On May 27th, Jack, Grayson, and Christine and I headed out to Lakeway to spend the day with Debbie, Raymond and Todd.
We went down to Lake Travis, because the water is way up thanks to all the rain lately, and we fed the ducks, and then Christine and Jack waded into the lake at the “beach” and then when we got back to the lakehouse, Grayson sat in Debbie’s boot for a picture 😉
Back on May 8th, Christine and Jack were really silly.
I was sitting on the couch with Grayson, when all of a sudden, Christine and Jack came running into the living room, making siren noises and stopping and “spraying” … so I grabbed the camera and started video taping… then I realized they were “playing fire engine.” It was good fun:
On June 2nd, Jack and I “went for a bike ride” right after Jack woke up from a nap. He was still kind of groggy, but I had the camera with me, so I shot a little video of him chatting with me about Aggie Football and going to the park:
Here’s a movie we shot at home on June 1st. Jack’s pretty silly at the beginning, and Grayson makes some great noises while he’s thinking about standing up on the couch:
Jack and I got out his four-pack of Play-Doh this morning, only to realize that no matter what combination you mix all four colors in, they always turn green.
Yellow + Blue + Red + Green = Green.
Grayson just started doing this on Sunday:
Meanwhile, he’s learned to scoot around by pushing himself backwards. He can’t really steer, but it’s sort of fun to leave the room, and come back 5 minutes later and see where he has moved to.
Last Thursday, the family took a trip to Sunny San Diego. Christine packed up the family, and I loaded the car, and we drove to Dallas. There, we stopped over for the night with Frank and Mary before heading to the airport at 6 a.m. on Friday. All four of us adults, and the two kids went to the airport, hopped on a direct American flight to San Diego, and were on the ground by 10:00 a.m. AA lost our stroller though, so we waited around the airport until about noon, looking for it, and getting our rental car.
From the airport, we headed north. We’d rented a house on Mission Beach for the week, from Sunny San Diego Vacation Rentals. Had a great view, but we couldn’t check in until 3 p.m. So, we drove to La Jolla, and back to Mission Beach to eat lunch, then up on Mount Soledad, then back to La Jolla to visit the beach for the first time… We all had a lot of fun getting wet and sandy in the 50 degree water 😉 Even Grayson got to enjoy it!
Once we checked into our house, we got situated, and then visited the beach again, after the kids took naps, and the adults got things packed away. We cooked steaks out on the patio, and enjoyed watching the sun go down, before we all hit the sack around 8:30 p.m. that first night.
On the second day, Jack and I got up and took a stroll on the beach while everyone else got breakfast going. Then while Grayson napped, Christine and I took Jack down to the Belmont Park, which is like a little Midway park right there on the beach. We walked in a bunch of shops, and even watched a platoon of US Marines run by on the beach and doing pushups in the surf. Then we rode the rides.
Oh. My. Gosh. Jack had a blast! The Tilt-O-Whirl, the boats, the Crazy Submarine, the Carousel, the Arcade. All of it. He had a blast (and we enjoyed ourselves too).
After Belmont Park, we all ate lunch, took naps, and then headed out to the beach to build a sand castle. First, we set up our little beach tent, and then Christine and Jack built a sand castle. Then they promptly destroyed it before the surf could (they taught us to destroy vital equipment before you let the enemy have it if you had to abandon it when I was in the Army – proud to pass the lesson on to my son). And we all retired to the tent where Jack and Grayson enjoyed playing with each other and with the beach ball Christine blew up for them.
On the 12th, we all got up early and headed to the San Diego Zoo. We saw flamingos, and parrots, and billy goats, and pigs, and turtles, and bugs, and bears, and pandas, and tigers, and a big fat hippopotamus. We ate lunch there, and the headed back to the house for naps.
That afternoon we took another stroll on the beach (actually Christine and Jack took a jog), and then Betty and Bruce (Mary’s sister) came down to visit from Anaheim. While they all took care of the kids, Christine and I went out for a date in the gaslamp district of San Diego proper.
