Had to share this one...

Destin or Bust

Picking up where I left of- Brandon's last night was the fourth. We all went to bed early. We were so tired that none of us noticed the sounds of World War III two blocks away. I even slept through Yeti cuddled up on my head shaking in fright. So the next weekend we visited my cousins in Waco. We had a great time talking, eating and watching the kids have fun. Amanda's kids were great entertainment (and sitters) for Noah and Wyatt. Here they are playing with their monster trucks in the mud. The only way I could get a tearful Noah in the car to go home was to remind him of our upcoming motor home vacation. The next Tuesday Mimi, Papa, Grandma Jean and Grandpa Bob all descended on our house in preparation for the much anticipated family reunion about to take place in Destin, FL. We loaded up our rented motor home with all the necessary, and several unnecessary, things eight adults and four kids need for five days at the beach. We left around 8:30 Tuesday night with the plan to take shifts driving through the night and reach Destin by morning. Everything went relatively smoothly. The kids were so awed by the wonders of our 28' Coachman that it took them until 10:30 to finally fall asleep. They slept in the RV's 'attic'. I have such great memories of trips like that when I was little, but it is even better to see my own kids experiencing it. Us adults played some Yahtzee and tried to keep dad company as he drove, since he did most of the driving- so much for taking shifts. It wasn't long before dad was the only one awake. A peaceful night's sleep in a bouncy, clanky motor home on I-10 through Houston and Louisiana was pretty much impossible- unless you're mom. She soundly slept while bouncing back and forth along the bed in back. Like an old Donald the Duck cartoon. We made it to FL Wednesday morning where we met up with Dori and Jay, who did the same drive in the mini van with two dogs. After getting settled at the military recreation area in our RV slot and cabins and making about 20 pb&j sandwiches while the twelve of us and three dogs soaked up the air con in the RV, we congregated at the pool with the Georgia clan. We reacquainted, cooled off and planned dinner. I don't think I can relay the entire trip, but I will give a few highlights. Thursday morning we awoke early and loaded up for the beach. 10 folding chairs, two ginormous umbrellas, one ATV wagon, at least a dozen sand toys, a surfboard and so on. The Georgia clan, proving their blood relation, kept right in step with a full on county fair style collapsible tent and two giant ice chests on wheels. The white sand beach with emerald green water were beautiful. We had a great time. This was Jon, Dacy, Noah and Wyatt's first experience (that they can remember anyway) with the beach and ocean. They were totally intimated by the waves. After letting us carry them out into the waves, they opted to just play on the shore, only letting the water get as deep as their ankles. But they had so much fun and I think the group under the tent had just as much fun watching them. Mom, Dori, Tracy and I tried boogie boarding. That's about all I need to say about that. Greg also tried surfing for the first time. Just like Greg, he was able to stand up and ride a wave into shore on the first try. Granted it wasn't a very big wave, but it was still impressive. I tried it later on and only managed to ride it in on my belly. Even so, it was a whole lot of fun. Greg and I took another morning and went scuba diving. We did two dives- each around 80 ft. We saw lots of fish I can't name, a sunken boat, barracudas and many, many jelly fish. We ate lots of great seafood while we were there. We all went on a dolphin cruise. We saw dophins. Noah got to drive the ship. Wyatt was overwhelmed by boats and jet skis the whole trip. We rented a pontoon boat. Or as Wyatt called it- a ON-ooon boat. Dori decided you can get Wyatt to say any word by putting it in front of the word 'boat'. Wyatt found a new best friend in Presley. He would follow her to the ends of the earth. Every time we separated from their family he cried 'pesleeeeee'. For a few days after we returned home, he would say 'Pesley?' every time he saw a tan little girl with dark brown hair. Greg, the boys and I stayed in the RV the whole time and the boys cried when Papa drove off with it after we got home. So after stuffing ourselves with mounds of shrimp and Gleta's margaritas and desserts, and getting sand in all our nooks and crannies we headed back to Texas. We had so much fun. I waited way too long to write about the trip and now I don't have the time or energy to properly retell it. It was so good to see the extended family and be reminded of how deep our roots are and how strong they make us as individuals. How about Austin next time??

Wet Fun in the Summer Sun!

