June bugs

We started the trip off right with a trip to the pool and sad day at the Astros ball park. They lose a lot but every once in awhile they show a glimmer of hope...

On Thursday we had to take them to our stomping grounds for the summer.... We started out at the mfah.

My Mom the shot above would be really cool so I took it just for her... I think it may have been cooler in person. sorry Dev bev.

This exhibit has totally been the highlight for Jeff and Aria this summer. We have to stop by this every time we're there. I don't go in anymore due to the amount of people touching it, but it's super cool how they made it and how creative and meaningful it is, despite the fact that it's just long strands hanging from the ceiling.

It was really cool to explore it. The way the cords moved was breathtaking.

Jeff was just so glad to have his favorite uncle around...

The yellow part was meant to be an ellipse.

We made it to the butterfly exhibit at HMNS. Such a fun experience for my fam and the kids always love it here.

Here one of the butterflies just laid an egg on Aria's shorts, they made us give the egg back though... weird.

What Jeff loved best was definitely the dinosaurs... I just love his reaction here:

Grandma bought them both something fun from the museum since we had to wait around a little longer to get inside... Only real Grandpas respond with such dramatic fear.

The next day we made a stop at the temple. The sky was just gorgeous that day. This whole trip was just shocking for me because...

If you notice, my Mom's in nearly all the pictures. Usually she's trying to hide her face or something but here she's actually posing. She's lost 30 lbs. in the last year and I think they're off for good now. I'm so proud of her and her accomplishments,

But mostly I'm just glad that she's happy and confident again. A confident woman is always beautiful.

Then we headed up to good old Brenham to take a tour of the bluebell factory. Bluebell icecream is where it's at around here.

And if you know us, you know we love our ice cream. I still think it's pretty fascinating to watch it all happen.

The next day we made a stop at the presidents' heads. who knew... I don't think they were all there, but man there was a good portion of them... See if you can name them all...

Nate was trying to take a picture with his look-alike but Aria had other plans...

 

And I couldn't help but get one with the current president... oh and I think George Bush the 1st.

Then we went to see the bats at bat bridge. The kids are actually standing under the bats... and I'm pretty sure they're standing in bat poop. lovely.

It was a warm night but quite a beautiful one.

It was fascinating to listen to them all come out. This particular night they came out kind of late but there were thousands upon thousands of them. just amazing.

We went to the zoo! And saw the giant animatronic bugs. Pretty good actors, eh?

I loved the butterfly.

The kids got to feed the giraffes. Aria marched right up there... this picture makes the giraffe look huge.

But she was actually feeding the one behind it.. :)

Jeff finally got brave and fed one all on his own.

In between families for the one night we had no family in town. We had one last night out with our friends.

We miss them so much already, I hope they are enjoying their new place. 3,000 miles from her. I'll be laughing at them come snow time... :)

Grandpa Trey and Grandma Julie came! We had to play hungry hungry hippos! They were such good sports.

Grandpa's really good at piano dancing music...

Friday night we went out to Nate's graduation dinner. It was fun to have so many people there to say goodbye to. Nate really did enjoy his time at the VA. We couldn't have asked for a better mentor or tutor than Dr. Minke. He really believed in Nate and wanted his success as much as Nate did. We feel so blessed.

I got a new calling! I'm the new music leader in primary... it's kind of a lot of work... and it's kind of a lot of fun. I really have never liked children, I thought primary was totally not for me. But kids love you no matter what you do so it's pretty invigorating to sing with them every week. It's so funny when they see you in the hallway and ask you about your stuffed animal or shyly wave to you like you're their best friend... when to be honest I can't even remember their name. I'll get there though...

Jeff in all his hipster glory. He loves this outfit. He wears it every week.

On Sunday we went on a walk and had a lot of fun showing Grandpa around our block.

And on Monday we took them to the zoo. I just adore the elephants right now....

After they left it was back to the hum-drum amazing-ness that is our neighborhood.

We invited a friend along for Jeff to play with to the art museum. They had fun doing puzzles and coloring. It was so fun to see them work together on this. Logan is such a good friend to Jeff.

The last week of June, I got some time to myself while the kids went to Vacation Bible School. They came home with a different musical every day. They had such a fun time. I'm so glad they got to go.

Onto a new phase of life now! Nate is officially done with the VA on June 30. Hopefully we'll get his back pay soon and then we'll really be done. :)