Miscellaneous

I have been a terrible blogger. We have been busy, but it seems like I never got the time to sit and download pictures, write about what we have been doing, etc. Anyway, this post will be a wrap-up of the summer and the beginning of the fall.


In July, our sweet nephew/the boys' cousin turned 1! It is so hard to believe; I think his first year went by incredibly fast. The kids had a wonderful time at Isaac's party. Here is the birthday boy with Uncle Roger celebrating. Ha!




We were so lucky to go on two trips to the beach this summer! For the first trip, we went to Corpus with Gigi, Pappy, Uncle Matt, and Aunt Avery. The kids loved playing in the waves, digging in the sand, and swimming in the pool. I have no clue why Barrett is making a grouchy face in this picture, but rest assured that they did have a great time. :)




On that same beach trip, we took the boys to the Texas State Aquarium. They loved seeing the animals and fish. The dolphins were the highlight of the visit! The kids liked the waterfall at the entrance, too!




Our second beach trip was to Port Aransas with Honey, Dude, Uncle Adam, and Aunt Erin. I unfortunately didn't get any pictures of this trip, but we did much of the same: lots of swimming, playing at the beach, flying kites, and visiting the local candy store (twice).


Daddy wasn't able to come along for either of the beach trips due to his work schedule. We were able to get in some family time here at home instead by taking the kids bowling for the first time. They had so much fun! We will definitely be taking them again soon.

Since the weather was absolutely hellish, we also spent a good amount of time indoors. I took the boys to see a couple of movies. We saw Winnie the Pooh (Hunter's first movie in a theater that he remembers) and Veggietales. They did a great job sitting through both of them! Here are the kids with Mason, Samantha, and Emily.

The boys began school at the beginning of September (the picture at the top of the blog is the first day of school). They are both doing amazingly well! Barrett is enjoying Pre-K and is learning so much. He is doing well with writing his name, he can already read quite a few books, and will count as high as you let him. Hunter is having a great time playing with his friends, he is identifying letters and numbers, and loves singing the songs he learns at school. Roger and I are so proud of both of them, and we are thrilled that they have such a love of learning already.

In September, Hunter turned 2 1/2, so he was officially old enough to begin swim lessons! He had been looking forward to swim lessons for a while, especially since he watches Barrett's lessons every week. He completed his 2 week swim camp and is now in the goldfish class. He is learning to float and flip from his front to back. Here he is on his last day of guppy swim camp with his sweet teacher, Miss Lynn.

A few weeks ago, Roger received an award from the Texas Surgical Society, which meant we all go to take a trip to the TSS conference in Austin! We stayed at the Barton Creek Resort, which was absolutely beautiful. Roger was busy attending meetings, so the boys and I got to spend some time together before they went to Gigi and Pappy's condo so Roger and I could attend some of the evening events. The boys are always so excited to stay in hotels, and this was definitely no exception. The first night we stayed there, the kids and I ordered room service and had a "picnic" in our room. So much fun! I am thrilled that they already love Austin as much as Roger and I do.

Well, that is the end of my wrap-up. I know I have left out quite a few events, but hopefully I will be a little better with devoting more time to the blog. :)

May and June

Even though it was over 2 months ago, I can't forget to post about Barrett's 4th birthday! We had a party for him at Chuck E. Cheese's, one of his favorite places. He and his friends had a great time! Here are my sweet boys.




Barrett and one of his little buddies from school

Getting ready to blow out the candles on his cake

This one is blurry, but you can see him in the ticket blaster catching the tickets. It was pretty funny!

I still cannot believe he is already 4 years old. Time really has gone by so quickly...weren't Roger and I just bringing him home from the hospital??

Another fun event that I have to at least mention is our grown-up trip to New Orleans with our friends, the LeRouaxs. This picture pretty much sums up our trip:

Drinks in hand before noon. Ha! It was great to get away for a few days with some great friends. We ate too much food, had some yummy drinks, and relaxed. Barrett and Hunter had a great time with Honey and Dude, and I am pretty sure they didn't miss us too much (one phone call to Barrett went like this: "Hi mom, bye mom.")



