It's here! It's here! Summer is finally here! And here is a big fat breakdown of all of the highlights:
Allison Visits TX:
Well, despite her weeklong super fun visit we didn't manage to take too many pictures. Actually we took about two and here they are:
Stopping for an ice cream break at the outlets...
...and eating some yummy Mexican food in Gruene, TX
Schlitterbahn:
Aunt Allison is building a baby right now so she took the year off from Schlitterbahn. But me and these three cuties still went and we had a great time!
Random Isaac Backyard Fun:
This kid cannot get enough of the water.
Beach Day!
We took our annual trip to Padre Island with friends and had a beautiful day.
Lillie brought her friend Ava along this year
Isaac still isn't a huge fan of the ocean but he knows how to make his own fun for sure
There's my hottie. Just chillin'.
Bocce Ball - a family favorite
Thanks for being awesome Watson family. You are some of my favorites ever!
Father's Day:
Happy Father's Day to 2 of the best dads that I know. My own and that one that Dads my kids all the time. We are so grateful for all that you do and all that you are to make these families great!
Grant's 1st Year at Cub Camp:
Grant has been really excited to go to Cub Camp with his pack. This year they started hiring counselors and didn't need parent volunteers any more so these are the pics from the first day when I dropped him off. But he came home super happy every day and learned a lot of great stuff!
The "Baby" Pool:
It's just a teeny thing but man to these kids have a great time in it. Even the big kids get excited when I bust it out. We only bring it out a couple of times a summer because really as far as baby pools go it's pretty big and cumbersome. Uses lots of water and takes forever to clean it up right. But that just keeps it special and provides some serious hours of entertainment when it does get set up.
Playing exploding kittens with one of my all time favorite humans
Landa Park Aquatic Center:
We try and make it a habit to come to this fantastic place at least once a year. This year we heard from one of our favorite past missionaries Sis. Alexis Iverson! She was back in Austin helping out a family and wanted to meet up for the day. What a great excuse to introduce yet another person to this fun pool!
S mastering the ropes
Trying out a new ice-cream place: Rhea's
The consensus was "Superb and must be gotten on each subsequent Landa trip"
More Random Summer Fun:
Hangin' out with Nana - he loves her so much!
Swimming with Matthew and Weston
Cuddling on the Thomas couch for early morning cartoons
Samuel Turns 11:
Happy Birthday Samuel! I can't believe that you're already 11 AND about to go to Middle School! You are such a great kid and we are so proud of you. You are definitely the family comedian and keep us laughing (especially at the dinner table) all the time. We are so glad that you are part of our family!
S with his favorite food group: cereal
1st Ipod!!!
That's a pretty sweet Pokemon case dude
S spent a happy morning setting up and exploring his new device
Lunch at Taco Cabana (definitely his favorite restaurant)...
...followed by dessert at Bahama Buck
...ending with a yummy family dinner!
For family birthday S chose Ice Cream since he would be doing a cake the next day. Nice choice!
The following day Samuel invited some of his best friends over
to go and watch the opening day of Despicable Me 3
(William, Sam, Harlon, Dane, Robert, Teancum)
Donut Cake!
(From Shipley's his favorite donut place)
I love these pics of Isaac watching the construction. I absolutely hated all of this going on for two years behind our house but the bonus really was that Isaac was the right age to enjoy it. He'd come out here often to drive his cars on the deck bench and keep an eye on the construction workers. (And no there was not a random TX summer cold front. Isaac just discovered his old (and frankly too small) jacket and insisted he wear it.)
11 Year Old Scout Camp:
Now that he's about to be 11 and has done 3 years of cub camp S got to go the 11 year old scout camp put on by North Stake. It was 4 days of events at the stake center and S had a great time. He liked it a whole lot more that regular cub camp. These pics are from the one day that I was a volunteer.
Orienteering
These two were happy to be able to spend camp together instead of being split up like in the past
Game Night at the Watsons:
Happy 36th Birthday Dad!:
We had a pretty fun and chill dad with Tim to celebrate his birthday. (Just the way he likes it)
Presents in the morning
Lillie baked him a yummy loaf of her famous homemade bread
A family trip to see Cars 3
And ending with a dinner date with mom and Cheesecake with the kids.
Happy Birthday! We love you so much!
4th of July:
One of my favorite days of the year! We began the day with a yummy ward breakfast:
Nana is so sweet to let Isaac put stickers all over her!
Posting the colors
L and Reagan
G, Walker Chalk, Parker Blan, hmmm...Walker Chalks little brother?
Ward Games!
.....Then we spent the afternoon with some fun family games:
Pogo Sticks
and slack lines! (L practiced this every day for awhile and she got really good!)