Get ready to snuggle in for a long blog. I guess I need to start way back- some time around mid June. Around that time was our church's VBS. This was Noah's first time. I was the recreation leader for the week. I had a good time but Noah loved it. The songs they learned and getting to perform on stage Sunday morning were his favorites. He also memorized three new Bible verses along the way, but I can't seem to get him to recite them to anyone but me. Wyatt really enjoyed VBS too. Of course he is too young to be part of the program but there was childcare for those of us helping run it. VBS for Wyatt was riding around in the six seater stroller, eating watermelon outside and playing with bubbles on the church lawn. The following weekend was the church's Jr. High lake trip for which Greg and I have somehow become the waterfront coordinators. We trailered a church member's boat out to Highland Lakes Camp, launched, drove the boat across the lake to Greg's boss' dock in Point Venure, tied off, paddled a canoe to shore (the lake was so high the dock's walkway didn't reach shore) and jumped in the back of Papa G's pickup for a ride to his house. By a chain of crazy coincidences, Greg's parents, his boss' weekend house and our church lake trip are all in Point Venture. That was an amazing weekend for the boys. All the different modes of transport, grandparents, the 'big kids', lots of boat riding, snow cones, homemade ice cream, trailers, jet skis- they had a blast. Greg and I spent Saturday driving boats. I drove the tubing boat (I got every kid airborn on the tube! Grandpa Bob would be proud!) and Greg drove the wake/knee board boat. The first two hours of the morning it poured down rain off and on yet I still managed to get a really painful sunburn before putting on sunscreen at lunch. Mama G took care of the boys for us. For the first time ever, I think the boys actually wore her out. Granted, she did have a long week at work, but still, she usually seems to have more energy than the kids. As you can see we somehow ended up jumping rope in the driveway. We all tried it and it is hard workout. How did we do that for so long when we were only eight? The following week Mom, Dori and the kids visited for a couple days. Those visits are always such a whirlwind I don't really remember all we do. I'm sure there was some hectic shopping with toddlers and mexican food involved. I do remember the worst tantrum Noah has ever had. He had a total and complete melt down that lasted hours and ended with an unheard of- and heavily protested- afternoon nap. The prior busy weeks finally caught up to him and it was not pretty. He came out of it okay but it shook me up. After mom and Dori left we did nothing for a few days- that is until we had more company. Brandon, Greg's closest friend from high school, visited us all the way from Alabama. Greg took off the Mon. and Tues. before the fourth and spent five solids days just playing with Brandon. That was during all the crazy rain and flooding in Central Texas. So they spent most of their time paddling every flooded river within two hours of us. The boys and I went along on most of the trips to take pictures and play in the water. It was five days of boating bliss for Wyatt. Boats are his most favorite thing in the world and watching his dad in one is even better. While they surfed and played in a wave Wyatt watched intently. He utters manly grunts when they do something impressive and exclaims "Uh-Oh!" when they flip over. Noah watches some but he really likes to splash around in the water, swim and explore the shoreline. The picture is of Greg running Graduation Falls on the San Marcos. There are lots more pictures of all this stuff on my Flickr. I think Brandon had fun. Hopefully he left still wanting kids some day. I know the boys loved having him around and Wyatt even named his kayak action figure after him. It was also a much needed break for Greg. He is the only person I know who relaxes by paddling and riding until he can hardly move. I thought I could make it all the way through this tonight, but I'm getting weak. This is going to have to be continued...

I haven't forgotten about you...

It is really late (at least by my internal clock) and I have too much to write. So I'm chickening out. But I was able to update my photos on Flickr. So go have a look and make up your own stories for the pictures to hold you over until I have the chance to write again. The super cute Wyatt pic is so you don't feel like you got totally jiped.

