School Again..?? Kind of.

It's that time of year again. Or it was, for a minute. The boys started school a couple of weeks ago, only to have it cut short after only a couple of days. They were supposed to be in school last week too, but we had some storm come in that destroyed the Texas coast and forced us to evacuate. Hurricane Harvey literally tore the roofs off of houses and schools in Rockport and Aransas Pass, but thankfully Portland didn't get it as bad as it could have. School was cancelled last week, but the boys will be back at it on Tuesday. So here they are... as second and fifth graders.

We also hit up the new addition to the Texas State Aquarium and got to "literally" hang out with this friendly sloth.

And these two strange, unclassified creatures...

Carlsbad Caverns Coming Home...

We may have gone a little overboard on National Parks this summer... if there could be such a thing. But the good thing for Becky and the boys is I bought a book of all the parks across the United States and discovered there are like 40 more I've never been to, so we'll have something to do next summer too! On the way back from Montana, we spent a day with Uncle Andy and Aunt Theresa and then started the long journey back home. We took half a day to visit Carlsbad Caverns on the southern border of New Mexico. I have to say, taking the natural entrance was pretty impressive. You really feel like you're descending into a massive open mouth and it just keeps getting deeper and deeper. All three of the boys did pretty well, given we hiked 2.5 miles and went down more than 700 feet. We didn't get to see any bats or mythical creatures in the underground caverns, but we saw some pretty cool stalactites and stalagmites and other incredible formations. Plus, the gift shop was pretty nice.

Before taking the drive to New Mexico, we went to the Natural History Museum in Salt Lake with Uncle Andy and Grandpa Bill. Nothing like checking out some dinosaurs and other old stuff...

Another Montana Summer

Becky had the opportunity to spend a few weeks in Montana again, which has been an almost annual thing since we left 11 years ago. It's never enough time, but we're thankful she and the boys get to do it, given the long distance between us and home. The boys always enjoy their summers in the mountains and getting to spend time with cousins and grandparents. This year, they spent most of July under the Big Sky, hanging out with the Clayburns and spending most of their days at Granny and Grandpa's house. Here are some of the photos that were taken along the way...

Photo BOMB!!

The joys of trying to take a group photo with a bunch of kids under 10... Nolan's pose sums it up. Next to impossible.

Thankfully, they escaped before the smoke moved in, as Montana is still suffering from an overabundance of forest fires this year. We're also thankful to everyone who took time to hang out and make memories with the boys. They'll be back before long...

Arches and Canyonlands National Parks

For a hot, mostly lifeless desert, southern Utah has some pretty amazing things to see. We went to Arches National Park back in 2006 and it was well worth seeing again. The heat prevented us from taking too many hikes this time, but we did do the iconic Delicate Arch hike and saw some of the other monuments that were a little closer to the road. On a different day, we drove up to Canyonlands National Park, where I'd never been before. We drove around the Island in the Sky and checked out the amazing views of the landscape...

Delicate Arch

Balanced Rock

Just making sure it doesn't fall while we're here...

After I got back to work, the rotating desktop background on my computer came up with a photo of Mesa Arch (as seen here). It made it only slightly more depressing to be back sitting at a desk...