Cousins from the East Coast

The boys' cousins Nick and Evelyn made their first trip to the Texas coast last week and we got to spend a few days hanging out, hitting the water, and having a great time. Nick enjoyed chasing after the older boys, splashing around in the gulf, and eating everything food-related in sight. Evelyn enjoyed... just about everything a baby can enjoy... and she was all smiles and wide eyes. 

So awesome they could make it, and hopefully they'll make it back before long!

March isn't too early...

To hit the surf and the sand! It's been some beautiful days lately, with the sun shining and the water warming up. We went up the road to Rockport to splash around in the water... what could be better in March?

Peace out, bro! Sand tastes good!

Spring for Sports

Spring time is a busy time for us. With school, and science fair, and soccer, and T-ball, and soccer, and Scouts, and everything else... we're running almost every night now it seems. But the kids are having a blast, each doing their own thing. Here are just a few photos of the craziness...

I tried explaining to the swimming school that "Noland" is not a real name... but they still can't spell it right. Maybe that's a swimming name??

Goggles on. Ready for action. Dive! Dive!

Root, root for the home team... for this kid from Southern Maryland.

The Blue Lightning are back and ready to kick their way to the championship.

Got some color and played a little laser tag.

Set Sail!

And then there's just Nolan... always ready with a sharp smile!

You're Dog-gone right

We got a new puppy a couple of months ago. Just what we needed. I guess. So far he's a pretty chill dog and the kids love him - and thankfully he seems to love them as well. He's some kind of Australian Cattle Dog cross that they had at the pound and he prefers to go by the name Dexter. This is him:

Yep, looks like a puppy.

And we've still got Farrah... Dexter is fond of his big sister.

But she's still not as fond of the kids. Here she's contemplating throwing herself off the playset... having to play with kids like a normal dog is hard.

Why me? If I had just been born a cat I wouldn't have to deal with this...

Now he's hugging me again... I can't take this. Please, someone send help.

Kids and dogs and chaos... that's life anymore!

Went to the Zoo... a while ago...

We went up to San Antonio (quite a while ago) to go to the zoo, but I've really fallen behind on updating the blog with photos. The kids had been here before, but it was incredibly hot the last time, so the winter time is definitely the best time to do just about anything in Texas. It was definitely a really nice zoo, and having our aquarium pass cut the cost in half, so you can't beat that. We checked out the rhinos, the elephants, the giraffes, the monkeys, the snakes, and everything else you'd expect in a zoo. Fun fact - almost all flamingos in captivity in the United States are hatched right here! And flamingos aren't even from Texas. *The More You Know... Of course, neither are any of these three boys, but the Lone Star State isn't a bad place to be, especially when it's prefect weather like it is now!

This is how far behind I am... here's a picture of Adam dressed as an Indian for Thanksgiving.

And we had another family camp out for scouts. Great times!