Come, Mommy

Well, July is over, and it was a fun month here in the Menagerie House. We went to Texas for a week and then returned, grandparents in tow, to continue our visit with them. They were able to stay almost two weeks, which was a lot of fun, and then the last few days of the month we spent catching up on chores left undone while we were visiting and playing. I’ve been holding off on writing this post since I have misplaced my camera and there are some fun pictures on it, but it’s hiding itself well and I was able to swipe some photos from Grandma, so I’m going to go ahead with the quick wrap-up.

We spent a week in Texas just after the July 4th holiday weekend. Kevin was able to stay only a couple of days due to work pressures, but the boys and I stayed all week and had a truly great vacation. Our first day there, my cousin Scott, my Aunt Tess, and my Uncle Jay were able to come up from Houston and spend the afternoon. This was a great experience since believe it or not, it has been almost twenty years since we’ve been together as a group. Tess and Jay were at our wedding in 1990, but Scott and his family were living abroad at the time and couldn’t make it. So it was really wonderful to see them again and pick up our relationship where we left off. As my Aunt Tess mentioned, if it wasn’t for the children running around, you would have thought that no time had passed at all since our last visit. It was fun to introduce Liam and Kieran to them, too, and Liam is still talking about how nice Tess, Jay and Scott are.

From left to right: Aunt Tess, Scott, me, and Uncle Jay (WordPress is giving me trouble with image size tonight, and I’m hoping I can come back in a day or two and enlarge the photos here.)

Kevin’s sister Janet and her children, Ethan and Alexa, came up for Sunday as well, so we had a full house and a lot of happy, excited children running around and screaming. It was really a fun day all around.

We spent the rest of the week doing a little of this and a little of that. There was lots of time in the pool – even though it was actually cooler in the Hill Country than it was back home, it was still pretty warm and a swim in the late afternoon was really refreshing.

Here are Kevin and the boys cooling off on Sunday afternoon.

There is currently an exhibit of dinosaur skeletons and other interesting dinosaur-related items in San Antonio. The boys, Grandma, and I went there one afternoon and we all really enjoyed it.

Here is Liam holding a jaw from one of T-Rex’s smaller relatives. It must have been quite a vicious time back in the Dinosaur Age judging by the looks of those teeth.

After the exhibit we were all hungry, so Grandma treated us all to lunch at a nice Italian place on the Riverwalk.

Kieran loved his ravioli (he calls them “pillows”), but the best part of lunch was still the dessert.

During the week we also took a trip to Sea World where we saw many beautiful marine creatures. The boys got to feed dolphins and alligators, and they loved Shamu’s live show. We also had time for a couple of trips into Blanco to visit GiGi and Uncle Bob at their apartments there, and we even stopped to do a little wading in the Blanco river. It was a full week, for sure.

Then on Saturday we all got up nice and early and flew home. The boys really missed Kevin and were so glad to see him at the airport! Pop-Pop had business on the weekdays, so Grandma stayed with us then, and it was fun having her here. We did a lot of playing and visiting and somehow the days just sped on by.

Then, on the last weekend of their visit, Gran-Gran and Pop-Pop helped us put together the boys’ new swingset. We bought it from a neighbor who was moving right before we left town. During our stay in Texas, Kevin did some repair work on the beams, and then after we returned home Grandma did an amazing job of painting the set. It wasn’t easy as it is a large structure, and the heat has been intense this year. She spent several afternoons out in the soupy afternoon air painting the set for her grandchildren. Then on Sunday, Kevin, Pop-Pop, and Grandma put the whole set together. It was a lot of work from start to finish, and we are so grateful to Kevin’s parents for all their labor on this project!

It was worth all the work, though, as the boys just love their swingset and are spending several hours a day playing on it. It really is terrific to have such a wonderful piece of play equipment in the backyard, and I know we’ll get lots of years of enjoyment out of it. With my camera missing, I can’t show the finished project right now, but I’ll pop out tomorrow and grab a shot with my phone so everyone can get a look at out new toy.

That, in a nutshell, has been our July. Add in swimming lessons for Liam, and lots of playing with neighborhood friends, and you’ve got pretty much the entire story. It’s been a lot of fun, and now we’re looking forward to a relaxing August before we have to get back into school mode in a few weeks. I’ll be back soon with  pictures of our swingset, and our first August news – a new pet at the Menagerie House.

Thanks for reading!