Canoe Trip

Here is Greg's latest craigslist purchase. We sold 'my' (I haven't been in it in almost 5 years) kayak and bought a canoe. Since selling the kayak, Greg has been totally canoe crazy and finally found one to his liking on Friday. He was beyond excited to be able to take the boys to one of his favorite places in the whole world- the river. On Saturday we packed a lunch, loaded the canoe and set out to paddle from the outdoor center in San Marcos to just past the Martindale dam- about 12 miles. I have paddled this stretch a few times in a kayak and Greg has been down it many, many times. He always underestimates how long it is going to take by several hours, but I still believe him and go along with his plans. As usual, his three hour trip ("We're in a canoe! It will take no time at all!") turned into six hours. But we survived. The boys did amazingly well and begged to go again Sunday. In fact, I guess I was really the only grumpy one by the end of the trip. In my defense, I did paddle the whole six hours through some pretty good rapids and grooling flat water, hauled the boat from the car and over dams, hit my head on a low bridge with rapids underneath and acquired a baseball-size bruise on my hip. We may go again this weekend! We really did have a lot of fun. The San Marcos is beautiful in an eerie, unpredictable sort of way. I have always loved the huge bald cypress' with their narly roots covering the banks. It was early enough in the morning that we got to see a ton of lounging turtles, one snake, dragonflies the size of birds and all kinds of other TX wildlife. We even came upon a herd of mangey sheep (visit my flickr for more pics). Greg and I love to do exciting stuff like this with the boys. I hope they really appreciate these memories and experiences when they get older. I can't wait to see what Greg will have the four of us doing when the boys are a little older! Hope I can keep up- or at least get a good seat to watch the action. I wish I had gotten more pictures of the canoe trip but there was a lot going on and I could only take my camera out on the calm sections and when we stopped for lunch.
This last picture is of our latest pet. 'Twitch' is a little bunny that has taken up residence in our backyard. He is a cute little guy (or girl) and seems fine living in a yard with two small children and two dogs. He is friendly with Greg and I, letting us come within a few feet of him. I know he does not seem like he would be welcome in our big veggie garden, but, so far, he has caused very little damage. I let a few carrots overgrow and he nibbles on the foliage of those, but I can't really see any other damage. In fact, tonight when I took this picture he was happily munching on grass. So maybe he is a rabbit that prefers lush St. Augustine over stinky ol' vegetables. I will keep you posted on Twitch's life.

21 Months!

June Already!

It has been such a long time since I last posted that it took me a good 15 minutes to remember the correct username/password combo to log into Blogger. So now I'm beat before I even got started. So, what has happened in the Godsey family in the past month? Well, if I gave you the details I'd be here all night and I'm sure blogger would kick me off for surpassing my storage limits. So here are the highlights. I think Mother's Day was somewhere in this past month. I'm pretty sure we were at the lakehouse, but we didn't officially celebrate until Monday when Greg made me breakfast and took the four of us out to dinner. Shortly after that was a weekend in Dallas and another trip to Vegas for Greg and I. This time we stayed in the newly remodeled Flamingo. The convention we attended had a 'spouse program' of which I got to be a part. It included a makeover, pilates class and a really fun cooking (and eating!) demo at a shwanky Spanish restaurant on the strip. It was really fun. I didn't take any pictures- there are only so many pics of Vegas I desire to have and I've reached my limit. The boys stayed with Mimi in Dallas. Dad was out of town the whole week- poor Mimi. My boys are not always the little angels you see in these pictures. They tested their limits with Mimi but everyone survived and had fun. Immediately following that trip Mimi and Papa were in Austin for a couple days and the night they left we headed for Lago Vista for the Memorial Day weekend. We spent the three day weekend with Greg's parents. Much of the weekend we were livin' it up at Greg's boss' house on Lake Travis. That was another really fun weekend. So that was almost two solid weeks of being out of town. We kicked off this past weekend early with a visit to the lakehouse on Thursday. Friday, my birthday, I spent the day with the Jr. High and High School girls from our chruch youth group. Me and some other ladies in the church hosted a 'spa day' for the girls that have attended our Bible study the past 5 months. We laid by the pool, had our nails and makeup done, snacked, relaxed in a massage chair, made a fancy dinner and took pictures. Not a bad way to spend my birthday. We were back at the lake on Saturday to play, play, play. And Sunday was back to church for the day. Whew! So in the past month we have traveled thousands of miles across several cities and states, seen a lot of our families, celebrated two national holidays, graduated Noah from the Butterflies to the Monkeys class at preschool, healed probably a dozen skinned knees, bailed Yeti out of doggie jail and I turned a whole year older.
Wyatt gets more and more... fun?... each day. If you know how to interpret, he is talking like crazy. I don't know if he really is talking early than Noah or if it's that we are more in tune with toddler speak these days. Maybe a little of both. His most favorite things in the whole wide world are boats, chocolate and dad. He is happiest in his swim trunks, at either the lake or the river watching Greg paddle or wake board. He walks around the lakehouse chanting 'boat ride' until his demands are met. He carries a little plastic boat with him almost everywhere he goes. As for chocolate, he really can't get enough of it. I thought it was the cookies at first but now when I give him a big, chewy, amazing oatmeal cookie he has learned he can pick it apart- eating only the chocolate chips. He sucks the chocolate yogurt off of pretzels and I have to hide the chocolate syrup in the fridge so he doesn't see it when I pour him a cup of milk. I guess there is something of me in his personality!
I spend most of my time these days refereeing arguments between Noah and Wyatt and trying to teach the two of them how to play together. When Wyatt came along I had wonderful images of the two of them being great buddies, but, so far, the only time they seem to enjoy each other's company is when they are wrestling like wild dogs in the middle of the living room which inevitably ends up in somebody (usually Noah) getting hurt. I've had to outlaw all wrestling unless supervised by Greg. They get along pretty good when I can get Noah to teach Wyatt things, but I have to be right there observing because it can go from good to nasty real quick. I suppose it will get better the older they get... right?
Okay, I just started uploading the pictures and realized there are all kinds of things we did this past month that I left out. So, the first picture is Wyatt asleep in the driver's seat of Papa's boat. We had taken the 9th and 10th graders from our church to the lake for a day. Wyatt had a horrible fever that day and just couldn't stay awake. While we were cleaning the boat I sat him in the seat and he just curled up and slept. Poor guy, but it made for a really cute pic. I also left out a trip to Waco last month for Asahel's wedding. We stayed with Dan and Amanda. The boys had a blast with their five. It was their first time to wrangle chickens and ride a supersized wagon with bench seats and a handbrake. I had some good pics but I think I lost them. The fifth picture pretty much sums up Wyatt. In the water, a little crazy and a whole lot of fun. And the last pic sums up Noah- in a car, handsome sweety with a little sneakiness mixed in.

