Random phone photos from the week

First step to braces.  Expander going in mid-July.

Breaking ice to get the toys out.

Campbell has some serious tools. Don't mess with her!

Ice cream cookie sandwiches with Daddy's homemade ice cream.

Skating!

 

Campbell doing the limbo.

Derby girl! We love skating!

Our neighbor Cameron hung out with us this week after VBS.

The girls were reading the Guiness Book of World Records before our our outing to the pool today.

The boys chillin' on Animal Jam and the other Guinness Book.

Alex with his new Flat cap.

How many steps can I jump?

Comment Challenge

I'm joining Jenna's Journey Commenting Challenge.    She is a couple of days into the festivities, so I'll just summarize the topics that have already been covered.

My husband and I have lived in Austin for over 13 years already. I have worked as a sales rep for a large publisher for over 15 years and he is a sales manager for a large food distributor. We laugh because Austin has so many technology oriented folks here and neither of us are in that industry.

We love our family of three children and stay busy with their activities. Right now we are in the heat (pun intended) of swim team.  Between practicing and Saturday morning swim meets, June is pretty much of a wipe out on all other fronts.

We like to travel and already made a trip to Destin, Florida this summer with my family. Later in the summer, we'll try to escape the Texas heat as we go to Idaho for a week.  Between vacations, we'll be trying anything and everthing to keep cool while we live on the sun in Texas this summer.

Extra, Extra...

Today at gymnastics, Conleigh did a flip-flop by herself!

She did it over and over again. I am so proud of her.

She was working on doing two in a row. 

The second one needs a little more work but I am certainly proud of her 

stick-to-it-ness.

She has only been tumbling since March.

And, not to be outdone, Campbell is doing back bends by herself!

She did it over and over too.

VBS was a success! 

We enjoyed having our neighbor Cameron hang out with us afterwards.

She is so polite and sweet.

Before bedtime last night, Conleigh filled a bucket with water and put some 

random plastic toys inside.

Today, after VBS the kids got to work with screwdrivers, 

hammers and a meat tenderizer to bust it open.

Tomorrow we'll get to have a repeat of that fun since Campbell filled a bucket with prizes this afternoon. It is busy freezing itself right now.

I went swimming tonight and we swam a mile. Yay!

Peter was making home made ice cream this evening while I was working off the calories that I just ate back up. His dad brought up an old ice maker this weekend, so Peter brought home all the items he needed to make it this evening.  It was some good old fashioned vanilla. 

If that doesn't say summer, I don't know what does.

Revisiting Vacation

I'm glad we vacated to Destin when we did. It looks like this week it is being visited by Debby, a storm with hurricane potential. Glad we are not there for that.

We were there a couple of weeks ago and enjoyed beautiful, perfect weather.

Campbell getting buried in the sand.

Alex worked and worked to ride this skim board.

Miss Hollywood at the shuffle board game.

The kids really enjoyed the boogie boards this year. They rode the big waves a lot. We spent much more time on the beach this year than in past years when they were ready to go to the pool pretty often.  Peter snorkeled out with Alex where they saw some live sand dollars and big crabs.

Sandcastle building.

Party Weekend

Aah. We made it to Sunday night. Relax.

Kids are snug in bed. It is 9:00. That is a great time right now. 

It has been 10:00 almost every night this past week.

The girls went to Girl Scout Twilight camp last week. Four evenings spent

learning about health. The theme was Olympic Gold.

Conleigh was o.k. with it but didn't love it, and Campbell is ready to sign up 

for next year already.

Check out her swap hat. It is full & fun!

When the girls got home Friday night, Grandma and Grandpa Hardin were here to visit for the weekend. They were troopers and came up early to the swim meet and stayed til even 80 (at the very end). I think they enjoyed watching the kids swim and were impressed with what strong swimmers they are.  I also think the kids swam extra hard because they knew they had an audience.

Grandma got herself a Sharks shirt. That is spirit!

Conleigh had a rockin' day. She got four heat ribbons out of her five events. She improved on all her times.  Campbell is ready for the season to be over. I hope we can convince her to swim again next year. Alex has a beautiful stroke. It looks like he is going slow but he really isn't. It is just smooth. He got 8th in 50 free, 11th in 25 free, and 13th in breast stroke. It was a tough team. I'm trying to remind the kids that they are swimming to improve their own times. It is working. We will be getting a lot of Time Improvement ribbons this week.   Onward to one more swim meet this season.

