Great day to be a kid

Adventures in Texas

Temperatures were actually moderate on Saturday (mid 80's) and Ryan had some time off, so we decided to venture into the Texas hill country to do some exploring. Our first stop was Hamilton Springs. The kids took off running the moment the car doors opened.

Casey was a wild man, jumping off of rocks and running down steep paths. Luckily, he made it through the day unscathed.

Hamilton Springs has two main attractions. The first is the springs which consists of a waterfall and a swimming hole. The second is the river that the springs feed into about 3/4 of mile away.

After a snack break and some play time at the river it started to rain, so we figured it was a good time to hike back to the car and move onto our next destination. The sky cleared up within the hour, perfect timing as we had just arrived at Pedernales Falls State Park. Here we enjoyed scampering over the rocks and admiring the falls for the next few hours. Unfortunately, it is to dangerous to swim in this section of the river, even during low water conditions.

We even attempted a family photo.

The kids were wiped by the end of the day, but they had a great time. It was pretty cute to hear the girls thank us for taking them on such a fun outing.

Freedom!

Well, it took about 3-4 days of practice and a whole lot of tears, whining, pleading, cajoling, and shouting on both Elizabeth and our parts, but she is confidently riding without training wheels now.

He speaks!

Casey is really making a lot of progress in speech therapy. I got the good news today that in a few months he will go down to only one visit a week, and he should be discharged around his 3rd birthday. They still want to clear up a few things in his speech, but it is really awesome to hear him clearly pronounce bi-cyc-le.

Kids say the darnest things

Comment from Elizabeth as we were driving by the horse stables the other day that had us laughing hysterically.

"Hey look, that horse is wearing underwear on his head."

Three Ring Entertainment

How do you resist the girl who begs you for a week to go to the circus, and go so far as to present you with circus coupons that she has found in the mail, at gymnastics, from school, and the grocery store? After I had about 15 coupons from Elizabeth, I finally took the hint and bought some tickets for the family to the Shriner Circus that was passing through San Antonio. Saturday couldn't come soon enough for the kids. A food standoff with the kids did put a slight damper on Ava's and Casey's enjoyment level. They didn't eat dinner on Friday night (macaroni and cheese, chicken, and peas- really, what is wrong with that?), so they saw it again for breakfast and still didn't eat it. All I heard from Ava during the first half of the circus was "I'm hungry, I want to go home." Casey just pointed at every snow cone and cotton candy vendor and said "bite."

Lizzy was on the edge of her seat the entire show. She loved the tigers, bikes, and motorcycles.

Ava decided she like the pony act, and the girls with hula hoops.

Casey went for the bikes and motorcycles of course.

Mom and Dad enjoyed 3 well behaved kids and seeing the giant smiles on their faces.

I don't have any really good pictures of the circus b/c of the lighting, but I figure you would rather see the kids.

Casey's "cheese" face.

P.S. The kids finally caved by dinner time and ate either the mac and cheese, or the new fish dinner I prepared.

1st Day of Elementary School

A little excited, a little nervous, both Elizabeth and me, but there were no tears shed by mother or daughter. The report from Elizabeth at the end of the day was "best school ever." I consider that a success.

Ava's 4th Birthday

What better way to enjoy 100 degree weather than at the Splash Pad. Ava and about 20 of her friends from school, baseball, church, and the neighborhood came out to celebrate her 4th birthday.

The umbrella was a birthday gift that made all the kids jealous.

Ava is absolutely amazing and we are so thankful that she made a full recovery from her accident last year. Life wouldn't be the same without Captain Destructo!

The good news is that we didn't have to worry about the pizza getting cold, but the icing on the cake was melting, and Casey kept stealing candies off of it.

It was a great day to be a kid!

The Naked Cowboy

Everyone needs a reason to smile on a Monday. Have a good week.

Take me out to the ball game

On Friday, I had a mandatory work event in Austin. The conference center was co-located with the Dell Diamond, a minor league baseball stadium. After suffering through hours of boring lectures, families were invited to join you for a BBQ, baseball game, and children's activities. Ryan had a rare day off, and drove the kiddos up in the evening (battling Austin traffic) to meet me for dinner and the game. I can't say we saw much baseball but the kids had a really good time and Ryan was placated with frozen margaritas.

Ava and Casey couldn't get enough of the moon bounce.

