a boy at the beach

This is the story of Nicholas's first time at the ocean.
Everyone else went down to the beach while Nicholas was napping, so Daddy stayed behind to bring him when he woke up.

Hello, ocean. Not so sure about it.
But at least he isn't crying like he did at Medina Lake.
Maybe Mom can help him test the waters."I just don't know if this is a good idea, Mom."He was much happier up past the waves, where there was plenty of sand for him to eat.
It makes me wonder-
if he could get fistfulls of carpet, or tile,
would he eat that too?


We set up the umbrella so he could have a little shade, and he was happy just exploring my beach bag.The next day he sat in the shade and watched the rest of us playing in the water,
and he was perfectly happy.So although he didn't love the ocean, I think he had a pretty good time anyway.

"gooey, gooey, gooey goodness"

We rented a beach house for the weekend with our good friends the Foulks and the Wilcox's. It was one of those perfect weekends that you wish would never end.

We learned a few little things while we were there, too.

Let me tell you about them.

I didn't get a picture of the outside of the house, but here's where we spent a good chunk of our time lounging, reading, eating, and watching all sorts of funny things on TV.Lesson #1: Beginning an argument with the line "If I were a duck, and I laid an egg" is not the smartest way to try and win a fight.

#2: Donald Trump has never used a coupon. He said so.

We had the most beautiful boardwalk that took us across the sand dunes and down onto the beach. Our house was only a couple hundred yards from the ocean, and the views were incredible.Lesson #3: You are safe from the jellyfish until you see one. Then you must exit the water.

Lesson #4: You can still get sunburned on a cloudy day.

Lesson #5: Baby boys will get very messy at the beach, and do all sorts of exciting things, such as squishing little fish with their fingers, eating sand, attempting to swallow seaweed, and gathering an entire beach's worth of sand in their diapers.Jayden squishes a fish, while Nicholas samples the culinary value of sand.

I think Kent was most excited about digging holes on the beach. He's got a thing for that. Dallin and Mike got in the excitement too, and there was much digging.

Jayden had a thing for sitting in those holes.

It was fun for me to see Kent having fun with his friends just doing "man stuff" like

sticking a board in the sand (really not sure what that was about), barbecuing with their IBC rootbeers, watching Mythbusters together, and building a bonfire on the beach.

Lesson #6: The beaches on Mustang Island double duty as roads.

Lesson #7: Most people just drive trucks and other sensible vehicles on the beach. Other people will attempt to drive a motorhome down onto the beach.

Lesson #8: When a motorhome is stuck on a beach in Texas, within moments there will be a flock of 5 to 6 trucks, who will then take turns attempting to pull out said motorhome.

Welcome to Texas.The best part, though, was really all the fun times we had with our friends.

Lesson #9: There's this awesome little glow-in-the-dark minigolf place on the second floor of an abandoned mall in Corpus Christi. You might feel like the zombie acopolypse is going to occur while you're there, but it won't.

Nicholas made fast friends with Allison, and it wasn't uncommon for him to choose her lap over mine or Kent's.We went on an awesome boat tour to see some dolphins, and although the dolphins were pretty neat, we were mostly just happy to be out on a boat.Before we got there, Allison and I stopped at HEB to buy some groceries.

Perhaps we got a little carried away.

But we ate the most delicious food while we were at the beach house-from our biscuit donuts, to enchiladas, many packages of oreos, tinfoil dinners, and this grilled gooey gooey goodness:

Quite the feast.

Lesson #10: When the guys start talking about work around the dinner table, it takes approximately 15.8 seconds before the girls' eyes glaze over.

Lesson #11: All this food tastes better dipped in ranch.

Alongside the freeway between here and Corpus Christi we saw the most spectacular wildflowers. It was amazing!Lesson #12: We have great friends! We had an absolute blast, and I'm ready to do it again!

the spring event

Two weeks ago, Nicholas and I flew to California,

Just the two of us.
We went because Kent's mom, Teresa, was hosting her annual Spring Event,
and it was a big deal, so I didn't want to miss it.

