Special Guests

We had some wonderfully special guests stop by the house for a quick visit this week! Hubby's nephew and his family were driving through our area while on vacation and we were so blessed that they could spend some time with us.

We don't get to see them often enough and had not in fact even met the youngest member of their family and she is six years old! Needless to say, it was long overdue and we decided to make the most of it!

Here are their girls, who I have to say are just lovely. In a house full of boys, it was such a pleasure to have a little girl power going on!

Their oldest daughter we will call LT. She is precious and although LT doesn't stand for Lovely Teenager, IT SHOULD. The little one we will call Red Bull. That one is a fireball - AND CUTE. My goodness, give me five of her please.

They arrived pretty late on Thursday so it was just enough time to catch up a little and let the kids get acquainted. Red Bull took to Harold like a bee to honey. He was so great with her - although after about an hour she looks at him and says "Harold, I am bored." He was struggling to keep her entertained.

We stayed up too late and got up pretty early to do some touring around Austin.

The first activity of the day was taking the Austin Duck Tour.

We did a Duck Tour in Boston and it was a unique and fun way to see a lot of the city in just a short amount of time. We thought it would be great way for them to check out Austin.

We were ready to get on board.

Our driver Bob was good. Pointed out lots of interesting sites.

The capital.

The infamous UT Tower.

At about the 45 minute mark of the tour, we went into Lake Austin and our vehicle turned into a boat. Bob made a huge splash going in.

We drove around the lake and checked out some of the fabulous homes on the lake.

The kiddos even got a turn at driving the Duck while in the water!

Back on land, we were all hungry so we headed to Hut's Hamburgers.

It is an old Austin landmark with pretty good burgers.

You take a picture of the sign and I will take a picture of you!

Hubby trying to work his charm on Red Bull.

She was not easily amused.

We were walking back to our car in the hot afternoon sun and a photo shoot broke out. Hubby started it off.

The Harold got in the game.

Look at my little Chip - isn't he a goof ball!

A bigger goof ball.

The biggest goof ball of them all. I wish I knew how to hijack his Facebook page so I could post this as his profile picture. Ha, ha, ha! That just makes me laugh.

Hubby's nephew and the Daddy to these sweet girls will be called A/C. He jumped in on the photo shoot. Isn't he cute? For reals.

Their sweet family! Oh, we are going to call mom Thrasher. It's a bird thing. She will understand!

After our hot Duck tour and lunch we stopped by and picked up some awesome cupcakes and headed back to the house to swim. Look at these cousins having fun. Who would ever know they don't see each other regularly?

Lots of laughs shared by all of us.

After swimming we went back to the house to chill for a while! Look at this girl! Cutie patootie.

And this sweetheart is beautiful inside and out. It was so fun to talk to her and learn about her friends and school and her favorite things.

She played a Minute to Win It game and I was her cheerleader. I yelled loudly at inopportune times. It was not what she was looking for!

We picked up some yummy dinner and continued the food fest we had going all day!

After dinner we went to see the bats. Isn't this a great picture. Family bonds are the best. You don't see someone for a long time and within minutes it is just like the old days.

The kids threw a football around while we waited for dusk.

We girls visited and enjoyed the awesome breeze and cooler weather.

No resemblance, right? NOT! These two are mirror images of each other!

And these two bear a striking resemblance. Funny how that gene pool business works isn't it?

Here they are again.

And again!

The stupid bats tricked us and were flying out the south end of the bridge while we were gabbing and yacking at the north end. When we finally noticed we jumped in the car and sped up and down the road trying to get a good look at them. It was a head out the window, bat hunting extravaganza and the kids loved it!

They left early this morning, shortly after we had an all out couch turning over, suitcase emptying, flashlight search for their missing car keys!

It was a wonderful visit. Just can't get over how easy we fell into great and comfortable conversation. How well the kids got along. It made me a little teary eyed to see them pull away this morning, but we vowed not to let it be so long between visits. In fact, we might have plans to see them in their neck of the woods next month!

We miss you A/C, Thrasher, LT and Red Bull! Hope to see you all very soon!

Bubble Wrap

I am a worry wart. I worry about lots of things, but most consistently and passionately about the safety of my kids. Nights at the lake I spent tossing and turning picturing Chip slipping on the upper deck, knocking himself unconscious as he falls two stories into an 80 foot lake. Harold paddling out in a kayak, it flips, knocks him in the head and he goes down. Nevermind that both of them wore life vests a good portion of the time and when they didn't I was like a hawk watching them. It was very restful.