The girls attempted the rock wall. They still have a ways before reaching the top, but I applaud their efforts.

I can't believe how fast our time in San Antonio is coming to an end, so I am glad we are taking advantage of many of the things that Texas offers before we leave.

Another one bites the dust

Elizabeth has been working on this tooth for a while, and sure enough the other night while eating pizza out it came. I have never seen a kid so proud and excited to have teeth fall out of her head. This is the 3rd one in 5 months. However, this was the first time that we had any issues with the tooth fairy. As standard procedure, she put her tooth in her special tooth holder and placed it under her pillow before going to sleep. However, it seemed the tooth fairy fell asleep on the job and didn't pay a visit that night. We attributed the tooth fairy's delinquency to the fact that Elizabeth did not sleep in her bed like she was told. Instead, she crawled down the her ladder (tooth and all) to sleep in her sister's bed. Therefore, the tooth fairy did not know where to find her tooth. Elizabeth then wanted to take her tooth to school to show her friends. I did not endorse this course of action and asked her to leave her tooth at home. That did not prevent her from sneaking off to school with it anyway. When Ryan dropped the kids off at school, Elizabeth immediately produced her tooth holder to show all her classmates her tooth only to discover no tooth. Of course, drama and hysterics ensued. The remedy to the missing tooth was to draw a tooth and write a note for the tooth fairy that night. She also made sure she slept in her own bed. Fortunately, the tooth fairy understood the circumstances and left $1 and piece of candy in exchange for the note and drawing. Wait, the story doesn't end there. The next day, Elizabeth found her missing tooth in the living room and felt it was very important to get the tooth to the tooth fairy. She wrote another note, explaining that she found her tooth and she even reminded the tooth fairy that she didn't owe her another present, which Ryan and I found very honest of her. So now, all teeth are with the tooth fairy and all children are properly compensated. The end.

Family Tree

I hadn't been back from Europe for more than a week, when it was time to pack up and head out the door again. This time the kiddos got to come along for some fun in PA. Ryan had to work and couldn't get a away. Oma and Opa (my grandparents) celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary on 8 July. In commemoration of this milestone event, we planted a family tree grove on the family farm. These trees are going to look really awesome in 10 years.

After spending a few days with my dad's side of the family, the kids and I drove over to see my mom and stepdad. They had a good time watching movies, doing art projects, and eating 10 lbs of fruit. The bad news was that Casey learned the he could climb out of the portable crib, a skill that he brought home. No trip is complete without airline issues. I really enjoyed spending 2 hours sitting on the Chicago taxi way with 3 tired, cranky, bored kids at 9pm waiting for storms to move through.

Welcome Homes are Awesome!

What can I say other than I love my family!

My time away...

My first assignment with the USMC Reserves was scheduled to be logistics planner/action officer working out of the US Embassy in Estonia in support of BALTOPS 10 for most of the month of June. Truthfully, first I had to look up on the map where Estonia was, by the way it is next to Russia. Then I had to figure out what I was going to be doing. That one didn't really happen until I was in country for a few days. It turned out that I was very busy. We had over 1000 Navy and Marine Corps folks in country during that time and conducted land and sea operations. The highlight was an amphibious demonstration between the US and Estonia for the President of Estonia, all the ambassadors, military officials, media outlets, and the public.

There was some down time at the end of my Estonia stay, where I got to really get out and explore the city, tour the museums, sample the local cuisine, and pick up some cool souvenirs. Gardens of Kadriorg Kadriorg Palace View from Town Hall Tower of Toompea Castle, churches, and old city walls

View from St. Olav's Church Tower of the original city wall and guard towers

Alexander Nevesky Cathedral (Russian Orthodox)

Kiek in de Kok (38m high cannon tower that also serves as the entrance to a system of tunnels that connects the bastions under Toompea Hill)

Town Hall

Town Hall Square with cobble stone streets and lots of markets and festivals

Fat Margaret's Tower (defensive cannon tower that protects the sea side of the city)

At the very end of my reserve duty, I swung through Germany to do some administrative things with Marine Forces Europe. The highlight of Stuttgart was meeting up with my sister and darling nephews for a few days. We toured the zoo, and dinosaur museum, and checked out the awesome German toy store.

All those children's activities made me really ready to go home and see my own family.