Summer Recap

Gaby's school is year round but we decided to take a couple months off to do some different stuff this summer. Gaby did a six-week summer camp at Riverbend Church. She seemed to really enjoy her time there and had fun w/ Ms. Debbie, her teacher. She made some new friends and had a blast with their splash days and camping themed activites. The only other structured activity Gaby did this summer was attend a music class at Heartsong Music. She would go on Fridays while I was at work w/Patty and Josie. It sounded like they just had so much fun singing, dancing and playing instruments.
Other than that we did a lot a swimming at our friends houses and running around Austin finding fun stuff to do.

Nocturnal Visitor

Gaby has developed a new, not-so-great habit. She has been waking up around 2-3 in the morning and has been coming into our room at night. Now, it took Gaby quite a long time to figure out that she can climb out of her bed by herself whenever she wants. And I am thankful for that. But this new habit is- no bueno.

She always has lots of good excuses...

"My music turned off."

"I'm thirsty."

"I have to go potty."

"There's a lion in my room."

And my all time favorite, which just melted my heart...

"Mommy, I just love you sooo much." :)

Our reaction to the nocturnal visits are varied and really depend on how tired we are. We usually try to take her back to her room and explain to her that she has to sleep in her own bed. But I do have to admit that sometimes we just let her crawl in with us. Where from then on, I get to sleep on six inches of mattress and usually get kicked and slapped from my tossing and turning daughter. In the mornings, we have long drawn out discussions on why she can't do it anymore but it hasn't seemed to sink in. I'm really hoping that this little phase will pass soon...

Impressive

Gaby really looves to color. And has gotten so good at it. She colored this one all by herself. No one helped her at all. I think it's pretty impressive for a 3 1/2 yr old, don't you??

Aladdin

As with most girls at this age, we are ALL about the princesses! Everything we buy usually has something to do with a princess. I try not to cave into the Disney machine, but if you could just see the look of joy on her face, you would understand. Of course, all of our favorite movies are also the princess movies.

Now, I've told you before about the Scottish Rite Theater and their great plays for kids. So when I heard that they were going to put on Aladdin, I really wanted to take Gaby. We didn't own the movie so at the last minute, I decided to buy it on Amazon so that she could see it before the show and really understand it. Of course, it is now her new favorite! So yesterday, we took Gaby & Ellington to catch the show. Our little Gaby really enjoyed seeing the play and was totally thrilled to actually meet Jasmine in person!! As usual, it was a really cute performance.

Reimer's Ranch Park

Tio Billy and Lulu came to visit us this weekend. Since Byron was out of town for a cardiology meeting it was so nice to have some family to keep us busy :) On Saturday, we headed to Reimer's Ranch Park which is on the Pedernales River. It was sooo beautiful and peaceful out there. And especially since it was like 100 degrees outside the river felt cool and refreshing. After a fun morning out there, we had a late lunch on Lake Travis at my fave- The Iguana Grill. It was a great day!!

Royal Playdate

The other day Ellington came over to play with us while her mommy ran some errands. It's always so much fun watching these two together. The princesses actually sat down long enough for me to take a picture of them...

Fort Lauderdale 2010

This summer we had planned a trip to Seaside, Florida with our good friends the Rodriguez'. Everything was all set and we were very excited about our upcoming trip until the most heart breaking thing happened in the Gulf of Mexico on April 30, 2010. The DeepWater Horizon oil rig exploded and began to spew oil into the Gulf of Mexico at an astonishing, uncontrollable rate. That's when the most devastating man made environmental disaster occurred in our lifetime. Not to trivialize this event but at that time we also began to reconsider our vacation. There was no way of knowing what was going to happen and if the oil would reach the panhandle of Florida before or while we would be there. So we sat and waited and watched all the failed attempts to stop the spill and decided at the beginning of June that we should probably reschedule our trip. We decided to head to the "other side" of Florida and picked Fort Lauderdale as our back up plan.

We ended up having a great trip! The weather was just perfect while we were there. The beach and ocean were beautiful and we all had fun hanging out together. Gaby was in heaven acting like a big girl w/Isabel (she's 7) and taking care of Baby Sage (she's 1.5). This year although Gaby still wanted to spend plenty of time at the pool she did seem to want to be at the beach more also. I think she might be starting to understand the beauty of and how special being at the beach really is. We are very thankful that we were still able to take a wonderful trip together and plan to do it again often :)

While we were in Ft Lauderdale there were reports of tar balls on the beach in Seaside and it actually rained in Seaside most of that week. So in the end, we made the right decision but I sincerely hope we will be able to visit there one day. There is no way of knowing what effect this horrible spill will have on those beautiful, pristine Florida beaches.

As of today, the oil has been spewing for 84 looong days...

4th of July

This year for the 4th we watched the Rollingwood parade with some friends. They girls thoroughly enjoyed the candy that got thrown at them. Then we hit the park for a little bit. Happy 4th of July!!! Later that night, after a BBQ, we just accidentally stumbled upon some fireworks over the lake, near the bridge, right by our house. This was Gaby's first experience with fireworks. She LOVED them!

Stay Tuned...

We spent the past week in Florida on a fun, family vacation!!!
We are sun-kissed, relaxed and thankful to have had a great trip!
There are over 500 pictures to sift through so it's going to take me a while for to get organized.

Stay tuned...