Summer Weekend Fun

FINALLY, after Quinn and I recovered from our illnesses (lasting a good 10 days for each of us), we were able to have a wonderful summer weekend. Between house-hunting, church commitments, out of town visitors, out of town trips, and various other activities, our weekends this summer of spending just time together as a family have been few and far between. And summer has just flown by --- thankfully I might add. If you know me at all, 100 degrees and 200% humidity is not my idea of a good time. I grow tired of the endless sweating, the bad hair days, the long days of not really being able to play outside, and the all too frequent trips through the drive thru because I don't want to shut off the AC in the car. 

But there's light at the end of the tunnel. The kids start preschool in about a month (2 days a week, whoo hoo!), August is halfway over, and football season is almost here. AMEN. And until football starts, we'll just have to settle for baseball.  I am definitely not the biggest baseball fan but this past weekend we had two opportunities to hit up local games (FOR FREE!) and we actually had a ton of fun despite the oppressive heat.

Friday night was the Astros game - don't ask me who they were playing. No clue. All I know is that Matt's company had a little suite area set up for us with an open bar, tons of food, and an ice cream sundae bar. Babysitter, no kids, and the first time I had gotten really dressed in a week. And apparently we were on the "kiss cam" at some point - but we obviously were too engrossed in just hanging out that we totally missed it. I am not sad about this. I am still a little horrified that I was on a big screen at a baseball game. Me and television/video cameras do not get along and unless God himself tells me to get myself on tv, I will do all things to avoid actually being videotaped. I may have a few insecurities. Just sayin'. 

Here are a few pics - horrible quality I might add thanks to the lighting and iphones, but at least it was documented:

On Saturday, we decided to load up the kids and head to a furniture store and do a little dreaming about new things we'd like to have for the house. We were pleasantly surprised that the store had little buggies/cars for the kid - score! However, our little busiest bug (guess who?) decided after 10 minutes it was much more fun to run around the store and exclaim "Wow! Wow!" over everything. And then scream like we were kidnappers anytime we came near her to rescue her from destroying something. After about 45 minutes, furniture shopping was complete - nothing in hand but it was fun to look.

After naps for everyone (oh, how I love a Saturday afternoon nap --- and oh, how apparently I love paranthetical exclamations and explanations today), we got the kids ready for their first Sugar Land Skeeters game. The Skeeters are the minor league team in our area and this is their first season. We've been meaning to go all summer and finally got a chance when our dear friends gave us their season ticket passes for the game. We ate at a local restaurant to kick off the evening, something we just don't do very much with the kids. It's usually stress-filled trying to control two 2 year olds and turns out not to be very much fun for Matt and I who are constantly running interference while simultaneously shoving food in our mouths. Not worth the price of admission. This time though they did so well and behaved almost like little angels. And I realized how truly far we've come in the eating out business when I looked under the chairs and saw very little mess and no spills. Success!

We headed to the game after dinner and made our first stop at the team shop for the requisite t-shirt purchase. Plus of course we had to purchase some bead necklaces for our princess. We found our seats after that, and wow! The stadium is beautiful and our seats were amazing - 3rd row up. It's such a fun, family event that no one minded that our kids decided 3 minutes of sitting was about 2 minutes too long, so we chased them up and down the stairs for the next hour while people laughed (lovingly, I think) at us. I am totally counting it as a work out because the next morning my quads were actually sore. Thanks, Q. 

Our view

Sitting for a second

Diva lining up and counting her sugar packets

Not sure why the SWAT team and truck was there but they didn't look busy so we asked for a picture with them : ) 

Inside the SWAT truck - busted!

ha - ooops ; ) 

Sunday was church day as usual and I love how the kids exclaim every time we pull into the parking lot "Church, church!" I hope they always love going. More naps and then we had our final walk through of our new house - which was the first time the kids had been there. Seeing as how we don't have stairs in our house, I was happy to see they pretty carefully navigated those and had a blast exploring the rest of their new digs. I have to say for one brief cheesy moment I got really choked up seeing them sprint around the house. I hope they know while Momma certainly loves the new house for a number of reasons, I pray they will be happy here for a long while. I had the realization that they probably won't remember this current house where they spent their first 2 years, and this new place will be the house they recall from their childhood. Ohhh, memories.

All in all, it was just the perfect weekend. I know it seems fairly ordinary but sometimes we are on such a speedboat around here that we don't often have weekends like this --- where it was all about Matt & I having time together and our little family just enjoying each other with absolutely no agenda. I guess the word is peace. I feel at peace now. I feel like we are on this even keel right now in our life. Of course, I'm certain more ups and downs are coming in our life --- but for now, we certainly are living some "ups". And I'm trying to just revel in them as long as possible. Blessed would be another word. I know that word seems overused sometimes but there's no other word to describe it. I have an amazing husband who works so incredibly hard to provide for us, 2 children who delight me every day (even when they are frustrating the hell out of me!), and some really exciting opportunities that have recently come my way, both professionally and personally. We're just in a happy place right now. Thank you, God : ) 

Not that I have been posting regularly these days anyway, but I'm pretty sure this blog is about to be fairly dormant for the next few weeks as we move and get settled in our new place. Hopefully when the kids are back in school, I'll get better about catching up on my blogs - so much still to document from the summer and here comes fall!

And a couple more pics that melt me - 

Don't we all wish we could sleep like this???

My sweet girl at the doctors office for visit #2 after not improving - rosy cheeks but I love how she loves this new little tutu skirt. She would wear it everyday if I let her. There's no doubt this girl is ALL GIRL!

From our family to yours,