Berries!!

Our summer fun has begun!

For the last several years, I've included berry picking on my list, but never get around to it until July when it's no longer berry picking season.  So this year, I was determined to go!  We met our sweet friends, the Blaylocks, at Ham Orchards for a day of fun!!

We headed into the main store to look around when we got there.  The kids were ready to berry pick (since I'd been talking it up for years!), so we grabbed some buckets and headed out...

Grey did a great job chillin in the stroller...

Sweet friends, Eden and Charlotte...

Hunter didn't have a friend his age, but was such a good sport about it...

I had a hard time getting a picture of Harrison and Grey.  Since Harry wasn't strapped in like his friend, he ran out of my picture...

Brothers!!

It was hot and the pathways were full of tall grass, so the mamas convinced the kiddos to go in after about 15 minutes (or probably less, but it felt longer!)...

We paid for our berries and headed over to the pavilion for some yummy lunch.  There were lots of issues with the drinks at lunch, so I ended up letting my kids drink root beer and sweet tea...which both tasted bad, so Hunter opted for water (once we finally got it working!).

After lunch, we went in the store for some peach and strawberry ice cream.  The cones were HUGE, so if you go and get one, make sure you ask for half the normal size.  Hunter didn't even finish his kids one and Grey and I didn't come close to finishing the regular size.

 

We all headed to the Blaylocks to play afterward since they live just down the road now.  Can't wait to go back again next summer!

Barber James

Grey kept getting mistaken for a girl, so we figured it was time to try another haircut.  The boys were going to see barber James anyway, so we thought we'd let him give it a shot this time.

 

Barber James gave Grey a sucker - his first one ever! - and that did the trick.  He definitely wasn't a fan of scissors coming at his head...

But as soon as he remembered that sucker, he was all smiles again!

Love this one!

I even got some video footage of the special day:)



Beach Boys

The day after school got out, Hunter went to the beach house with Nana and Zack.  He had so much fun and didn't want to come home a week later.  We sure missed him, though, and were so excited to have him back!

 

Nana picked him up first, and then they headed to Sachse to pick Zack up...

And then they were off...

Since the trip is soooo long, they took a little pit stop to stretch their legs...

Nana took them to lots of fun places and gave them lots of treats.  Hunter told her at one point to stop buying stuff for them because she was going to run out of money:)  Here they are having one of many meals out...

Of course they spent plenty of time at the beach...

They also went to the movies one day and the aquarium another...

Takin' a ride with Nana...

After a week of fun, they headed home.  And of course stopped at DQ for some ice cream on the way back...

Charlotte missed Hunter so much.  She asked when he was coming home almost every day.  This is the night he came back...

We were thrilled to see him and hug our sweet boy...

I love that he journaled some about the trip...

 

Nana said they all had lots of fun.  In a couple of years, I'm sure Grey will be excited to tag along with them.  Charlotte and Vanesa have their own trip coming up in July...hopefully they'll have as much fun as the boys did!

Ten Years Later

Ten years ago I graduated from graduate school with a group of girls that I had shared life with for two years.  There were 9 of us that were super close and, we probably spent more time together than we did apart during graduate school.  I loved grad school, and those girls are a huge reason why those two years were two of my favorite ones.  We studied until our eyes burned, vented to each other until we couldn't complain anymore, worried about our futures together, shared our deepest secrets and fears, and laughed until we cried.  We had so much fun together, and when we had our masters degrees in hand, we decided that we deserved a trip to the beach.  So the summer of 2004, we all trekked to Destin for a week of fun together...one last hurrah before the real world really started for us.

 

Since then, we've spread out, but have come back together for weddings or CE courses:) over the years.  We decided that a reunion was long overdue, and 10 years as practicing SLPs was a great excuse for one!  So, we all met at a cute little B & B in New Braunfels, and we laughed just like we did 10 years ago.  It was the best time (but I did miss Jaime and Monica who weren't there).

 

Several girls brought their pictures of all of us from over the years, and we had so much fun looking back.  I loved this picture of James and I that Katie had in her scrapbook.  I think we're at Joni's wedding here (or maybe Liz's)...

We played a fun game that Liz, Joni and Katie created where we were assigned points for certain "accomplishments" over the last 10 years.  It was a fun way for each of us to do a quick re-cap of what's been going on in our life since grad school.

The weather was awesome, so we took some time to hang out by the pool on Saturday morning. 
Liz and I...

Me and Denit...

Then we went into Gruene for lunch and browsing around the cute shops. 
Liz, me, and Joni waiting for a table...

Our whole crew (except Katie who was taking the picture).  From the front, Joni, me, Liz, Jocelyn, Courtney, Denit...

Jocelyn moved back to Massachusetts after grad school, so we had to get in some Tex Mex for her.  Most of the girls got fried avocado!  I'd never heard of it until Saturday.  I'm not gonna lie, it kind of felt like the state fair to me, but everyone really loved it...

Our waiter took a selfie after he took our group picture.  I guess he wanted us to remember him:)

Denit, Jocelyn, Joni, Courtney, and I all stayed in this little apartment-type area of the B&B and Liz and Katie stayed in a separate room right above us.  Friday night, Liz had to run upstairs really fast to grab something from her room and when she came back down and opened the door, she jumped inside and started screeching about something.  Courtney and Katie started yelling too (they could see out the door from where they were sitting), but we weren't really sure what was going on until I heard someone say "tarantula" in all of the chaos.  I slammed the door shut, and everyone freaked out a little.  We named our spider friend "Harry" and saw him many more times during our stay...right under the bushes outside our door.  Liz got a picture of him before we left.  You can see his hairy legs in the left center of the picture...

We had so much fun laughing and eating and catching up and laughing and having deep philosophical discussions and laughing and giving each other work ideas and LAUGHING.  It really was such a fun time...

Denit is 21 weeks pregnant and went to bed at like 5:30 on Saturday night.  I don't know how she slept through all of our screaming and laughing!   Here's a group selfie of everyone else while she slept...

Finally a picture of all of us after breakfast on Sunday, right before we headed out.  From the left, Katie, Courtney, Jocelyn, Liz, Joni, me, Denit...

And a close up just in case;)

 

We had a group prayer, and then we all headed home.  Courtney and I rode back together and stopped at the outlet mall on the way home.  They have a Limited outlet y'all.  I was in retail heaven.

Saturday night Jocelyn mentioned that she had heard if you are friends with someone for 7 years, you're likely to be lifelong friends.  At the risk of sounding completely cheesy, I know these girls will be my lifelong friends.  Not that grad school was this impossible experience, but it was a long, drawn out, stressful two years that we all went through together, and I really believe that bonded us for life.  I love these girls and am so thankful that even though we are so different on many levels, we can still be so close and respect each others' differences.  Can't wait for our next get together!