Summer 2012...where did it go???

well, you won't believe me when i tell you this, but we start school in 3 days.  yep, you read that right.  sickening i tell you.  i told john the other day that our school is an evil institution because it steals away my 3 most favorite people all at the same time. ;)

so since we head back to school on wednesday, i thought i better jump on the blog here and document a little bit of our summer, before i start posting "1st day of school" pics!

we started our summer with an immediate trip to st. louis back at the end of may.  and when i say immediate, i mean immediate.  we attended graduation on friday night and left 5 hours later in the wee hours of the morning to make the 11 hour trip.

here are a few of my favorite pictures from our trip to visit john's family.

Noodle and Pappaw playing croquet

burrito sticking his hand in a rabbit hole!

we had a great time at the science center

they built the gateway arch!

don't be fooled!  this was at the st. louis zoo but they so badly wanted to visit a cave.  this was as close as they got! :)

at the zoo on a beautiful day

our other big trip of the summer was to our favorite texas beach location, rockport!  this was our third summer to visit and as always, it was totally relaxing and fun.  this year we rented a house for a week just minutes from the beach with my family and had a great time, minus the jellyfish.  these are a few of my favorite pics from that trip.

of course we planned our trip around being in austin at breakfast time so we could eat here

first day at the beach

does he look like a surfer dude or what???

cousin porkchop

love this picture of my burrito

the grandsons with mimi

in the ocean eating a snow cone...life just doesn't get much better!

john and burrito and the vast ocean

our beach home on the fourth of july

waiting for the fireworks

celebrating our freedom

this is outside the texas state aquarium in corpus christi.  that bridge in the background makes me squeamish!

the boys at the aquarium

under the sea

other summer memories include lots of bike rides to the park with john, swimming with our cousin, ice cream cones from braum's, john's intro to baseball class for the boys (they're playing baseball this fall), going to the movies and eating popcorn, swimming in our blow up pool, and reading the harry potter books.  it's been a good summer and i'm thankful for my family.

spring soccer 2012

both boys played on the "monsters" soccer team again this year and had a great season.  the team consisted of several new players this season so it gave noodle and burrito the opportunity to step up and lead their team.  both boys had several goals this season and had a great time playing soccer.  they are ready to try something new so next season we will be a baseball family and see how that goes.  here are a few of my favorite soccer shots from this year.

burrito #10 scoring a gooooooooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaalllllll !

noodle geared up to play goalie

noodle in the goal ready to defend

our team, the monsters! we love coach jason!

our cutest soccer fan!

noodle about to score a goal

noodle

burrito as goalie

burrito

noodle

 we had a great soccer season and it was SO fun to watch our guys play their hearts out!

school memories from this year

here are a bunch of fun shots from various school activities this year.  i can't believe i will have a 1st grader and 3rd grader next year!

reformation day.  noodle's class could dress like an animal from God's creation.  he was a parrot!

burrito dressed as a roman soldier.  his class could choose a bible character.

burrito on egyptian feast day

me and burrito at his thanksgiving party

noodle as an indian chief

noodle singing with his class at his christmas party

noodle decorating a christmas cookie

burrito being silly at his christmas party

western day plus the school jackets because it was cold outside :)

noodle's valentine's day party

burrito's 2nd grade program "through the old testament."  he was nathan.

noodle's trip to sea life aquarium...the view through the tank!

noodle and some of his kindergarten buddies

i would say we had a most successful and fun year!

easter 2012

we celebrated easter at church and then at mimi and poppy's house.  it ended up raining out our traditional outdoors easter egg hunt so we hunted inside instead this year.  these are a few of my favorite shots from the day.

their very own bibles for easter

already reading their bibles

Better late than never! Burrito's 8th birthday continued...

so this year for burrito's birthday we did something a little different.  rather than have a friend party, we opted to have a family fun day.  we let burrito decide what to eat and what to do for the entire day.

breakfast was donuts, of course!  after opening presents on skype with our family in missouri, we headed to rain forest cafe for lunch.  it's a really fun place decorated like a rainforest, complete with animals that move and make noise every 15 minutes.

burrito was horrified when our waiter and waitress announced to the restaurant that it was his birthday.  he refused to stand in the chair but they sang happy birthday to him anyways.  we finished the lunch with the lava mud dessert, complete with gummy worms!

after a trip to the lego store, we headed to chuck e. cheese for an afternoon of games and fun.  we bought 150 tokens and spent a couple of hours playing games.

then we headed to our friends' house in dallas for some more birthday fun.  we ate pizza and cake outside and let our two boys and their three girls play in the backyard.  it was so sweet to share burrito's birthday with such good friends!

i had the wrong setting on my camera here so this picture isn't that great...besides, trying to take a pic of 4 kids is nearly impossible!

we had such a great time and burrito is already planning next year's birthday family fun day!

happy easter!

Christ the Lord is risen today, alleluia!

burrito's 8th birthday

yesterday, april 6, was a very good day.  it was good friday, which as a believer, is a very significant day, though in this case, it was a very good day for another reason.

it was burrito's 8th birthday!

the day started with this:

and ended with this:

with a whole lot of fun packed in between.  more details and pictures to come!

happy birthday burrito!
happy easter!