Spring = Cousins Visiting

The past couple of years, cousin Brooke from Montana has come to visit us down here in Texas in the spring. This year, Sophia came along for the ride too. The weather was fantastic for trips to the beach, baseball games, and the Windfest carnival. Of course, they also had to hit up the aquarium and eat some seafood down on the bay front in Corpus Christi. Hopefully they had as much fun as the boys did, and I'm sure we'll be seeing them again this coming summer in Montana!

Adam in 7th Heaven...

Seven years ago we were still in the merry land of Maryland just enjoying spring on the east coast, when this over-sized bundle of laughter arrived on our doorstep. He's grown by leaps and bounds since then, losing all his baby fat and stretching up tall. He loves baseball, video games, and trying to beat the speed record on his bike. Now he's already about to finish up first grade and he continuously surprises us with how quickly he picks things up. One of the best things about this blog is the ability to look back and watch all these kids change from photo to photo, post to post, and year to year. So here's the new edition of Adam Michael... now in year seven.

That's the face of pure cake-induced happiness! Happy Birthday to this kid!

Riding into the Sunset

The City of Corpus Christi built a pretty nice bike path along the Joe Fulton Corridor (the shipping channel) to allow for long distance bikers to get off the road that is frequented by heavy trucks. They did a really nice job, but apparently put it a little close to the water, because it's been shut down for a while now due to the parallel cliff being eroded by the Nueces Bay and threatening to swallow the path. It's a great place to take the kids and dogs since there really aren't many others that go there, except for a few fishermen. We couldn't take the path very far due to the potential collapse, but we went far enough to let the big dog get into the water for a minute and the boys to Evel Knievel down the hill on their bikes. The spring weather has been fantastic for evenings down by the water, so we're taking advantage of it.

Ride on...

Pitchers and Catchers Reporting

Spring training may be going on for the big leagues right now, but down here in Pony League the season has already begun! Adam and Nolan are back at it, with Adam taking on coach pitch for the second time and Nolan returning for Peewee T-Ball. Adam had his first game last night and went 1 for 2 with 2 RBIs (definitely not a bad start). He played left center for a couple of innings and then moved up to the hot corner on third base. Nolan will take the field with the Giants later this week and I'm sure it will be an enthralling T-ball contest for the 3 and 4 year-olds. As for us spectators, we're just enjoying the spring weather!

Building Walls, or Fences...

So we were inspired by the recent change in leadership for the United States, and as Donald Trump was inaugurated last week, we were building our own wall down here close to the southern border. Actually, since the wind never stops here and the soil constantly shifts, our old fence was pretty much a goner and about to tumble over, so we had to tear it down and start from scratch. Thankfully, the boys are here to help carry boards and tools for me, as it's going to take a lot of wood to get this done. The fence is only maybe 50 feet, but that's a lot of pickets and posts when you try to fit it all into a minivan. As of now we're about half done, but progress is going well. The weather has been fantastic of late, so it's made for good work days outside. Better to do it now while it's manageable.

The assistant fence builders.

Toothless.

Rock on!

Sandy Sunny Winter

It's a new year! And it's the middle of "winter" in Texas. By winter I mean sunny, humid at times, and never cold. Grandpa Jim and Grandma Cindy came for a visit in December for the Christmas holiday and it definitely wasn't a white Christmas. We went to Aransas Pass to check out the wild alligators and then hit the beach on Padre Island, because it's not a vacation down here unless you go to the beach. I took an access road I don't think we'd taken before and it had steeper dunes than we've seen at other parts of the beach. Either way, the water was a tad cold at first, but it didn't take long to get used to, especially for Nolan who always prefers to get soaked.

Adam about to jump off the top rope and body slam his poor unsuspecting brother.

 

Nolan wasn't too sure about the pokey things in the sand during his hike in the dunes, but it was an enjoyable day nonetheless.

Another Year in the Books

There were a lot of complaints about 2016, or at least a lot of people whining about it, but for us, it wasn't half bad. We kept working on our house remodel, kept watching the kids growing up and playing sports and doing well in school, and went on a fair share of adventures along the way. I look now at the blog and see I wasn't nearly as active as I have been in the past, which is unfortunate. Maybe social media has changed the world since I started this blog, and in many ways it's easier to connect with people around the country in so many other formats. The world is not as small as it used to be. When I started this blog, the intention was to share photos and memories with family in Montana from our new lives in Florida. That was five states and eight years ago. Now I find myself working on another blog book for Becky and I realize how important these posts are to us. They capture snap shots of time periods and memories we won't get to experience again. If I have a resolution for the new year it will be to make sure we use our real camera more than our camera phones in 2017. Getting the camera out means we're getting out, together, doing things we won't want to forget. We're thankful for everyone we get to do those things with and we wish we could do more. But more than anything, we're thankful for these three boys, and the memories we'll always have. So here they are for the holidays, and we hope everyone out there is enjoying the season and looking forward to a new year!