We had a wonderful dinner together at Croce’s. Great food. Fantastic service, and wonderful conversation. It was prom-night in San Diego that night too, so we did some fun people watching from our window-seats. After an after-dinner drink, and a quick walk around town, we headed home for some much needed rest.
On Sunday morning, after breakfast, we took a two or three mile walk on the beach. All of us. We walked north to the pier we’d been looking at for days… It took us all morning to get there and back with the kids. But we got some great photos from the pier, and Jack and Christine and I had fun running together on the beach on the way back.
That afternoon, I took a nap with Jack, while Christine and Grayson went out to the beach, and Frank and Mary rotated between the beach and the house. And then we had steak dinner again at the house that night.
On Monday morning, we all got up, and loaded the car. Then Jack and I went out to the beach one more time to play and take pictures.
And after a rather uneventful flight home, Michael and Steven picked us up at the airport at 6:00 p.m. Then lighting storms hit DFW, and we waiting over an hour for our bags before heading back to Frank and Mary’s house for a good night’s sleep.
And on Tuesday, we drove back to Austin.
What I wouldn’t give to be sitting on the beach again!
Oh, and here’s the movie… It’s rather large (140MBs) so be ready for a long download time… Sorry, didn’t want the quality to suck. It’s also about 15 minutes long, so make sure you have time to watch it before you download it:
Christine shot some video of Grayson laughing while he was sitting in his high-chair this week:
And, this past week, we found Grayson’s first tooth. We thought he was teething, but now we have proof. His first tooth is one of the front two on the bottom, and let me tell you, it sure is sharp!
On the way to Easter this year, Christine and I spotted a huge patch of bluebonnets right as we entered Washington County. So, we pulled over the car and took some photos of the boys in the blue bonnets:
More here, if you’re interested.
This year, my mom, threw a huge bash at her house for Easter. There must have been 50 people there, even though the weather was horrible, and we were all wet and cold 😉
Everyone that came (lots of family and friends) gathered inside where there was plenty of warmth, thanks to the gas fire place and heaters scattered about. And food, oh, boy, talk about food. It was a huge potluck… chicken, meat trays, veggies, pasta, and more…
And, then, to top off all of the good conversation, the Easter Bunny showed up and treated all of the kids to photos on his lap, and gifts from his basket:
There are lots more photos from Easter Saturday here.
On Sunday, we all went to church, and when we got home, we took some family portraits in the front yard (the weather was perfect for family photos on Sunday)
I also took some random photos of Grayson and other things. Those photos are here.
And how can you not fall in love with this photo of Grayson in pure amazement at the wind blowing on his face:
Hopefully next year the weather will cooperate, and the other 50 people that didn’t make it (the weather was that bad folks) can make it too!
I took these three photos a little while ago, and finally found time to stich them together:
This is too funny not to post:
Poor Jack got a strep infection last week, after we got home from Bellville. He hasn’t felt good all week, and on Saturday, four days after seeing Doc Treybig last week, we went to see her again.
She said he was still sick, and his ears looked worse than before. So she changed his antibiotic and gave him a S-H-O-T. Ouch.
In fact, the little guy had to get two shots, because the nurse screwed up the first one. Double ouch.
We missed Maly’s first birthday party today because Jack still has strep, and Christine wasn’t feeling well this morning. I’m sure that her feeling bad has nothing to do with the copious amounts of alcohol she consumed last night at the Project Flamingo party we attended.
I’ve been parenting all three of them all day, but managed to get the taxes done today too, and believe it or not we’re getting somemoney back this year. First time that’s happened in 5 years.
This morning, Grayson woke up so happy. He was laying there kicking, and squealing, and laughing…
I got up with him around 6 a.m. and we went out to the couch, and we’ve been playing since then (it’s 6:45 now). He’s such a happy baby in the morning, and so much fun. I forgot how much personality a little non-speaking baby can have.
This week, Josh brought a pail of beach tools to work for Jack. That’s what a good Godfather does for his Godson.
He buys a few plastic toys, that Jack can use on his first trip to the beach that we’re planning for in May.
It’s not a large gesture, but it was a very thoughtful one, full of heart.
Thanks Josh.