That is nothing new for me though. In our neighborhood, some Realtor puts out little small American flags in everyone's driveway for the Fourth of July. Should just be a nice patriotic image, right. Not in my mind. No, I imagine one of my boys crashing their bike and that flag impaling them in the eye or something. Isn't that pleasant? Just one of a number of scenarios that plague my thoughts. Again very relaxing to be inside my head.

I try to quiet the worry. I think I probably need medication for it. I know for sure that I annoy the heck out of my boys with "Don't do this, Don't do that, Watch out for this, Watch out for that, This could happen, That could happen". I even annoy myself. I try to squelch it so as to not make my kids scared of doing things. I don't want to pass on my paranoia to them. It would not be a legacy they would want.

So, I try to swallow my fears and let them be boys. Let them rough house, ride without holding on to their handlebars, jump from a two story dock, climb a tree, etc. I am not sure what other dangerous stuff I let go on, but there is plenty and I am sure it a suvival technique that I have just blocked it from my memory. I would like to wrap them in bubble wrap, with a nice big opening for their mouth and nose, and make them sit on the couch till they are thirty.

But I can't do that and once again today I buried my fears and let Chip do something that worried me from the git go. Both the boys have been walk/running a mile on the treadmill for the last couple of days. The treadmill sits maybe two feet from my desk. Today Chip got on there and did his normal stunts. He doesn't just walk or just run, he constantly is moving the incline up and down, speeding up, slowing down, running, jumping off, hopping up on the side rails. I have given him many speeches, much guidance on the proper way to use a treadmill. He gives me an exasperated look that I translate as "Geez lady, it's walking for crying out loud." Today, again he was going way faster than I thought was safe. He was actually running at a 5.5 mph clip, so proud of himself. Look at me mom. I was actually pretty impressed but told him to slow it down. He did - but not before he gave me the "You are so annoying" look. Within just a few minutes he had fallen down, was stuck between the wall and the back of the treadmill with the belt still running. Horrible situation played out right in front of me.

I panicked, because that is what I do. I screamed, clawed at the machine, pulling the emergency cord, hitting the off button. He was not there for more that 15 or 20 seconds, but that was enough to for that stupid belt to take a couple of good layers of skin off his neck and back.

He was crying, I was crying.

What if I hadn't been standing right there? What if is had been his face? Why wasn't he wearing a shirt (seems to be an epidemic this summer)? Why didn't he have the safety cord attached to his pants? Why do we have the damn treadmill so close to the wall? A thousand questions running through my mind.

He says to me "I'm sorry Mom". I said "No reason for you to be sorry. I am sorry. I am 43 years old and I knew better. I knew it wasn't safe and I still let you do it. Now you are hurt and I feel terrible." Guilt, guilt, guilt - a big ol' huge helping of mommy guilt. It's my favorite.

I made him get in the shower so we could clean it up a bit. As he is climbing in the shower, still crying a bit he looks at me and says "Don't blog about this. (two second pause....) No, its okay, you can." I just laughed and said "I won't blog about it if you don't want me to." He says "No, you should." I think he might need some sympathy people, so if you see him, please ask to see his injury.

Worst day of his life he tells me. Never has he been hurt this bad. Then he says "Well, I guess it is pretty good that I didn't have to go to the hospital." Yes, it is pretty good.

He is going to be fine. It is bright red like a bad sunburn. He is already back to eating, drinking, running (stubbed his toe, too!) and playing with his buddy.

I sit here and feel just awful. This damn parenting business is hard. Seems obvious that I should not have let him run like that. Could kick myself for allowing it. Seemed like such a nice healthy thing to do. Never want to discourage a kid that wants to run or walk. Oh, the consequences. Anyway, there is no rewind button for life, it is done. All I can do now is order a gross of industrial size bubble wrap and pay for express shipping to get it here by tomorrow.

Last Day at the Lake

Final day at the lake - let's pack as much fun in as humanly possible.

First, need to get the stupid exercise out of the way. I mentioned it was hot, hilly, hot, hilly and hard, right? It still was on Thursday.

Puddin' Head and her fella! Such a nice couple of kids.

