Time Travel: Back to June

I've been a bit distracted by reading lately. Now that I have time to read something other than textbooks (and by "have time" I mean "ignoring my to-do list"), I'm finally getting into some books that have been sitting on my shelf waiting for me! I just started Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series, so... considering the fact that there are something like 17 books in this series, I may never fold laundry or do the dishes again... Ha!

Back to June, eh? The boys and I didn't have to travel anywhere, but it still wasn't exactly a quiet month. W turned 5 months old and started baby food! Yay for him! He was quite the fan! And just because it cracks me up every time I watch it, here is a video (from June) of Waylan's response when he hears his big brother crying:

The first week in June, Jeff was off to his first youth camp at OBU for a week: Super Summer. Apparently this is a big deal for Oklahoma youth groups. So is their BIG youth camp, Falls Creek. Jeff had that a couple weeks later, but their week was cut short due to heavy rainfall and flooding. They actually had to shut the whole camp down for more than a week! What was crazy is that the media was all over it and someone from our town newspaper even called Jeff while he was there to question him about it. It's a bit ridiculous how they tried to put a life or death spin on the whole situation when the place actually had to close down because there was no sewage or trash service for the camp with all the flooding. Every news station was showing footage of some church van floating in the water and how no one was hurt, yadda yadda. Jeff said some yahoo actually just forgot to put the thing in park and it rolled into some water. Haha!

Jeff was busy, as usual, and the rest of the month was summery-June stuff... we played outside, went on a picnic, went to the pool once, and even had our first ever garage sale! And mommy just survived on her own while daddy was gone to all his camps. Of course B got sick with some cold or something one of those weeks and W got his first two teeth!

First veggie: carrots!

Just like daddy.

Father's Day 2015

Old Geezer Night at youth.

Nose-pickin' good time with this smarty pants.

Picnic at the lake.

That about covers the highlights! Just two more months to catch up on!

Thirty, Flirty, and Thriving in the Fall

I've already checked my calendar three times this morning. Yup! It's October! How did that happen? All of a sudden it's 60 degrees in the morning and pumpkins are everywhere. I have to ration my Pinterest time so as not to get distracted with the great abyss of pumpkin everything... recipes, decorations, drinks, costumes... I went on there yesterday to find tonight's dinner recipe. 24 hours later... I still have no idea what I'm cooking for dinner. Some sort of meatball. Maybe shaped like a pumpkin?!

First football game of the season!

This October will be my 30th Halloween! That's right! I turned 30 last month. You know, 30 isn't as bad as I thought when I was 15. I should really dig back into my high school journals. They are a hoot. Maybe I'll share an entry or two. If they aren't too embarrassing...

Back to that whole turning 30 thing. September, my birthday month (because you have to celebrate the whole month), was a hot mess. Really though, the weather decided to trick us by cooling off for a couple days then came back with dry, hot scorchers. I really wanted it to be fall already. I started dreaming about pumpkin lattes and sweaters when B got step throat. Oh yeah, school starts and that means sickness spreads. Ugh. In fact, I'm currently battling a wicked sinus infection. Yuck! I may have mentioned it previously, about 100 times, but the allergy season here has been vicious and has lasted for infinity... yup. Infinity.

Gig 'em, Aggies!

Football season started. Always fun in a small town. Unfortunately, we missed the Homecoming parade because we were on our way to Texas that day. Yes, my birthday celebration week began with a quick trip to Wayland Baptist University to get my thesis defense over with! My defense date had already fallen through a couple of times and I finally just said that I was coming down there to get it done. It added more to our drive, but Mama got a thumbs up from the entire committee! Woot! Woot! My thesis is getting bound and put into their library and I am DONE! At least until I start my PhD... eventually.

Right after my defense, we hit the road to Houston. West to Central Texas is a kind of dull drive. Sort of like Kansas and all its flat fields. Without slowing down, the next morning we got up and headed to a football game at College Station! I haven't had a chance to hang out with my sis on her campus in the four years she has lived there, so we made sure we got there in time to go to a game with her. It was so hot! But the boys did great. And that A&M band, wow! That was a nifty half-time show to watch. I was so close to going to that school. Autumn has loved it, but the amount of traditions at that place is sort of ridiculous. So much to keep up with! I told Autumn she needs to start some weird tradition and just make up a story to go with it. Haha!