Family Night

Monday night was Noah's first school performance at his preschool's family fun night. Before the program he was got a stomach from begin a little nervous about getting on stage. But after a pep talk from dad, he recovered and had an awesome performance. His class sang five or six songs with motions. He was front and center. I think his teachers carefully planned it so that the kids most likely to sing loud, do the hand motions and behave had prime positions. It worked until the boys on either side of Noah began arguing and threw a couple punches. I could see Noah in the middle waving his hands, eyebrows crinkled, trying to calm the two. They got over it and continued on. This picture is cropped way down so you can see Noah, but there were about thirty kids on stage. His 'best friend' is Ashley, the little girl in pink in the top right corner. The gap next to the kid in green is from a little girl who literally jumped around like a maniac the whole program. She is probably in mid air off camera. I'm sure her parents were mortified during most of the program- especially when she lifted her skirt in front of several hundred people. Watching four and five year olds perform is hilarious. We had a great time and Noah did an excellent job. The rest of the night we ate pizza, played carnival games and visited his 'class'. Greg finally got a glimpse into the mysterious world of Noah's preschool. Noah was thrilled to have Mama G there and show her his school. The last picture is Skylar and Wyatt banding together to get through the crowd. Both are very independent and, says their Sunday school teacher, rule the church toddler pack.

Babies, Babies, Babies!

Three of my closest friends had babies within a month of each other. I love it! All three are extremely cute. Congratulations Becky, Robin and Kelli!
Evie June
3/19/2007
5lbs 10oz
18.5"





Reece Elizabeth
3/28/07
6lbs 12oz
19.75"







Zachary William
4/20/07
6lbs 14oz
20"
(He looks just like his dad!)

Happy Birthdya, Laddy!

Last Saturday we attended Grandpa McDanel's 80th birthday party. Of course it was a Scottish themed event. Bagpiper and all. We had a great time and it was great to see almost all the family. You'd have to ask grandma for the exact numbers, but I do know that all her children, most of their spouses, most of her grandchildren and all but 1 (I think) of her great grandchildren were there. That is well over 60 people without family friends. Every family brought two to three dishes so we ate really well too. Saturday night we relaxed and prepared ourselves for our usual hectic Sunday. Visit my Flickr to see more pics from the birthday party.