Waiting at the Shark tank for the Coach/Parent relay at half-time.

The grandparents volunteered to take the kids to see ~Brave~ last evening, so Peter and I took the opportunity to go to a friend's birthday party up in Wahlberg at the German biergarten. What a fun place. I can't believe we haven't ever been there. The breeze was enough to make the outside evening bearable.  We danced and had dinner and enjoyed great convo. 

Definitely something to do again with the children.

Clones.

This morning we skipped church which rarely happens. We went to Kerby Lane Cafe for breakfast. Our timing was just right. No wait for us, but the line when we left would have scared us away.
Larry & Kathryn said farewell and headed home to Houston.

We had a little down time before going to our friend Beckett's fourth birthday swim party.

The pool was the place to be. It was H.O.T. today and I think it will just get hotter this week.

Up next: VBS

Random

Yesterday we said adios to our beloved babysitter, Kyndra. She is off to medical school in Ft. Worth. 

She has babysat for us since Campbell came home from the hospital, six years ago.

Heaven help us.  Conleigh is prepping for a Hollywood themed birthday party. They are supposed to dress like a movie star.  She did have a great all black costume, but she wore it out earlier in the week and discovered that long black pants, boots and a long, polyester dress made for winter are pretty warm here in June. This outfit was today's try. She worked on her make-up. The party isn't until July 1, but she will be very ready for it.  She plans to be Lady Gaga in case you can't tell. 

Wordless Wednesday

Last night in Destin and then headed NOLA way

Traditionally, we have gone out to dinner one night during our stay in Destin. This year we saved it for the last night and unfortunately, there were two wrecks that happened on little old highway 98. Traffic was backed up truly for miles. Instead of getting into that mess, we headed east in search of something new.

We landed at Elmo's Grill.  We had a good time. It was casual with a guitarist playing.

photo bomb Ryan.

 Conleigh getting her crab legs on. That girl can put them down. She also tried out oysters. She decided they were not her style.

 

The whole crew!

Friday morning we headed west towards New Orleans.

Conleigh loves the art and old architecture of this city.

the photo bomb was very prominent on this trip.

bomb agin.

 Campbell had her fortune told by this guy. He told her to be patient and her friends in the Armed Forces will be returning soon. Hahahaha.

 For dinner, we ate at Mulate's. Delicious cajun fare. Peter and I both chose crawfish etouffee.

They have a real cajun band and dancing. All the kids loved it.

I spy...

Campbell and Alex spent a long time setting up this fort in the hotel room. They even slept in it. At about 5am, Campbell tapped me and said, I'm ready to get in a bed now. :)

Taking Vacation ~ A backwards Report

I'm very thankful that our children have a daddy like Peter.

We returned to Austin this evening after a week long whirlwind vacation.

Last night, we landed in Houston and spent the evening with my parents. Today we took the dad's out for a Father's Day brunch.

I was glad to get to spend my 43rd Father's day with my wonderful Dad.

On Friday, our family trekked from Destin to New Orleans. We think this is the 5th year we have stopped in NOLA.  This year we toured the Mardi Gras World facility. It was amazing.  90% of the props for the floats in the Mardi Gras parades are made here. 

Jackpot!

Conleigh is in heaven. She loves New Orleans.

Ew. Look what is about to drop onto Alex's head!

These are from the Zulu crew float. 

We learned that there are 52 Crews which is basically a social club. Each crew has their own parade sometime in the 11 days prior to Ash Wednesday. A parade has a minimum of 14 floats and a max of 28.  Each person on a float must wear a mask and purchase their own gifts to throw out.

These props are already ready for Mardi Gras 2013. They are waiting to be moved by trailer to one of the 17 warehouses around New Orleans.

Here are some newly made float designs. they use styrofoam  and mold it into these amazing designs.  They try to recycle 100% of the materials they use.  One year something may be Scooby Doo and the next year something else.

This woman was using paper mache to create this mask.

My main man.

You can see Alex on the left and then see how huge the busts are!

Conleigh with Willie!

We weren't sure what the tour would be like but it turned out to be perfect for us.  And, it ended with King Cake. Can't beat that!

After lunch at the Camilia Grill in the French Quarter, we were on the road again.

Good food and fun service!