf. Some good friends of ours rented a house their last year and we were so in love with the place that we decided to rent a house there for a week this year. Heath's parents stayed with us and we had a wonderful trip. It's like going back in time for me, it is so similiar to Cape Cod except of course for the heat. Where Destin, 40 miles away, is high rises and neon signs and tourist shops, WaterColor and it's sister Seaside are bungalow houses with wraparound porches, quaint street lights and bicyclists. WaterColor boasts at least 5 different pools that I know of all of which are quite appealing to the kids. Waking up and drinking my coffee on the porch before setting out on our bikes for a ride to either the beach or the pool was heaven.

We were so blessed this summer with so many wonderful vacations. I have always half dreaded the summer with thoughts of "what am I going to do with the kiddos?" This summer was amazing and now I'm so happy with the thought that it's only two more weeks long:)