Galveston

My dad came to visit right after the Nantels left. We did a day trip to Galveston, which was really cool! We have lived here for two years and have never gone down there. Moody Gardens had the "Bodies" exhibit so we definitely had to check that out. We also did the Rainforest Pyramid. The "Bodies" exhibit was a bit disappointing. It was neat, don't get me wrong, but it wasn't the WHOLE exhibit. It only took us about 45 minutes to go through so we think it was maybe just a small portion of the real thing. Cameras were not allowed so no pictures of dead bodies here!

When you walk into the pyramid it's literally like you've walked into the rainforest. Beautiful plants, trees, and flowers, birds, butterflies, monkeys... Well, we hadn't seen any monkeys yet, but stay tuned... :-)

See the red bird over there?

Marc was momentarily distracted by wrestling with this caution sign.

Then he spotted a butterfly!

Look at the trunk of the tree and you can barely see the little weird colored squirrel. Probably should have gotten a picture explaining what type of animal it is!

She still struggles with smiling on demand!

Just as we were about to walk through the fog, there was a bit of commotion behind me...

 A White-faced Saki was just chillin on the post! See him?

Emme walked right up to him, I had to tell her to move slowly!

As soon as I snapped this picture he jumped down right in front of Emmery and ran across the path to the other side! It was so cool to be that close to these animals!

Hello porcupine!

Flash ON

Flash OFF

Watch your toes Emmery!

"Hey little gator!'

Interesting leaves

Some more cool leaves

Marc was just dying to jump in the water...

Why is he crying? We wouldn't let him swim.

Huge snake, can't remember what kind.

Emmery the Frog!

After Moody Gardens we drove along the beachfront for a while, looking for somewhere to eat lunch. When we couldn't decide I did a quick Yelp search and found a great little place. Unfortunately a storm had rolled in and we all got soaked trying to get into the restaurant. Turns out it was a tiny place and there was no room for us. So we all got completely soaked AGAIN getting back into the car! When we found the next restaurant, the rain had finally subsided. It turns out it was a blessing in disguise. The restaurant was on Galveston Bay, right near the docks. So we got to see some shrimping boats in action!

Stowaway crab!

No, it wasn't raining. But seagulls were flying everywhere and Jule and I were so paranoid we were going to get pooped on!

Emmery decided to bust out a few push-ups!

Watching the ships come in!

If you look between these two boats you can see the building with the back open to the water. We realized they were selling the shrimp there so we had to walk over!

My dad decided he had to get some shrimp. So while he shopped the kids gave this big fish some love!

Pulled right from the Gulf this morning. Doesn't get much fresher than that!!

Heading back to the car, Emmery just had to stop and splash in the puddle.

Such a long day, both kids would be fast asleep on the drive home, right?

Nope. Marc played the whole time!

Experimenting with Food Coloring

I found a couple cute, easy food coloring activities for Emmery to do. It turned out to be even cooler than I expected!

All we needed was a plate, milk, food coloring, a toothpick, and some dish soap. I love finding stuff that I can do without running to the store for supplies! We poured some milk on the plate and then dripped all different colors of food coloring on it.

Next Emmery took the toothpick (which had a drop of dish soap on the end) and touched the spots of color. 

When the toothpick touches the color it explodes in size! So cool! I don't know who liked this one better, me or Emmery.

The colors start to swirl and mix, so pretty!

The next one we did used baking soda, vinegar, and food coloring. I put some baking soda on the plate. Then put a few drops of food coloring in some cups of vinegar. 

She used an eye dropper to drip the vinegar onto the baking soda. 

When the vinegar hits the baking soda it bubbles up.

4th of July

Summerwood has a 4th of July parade every year so I thought it would be fun to try it with everyone. Marc and Mikey decorated the kids bikes and we dressed the kids in their red, white, and blue!

We were hanging out getting ready for the parade to start. They were going to pick winners from several categories, including dogs! So cute!!

And off we go!!

Emmery was so cute she kept saying, "This is the best parade ever mommy!" I guess I didn't realize she had done so many parades before! :-)

The parade ended back at the pool where they were having a pool party. We stuck around long enough to munch on some juicy watermelon, then we headed home.

Emmery loved her watermelon so much she had to go up and ask for more.

It doesn't take much to make these two happy! A little bit of watermelon + a little bit of music = LET'S DANCE!!

The Boston Nantels in Texas

I'm way behind on posting because we've had lots of company lately. At the end of June Marc, Kathy, Marco, Stacy, Michel, and Max came for a visit. The kids hit it off right away, they were so cute together. It was neat to see Marc interact with his older cousins. And as the only girl in the crowd, Emmery fell right into step with all those boys!
At night the kids loved to read stories. Max was too cute, he would look at the pictures and just make up words. Michel is an awesome reader, I told him he sounds better than many of the 6th grade students I have taught in the past!

The kids had fun playing on the front porch. Marc decided to take handfuls of mulch and shower himself with them.  Emmery even pitched in.

Bath time!!!

Mikey went to get the mail and the three little ones just HAD to go with him :-)

Of course we spent lots of time at the neighborhood pool. Didn't take many pictures though!

One night we did a "blackout party." Mikey bought a couple black lights and we got some glow-in-the-dark novelties and partied it up. The kids had a blast! The pictures didn't turn out great but you can still kinda see what's going on...

Mikey is on the left and he is holding Marc.

Emmery is on the left and Marc is on the right. You can see my bright orange toes behind them!

We went to dinner one night and dressed all the kids in RedSox gear. They looked so cute!