I am very blessed-
To be able to comfortably visit my in-laws all on my own was a wonderful thing.

Kent's family is incredible, and I love them all.

And actually, when I arrived at their beautiful home,
I felt like it was my home, too.

We had a great time playing with the cousins, Carlee and Preston, and I
was so happy to have some time with my sister Heidi.
The day before the event, Heidi and I took our little ones to Gilroy Gardens, and Nicholas got to enjoy his very first time on amusement park rides!
I took him on the carousel, the train, a ferris wheel, and a tiny hot-air balloon ride.

I think he had fun!

Nicholas was a real trooper (as usual), and he didn't even seem phased by all the traveling we did that week. I love how he's got his foot up on the side of the pack-and-play.


The Spring Event was fantastic. Teresa had thought of every little detail,
even down to leaving pillows and towels around the pool so we could dip our toes in the cool water. I think it's safe to say that everyone in attendance felt extra special that day.

I was busy with my baby (although Kent's dad took him for a while so I could have fun), but I didn't get very many pictures of the actual event. For more about it, you can read Shannon's and Heidi's posts here and here.

Shannon made these fun banners, and she gave me one to take home! It's now hanging in my extra bathroom as a cute substitute for curtains, and it's inspiring all sorts of fun decorating ideas.

Maybe after we finish the yard...

The lunch tables were probably my favorite part-

How Teresa is able to come up with something so simple

so beautiful, so simply beautiful,

is beyond me.

As I said before, she's incredible.
I'm so glad I got to go out there. It was a short trip, but so fun and completely worth it!

glimpses of a weekend getaway

I'm working on loading up the pictures from our recent vacations.

In the meantime, here are just a few images from our beach vacation.

And yes, it was as heavenly as it looks.

(Wildflowers we picked off the side of the freeway on the way home)

hello from vacationing

We're out and about.
After a beautiful weekend trip to California,
we came home, took our long pants and jackets out of the suitcases and
replaced them with
beach clothes.

Now we're having a delightful weekend with our friends in a rented beach house
on Mustang Island (off the coast of Texas).

So.
We'll tell you all about it.
But later.

experiments in landscaping

Owning a home.
One great thing about it: you get to create your own yard. However you want it.
One of the biggest challenges: you have to create your own yard.
Even if you have no idea what you're doing.
With the help of my family, we cleared out the front yard last week. So this week we've been working on replacing it all.

And what a joy it is to know that we are surrounding our home with beautiful growing things and to imagine how amazing it will look when it's all done.

But what if the picture in my head of the completed project is different than the picture in Kent's head?
And what if the garden center across the street (that was previously so fun to visit) suddenly becomes horribly overwhelming?
And what if communication between spouses fails, miserably?
And what if the soil in Texas has so. many. rocks. that you actually bend your shovel?

Chalk it all up to a "learning experience."
And hey, we're getting there.
Learning a lot in the process. Not just about gardening, but about
loving and living and
working together.

By the way, it's going to look amazing when it's done.
Even if we're not sure yet exactly what "amazing" is going to look like.

only going backwards

Life is tough when you're a baby.
Especially when you're a baby that has so far only figured out how to crawl
backwards,
and not intentionally.
He gets stuck. And that's not fun at all. (Nevermind his smile, he was simply excited to think that I was going to rescue him)

And to make matters worse, he has a mama that says,
"Hang on just one second-let me get the camera!" before she un-sticks him.

It's little wonder he's frustrated about it.

Imagine how you would feel if every time you tried to walk over to the fridge, or the computer, or your wallet, you instead end up on the other side of the room,
with no idea how to get any closer to the object you want.
I never thought I'd want my child to learn to crawl, but
we have high hopes of Nicholas figuring out how to motor
forwards
in the very near future.

For our sakes as well as his.