June was pretty uneventful as far as trips. We did make it up to Gigi and Pappy's to spend the night. We got up early the next morning and went to King's Orchard to do some blueberry picking. The boys had a good time, even if they ate most of their pickings before we even left the orchard. :)

Just a silly picture from a lunch out to CFA.

Last but not least, here is my precious newphew at the Bluebell Festival in Brenham. Isn't he precious??? Can't believe he will be one next weekend!

Way Late- Easter

It was just Memorial Day, and I'm posting about Easter. Makes perfect sense to me! :) It's been busy with end of school, Daddy's work schedule, traveling, and various sicknesses. Hopefully I can get some more posting done before too long.

Anyway, we had a great Easter! The kids did confetti eggs at the house (the boys call them "party eggs") and got their treats from the Easter bunny. We had a great church service, saw my sweet nephew, and drove up to Gigi and Pappy's house for Easter lunch and egg hunting.

The kids loved hunting the eggs and spending so much time with Roger's side of the family. After the egg hunt, the Smith men went down to the pond to try to catch some fish. Unfortunately, the fish just weren't biting that day. :(

Blog Catch-Up #3: Houston Museum of Natural Science

I am ashamed to say that I had not taken the boys to HMNS until a few weeks ago. I honestly don't know why. Maybe I thought they wouldn't like it, it was too pricey, whatever. I knew they would enjoy seeing the everything . Our good friends, the Burkharts (who are museum lovers), came with us on a Tuesday a few weeks ago. Our plan was to head to the Cockrell Butterfly Exhibit, wander the regular exhibit halls, then have a picnic lunch before heading home.

We all had a wonderful time! Our visit didn't turn out exactly like we planned (due to us having to evacuate the museum in the middle of trying to get into the permanent exhibit halls) but everything worked out perfectly. We just ate lunch a bit early, then we were able to re-enter the museum to finish our visit.

Here are the boys in front of this suit of armor. With all the bugs/games/butterflies around, this was their favorite! Haha! And yes, Barrett is wearing a crown from Burger King. ????

A giant beetle





Hunter searching the leaves for butterflies and caterpillars.

All 3 kids in front of the iguana cage.

The boys really loved the thermal handprint screens in the chemistry hall. It was a lot more kid-friendly than I expected it to be!

Definitely one of the highlights of the day: the pendulum! We stood there for quite some time watching the little blocks get knocked down. When a block would fall, the kids would cheer! Too cute! As a side note, we looked pretty interesting with Barrett in his crown and Bekah in her tutu. :)

Blog Catch-Up #2: Roger's MS 150

About 8 months ago, one of Roger's good friends, Stuart, asked Roger if he would like to ride the MS 150 together. Roger wasn't too sure at first, but he then decided it would be such a great experience. He works so hard at the hospital and never really gets to do anything for himself, so this was the perfect opportunity. He worked hard and trained for the next few months, going for rides around Pearland, using his trainer to "ride" in the living room, and signing up for bike events around the city.

The weekend finally arrived! Since the participants had to arrive so early on that Saturday morning, so Roger spent the night at his parents' house so he was close to the check-in area. He started his ride (Houston to La Grange for Day 1), while the boys and I drove up to Austin to spend some time with Gigi. We visited the Shipleys (of course), played with trucks, and hung out.

Roger's second day was riding from La Grange to Austin. The original plan was that I would get the boys to take an early nap, then we would all head downtown to the finish line to watch Roger ride into Austin. Well, Roger called me while I took the boys to the park to say that he would get in sooner than expected. We ate a quick lunch with Gigi, skipped the naps altogether, then drove downtown to park and find a spot to watch for Roger. The boys were troopers despite waiting in the sun and not napping. It was really crowded and difficult to get close enough for the boys to see.

The finish line!

Luckily, some friends found us and let us stand with them so that the kids would be able to see Roger a little better. We got a phone call from Stuart that they would be riding in soon, so we got ready! When we saw Roger cross the finish line, we were so excited! The boys cheered, and I almost forgot to get a picture!

Here they are riding past the finish line. Roger is in the red jersey.

The participants! Barrett had to get in with Daddy. That is Stuart and his girlfriend, Jennifer, on the left. I have to say that out of all the people in their group, she definitely looked the least tired! Hee hee!

