NM trip

After the cabin, we went to my parents' home to visit for a few days.  We had to take the obligatory trip to the zoo.  The visit is never complete without the zoo.

Here's my parents with the boys.

Our family.

The Captain decided the boys needed some rockets.  I am not sure who had more fun.  They all went to the hobby store and got their rocket kits.

Here's Test Pilot launching his rocket.  They had a beautiful day to launch.

Here's Crash with his launch.  I feel pretty accomplished that I timed these pictures well.

Here's Wingman about to launch.  There was an older gentleman out on a walk to stopped to watch.  He commended the Captain for doing this.  He had fond memories of launching rockets with his son years before.
The boys have such a good daddy.

Another fun activity was cherry picking.  A neighbor had a cherry tree and offered us all the cherries we could pick.  We had lots of fun.  They were really good cherries.

We made 3 cherry pies, 1 cherry cobbler, and froze a bunch more.  The pies were soooo good.  I had never picked and made fresh cherry pies before.  It was delicious.

More cabin

The menfolk had some a little construction project.  They laid new flooring throughout the downstairs of the cabin.  

Here's me, my dad, and Wingman down at the creek.

Here's some of the boys with my brother, Uncle J.  They LOVE Uncle J.  He plays with them for hours.

He takes them on the 4 wheeler.  He plays dodge ball with them.

Here's me and my sister.

It was so dry this year.  The kids were just covered in dust every night.  They need rain.  Praying for rain.

Memorial Day 2011

Over Memorial Day weekend, we took our annual trip to my parents' cabin.  Here's all the kids on the neighbor's porch.  They always have so much fun together.  

They like to play in the creek.  The creek was a great deal lower than in years past due to minimal rain fall.

There is always lots of 4 wheeler riding.  Don't worry we didn't really let Wingman drive.

Did you know that PVC pipe and duct tape make the best light sabers?  There is always an intense battle of the Force in the mountains.

The boys came up with lots of sweet Jedi moves.

Here's a picture of the "dining room."  We don't fit around the indoor table plus everything just tastes better when eaten surrounded by pine trees.

Star Wars Pancakes

Nana and Grandave got the boys some Star Wars pancake molds.  They have always loved pancakes, but this just takes them to the next level.

You can have Yoda.

Or Darth Vader

Or a Storm Trooper

Which leads to smiley happy faces!

Swim lessons

The boys just finished another year of swim lessons.  Wingman was finally old enough to participate.  He gets tired of watching on the sidelines.  He participated in a preschool class.

His progress report stated that he was really shy.  We all disagree, it just takes him a bit to warm up.  He was really proud of himself for learning how to blow bubbles.

Crash did so much better this year.  He has a love/hate relationship with the water.  He likes it, but he doesn't like getting his face wet.  There is our dilemma with swim lessons- they want you to get your face wet.  He got in the water everyday without complaining and even put his face in the water for a nanosecond.  Just long enough to get credit and pass his class.  Yeah Crash!

The Test Pilot learned more stroke skills such as the backstroke and breast stroke.  He learned to dive which he loves.  It took a lot of practice, but he finally got it.

They also got lots of practice going off the low and high diving boards.  He really liked this.  We have a diver now!

Grammie came to town

We had a wonderful visit from the Captain's mom all the way from Ohio.  Crash swears that Ohio is an island.  

Not sure where that came from.

Anyhow, it was good to have her here.

We all visited the LBJ ranch in the sweltering Texas heat and survived.

Truthfully, the heat was not as bad as I thought it would be.  It was a very fun day and very cheap.  I highly recommend it.

We got a sitter for Wingman and Crash and took the Test Pilot to see his first musical, "Annie."

We went to a nice restaurant that did not serve chicken nuggets and then went to the theatre.  At first he did not seem excited to go, but as the night went on he really enjoyed himself.  He discovered ciabatta bread and wants to have it some more.  He liked the musical.  Just to remind us that he is all boy- at intermission I return from the bathroom to see my darling son performing light saber moves in the marble covered atrium.  You can dress him up, but he still loves Star Wars, even while watching "Annie."

We had a good visit.  They don't happen very often so we treasure the time.  Crash is insistent that I buy him a suitcase so he can carry his "stuff" to Ohio.  We look forward to returning the visit soon.

Sorry

Sorry.  I have been a delinquent blogger.  We got busy with school.  Then my computer died.  Got a new computer but the photo editing software was not compatible with new computer.  Went out of town to my parent's cabin.  Left our camera at parent's cabin.  Got home with new software finally installed.  Borrowed a camera.  Should get our camera back next week.

I will now resume some blogging.