That guy who bought us dinner :)

Birthday dinner was yummy Brazilian food with the whole fam! We celebrated both mine and Autumn's birthday because they are in the same month. My parents surprised me and Jeff with a little vacation to Galveston for my birthday! They watched the kiddos for us while we spent the night in Galveston and did some exploring for a couple of days. I REALLY wanted to check out the boardwalk thing they have with the rides and stuff, but it is only open on the weekends during the fall. Boo! It was super hot and still there were no rides to have fun on! I guess fall isn't all it's cracked up to be in the South.

The fam!

We just did some sight-seeing, saw some cool battleships, some beautiful old homes, and ate a TON of seafood. That's usually our requirement whenever we are on a coast - seafood for dinner EVERY night! We like to make ourselves sick of it so that when we go back into the heartland we won't miss the fresh stuff for a while. :(

Battleship Texas

Beautiful stained glass

Bishop's Palace in Galveston

The boys, of course, loved the spoiling from their Mammy and Papa. We are still trying to get back on a normal schedule... When we got back from our little getaway (my first night away from little W), we took a trip to the Aquarium. The boys loved looking at the fish. An aquarium really is a great place to take little ones. Even babies can stare at the fish and be entertained. And it's usually air-conditioned! B also loved petting stingrays. He thought he was a little expert.

We finished off the week by going to my little sister's big Ring Day at Texas A&M. So back to College Station it was! Apparently this is a big deal. There's another butt-load of traditions and histories that go along with this as well. I don't even pretend to know what they are. And there's no way even the students that go there can know every single tradition that exists at that place. Just saying.

There were a lot of hugs, some tears, and multiple thumbs-up. All this hullabaloo was followed by lunch at a super busy mediterranean joint. Very delicious. Then, after the drive back home, and a last-minute dinner decision to have a giant tray of Chick-fil-a nuggets and a pizza for dinner, Autumn had to dunk her ring in the traditional Ring Dunk initiation. This just HAD to be completed with an A&M pitcher while wearing an A&M poncho over her clothes. So that's the reason behind all the traditions! Sales! ;) She didn't drink a pitcher of beer like some do (gross), instead she downed a whole pitcher of sweet tea. No human needs to drink that much of anything in two minutes. She drank it all, she got her ring back (kind of silly, right?), then she promptly threw up at least half of what she had just consumed. And so went the Ring Dunk tradition. Autumn can now check that off her list and she is one step closer to graduation! Finally!

Tradition...

Cutest little Aggies there!

Happy Aggie :)

Bennett's version of
Gig 'em. Haha!

Seesters!!

We celebrated by visiting a piano bar (hilarious) and staying out too late for a couple of parents who had a 10-hour drive home with two little ones the next morning. Totally worth it. :)

Nothing extravagant. No fancy getaway to Europe (one of these days...). No shiny, new car sitting in the driveway (though we seriously need an update). Just a normal gal turning 30 and spending it with her favorite people. Perfection.

Time Travel: Back to May

How is it that May feels so far away already?! In case you are wondering, yes, May was quite the busy month as well!

Adorable!

It is actually very fitting for me to be writing/reminiscing about this May because that is when I walked at graduation for my Masters degree. Unfortunately, I had yet to defend my thesis. Well, guess what?! Four months later and I FINALLY completed my thesis defense!! Whoop! Whoop!

But back to May, shall we? First, Baby W turned four months old. I just want to go back and time and squeeze his adorable cheeks! These sweet little babes grow too fast and those baby rolls just did not stay long enough!

