Friday, July 28, 2006
Another Month Gone By
Oh, wow! Has it been a month already?
We’re doing OK. Kevin’s new partner started on the 10th, Kevin is really glad he came along. So Kevin is spending a little less time working, a welcome relief after all of the pressure to do EVERYTHING. We met up with his new partner and his family last weekend at the Zoo, and it was really great time, Mike was talking about their little girl for days. The rest of us have had a bad case of cabin fever. Can’t wait for it to cool off again, and we’ve just begun August, hahaha!
Two weeks ago I got brave enough to walk to the grocery store up the street with the boys, I had done other walking outings, but to closer stores. It was nice, and actually a mild temperature day. We went to the grocery store, a dollar store, PetSmart, Ross, Payless Shoe Source and a couple others. I’m so proud of Mike, he walked all the way, and never complained about being too tired to walk. We had a pretty good time, and actually Michael has asked several times if we can go back to the store, but it’s either too hot or raining.
Early in July (the 8th) we took a long drive down to a fish “catchery” (actually hatchery) SeaCenter Texas. It is owned and run by Texas Parks and Wildlife. It was drizzling, so we didn’t get to do all of the things there, but we had a fun time gazing into their half dozen large tanks full of some interesting “local” fish. They also had hermit crabs, blue crabs, and even anemones in a touch tank, a few sharks, an eel, and I think a few stingrays, and starfish in the other tanks. There was one HUGE fish, a Queensland Grouper, that weighs more than three hundred ponds! They also had life size replicas of several record-breaking catches. That was pretty cool to see. Outside they had a tour of the hatchery, and a wetland walkway with a checklist of the wildlife that you might see on your walk through. We didn’t get to do these things because at this point it was raining.
We pulled out from there and instead of turning north to go home, the wind just pushed us south, OK not really, but we really didn’t want to go home yet, so we went on a long drive down to Galveston, and enjoyed the view on the way as well as a spur of the moment beach trip. I’m still wishing we’d have stopped and snapped a few pictures on the drive between Lake Jackson and Galveston, but we didn’t take the time. Yes, believe it or not I skipped out of a photo opportunity! Hahaha!
We had to stop by Wal-Mart and get a change of clothes for the kids, some shorts for Kevin and I, and a bottle of sunscreen. We then drove along the seawall until we found a spot and walked down to the beach. Apparently at this time of the year there is this kind of seaweed that washes up on the shore, and boy does it ever, it was disgusting. We got to the waters edge and Michael took full advantage of it, Aiden didn’t quite take the same attitude, I think he was tired, and didn’t like the crunchy seaweed. It was sunny the whole time we were there.
Lets see what else did we do in July? Not much, we’ve been staying inside to beat the heat. Oh, David and Amanda came to visit us on the 2nd, we loved seeing them, and we met up with them again Thursday and Yesterday (August 3rd and 4th). Thursday we went to a buffet with them and then just chilled at home once the kids had to go to bed. Yesterday we went with them to the Houston Museum of Natural Science and saw Body Worlds 3. It was really cool, but frustrating because people saw my stroller as an open invitation to cut me off, so I spent the majority of the exhibit trying not to ram people in the ankles with my umbrella stroller, and it was frustrating because they don’t allow pictures, and we all know I LOVE to take pictures. I’m not sure that many of you would be interested in those pictures anyway, haha! And once we were done there we came home and chilled again.
David joined the Army about a year and a half ago and now they’ve made their home up in Fort Hood. We sure miss them, we won’t be able to see them again until the holidays, and then we hope to make the drive back to Utah, so who knows when we’ll be seeing them again.
I’m taking an online photography course and hoping to gain some good skills through that channel. Yup, that’s about all that’s going on with us. Hope everyone’s having a great summer, that those going to school are just about ready to go back (school starts back up here on the sixth! Yikes!) Email me and let me know how you are, and what you’ve been doing.