Break out the kayaks, drag out all the floats, let's do it all.

Jumping. Lots and lots of jumping.

Swimming. Lots and lots of swimming.

Two sexy boys floating on the island together. Weirdos.

Cousin time.

Floating and visiting.

Hubby's new invention. The Swim Diaper. Used when your fourteen year old's armpits are rubbed completely raw from jumping two stories into the water while wearing a life vest the correct way. I am sure wearing it on your bottom half is a violation of every Coast Guard regulation in the book, but I am here to tell you it worked.

Don't be jealous of how cool Harold looks.

Eating watermelon while floating in the lake on a hot summer day. Is there anything that says summer more than that??? Thanks Duck Lady for this special treat!

Underwater photography. This one just says Corpse to me. Doesn't Bob look like he just floated up after being on the bottom for three or four days. Disturbing.

In and out and all around.

This is my Hubby off the top deck. What part of his body do you think is going to hit the water first? Not sure if he changed his mind mid jump or if this was just a train wreck of a jump. I am just going to guess that it hurt, however he landed.

The boys jumped 12,499,328 more times each while trying to catch this ball in the air. It was hard to figure out the timing, but once they got it, they were automatic.

We made smores after lunch on Thursday as a special treat to celebrate Mer's birthday. YUMMY!

It's not a cake, but we stuck a candle in it and sang happy birthday to her!

Penguin was a big fan of the marshmallow. He only ate a cucumber, one piece of watermelon and two cheese sticks the rest of the week. Ran like the energizer bunny from sun up to sun down. Not sure how that works.

The Queen was digging the marshmallows too!

The eight year old set was pretty much loving the smore!

After we made smores it was back to the lake to throw the kids in to clean them up and play hard for a short while. Last time in the water, make the most of it!

We had some fun organized for the last night in the form of Minute to Win It Olympics.

What you say? Olympics events that require you to wear pantyhose on your head? Let me tell you how fun this was! IT WAS SUPER FUN!!

Cram a baseball down the leg of a regular size pair of pantyhose and them put them over your head. It's called the Elephant Walk and the object of the game is to swing the pantyhose back and forth without using your hands to knock over the 8 2-liter soda bottles. The kids loved this.

Of course you have to take a picture of everyone when they have pantyhose over their face. That is just good plain fun! Can't believe we could tame "The Nice One's" hair in here! Guke is in the background here making elephant noises. He's super talented.

Doesn't this look like it requires some athleticism? That is why it is the Olympics.

Ms. Tennessee getting it done.

Not sure which I like better on my Hubby, lipstick and blue eyeshadow or the crotch of a pair of pantyhose. Toss up.

Next up was the old Kleenex box filled with ping pong balls on your back event. You had one minute to shake, twist, rattle and roll to get the balls out of the box. Bust a Move!

This Cereal Box Puzzle game was way harder than I thought it would be. You had one minute to complete the front of a cereal box. Mario was the only one who could do it.

Next up, Keep Three Balloons in the air for one minute. Another super hard event. We eventually dropped to two balloons because three was about impossible.

This game was a little more doable. Suck up 10 M&Ms with a straw and carry them to another bowl. It was made substantially harder because everyone was making them laugh. Impossible to do if you are laughing.

This one you could most definitely laugh and still succeed. Stick your nose in Vaseline and use it to pick up cotton balls. Kinda gross. Chip opted out of this one.

The Queen loved it. After she finished she went around rubbing Vaseline on everyone's elbows, knees, hands. We finally had to hide the Vaseline. I should have just let her work on my feet. Heaven knows they could have used some moisterizer.

This challenge was a cup sorting challenge. Way too easy for this crowd.

We finished with this super popular game. Put a piece of bread on a plate, spread it with peanut butter and then try to bounce a ping pong ball on it.

Hasselhoff did this easy. I think Penguin did it in like .06 seconds. Everyone wanted another turn.

Chip used his down time to make a big huge stomach out of balloons.

Good times, lots of laughs and lots of fun games.

I will post some group pictures and family pictures we took on our last night along with a couple of pictures from our drive home in my next blog.

For now, signing off, vacation overload.

Milestone

Last night my blog hit 5,000 visits. That is a lot of clicking by my two most loyal readers (Hi, Mom and Dad!) and you handful of other regulars!

Thanks for reading and for sharing my life!