This Kid is Eight...

It's hard to believe it, but the middle son is now eight years old. In some ways, that's hard to imagine, but in others it feels like he's just always been here. It doesn't really hit us until we look back at pictures of the chubby baby he was in Maryland all those years ago. Now he's tall and thin, overly crazy and other times timidly calm, as smart as the best of them and a speedy athlete. One minute we're working hard to break his shell and the next we're blown away by how far out of it he goes. He's a constant harassment to his brothers and his mother, but has the biggest heart of all of us. We're so happy to have him with us and so excited to see what he continues to become!

Dressed for Spring!

As is tradition now, Becky buys the boys some Spring/Easter outfits and we take their photos. Usually, we drive up to Rockport to the Fulton Mansion, but this time we weren't paying attention and since Easter came early, the mansion's Easter egg hunt also came early, and we missed it. Either way, since the Clayburn girls were here and had Easter dresses, we took them all out to the beach for the photos. Here are some shots from the day:

They were back again!

Granny G always seems to turn back up again when we're least expecting her... ok, we've come to expect her at least a couple of times a year. The last few Aprils she's shown up around Easter time and she's started bringing along a couple of the boys' cousins with her. This time Brooke and Sophie tagged along and hung out with us down here in sunny Texas (as apposed to the frigid cold they left behind in Montana this time of year). They did all the usual stuff, hit the aquarium, hit the beach, and just hung out doing kid stuff. Here are some pictures of their shenanigans...

 

Decorated some eggs for Easter!

Over there! We're coming over!

If you're in Corpus Christi, it's hard to miss the U.S.S. Lexington, the World War II aircraft carrier permanently anchored in the bay. It was once called the Blue Ghost by the Japanese, but now it's lit up in blue lights as it sits at the entrance to the port. We'd checked it out before of course, as it's a pretty cool museum to walk through, but we got the opportunity a few weeks ago to sleep on board with the scouts, so we did just that. It's a pretty massive ship to explore, but we saw most of it, due to the boys getting to compete in a scavenger hunt and going through all of the upper and lower decks to find the answers. After doing that, the boys were too scared to listen to the ghost stories, but they had plenty of fun before sleeping in the old bunks like the sailors used to do back in the day.

Surviving the high winds on the flight deck!

Beautiful sunset over the bay...

Shooting down the fighter planes!

Just a couple of ghosts with the big Blue Ghost!

Our sleeping quarters for the evening. Not as bad as I thought it'd be, as I've honestly had worse nights' sleep. Definitely a fun experience!