Humor Me & First Fishing Trip

Houston's big thing now is putting his toys to "sleep" for naptime and patting them, like I do him. Today's victim: the tricycle.

Poppy took Houston and Barrett fishing 4th of July weekend. It was the first time Houston went and was actually able to hold his own pole, reel the fish in, and have some sort of understanding what was going on.

He was serious about holding his purple and gold Dora fishing pole in the water and keeping his eye on the "bopper".

His very first fish-he sure looks proud of himself!

And momma was proud of him, too! Thanks Poppy for taking us fishing.

Minnesota, Day 4, and other goodness

We rounded out day four with some beautiful sight-seeing. We went to several beautiful lakes, played at the park, and enjoyed the beautiful weather.

The water was amazingly blue and there were literally lakes everywhere, hence the name "Land of a Thousand Lakes."

The day ended in a pillow fight, where I must say, Houston was victorious.

Better later than never, a shout out to Hugh, an awesome husband, father, and friend. Happy Father's Day.

4th of July was busy for us like it was most people. We were in Memphis working with Hugh at some games, came home to cookout and swim with my mom and dad, and made it to fireworks just in time. And like his past "freak out" moments of loud noises, dancing animals, and costumed people, Houston did not like the loud fireworks, but he endured and 4th of July 2009 is in the books.

Minnesota, Day 2 and 3

On the second and third day of our trip, Hugh had to work, so mom, Houston, and I set out to be entertained. Our first stop was Como Zoo and Amusement Park-day 2. On day 3, we went to the Minneapolis Zoo. These rides were right up Houston's alley, so we got to ride them over and over and over and over.........

Here in his own little chariot.........

and here breaking the speed of light.........

This may be my ALL time favorite of us (thanks mom) except for some newborn pictures (thanks dana). Mom took this picture of us on train. And after cropping out the ugly little blonde haired girl behind us, the lighting is perfect, the feeling was sincere, and I couldn't be happier right at that moment.

At the Minneapolis Zoo, they took you on a tractor ride to the "farm" which was Houston's favorite part I think. They were animals more recognizable to him, so we spent lots of time here petting the pigs and feeding the goats. He would get down and peer through the fences to talk to the animals....so cute.

This is another favorite one where he had climbed on the fence to get a better look. Love this kid and everything he exploring and learning right now.

Minnesota Adventures

We (mom, Houston, and I) accompanied Hugh on the road to Minnesota this year, and man, what an experience. First of all, traveling with a 1 year old when you have to get up at 4am to catch your flight is NOT a good idea. But, I must say, he was a trooper. We arrived in Minneapolis on June 10th, which was draft day. The first part of the day we stayed in the hotel room while Hugh followed the draft online. The phone rang off the hook and he got constant emails. But it was fun to watch him-he got to actually call his draft picks (7 of them!) and let them know they had been drafted. I honestly think he was as excited as them!!

Houston supplied our hotel entertainment-dancing, singing, eating, jumping, napping, dancing, singing.....you get the idea. Let's just say after a few hours, he was ready to get out of the motel and GO!

Our first stop was Rainforest Cafe in the Mall of America. He was not so crazy about the animated animals, but the food was good and we shared a Rockin' Rangutang some-or-other :)
The MOA is awesome, to put it mildly. When we walked in, we were greeted by a full size ferris wheel, log ride, and several roller coasters. The rides were amazingly quiet (the screaming people were not) but Houston was not tall enough to ride so we enjoyed just watching.

Also at the entrance is Lego Land with thousands of lego to play with-they even had a race track set up where you can build your own car. We all had a blast and it was neat to watch Houston take it all in. (Notice the JACKET in JUNE! Temps were in the 50s at night!)

More later of our zoo trips!

More summer fun with friends.....

Houston and I went to my friend Stephanie's house on Friday and met up with Holly so all the kids could play. Ella and Parker are both 3 and full of energy. It was impossible to get a picture with all the kids seated, looking at us, and smiling, so this is the best there is. They had fun playing on the swing set, in the bouncer, and in the pool. Our quiet, uneventful morning was interrupted when a 100+ pound pit bull broke through her neighbor's fence and jumped on all the kids, nearly knocking Ella down. We called the "animal po-po" as Ella called it and order was restored. We ended the morning with some PB&J sandwiches then home to take a much needed nap!

The kids sharing popcorn

Houston finally deciding the water was too cold to get in!
Some good ol' PB&J and juice boxes!

I love summer...

these pictures were taken the first official day of summer break for me and Houston. The big pool at Nana and Poppy's wasn't quite ready yet, so Houston and the cousins opted for 2 small pools and a water hose running down the slide.

You can tell Anna loved it, but Barrett thought the water was too cold and the slide was too hot!
Houston was being silly as usual. Here he is squirting himself in the face with a water gun, which is ironic because he hates getting water in his face when he's taking a bath.

Katie ready to take the plunge in her homemade water slide!

Houston took advantage of having 2 pools side by side-he slid back and forth between them.

My lil' man soaking up the sun. If only I could have his beautiful skin color!

Tree Trimming.....

is not really an accurate title. It was more like chopping down 20 trees and removing them. This story all started when Houston was trying to ride his tricycle down the sidewalk. He kept tipping over because he was running over the gumballs. We had a yard full of gumball trees-very annoying, difficult to clean up, and dangerous (people would fall because of them and Hugh was even hit between the eyes by them when mowing because they bounced off the tree trunks ..hehe). To make a long story short, the decision was made to have the trees removed and beautify the lawn.

We aren't talking scrawny trees here.....we are talking 60+ foot trees with lots of limbs and branches. Before the trees could fall, all the limbs had to be stripped off them. This is where tree-climbing Daniel came in. He would put straps around his boots with spikes in them, climb up the tree with a harness, and cut the limbs off with a chainsaw. You have to be either crazy or brave (or both) to do this.

Then he would repel down and then the whole tree would be cut down.

I love this picture because you can see the tree actually coming down. They would hit the ground and the whole earth would shake. Neighbors would sit out on their porches and in their driveways to watch it all. It was quite the adrenaline rush. After the cleanup (which I don't have a picture of), the yard looks totally different, of course. We love the end result of the smooth yard with lots of room to run and play, but we do miss some of our shade. I'm sure we will especially love it this fall when we don't have to bag 40+ bags of leaves to have our yard clean!

But like I said, it was a huge mess!