We couldn't be more proud of Roger! He worked so hard and challenged himself, and also raised money for a wonderful cause. Hopefully we will be there again next year!

Blog Catch-Up #1: Hunter's birthday party

There are quite a few things that have happened in the past 6 weeks or so that I haven't had a chance to write about yet, so I am going to do my best to catch up!

I didn't do a post about Hunter's 2nd birthday yet! We did a circus party at our house, and it turned out pretty cute, if I do say so myself. My friend Emily helped me make a ton of decorations. We had 5 different activities set up for the kids: digging for treasure (I buried plastic gold coins in the sand box), bean bag toss, fishing (a fishing game from Lakeshore that I put in the kids' water table), making a clown hat (and clown noses), and face painting (thanks Aunt Avery!). The kids got little popcorn bags to carry their prizes from the games. We also had a circus tent-shaped pinata filled with lollipops and fruit snacks. For the food, we served hot dogs, popcorn, fruit, and everyone's favorite: donut holes that Pappy and Gigi brought from the shop in Austin! I think everyone had a great time! I know Hunter did...I barely saw him the entire party! I was too busy at the party, so I didn't get a chance to take many pictures. I'm waiting on family members to send me the pictures they got, so hopefully I can add some soon. Here are the two that I have:

The cupcakes! It was all homemade, even fancy schmancy swiss meringe buttercream frosting! We decorated some to look like clowns and just piped the frosting on the others. The plain ones had cupcake toppers that had either an "H" or a "2" on top. The circus animal cookies in the bowl were the kids' party favors.



Spider Man, a.k.a. the birthday boy, opening his gifts after the party. His shirt is soaked from "fishing" in the water table. I am still shocked that he sat so still for Aunt Avery to get all that face paint on him!



We had such a fun day! It is over a month later, and I still cannot believe our little man is 2 already (though Hunter certainly has days where he exhibits some classic 2 year-old behavior!). He cracks us up with his sense of humor, he surprises us with his thoughts, he makes us smile with his story-telling, and he makes us proud all the time. We love you Hunter!

Family Camping Trip

Ever since Barrett's first camping trip back in November, he has been asking to go back. Roger and I decided that April was probably the last time we would be able to take the boys camping since it would just get too hot. We packed up our supplies and headed to Brazos Bend State Park with both boys. Now I have to say that camping is not my favorite thing in the world. I would much rather be in my cozy bed than in a sleeping bag on the ground, but I didn't want to miss out on the fun, especially since it was Hunter's first time. :)

We got to our campsite, and the boys started to help Roger set up the tent. They couldn't wait to crawl inside and check things out!

After getting everything ready, we went to the Nature Center at the park to look at their displays and see the baby alligators. There are quite a few alligators in the different lakes at the park (we didn't see any). Barrett and Hunter both got to pet the baby alligator.

The center also had a display of different animal bones. Hunter really liked the turtle shell the best.

The kids wanted to roast hot dogs for dinner and have smores for dessert. Here are the Smith men enjoying hot dogs al fresco.

It was bed time after the dinner and smores. It wasn't the best night's sleep, but we made it until morning. Hunter only woke up once asking to go home, so I guess that is a success. The boys were excited to find raccoon paw prints near our fire and all over Daddy's truck in the morning! Here they are showing them to us.

What is camping without a little bird watching??

We pretty much packed up and headed home a little after breakfast since Roger had to work that night. We had a really good time! I'm sure there will be many more camping trips in our future!

T-Ball

At the end of March, Barrett started playing t-ball with our local YMCA. It is not the most organized program, but it is relaxed and very positive, which is exactly what we were hoping it would be. We just wanted Barrett to have a good time and enjoy being part of a team, which he has! He has practice/games one night a week, and there are about 7 kids on his "Cardinals" team. Here are some pictures from one of his practices.

Doing some stretches to warm up

Waiting for his turn to bat

Making sure B has a good batting grip

He still has about 3 weeks left in his t-ball season. This past week, Barrett's good buddy Mason (who also is a Cardinal but with the Little League) came to watch a practice and game. Barrett was so excited to have a friend cheering for him as he played first base then batted.

