Summer

Well, time continues to fly by at a rapid pace between my posts.  Life is busy!  But life is pretty great.  We have had a busy summer so far, fully of travel, fun, and lots of swimming.  We started off June with a week in Kentucky with me, mom, and the kids.  Zoe and Chase arrived to goodies in their room at Tete and Charlie's, which of course, they were thrilled about. The kids loved the big O and I think they enjoyed the slower pace of not having a million places to be and things to do.  They really enjoyed picking blueberries at my cousins blueberry patch.  Chase pretty much ate his entire "picking" - they never even made it into the bucket - for 30 minutes straight. We brought home about 7 lbs worth - and every last one was eaten!  Wow they were good.  We also took a tour of the farm - complete with tractor ride while plowing the field.  Bub (my cousin) took them for a grande tour including jumping into the corn silo.  They thought he was absolutely hilarious and chanted "I love Bubby!" all afternoon. Chase even got to sit in the excavator and Zoe got to pet the horses.  It was fun to share that place with them even though it has changed a lot.  We also had a fun happy hour at Tete's and got to see some old KY friends.  We came home for a night of Chuys and some swim time with Daddy, then headed right back out again on Monday down to Waco to hang with CC and the boys and Savannah.  Whew - 6 kids is wild and crazy but they had a total blast, of course, just playing with their cousins.  They were kind of bored when we got back!  We swam pretty much all day, every day.- which continued when we got back in town.  The kids are both great swimmers and Zoe is working on her freestyle breathing.  Chase may just be the next Michael Phelps as he can already swim all the way across the pool and also fetch stuff off the bottom.  For Father's day we got J an outdoor shower - which ROCKs - and the kids have only had a bath inside maybe 5 times since.  I am a fan of that!  The lakes and river have been so full we missed out on Memorial day and 4th of July boating - boo!    We were finally able to get the boat out a few times and Chaser is my surfing, skiing and wake boarding dude. He wants to do that first thing and will do it as long as we let him.  Zoe likes to ski also, but just for a few minutes so she can do her no hands trick.  But, I am so proud of her because she finally surfed with J last week!  Its been a year in coming- and of course, she got her promised Ice cream! :)  She is really starting to get so big, and has 2 permanent teeth coming in on bottom.  I put Chaser in school 2 days a week this summer so that Zoe and I could have some uninterrupted girl time before she goes off and becomes a kindergartener.  AHHHHH.. We have had a good time getting our nails painted, lunching, making necklaces, reading books, doing clifford experiments and just hanging out.  She is my sweet girl.  Chaser has finally turned a corner and is more into his daddy ever since J took him to a Rangers game.  He LOVED it.  Not only was it dollar ice cream night, but they got to go on the field and run the bases.  Talk about awesome.  He still talks about it and wants to go again - and so, of course, does Zoe!   Not that she has not had her share of fun.  We just got back from a overnight little getaway with Lindsey and Ainsley.  We had a little mommy daughter/pre-kinder retreat at the Gaylord.  We swam at the water park and did some meaningful art projects in the room. They had a total blast and Zoe basically collapsed when she got home she was so exhausted.  They stayed up till 10 giggling and were up again at 6:50 - ready for more!  Thankfully I had a pretty relaxing week the week before.  I had a girl trip to Venice with mom and Tete.  I hadn't seen either of their condos yet so it was great to get to see it all.  We had a fun time, chatting, eating, and sitting on the beach and also got some more of their decorating done.  We may have eaten at our favorite place twice, and we may have had gelato.. a few times...   I foresee more of those trips in the future! :)  The three of us girls (me, mom, and Tete) have seen each other 3 times since February - thats a record! Love it!  I went to a photography workshop in Savannah, GA in Feb which turned into a girls weekend (plus Charlie), then we went to KY, then Florida!  Now we are just coasting until fall swoops down on us.  Im enjoying my last few weeks of sleeping past 7:15 for the next two decades - or until next summer at least! 7:45 school start is going to be a RUDE awakening!  Im enjoying my last few weeks of having my baby girl home with me.  Zoe's favorite things right now: swimming, playing "cheetah" (ugh), playing with her animals and mermaids, playing with Kailey (and Opey when he is here), and she loves to sing her VBS songs!  Chaser loves to: play cars (shocker), swords, swim, and amazingly enough, sit in my lap while I read to him until I am about to fall asleep.  He is still my little boy and says "momma hold me" and gives me the absolute best hugs.. I can't even count how many kisses and hugs I give him a day.. Its never enough!