Road Trip

We left last Wednesday for our Vail vacation, which began with a 3 (ok, 4)-day drive. The boys have been looking forward to this all summer, so they couldn't wait to get started.

**caveat about photos in this post: all were taken with my iPhone, so forgive the less than stellar quality**

Luke drove with Gramma and me, while Grandad took the older 2 boys in the Suburban.


On our 2nd day, we got out of the cars for lunch and had to quickly unpack some sweatshirts and jackets, because it was only 61 degrees! It was hard to believe it was that chilly in Texas in late July. Luke borrowed a jacket from his big brother.


And Cody whipped out his trusty wink for the occasion.


Later on the drive, we visited Dairy Queen for an afternoon pit-stop. Nothing better on a road trip than a dipped cone! (or Dilly bar, or red Arctic Blast...or whatever tasty treat you choose)


We found some space to wander around outside one of our hotels, and the boys had fun climbing the hill and digging for rocks.


The boys were running pretty ragged by the end of the last day, but they really did a great job spending so much time in the car. And we'll do the same trip in reverse in just a few weeks.

Fun at the Pool

The boys and I went to a neighborhood pool with a couple of friends this morning. Much fun was had by all!

Luke's First (Official) Haircut

Luke has been desperate for a haircut for quite a while now. Just take a look at that beer picture in my last post and you'll see what I mean.

I trimmed his hair a few months ago, just a little bit around the ear and forehead, but he needed much more help this time. So we headed over to Cool Cuts.

Despite the fact that he has been there several times before with his brothers and has actually enjoyed sitting in the little firetruck seat as well, today was a different story. We even put on SpongeBob for him to watch, but he was not impressed. As soon as the lady put the smock on him, he began wailing.

So I have no "during " pictures of this haircut because I was trying to keep him from impaling himself on the scissors as he tried to climb out of his firetruck. But above you see the "before."

And here is "after":
Tears dried, hair trimmed just enough to clean it up but still leaving some of the surfer dude behind....so handsome!

Time for a Tasty Beverage

Luke thought Daddy's beer looked yummy and wanted to try for himself. Luckily for us, the bottle was empty.

But he clearly comes by his interest honestly: here's Jackson at about the same age doing about the same thing.

Dulce

Meet our newest family member, Miss Dulce. That's dul-see, not dul-chay or dul-say. Thank you very much.

A fellow mom found a stray a couple of weeks ago and has been trying to find her a home. We met her at PetSmart on Sunday to visit with the dog and see if she might be a good fit for our family. Well, she wasn't.

But while we were there, we saw that a Dallas shelter was doing adoptions at PetSmart that day. And we saw that little face. And then she climbed right in to Anthony's lap, licked all 3 boys, and was just a calm, mellow little love-bug.

So though my friend's stray didn't find a home on Sunday, Dulce (nee Sunshine heehee) did. She's 15 pounds and 5 months old. She's a mutt; the vet said she was a Heinz 57. :) The shelter said shepherd mix, but she looks like she's got some whippet in her (long legs, spindly body) and the vet guessed a bit of lab or retriever because of her snout. With the way her feet look they said they didn't think she'd get much bigger, but who knows?

She's very sweet and pretty calm, although she's been running around chewing on everything. We're very familiar with teething around here, so we've got her a bunch of good toys to work on instead of the wooden legs of our kitchen chairs or the knobs of my bedside table drawers.

Isn't she sweet? I mean, Dulce? :)

CM Photography

Cody took possession of my camera yesterday and had a grand old time taking pictures around the house. It's really cool to see life from his perspective, and his pictures aren't half-bad! Like this one! ;)


Remember those magazine puzzles where they would show an extreme close-up of an object and you had to guess what it was? Many of Cody's shots remind me of those.


Cody snapped a few pictures of people, too!


Luke really wanted to have a camera too, so I let him play with my old one. He was very proud of it.


If he stays interested, we may have to get him a camera of his own for his birthday to protect my Nikon. How fun to have another photographer in the family!

Happy 4th of July!

The boys have been so excited about seeing real fireworks this year, so we decided to head down to KaboomTown on Friday night. We didn't actually go all the way to Addison where all the festivities are, we just found a parking lot on Midway just north of the Addison airport (where they launch the fireworks from) and settled in. There were already crowds of people when we got there so we figured we'd found a good spot, especially since the parking lot also featured a Wendy's.

The boys had brought pillows and blankets, so we put the seats down in the back of the Suburban and got comfortable.


We also had a bunch of glowsticks from the Dollar Spot at Target, so we gave those a whirl.

We enjoyed the mini-Airshow of classic bombers and army planes flying overhead in various formations, but when it was time for the fireworks, it turned out we couldn't see them! So we hopped in the car, drove just a bit further south, and found another vantage point to watch from. The boys seemed to like it, though they were all exhausted by the time we headed home.

It took us about 45 minutes to escape the traffic and get back to the house, and when Anthony and I turned around as we pulled into the garage, we saw this:

Guess we wore them out! ;)

The next morning, we hit the Plano Independence Day Parade. It was super close to our house and only about 45 minutes long, so it was just right for us.

Look, another Cody wink picture!

Luke borrowed Cody's hat for some shade.


Cody just used Daddy.We had a great holiday. Happy 4th!