Go Cardinals! How cute do they look in their little hats??

Sea World- Lots of Pictures!

So we had not taken a vacation with the boys in almost a year. We went to the beach last summer, but I think that was the last time we took a little family trip. Roger and I decided that his week of vacation in March would be a great time to take the boys to Sea World, especially since the park was opening up the week before Spring Break. It worked out perfectly! We were able to stay with our friends, the Whitesides, and visit my BFF from college, Jenn, and her family! To top it all off, our pals the LeRouaxs joined us on our trip!

We picked the boys up from school and set off for San Antonio. Here are the boys about halfway through the drive. They were getting a little silly.




We met our friends, the Yantis family, for dinner at a great kid-friendly restaurant. We got to visit while the boys ran around this large open grassy area. After dinner, we went to the Whitesides' house and got settled. The boys were super excited to see Evie! We miss seeing her and her family since they moved to San Antonio last year.


After a pretty good night's sleep, we packed our gear and headed toward Sea World. I would just like to say that the day could not have gone any better. We had GORGEOUS weather, an empty parking lot, no crowds or lines to wait in, and great company! We met up with the LeRouaxs, Jenn and Lily, and one of Emily's good friends from college and her two kids.


The Smith clan in front of Sea World



The first stop was the dolphin tank. We split the cost of a tray of fish, and all of the kids were able to feed the dolphins! So cool!


Mason, Barrett, and Hunter checking things out.




Barrett getting up close and personal with Flipper.




The next stop was the coral reef aquarium and shark exhibit. We knew all of the kids would love this part, and we were right! Lots of great sea creatures!




Next up was the first show of the day, the sea lion show. Everyone enjoyed it! Here is our family, with our extra son, Mason. I think we were pretty into it, no?





After the show, we walked to the children's section of the park. There were so many fun rides to go on! The mommies had the honor of taking the big boys on the rides while the daddies hung out with the littler kids.


Here we are on the Little Shamu roller coaster. It was a HUGE hit with Mason and Barrett, and I think we rode it about 4 times throughout the day.




The second ride was the "Ferris wheel" type ride. We all sat in these little pods, which went around in a big circle. Hunter was able to go on this with us!





Emily was a good sport and took both big boys on this ride that dropped you straight down (I'm not a fan of those kinds of rides). Anyway, Barrett loved it!



The next ride was this caterpillar-looking thing that swung back and forth and spinned you around. I got a little goofy on this one. Barrett liked it a lot and was cracking up the whole time!




We also rode the Sesame Street themed carousel.

We decided we had a pretty full morning, so we made a lunch stop. Emily and I decided it was time for some grown-up roller coaster fun, so we headed toward the Steel Eel and the Great White. We made a pit stop by the alligator enclosure first. Hunter really liked it. We also swung by the penguin exhibit. Hunter loved that it was snowing inside their habitat!

After our grown-up coaster time (and a hoarse voice from screaming my head off), we settled in for some ice cream and the second show of the day, Shamu! All of the kids were captivated by this show, and sat completely still for the entire thing! The whales were so graceful and beautiful.

After a second trip to the children's area and some more rides, we went to the third and final show of the day, Azul. This show had dolphins, beluga whales, and divers doing a Cirque du Soleil-type routine. Of course we had to top it all off with a little blue cotton candy. :)

Sea World closed at 5 that afternoon, which worked out perfectly. We were all pretty tired from such a fun-filled day, and the boys were troopers, especially considering there were no naps that day. Hunter did nod off in his stroller on the way to the parking lot.

When we arrived back at the Whitesides, Mary Pat had cooked a delicious dinner for us! We put the kids to bed, visited a bit, then went to bed ourselves.

The next morning was our drive back home. Before we left, Evie gave Hunter his birthday present since we wouldn't see them at his party.

Hunter and Evie

We had such a wonderful time! Thank you to the Whitesides for being wonderful hosts and hostesses! We can't wait to see you all again soon. And, thank you to the LeRouaxs for being our travel buddies! We love vacationing with you guys, even if Emily might never ride a roller coaster with me again. :)