Labor Day Weekend 2011

Last weekend we made it down to our new hometown, where we plan to move in November.  I still can't believe we are actually moving!  We had a good trip there this time around. We stayed in town, looked at a handful of houses, went to the church we'll probably attend, and drove around to continue to familiarize ourselves with the area.  We all had fun, aside from a few complaints about the house-hunting.

The best part was visiting the seashore!  We went on Sunday afternoon.  We all look forward to living about 20 minutes from a great beach! 

The girls spent much of the beach time searching for sand dollars.  The water was pretty clear for Texas!  (sorry for the ginormous photos...they are fuzzy on any size but the extra large!  love the new blogger template though; I can load them all at once, and in the correct order, yay!)

PaPa and NeNe joined us too!  They came down for one night.  You can see that we were real prepared with two rain umbrellas!  Next time we'll get a pop-up tent!

I can't get over just how old the girls are looking.

Mr. T enjoyed his first trip to a "real" beach (the last one was a bay beach without "real" sand).  Only problem was that I forgot his swimsuit, so he had to wear his brother's.  He didn't mind!

So glad I found the hat with the chin strap!

The kids met some friends who had a fun contraption to catch "ghost" shrimp, made out of PVC pipe.

And what's a beach adventure without a trip to the gift store with the giant shark?

 

Some other trip memories...Ahh, the Cheddar's Restaurant adventure.  Waited an HOUR for a table!  But yum, the food was worth it!  The kids weren't happy that we had to postpone our beach visit after the long dinner.  It all worked out well in the end, though.

Not sure if the kids have ever had the treat of eating dinner in bed watching TV!

It was a fun Labor Day weekend and gave us a good distraction from worrying about the surgery.  Now we're back home and in the thick of homeschooling and fall activities, while trying to get all our ducks in a row in preparing for the surgery and for our move.

I know we are being lifted in prayer by so many and am so grateful for that.  There is a lot to be thankful for, and I'm trying to focus on the positives!  Some positives of this coming week are getting family portraits taken, and having the house cleaned!  Then we can get working on the fix-ups it needs so we'll be ready to list it for rent and get moving on into finding a new place to live. That is really a fun thing, and I'm actually enjoying spending time on the internet finding all the available  homes and imagining our family there.  I can't wait to have some Christmas photos in our new home, and be starting the new year in a fresh new way in a new city!  Quite an adventure!

But my mind is spinning so much that I forgot to wish my dearly beloved a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!  He celebrated 35 years of life on Tuesday, and I actually had it together enough to take the kids into Walmart after a long day of science museum classes.  We put together one of his favorite dinners (Shepherd's Pie) and his favorite cake (German Chocolate), and topped it off with some cute homemade cards and a couple shirts.  We are all a bit distracted, but I know the kids enjoyed celebrating Daddy's birthday!

I'll end with a funny Steven Joseph stoty from tonight.

I was singing to the boys in bed...Twinkle, Twinkle, Itsy Bitsy Spider, ABCs...

and after SJ starting singing a few words to it, I started singing "Row Row Row Your Boat."

Then he blurts out,

"Life is BUT a dream?  BUTT?  Like a bottom?"

"No, it means life is only a dream."

"Life is only a DREAM?"

"Well, not exactly..."

Then he starts into "The itsy bitsy spider climbs up the POOPY spout."

BOYS!!!