Powersports and the Pool

While Chance was at coaching school last week, my mom stayed with Cade and me for a few days. We had lots of fun with Oma, and it was great to have extra help. She got to go with us to Powersports and the pool, so I could finally get some pictures of our fun outings.

Warm up on tiptoes



Learning the pike position at the trampoline



Hi Oma!



Cade's favorite part of gymnastics - jumping!



Jumping across the balance beam



Big dismount



Getting ready for a forward roll



Closing song with balancing beanbags



Cade has so much fun at the pool these days. He likes to put his face in (a big change!) while splashing his arms. He says he is being a sea monster when he does this. We are working very hard on him keeping his mouth closed when he does this so he doesn't swallow half the pool. Here I am checking on him!



We love swimming!



Racing to catch the football



We saw some friends from Powersports and played catch with them too.



Cade even loves splashing himself!



Wherever we go, jumping is involved!



My birthday was also last week and it was a great one! It was really fun to start the day with my mom, as she and I have not been together on my birthday in a long time! It was also really great that Chance was home on my birthday for the first time since we got married! He is usually at coaching school on my birthday, but a postive aspect of budget cuts is that they could not stay as long as usual. We had a really great family day and I am so blessed.

This and That

Here's a couple of pictures of what we've been up to the past week:

Cade tried on Opa's boots!



Great Oma came to visit. We had fun at Bee Creek Park doing some swinging...



and sliding!





We met the Patton family at Brother's Pond to feed the ducks. Davis is Cade's friend from school and they are also friends from church. Jill and I are both so thankful to be teachers so we can spend extra time during the summers with our kids!



The boys also played hide and seek at the playground. It looks like they are up to no good here!



Then we played hide and seek in the woods. Cade was really trying to squish himself behind the tree here!



We had a fun get together with Chance's family when Bill's sister Martha visited from Florida. It was great to see everybody one more time before school starts!

That Man Made a Bad Choice!

Yes, that is a truck in our backyard. Chance always said he wanted another grey Chevy, but I don't think he wanted it to happen like this! Here's what happened at our house at about 5:30 this afternoon:

We were inside cooking dinner and heard a terrible crash outside. Chance stepped out to see what happened and saw this little surprise in our yard! We are very thankful that this didn't happen about 10 minutes earlier, because we were all outside then and Cade was jumping on the trampoline. But, since we were all inside, we really have nothing to do but laugh at this strange situation. The young man driving the truck started his partying a little early and was on his way to Northgate. He turned the corner a little too fast and went straight through our fence. These things only happen in college towns!

The police came pretty quickly. I love this picture because it looks like Chance is the one in trouble since he is sitting on the curb by a wrecked truck. It was pretty amusing to stand at my kitchen window and watch someone taking a field sobriety test in our yard. The driver failed, by the way.



One of the most challenging, but funniest, parts of this event has been explaining it to Cade. We talk a lot about making good choices, and told Cade that the man that drove through our fence made a BAD choice. Cade has lots of questions and observations, such as "Mama, the wheel fell off that truck!" and "Daddy, why is that truck is still in our yard?" We let Cade stay up past his bedtime to watch the wrecker pull the truck away. He cheered "Yeah, truck!" when they finally got it onto the bed of the wrecker. This was apparently difficult since the truck only had one functioning wheel. To make this even more fun, we received our first rain in almost a month while the police were trying to get statements from everyone.



We will have to keep Cade and Holly corralled until the fence is repaired. Hopefully we can get this taken care of soon!



Other than this, we had a really fun Family Friday with a trip to Research Park and the pool. Unlike the driver of this truck, Cade made very good choices today :)

Camp Adkison 2011

We got to spend some more fun time with Zoe, Xavier, and Sheri when they visited Bryan last week. We continued our summer tradition of "Camp Adkison" and the kids had lots of adventures together! The first few pictures are from Brother's Pond Park, where we fed the ducks and played on the playground. Then we went to Chuck E. Cheese for some wonderful air-conditioned playtime. This visit to Chuck E. Cheese was especially important for Cade because it was his reward for making "good choices". We've been working very hard on making good choices, and we implemented a reward system. Cade can earn one sticker in the morning and one sticker in the afternoon when he makes good decisions during the day. He filled up his sticker sheet around the beginning of July, but wanted to wait until his cousins came to get his reward. How sweet! Here's proof of his good choices:



Our next outing was to the pool, and everybody came over to our house for fajitas afterwards. The boys had a lot of fun playing outside with squirt bottles! The next day, we went to Nana and Papa's house for an early birthday dinner for Papa. Zoe and I decorated a brownie cake for him. Zoe gets very creative with her decorations and I was impressed with her design! Our biggest adventure was on Tuesday. Early in the morning, we visited my friend Susan's house to meet her donkeys. Cade and I did this last summer and he really enjoyed the field trip. It turns out that Susan and Sheri have a long-lost connection. Jan bought Sheri's first dog, Rudy, from Susan many, many years ago! Susan was so happy to see all of us and we really appreciated her hospitality. The kids had a great time feeding and brushing the donkeys, playing by her barn, and exploring the music room at her house. After Susan's house, we went to the reptile exhibit at the College Station library. It was incredibly crowded, but the kids liked seeing the snakes, iguana, and tortoise. We are so thankful for all of the time we've gotten to spend with family this summer! Enjoy the pictures!

It's Starting Already!

Football season, that is! The Hornets are playing 7 on 7 this summer for the first time in a few years. Since Chance and Cade simply cannot get enough football, and the beginning of the real season is just "so far away", they went to watch a 7 on 7 game last night. Cade was so excited to wear his "coaching hat" and bring his whistle. The boys had a great time and I got to go to the gym!

Friends Make the World Go Round

It has been great to get together with friends in between family visits this summer. Last week, Cade and I went to Houston to see Kelsey, Natalie, and Henry. "Baby" Henry is growing up so fast, especially now that we don't see him every week anymore! All of the kids had fun splashing in the backyard pool as soon as we got there.



Cade showed Natalie his newest toys, two Transformers. This is what happens when Cade and Chance go to Target with me :) It is so interesting to see how Cade and Natalie have grown in to such a BOY and a GIRL. Cade introduced Natalie to his Transformers and Natalie insisted on wearing her "princess dress" after the pool.



We stayed with the Johnson's for dinner and were so happy to share a meal and fellowship with our wonderful friends. We can't wait to see you again!

This weekend, Cade and I went to New Braunfels for a get together with my high school friends. The night before, we spent the night at Oma and Opa's house, where Cade and Opa cooled off in the pool.



Jenny and Ryan were so sweet to open their home to all of us for our annual summer gathering. It was so great to see my girlfriends from high school and their families. Even though we don't see each other very often, we always have such great chats and love seeing our kids play together.

Here are Clark, Walker, Fischer, Cade, and Marianne playing upstairs



Walker, Cade, Marianne, Fischer, and Hayes in the pool



And the girls! Emily, Melissa, Jennifer (expecting Baby Boy Marlow #3!), Jenny, and Alyssa

White Haired Nana's House

On our way to Dallas last week, we stopped by Chance's Nana's house in Bremond. This was actually Cade's first trip to her house since Nana always comes to Bryan for family get togethers. So, Chance was pretty excited that Cade was getting to play in the same house he did as a little boy.

Cade gave White Hair Nana the same treatment he gives everyone - roaring!



Nana said that all of her great-grandkids love doing domino trains in her living room, and Cade was no exception! We could hardly get them built before he knocked them down.



Another very fun part of Nana's house is climbing the steep stairs to the 2nd floor. Chance remembers climbing these stairs as a boy and Cade went up and down them many, many times.



Thanks for letting us spend the night with you, Nana! We promise to come back soon!

Xavier Turns 4!

Family trip #2 of the summer was to Dallas last weekend for Xavier's 4th birthday! We have been in Dallas the first weekend of July ever since Xavier was born and we love being there during such a festive time. All of the Locklear children except Lindsay were there, so it was great to see everybody. Lindsay wasn't just skipping out... she is a senior counselor ALL SUMMER at Pine Cove Christian Camp. She is a patient lady!

We started off our fun with playtime in Papaw and Melly's backyard pool.



Papaw and his grandkids!



Saturday morning we went to a splash pad to begin Xavier's birthday fun. The cousins had a great time splashing together!



Where's Papaw? Covered in a bucketful of water, thanks to his loving son and grandkids!



So many fun water toys



Then we went to Sheri and Bob's new house for Xavier's birthday party. Uncle Austin and Aunt Danielle helped the kids put together some of Xavier's new legos.



We ate Xavier's two favorite foods - pizza and ice cream. This boy has good taste!



Cade thought the party was really fun but apparently exhausting.



On Saturday night, we took our annual family trip to Joe's Crab Shack. Everyone had a great dinner and it was lots of fun.



Afterwards, the boys got to watch a movie on the big TV in Papaw's media room. They thought this was about the greatest thing in the world.



Happy Birthday, Xavier! We love you!