Our Lil' Pistols

Next, I graduated! Well, like I said, I walked the stage. But, my diploma will be in hand here soon! We met my family at the university for the ceremony. Then we stayed the weekend at the Big Texan in Amarillo, ate at their restaurant for basically every meal, and got to check out Cadillac Ranch! The restaurant was yummy, but the hotel was kind of ick. It was decorated Western style, which looked cool, but they should have saved some money on the decorating and bought some updates. The housekeeping was also questionable. It was certainly not the cleanest place I've been to. B found half a chicken nugget under the bed and took a big bite out of it. Bleh!!! 

Official Master Graduate right here!

We also got to hike some of Palo Duro Canyon! We weren't there long so we didn't get to see much, but it was beautiful. We'd love to go back sometime when we have some time to actually camp there. If you haven't been there, I'd highly recommend it. We just stayed the day, went horseback riding, and on a long hike. Only half of us made it to the end of that hike... It was super hot and I was packing W on my back. He is such a sweaty baby so I was worried about dehydration and sunburns. Hey, don't judge a sleep-deprived, nursing mother! A six-mile hike was not the best idea in that heat. For an infant or a toddler. My mom and I only made it about halfway before we decided to turn back. But the rest of our crew made it! My ridiculous father made it sound like the trail was the shortest they had, but he definitely lied. There were other, shorter options we could have taken. So next time we go, I'm trying out the shorter trails... And maybe the longer one again when it's cooler! And after I workout some... Ha!

We got this!

Gammy & B

Beautiful views

The ones who made!

Mid-May was fairly "quiet." Just the typical staying up to all hours of the night putting the final touches on my thesis (even after I had walked at graduation), dealing with allergies (did I mention they were vicious this season? I had to wear my big, fat glasses to my graduation for Pete's sake!), and wrangling two kiddos.

This was the last 15 minutes
of one flight.

The end of May, I flew to my parent's house to spend Memorial Day Weekend. Jeff was busy at work so I flew by myself for the first time with two kids in tow! What an adventure... There were some people who looked obviously annoyed about the fact that I had two small children on the plane, but we also ran into some of the kindest people who were sympathetic to my situation as an out-numbered parent. If you ever see a mom, or dad, trying to get through security or drag two littles onto a cramped plane (seriously, could they make those seats any closer together?), lend a helping hand. Offer to put away a bag, share a snack, or just flash a kind smile. Please, do not stare at me like I am the most annoying person on earth. Unless, of course, you are the 12-year-old boy who got stuck next to my 2-year-old on the flight. Your prepubescent glare of annoyance I can deal with and understand. Everyone else who is old enough to act like a grown adult, deal with it. You were that young once and caused your mom grief in public. I'm doing the best that I can here and trust me when I say that I'm more embarrassed than you know when my 4-month-old is throwing a hangry fit and my 2-year-old is yelling the Mickey Mouse song as loud as he can while kicking your seat. It's a serious travesty they don't make those airplane closets, I mean restrooms, big enough to hide in.

The boys actually didn't do horrible. They had their moments, but we made it there and back with no major injuries to body or dignity. A big thank you to those kind souls and their polite words of encouragement along the way!

For Memorial Day Weekend, my family rented a lake house to celebrate my parent's 30th wedding anniversary and my Mom's 50th birthday. I made them a little (well, a kind of long) video to take a walk down memory lane together: 

We had grandparents there, aunts, uncles, cousins... It was just like the old days when our families used to get together for the holidays and just have fun! There was even a lip sync contest. Haha! I'm not sharing the video evidence for that one!

Fishing with Uncle Austin.

He loved the slip-n-slide!

I LOVE this picture of my Mom.
Look at how happy and beautiful she looks!

Teta Autumn's overalls double as a baby carrier!

My Nana and Papa and all their great-grands!

The Waylan Family after 30 years
(minus the son-in-law and future daughter-in-law)!

It was an exhausting weekend (and an exhausting month), but we had a blast! It's hard to get whole families together these days. Too many grown-up responsibilities! Don't you wish you could just go back to being six years old? Snacks, naps, no mortgage or worries... Those were the days! ;)

So that was May! Did we slow down after that? Not really... Join in next time to find out what we were up to next! And if I ever actually get caught up to our crazy present day adventures!

Cuties