Bluebonnets, bunnies & bumps

This week has been incredibly busy, but I know that is no excuse for you blog addicts. Good news is that I love my new camera and have already taken over 600 pictures with it! With such cute kids around me all the time, how do I not take pictures? Last week was a tough one for Wyatt. He just couldn't stay on his feet. His first major crash happened while walking through the living room and he tripped on his sandals (the shoes I loathe) and went face first into Noah's little armchair. that left a bruise covering his whole left cheek. The next day he did something (no one else was in the room, but I think it involved the bunkbed ladder) and acquired a good scrape beneath his left eye and he tore that little flap of skin that connects your upper lip to your gums. Later that day we went to a birthday party for a little friend of his and he fell at least three times. He fell so many times past two weeks that he became attached to 'Mrs. Helpful' (character shaped ice pack) and he took her wherever he went until she finally got a hole and began oozing goo. Poor Wyatt. Noah was 'star of the week' at preschool last week. That means he got to take pictures of his family to school with him to show his class and also do show-and-tell. He took Herbie and his favorite Cars cars to show. He was so excited to get up in front of everyone and talk about his stuff. His class is also rehersing for an end of the year program. He talks about it all the time and can't wait to be up on stage on the big night. I guess we don't have to worry about stage fright or fear of public speaking for him. Last Saturday we went to Skylar's 2nd b-day party. Maggy the Happy Clown did a little performance, painted faces and make baloon animals. It was Noah first time to have his face painted. He chose to be a rabbit- not a tiger- a rabbit. Greg gave a little 'humph' when the clown put blush on his cheeks. He was the cutest little bunny I had ever seen. The clown painted a yellow happy face to hide Wyatt's bruised cheek. Monday of this week Christie and Ben met us at the Wildflower Center to picnic and romp in the pretty flowers. It is the perfect place to let boys be boys. They ran, climbed, chased butterflies, swung big sticks, admired planes and trucks, hunted bugs, threw rocks in the water, stomped on bluebonnets and just had a good ol' time. There is a section where they have put in a picturesque little babbling brook that winds around, tumbling over rocks and running beneath little bridges. Little boys, flowing water and rocks are not always to best combination. Early on Ben almost fell head first into the babbling brook, but Christie literally caught him by one foot and pulled him up- I wish I had been quicker with the camera. Then the boys were doing pretty good just playing at the edge. And right when Christie and I relaxed a little and let our guard down, Ben was lying in the middle of the little stream (again, I wish I had the camera out faster). It was really shallow and narrow so he was in no danger of drowning, in fact, after getting over the initial shock, he probably would have preferred to stay in the water. But we got him out, soaked chest to toes. Wyatt was very concerned about his wet clothes and tried to help wipe him off. He spent the rest of trip in his soggy diaper and onesie. The rest of the week I have spent doing church stuff, taking kids to the doctor (just check-ups) and helping out a friend who is pregnant and on total bed-rest. The bluebonnet picture at the top was taken in a field in front of our church. After two planned photo sessions, one at the lake and one at the Wildflower Center, the best picture I got of Noah in the bluebonnets was taken spur of the moment while we were just goofing around in the field a couple evenings ago. The last picture is of my beautiful rose. Two years ago Greg gave me thorny twig in a pot for Valentine's Day (the "dumb, made up, retailer's holiday" he doesn't usually celebrate). Now the twig is a gorgeous rose bush with humungo flowers on it. So now, in the spring and summer, every couple of days, Greg gets me rose.

Thanks Uncle Sam!