...and of course we went down to Boerne for fun, food, friends, and fireworks
S gettin' his game on in ultimate frisbee
I. looking waaaay hotter and sun burned that he actually was.
But he WAS having an enormously good time at the playground!
I., S., Little Andrew, Carol Larry, G., some random kid...
L brought Emma Albrethsen along
This year Isaac was NOT a fan of the fireworks. He has decided that he doesn't like loud sounds anymore. He did well though. He whimpered at first and then just laid back on my chest, made me wrap my arms around him, and closed his eyes and went to his happy place.
Happy 4th of July everyone! I am so grateful to live in a country where I can live and worship as I choose. I know that I am incredibly blessed and wish that every human being on this earth could be afforded those same basic rights.
Back to random fun:
I. testing out his new puddle jumper. (He loves this things and wears it all day every day)
Happy times at mutual with Abigail Salter, Reagan, and Emma
Hahahaha! These boys woke up this morning and dressed as triplets without even realizing it!
L starting her garden
I. loves this mask and asks to put it on every time we go to HEB
I. also loves summertime library trips. But he leaves the choosing of the books to me while he imitates the big kids on the computers
Chick Fil A Day!
Nighttime swimming with Matthew and Weston
Man do these two totally love each other
We went to a fun community pool in a part of SA we've never been to and then got some yummy ice cream at a little Michoacana. So good! Thanks for hanging out with us Aunt Laura and William!
Happy 13th Birthday Lillie!:
Happy birthday you beautiful girl! I cannot believe that you are officially a teenager! So far you are my favorite one that I have ever known ;) You are so loving, kind, confident, creative, and helpful. I love how you know who you are and you stay away from drama. Everyone who knows you just loves you and you bring so much light into the world. I love being your mom and am so grateful that you are part of our family!
We started celebrating the morning before with breakfast at Magnolia with friends. Super Yum!
(Ginger Lichlyter, Janna Meadows, Amy Livingstone,
Payton and McKay Lichlyter, L, I, and Sage Livingstone)
Breakfast tacos on the actual day!
L received a James Avery charm bracelet that she loved!
L wanted to spend the day downtown with all of us and we were very honored. Plus SA has a super great downtown and its just such a fun place to be!
Checking out the fire station museum
enjoying dippin' dots while we shopped
Burgers with the family at Chris Madrids
Ice cream brownie cake. The best kind of cake there is!
Family Vacation 2017: Ouachita National Forest, Arkansas
Tim wanted to do a super chill outdoors vacation this year. His real desire was to take the kids backpacking. I pointed out that Isaac might not quite be ready for something like that. So we compromised for his sake and found a cute little house in the Ouachita National Forest. It was on an few acres of land in the middle of goreous forest, and had two goats to feed, chickens to collect fresh eggs from each day, and a veggie garden to pull food from. We spent most of our days hiking different trails, finding beautiful places to swim, and digging up dirt looking for precious gems (I had no idea that Arkansas had so many gem stones in the ground but it's totally a thing!) Unfortunately it turns out that digging and finding things is something that no one in our family is good at so we got frustrated after a couple of days trying. But it's good to try new things!
Showing off our freshly gathered eggs!
Feeding the goats (this was an electric fence that we'd turn off in order to pet and feed these bad boys but it always had to be turned back on or they'd escape. Isaac was always running towards in despite all of our warnings. Luckily he never got shocked but it was always scary!)
Day 1: Crater of Diamonds State Park
This was day one of digging in the nations (maybe the worlds?) only above ground diamond mine. People find diamonds every few weeks or so and we thought we'd take part in the local fun. As mentioned above it was not our family's talent. But it was fun to dig and sluice for awhile. Luckily they had a super fun pool here too and we were able to spend the afternoon enjoying that. (No idea why there are no pics of it though!)
Enjoying our omelets of farm fresh eggs and veggies picked straight from the garden.
This was L's and mine breakfast of choice each day <3
Day 2: Hiking
Unfortunately I'm blogging this waaay later than the actual trip and I can't remember the name of this hike. What I do remember is that it took forever to get to on an incredibly narrow and rocky climbing mountain road, we never saw another car or person up there, and it was incredibly gorgeous! Seriously, before this trip I would have said Arkansas was a pretty blah looking state. I had no idea how breathtaking it is!
We had such a fun time up here and the solitude was seriously awesome
Lounging around the house.
So glad we discovered vacation rentals. We will never go back.
Day 3: Ka-Do-Ha Indian Village/ Museum, ice cream at a cute little shop
I'm a big believer in the fact that all long vacations have at least one blah day and this was it for us. This place was super lame. We read that this place had a huge field to dig in where you were guaranteed to find tons of arrowheads! So we decided to give digging for treasure another shot. Poor move on our part as parents really. It was messy, incredibly hot, and we found nothing. Turns out the guarantee was that at the end they just let you pick arrowheads out of a box if you didn't find anything. Lame!
