Summer zoo trip

Having a membership to the zoo means we can go whenever we want... and usually we avoid the summer heat! This year we had family in town and thought it would be a great thing to do (and now they have a splashpad to cool off with too!).

Debra's cousin came to Texas and hadn't seen Jeff since he was 12, so the kids and I were thrilled to meet her! Of course being from Michigan, she taught the kids "Go Blue!" and they just loved having another team to cheer for for Ms. Danielle! It was such a blessing having this time with her:-)

Mapping out our day at the welcome center!

Joshua made friends quickly!!!

The zoo currently has an AWESOME Lego exhibit... I'm just bummed I didn't take pictures of the boards in front that told how many bricks and how many hours it took to make each of these! I was amazed at the detail!

The giraffe is my favorite animal at the zoo... so I had to get a pic with my boys- a rare thing when I'm usually the one behind the camera! And they're all happily smiling! Whoo hoo!

The carousel! We split into two rides because Joshua suddenly had a potty need, so in his pics, I'm sure one reason why he's so thrilled is because he thinks he's the only one getting to ride! He liked the attention of all of us watching him!

The splashpad... when I thought we'd get a nice cool break, one kid didn't want to participate and the other two only played for about 10 minutes. Sometimes children are so unpredictable!

"I'll just watch mom."

Back on to the animals!

Apparently summer is volunteer internship time! They had little set-ups with info about the different animals. I've never learned so much about elephants (useful info too!) and we LOVED getting to touch a real foot and ear and jaw.

And this was the jaw of a giraffe! So neat!

We had a great time and were, once again, very thankful for our membership gift! We get to take guests free whenever we go, so local friends- let us know if you'd like to go sometime and we'll plan a trip! :-)

4th of July Weekend

 July held lots of fun family time for us... LOTS! It started with the 4th of July holiday spent with my side of the family.

Loved the boys new shirts this year!

 

Waterguns are always fun!

Flipping fun!

At Grandpa's house, you shuck your own corn...

Makes it a lot easier to enjoy then too!

We waited till dark and made our way to the water for some fireworks!

Sparklers for everyone!

Since Mike and Lauren couldn't come ON the 4th, we enjoyed another nice pool day and dinner that weekend, also celebrating 35 years of marriage for my parents!

And in the pool, Uncle Mike is great at teaching stunts!

The three-nephew tornado!

Joshua can't get enough of Lauren... and anyone else that will let him brush their hair! They sure make a sweet pair together!

My snuggle bug- even in the pool!

 Ryan decided that he was ready to forgo the life jacket this month and started requesting to take it off periodically. With this we signed him up for swim lessons and after a 5 lesson crash course at the neighborhood pool... we have ourselves a swimmer!