I got a new camera! I'm so excited. It is awesome. Gotta love tax returns (and generous husbands)! I didn't get the camera until after Easter so I do not have any pictures from Easter. I was bummed I didn't have my new camera, plus mom and Dori were around with their fancy ones. So you have to wait for one of them to upload their pictures. This blog is filled with pictures taken in the past two days with my new camera. As for Easter, There will be no cute pictures of little darlings dressed in pretty pastels running through green grass to find brightly colored eggs. Since it was a miserably dreary weekend with rain and 38 degree temps, the best we could do were kids wearing sweatshirts purchased on clearance from Wal-Mart the day before, finding eggs in piles of laundry and life jackets in the lakehouse basement. However, the eggs were brightly colored and beautiful. Turned out that an egg hunt on a cement floor with a two and one year old is not the best idea. Immediately following the egg hunt was a boiled egg breakfast. Dacy and Wyatt loved the egg dying. Jon and Noah did about six each and went back to playing cars while Dacy and Wyatt could have dyed eggs all day long if we had let them. Even though we had a lot of fun, I can't really think of anything else to write about about our Easter weekend. Friday we attempted to take pictures of the four kids in bluebonnets. I think we may have gotten a few good ones. We'll see what Dori posts. The kids were pretty cooperative, but it is just really hard to get four little ones to look the same direction at the same time without any tongues out, noses running, hands flailing or eyes closing. We did not have an dancing dogs or Papas this time to entertain them. The rest of the weekend was eating, cleaning up kids spills, washing dogs, eating, playing games, cleaning up kid spills, eating, playing games, etc. So far this week has just been an enjoyable, playful week with the boys. I spent most of today in the garden weeding, planting and murdering aphids. Yesterday we found a dead lizard (from his physical condition, he probably died of natural causes) and the boys and I gave him a proper memorial service and burial. So when Wyatt found a rubber lizard today he attempted to bury it in the garden. It is still sitting by my tomatoes. Maybe it will scare off some bad bugs. So my new camera takes great pictures but I still have a lot to learn about it and I am not a skilled photographer by any means. But do expect to see more pics on here and my flickr. This last picture is Wyatt thinking "now mom has really lost it- she is laying in the front yard taking pictures of the sky."

2nd Annual Egg-stravaganza

We did lots of fun stuff this past weekend. Friday night our wonderful neighbors watched the boys and Greg and I went on a date. We went to a shwainky new bowling alley in Austin. There were colored dancing lights, black lights, the balls and pins glowed in the dark, there were numerous huge projection screens hanging over the lanes playing music videos, really loud music and a waiter for every lane. It was pretty fun, a little expensive and really loud. Afterward, we hung out in SoCo (that is South Congress for those out of touch with the hip Austin scene). There happened to be some big custom roadster rally. The street was lined with homemade hotrods and motorcycles. We had great pizza at some little trendy hot spot- again, it was expensive and loud. We enjoyed our date night and it was even better to come home to sleeping kids and a peaceful house. Saturday we went to a family friendly dinner party at Christie and Che's. I think there were about seven couples there and almost everyone had two kids. It was a little chaotic, but a lot of fun. We met some really cool new people and had a delicious dinner on the deck. I don't have any pictures from it but some may pop up on Christie's blog. Wyatt skinned his knee pretty good and one kid ate a slug, but everything else went rather smoothly. We headed on to Mama G's that night for more festivities the next day. Sunday was the second annual Easter egg hunt in Point Venture. Big crowd. I think there were something like 16 kids- one age 7 and the rest were four and under. But Mama G was very well organized with personalized egg buckets for each kid and 300 plastic goody-filled eggs. After a big, yummy lunch and the egg hunt, there was a chocolate fountain and all kinds of stuff to dip in it (is there anything you can't dip in chocolate?). Thankfully, the kids were busy with play dough and cupcakes out on the deck so the grown-ups could act like kids inside with the chocolate. I think Greg and his dad enjoyed the constructing and engineering of the fountain just as much as the chocolate itself. Dene, Mckenna and Avery were there Sat. night and Sun. as well, so the kids were able to spend some quality time with their cousins. The picture of all the kids lined up are all of Memaw's great-grandchildren- except for Trudy (second on the left) who is a grandchild. The last picture is Noah and Wyatt in the bathtub Sunday night. They received soap as one of their Easter Gifts. It was like silly putty so you could shape it. Noah's was red and, as you can see, the red made everything red. I gave them their soap to use and then went to set out their jammies and put some stuff in the laundry. Meanwhile Noah decided to wash himself and Wyatt with the red soap. It did not wash off. The next day Noah's hands and chest were bright pink and Wyatt's face and hair were also pink.