That's ok though. Because after we cleaned up and left we found this super cute old time-y soda fountain that had lots of fun nostalgic things to buy, great ice cream, and some cute antique shops around it to bum around in.
Day 4: Paddleboarding at DeGray Lake
This was something new for all of us and also something that we all wanted to try. It was a complete hit and we were all pretty good at it.
Relaxing with Isaac while the bigs enjoy the paddleboards.
I got on them too and really enjoyed them!
Tim took the big kids on a snorkeling tour way out on the lake and I took Isaac to a shallow beach for a couple of hours. This is a pic of him on the ride over. Earlier I mentioned that he wears his puddle jumpers almost constantly....well....goggle over his eyes has been a pretty constant theme this summer as well. Too cute!
Isaac absolutely loves feeding the chickens. (He would pick the small tomatoes from the garden and toss them over the fence...shhhh...) He also named them. All the brown ones were called Caramel and all of the black and white ones were called Oreo. What a cutie patootie.
Day 5: Hot Springs, Arkansa - Home of President Bill Clinton
The last day in AR we spent in Hot Springs at the totally and completely awesome Mid America Science Museum. Ok so we've been to plenty of interactive science museums and love them a lot. But this one was out of this world amazing. The exhibits were ones we hadn't seen before so that was a lot of fun but I think a lot of it was just that it wasn't nearly as busy because it's...you know...kinda in the middle of nowhere. So we were able to enjoy and participate in everything without being jostled by a lot of other museum goers.
I think I spent at least 3 hours with Isaac at this water thing and Tim spent another 2. He would not leave it and didn't need to see another darn thing there!
Tim and Lillie spent a couple of hours solving some kind of mystery themed exhibit they had with puzzles and mind games. They beat the game and here's Lillie's certificate to prove it!
We spent the afternoon walking the shopping district of Hot Springs. We found lots of cute shops to explore and buy souvenirs in and of course another yummy ice cream and treat shop!
Arkansas you were gorgeous, relaxing, and a lot of fun!
Family vacations are the best!
L with a pair of Cars pants that she sewed just for Isaac
Happy 59th b-day Grammy! Get ready for a big shin-dig next year!
Summer is the best - night swimming with Aunties and sibs
Girls Camp: Level 2
Lillie is a level 2 this year and lucky for me she still doesn't mind if I tag along as a leader! That's good because I love girls camp and I love it even more when I get to be there with her!
Our crew (Sonterra Ward) before we headed out
Lillie had a fun idea to make mother/daughter tshirts for us to wear at camp.
This is shirt one of two that we made.
USO Party Night !:
They had an open karaoke on the first night and it was seriously such a total blast!
L, Emma Simonsen, Emma Albrethsen
-
Mary Candland, Payton or McKay, L, Emma
My level 2 cabin girls
We most definitely defied the "no snacks in your cabin" rule
The theme of the camp was "B.O.O.T. Camp" as in Building Our Own Testimonies. Super cute. Also, Sis. Libby Brunson the fittest woman in our ward (also the stake) was asked to be in charge of morning exercises. This was definitely not something that was usual to see at girls camp but she really made it so much fun!
Shirt 2 of 2!
Despite the look on her face she was all about these shirts
Leaders: Elizabeth Bragg, Joy Turner, and Libby Brunson
(We love you ladies!)
L with Sandy Starr (YW Pres) and Kennedi Lichlyter
Craft time - L's favorite place to be
Level 2 skit
L volunteering for an object lesson with Bro. Turner.
She said this stuff was incredibly heavy!
End of Summer Random Fun:
We got a (very VERY short) visit from the Hollands and S and G were able to hang out with
Odell and Gordon for a few minutes. Seriously. It was a short visit.
On one of Isaac's spend the night adventures at Grammy and Grandad's this summer he discover Auntie Allisons old stuffed bear and loves it. He's been told he has to leave it there but each time he goes back he makes sure to find it and cart it around and sleep with it at bedtime.
One night while L was gone her brothers did this.We kept her eyes from seeing this pic until she grew out of those suits because we knew she would NEVER wear them again once she saw this!
L and I were driving around getting last minute school clothes when we noticed a shake shack had opened up outside of North Star Mall! It was incredibly recent and we found out after that it was only the 2nd day it was open. Anyway, I love this place after I had it a few times in NYC and had to introduce L to their shakes.....they were just as fantastic as I remembered!
Enjoying our last night of summer (well Saturday) with dinner at Chuy's - a family favorite
What a fantastic summer this was! I had such a great time with you all and am so sad to have to send you back to school. I know you're going to have a fabulous year though!
