Father’s Day 2010 was a good one. My all-time favorite memory of today was the twins coming home from Primary with photos of themselves, mounted on beautifully colored neckties, labeled with… the wrong names! When asked why they didn’t set the Primary straight on who is who, we got the classic answer–
“We didn’t know!”
I guess it doesn’t help when you can’t even tell yourselves apart.
Meanwhile, we decided to complicate things even more and throw another matching girl into the mix. Olivia couldn’t have been more tickled to be included in what has turned out to be a very exclusive duo…
Even if she doesn’t always get the memo on which direction to run.
Can you believe the color of our lawn (dad especially)? Photoshop need not apply. When our lawn guy promised he’d have it looking like this in a couple of months, I chuckled thinking what a great salesman he was. We are all pleasantly surprised. The only thing keeping us from running our toes through this luscious lawn is a measly couple of thousand violently angry fire ants, of which we have the man of the house to thank for spending hours upon hours slowly warding them off.
An impromptu shot of Ryan Jr. *
The people in the ward just started noticing I’m pregnant! I guess they have not recently seen me in a bathing suit. Every now and then it hits me that this really is the last baby…during the smooth sailing parts like today I think we may want more, but then the heartburn hits and I tell Ryan that we are never doing this again.
And what is a family event without corn on the cob–
and this girl?
The other day, that is before childproof doorknob handles on the pantry became an emergency, I caught Liv going through the trash and scarfing remnants of un-cooked corn on the cob! That is how much she loves it. I think she eats more of it than any member of the family, not even saving room for the main course or dessert.
And a special shout-out to the man behind the camera to whom I did actually shout out, ‘Put on a shirt so I can take a picture of you!’ And so he did and he got all handsomed up and I missed it due to rapidly increasing forgetfulness. At any rate I have loved celebrating you today, and the father you are to our girls.
And my own dad, and father-in-law, how blessed we are to have you in our lives. I hope everyone had a wonderful Father’s Day and got to chow down on some form of corn too.
*Not his real name, though with ten weeks to go we hope we can think of it soon.
Eighth Month and Year
So Ryan and I decided to celebrate our 8-year anniversary in Houston, of which event we thought we could kill two birds with one stone and declare it a family vacation. Ultimately, the event was classified more as ‘trip’ than ‘vacation,’ but ah, the memories.
Upon first getting to the hotel, these three were bouncing around the hotel room like pinballs, even in pitch black at 11:30 at night, which was to be expected. Only after a little dose of Blues Clues did they settle down enough to sleep, of which Olivia, the non-cuddliest child we have would only sleep on mom’s left shoulder. (Turns out she snores AND talks in her sleep…something about cheese?) Two babies kicking me all night!
Ryan has been dying to go to the NASA Space Center ever since we moved here. With the girls’ recent interest in space, it seemed like a great idea. Here we are touring a little mock up of what it is like to be an astronaut.
We were able to go on a little tour and see one of the control centers.
Family picture. At this point I was not so much interested in the exhibits as getting out of the heat.
We played ‘Where’s Waldo?’ with Olivia the whole time. I loved that she brought her baby with us everywhere….Keep in mind this baby is only one of the five in her entourage!
The kicker for me was walking into what we thought would be several exhibits in this warehouse–
and seeing this! This shuttle was so huge it took my breath away. We walked around staring at it for over an hour and still were blown away.
We have shots from every angle.
Another family pic. I was impressed that random strangers kept offering to take our picture, not only that but they also knew how to work the camera.
These Asians had been working up the courage the whole tour to ask if they could grab a shot of L & M….I had to document the moment!
Can you believe we did NASA and the beach in the same day? Here we are at Galveston, my favorite part of the trip.
Liv and I lounged from these chairs while the twins built sandcastles and jumped over waves with Ryan. I love the smell of the ocean and how relaxing it is to listen to the waves. After awhile, Livvy thought it would be fun to chase Seagulls and make friends with other families, charming her way into many a beach setup. I guess she follows in the twins’ and my dad’s footsteps, always on the lookout for new friends.
Our last stop Saturday morning was at the Kemah boardwalk, which turned out to be my lesson in recognizing signs of heatstroke in pregnancy!
The girls did eventually find a brilliant way to cool off…
Even Olivia, and baby #4.
Here’s our sweet London on the carousel, undoubtedly the only one who came out of the Kemah boardwalk happy! I’m certain the place would be a blast under different circumstances. Funny enough, the girls’ favorite part of the trip was swimming in the hotel pool and eating at Panda Express, two things we enjoy quite frequently at home. I guess everything’s just better on vacation. And the .2 minutes I got to spend with Ryan weren’t so bad either. Here’s to another eight-infinity years!