I think I will start with a Wyatt update. Like I have said before, he is talking. He will repeat any word you ask him to. Of course, it is all very much toddler-speak. Bugs, trains, dad, new dogs, boats and the little girl across the street make him laugh and squeal. All boy for sure. This first picture is blog-worthy because of the sandals he has on. They were passed on to me by a friend who also has two boys. From the minute I pulled them out of the bag Wyatt has decided to love them. For the first three days he even wore them to bed. He has worn them every day in the past (almost) two weeks! They are a little big and have rubbed blisters on his poor toes. But he still insists on wearing them. I have been able to limit him to only wearing them outside and on trips so his toes can have some time to heal. Those sandals have become my biggest enemy. He and I have had more arguments and tantrums over those silly things...ugh. I'd throw them away if I didn't think it would really and truly break his heart! Here is another picture of Wyatt (notice the sandals) playing with his Mozart Cube- it plays several pieces and you can choose, by pushing a side, which instruments perform the song. It was funny to watch him carrying it around the house on his shoulders like an 80's boombox- bustin' a move to Mozart. The past month or so I have been taking the boys to our local library for the weekly story time. The boys love the books, silly songs and crafts. Noah even got his own library card and every week we check out a few books. Last week Christie and Ben came over for a visit. My Flickr has some pictures from that day. We took the three boys to the library story time and then went to a huge new park nearby. There, the boys ran amuck on the playground and drenched themselves playing in the fountain. Christie accidentally whacked Ben in the head with a toy back hoe and gave him a big ol' goose egg, but that was the only noteworthy injury of the day. So I'd say we did pretty good.

Water blogged

I can't believe how long it has been since I last posted! Sorry! Jeez, I'll never be able to remember all that has happened. Maybe I should just write about the pictures. The first photo is from our first river trip of the season. It was after the first big rain a few weeks ago. The San Marcos river was in flood stage and Greg was so excited he could hardly stand it. The boys love throwing rocks in the river, watching Greg paddle, stomping around in the puddles and climbing on the rocks. This was Wyatt's first river experience where he has been old enough to really get anything out of it. He was ready to jump in the rapids and join Greg. He is a water junky like his dad. As you can see from the soggy smile, he really enjoyed sticking his hands in the water rushing over the rocks and having it spray back into his face. It made him squeal with glee. Noah, prefering not to have water anywhere near his face, was just as happy to stomp, shuffle, kick and dance in the water with his feet. Of course it ultimately resulted in a fall and skinned knee. It was obviously worth it, because this picture was taken afterwards. After paddling, Greg played in the water with them. He would grab plants and sticks floating in the river, throw them into the current and they would all watch as it got tossed up and down as it moved downstream. In the first picture Wyatt is asking 'where'd it go?' During Spring Break the kids and I visited Mimi and the rest in Dallas. We took advantage of the boys now being in school. I don't have any pictures because we used mom and Dori's fancy cameras the whole time. Dori has some posted. We shopped (of course), visited the Dallas Arboretum and just hung out. Noah spent the night with Jon one evening. And not ten minutes after arriving there Dori calls me at Mimi's house to tell me that Noah tripped running across her deck and took a nose dive off it onto concrete flagstones. She did a great job comforting and calming him. His right forehead, eye and cheek were pretty much raw meat and a little swollen. Jay asked Noah if he wanted to look at his face in the mirror. Noah asked why and Jay said because he got pretty hurt from his fall. Noah, with full confidence, told Jay "Don't worry about me. I'm going to be Okay!" I guess he was worried he might have to leave. When Noah finally did see himself he said "Ohhhhh." He is so funny. The following week he enjoyed retelling the story to everyone who questioned him about his scratched up face. Sorry I don't have any pics of that either. Our trip to Dallas was fun. Wyatt and Dacy are beginning to play together now. They are constantly on the move and both wanted to spend every moment they could outside. They are going to be great friends and none of us (except maybe Greg) are going to be able to keep up with them. This past weekend we went to Innerspace Caverns. We love to tour caves in the winter and somehow this winter we got busy and never went. Anyhow, the boys had fun. Noah thinks anything with mud puddles is really cool. I was a little scared of keeping up with (meaning losing him down some dark, unexplored tunnel) Wyatt in a cave, but it went pretty well. He tried to climb over a couple of railings, run down some pretty steep, slippery slopes and take a few 'souvenirs', but none of it was any more dangerous than a normal trip to anywhere with Wyatt. I don't think we were the most favorite family our tour guide had ever had- oh well. After the cave, we went to the new Amy's Ice Cream near our house. Right outside is a huge playground and fountain. The ice cream was soooo yummy and we had a great time playing with the boys. Once again, no pictures from our fun family day. I forgot my camera. I have more pictures and more to write but I am just too exhausted. I'll try to add more this week.