A New Find

We found this awesome public swimming pool in the heart of San Antonio. Apparently it's in the 2nd oldest park in the nation being beaten by Boston Common. The park is fabulous and it has this HUGE pool. You can see about 1/2 of it here but there is no way to comprehend the hugeness of it unless you see it in person. Half of it is shaded, it's got a beach entry for the little ones, and most of it is 2 to 3 feet so Lillie and Samuel have free reign. It used to be spring fed but with common droughts they made it a chlorine pool instead. Anyway, it was such a fun place to hang out on a hot afternoon and it was totally free! I'm amazed that I've lived in this city for most of my life and never knew about this. It gives me hope for other awesome finds around SA.

Celebrating the 4th TX Style

Well, there were no fireworks here. San Antonio and surrounding areas are going through such a severe drought right now that the burn bans even extended to proffessional fireworks shows. Diss-a-point-ing. But.... we still had a great time. We celebrated with our good friends the Easton's and our new friends the Calta's at the lake. We enjoyed lots of yummy food, friends, and tubing behind the ski boat. Enjoyed the 4th very much this year and as always, I feel so grateful to live in a country that allows me to worship as I choose and do as I please...mostly. Here are pics:

My contribution to dinner a.k.a. Audrey's most best favorite salsa

Yum. I can eat only this for dinner and be satisfied.

So, these pics aren't super great but I do want to preserve the memories. So you will have to rely on my desripctions to know who's behind the boat.

Tim and Audrey

Mike got pretty crazy. Crazy enough to be fun for me without throwing me off the tube.

Samuel and our friend Madison
Audrey and Grant. Grant loved being on the boat and kept pointing back to Tim and saying "gook" (look) to make sure I was looking too.

Here is Lillie with our friends Michelle and Kris. I was so proud of her for wanting to ride. She got bounced around a ton and almost flew off a couple of times but she was still dissappointed when it was time to come in.

And here are the boys: Tim and Kris. Mike did not go easy on them. They flew off quite a few times and loved every minute. And Mike was satisfied.

In the water

Man Overboard! Madison was a good flag holder.

Grant WOULD NOT get in the lake

Samuel did get in the lake however and I was very impressed. When we first got there he was scared. He didn't want to jump in because the water level was a lot lower than normal so from deck to water it was a good 3 foot drop. But by the end of the afternoon he was jumping in with the rest of them. Samuel has really made some great progress with his swimming this summer.

And Lillie our little fish. This was the best shot I could get of her as she kept dodging the camera. She was pretty mad that I made her wear a life jacket. We kept telling her "we know you can swim, but if you go under for some reason we won't be able to see where you went and we will never find you." She wasn't buying it. She did manage to have fun though with only small moments of poutiness.

Fun day! We thought about you a lot today Brian and as always you are in our thoughts and prayers.

Happy 30th Tim!

So, 30 is pretty big and I wanted to give Tim a memorable birthday. I had lots of fun things planned but the icing on the cake was when Jason decided to fly down last minute-ish in a very top secret way. He flew in Thursday night (June 30th). I told Tim I had some last minute birthday things to pick up while he put the kids in bed and I left to pick up his last minute birthday thing: Jason. We were both excited. So about a minute out from home Jason calls Tim to tell him he hopes he has a Happy B-day and he's sorry he can't be there for the Big 3-oh. Then he says: 'hey what about this. If I got on a plane tonight Audrey could come pick me up and I'd be there for tomorrow. You know, maybe she'd go out grocery shopping and swing by the airport (at this point I'm opening the door) and bring me here and I'd walk the the door RIGHT NOW!" Then he walks through the door and jumps in front of Tim who's watching TV. It was awesome. Tim was totally surprised and all of our stealthy planning paid off. Here is a reenactment:

Tim, so unassuming, not ever dreaming I could or would pull this off

Hey Bro!

What the WHAT!?!

No Way!!!

Dude, this is the best! I can't believe you're here!

I had also called his boss a week and a half before and arranged for Tim to have the day off from work. So for Tim's b-day we made him a big breakfast, then Jason and Tim went and hung out, saw Transformers 3, and did brother stuff while I got everything ready for a surprise-ish party. I'm pretty sure Tim knew we were having a get together I'm just not sure he realized that I invited all of his friends over. We had some families, and my parents over for BBQ and we had a lot of fun.

Tim with his 30 candles on cheesecake

"You're going skydiving daddy!"

Super fun birthday! The kids were of course so excited to have Uncle Jason for a visit. None of them knew that he was coming and when he got in they were already sleeping. So in the morning they come in to our bedroom and say "mom, who's that man on our couch?" Too funny. Here are some fun pics the night before he left:

Jason attempting to copy Grant's classic Grant face.

Jason we are so glad you could come and hang out with us this weekend and celebrate with Tim. And Tim, I hope you had a fabulous birthday!

Skydiving!

So, Skydiving is technically part of Tim's birthday weekend but it totally deserves it's own post. So Tim has been wanting to skydive for years and I thought "what better way to celebrate his turning 30 than fall to out of an airplane?" I fully intended on going, then chickened out after a friend scared me, then got to the skydive place saw Tim signing his life away and all the cool pics on the wall and wanted to do it too. Luckily, they had a spot open and we got to go on this awesome adventure together! And Bonus! Jason was there to share it with us and be our photographer.

We had just signed our lives away (and all rights to sue) to Skydive San Marcos.

Why shouldn't we look happy?

Getting strapped in by "Scooter" and getting some very minimal training. There wasn't much you needed to know:

bend down, rock back and forth, tilt head back, fall to your possible death,

arch back, stick arms out, enjoy!

Me with my instructor Ray. I'm telling him how I very much do not wish to die.

Tim: "Let's do this" I believe he is also thinking "my wife is awesome...and Hot"

It's fun to fall out of the sky together!

Getting loaded up

Falling out of the sky

Audrey

Tim

Success! Happy Birthday Babe, I had an awesome time!

Thanks Jason for being such a great photographer!

Happy 5th Birthday Samuel!

Samuel turned 5 on June 29th. Thank you everyone for your phone calls, cards, and gifts. They all made Samuel feel very very special. Here are pics from the day:

He started out by opening his present from Tim and I which was the

NEW! Super Mario Bros. Wii game that he has been coveting for a few months now.

He was very excited as was Grant who wanted to be holding his own DVD for the picture.

Here are Tim and Samuel getting a game in before Tim leaves for work.

And here is Samuel with his gift from Grandma and Grandpa. He's been wanting motorcycles for a long time now and he LOVES these! He played with them all day and slept with them all night. 5 days later and he still loves them just as much. Great gift G-ma and G-pa!

For Christmas we bought Samuel an old Ninja Turtles DVD at Half Price Books and he fell in love with them. Hence the Ninja Turtle Birthday theme. Since the last time anyone cared about the Ninja Turtles it was 1991 there is nothing in the store and practically nothing online so I had to get creative. It was a lot of fun! Here is the cake:

And here is the homemade pinata. I was nervous about how this would hold up but it turned out to be WAY better than any store bought one and I think we'll do homemade ones from now on.

All the kids with their pinata loot.

For Audrey's Blog Book Sake: (all kids are L to R)

(Top Row: Wyatt Peterson, Sage Hardman, Layla Sullivan)

(Middle Row: Lylei Salguerro, Samuel Doolittle, Odell Holland, Lillie Doolittle, Gavin Peterson)

(Front Row: Ethan Raven, Grant Doolittle, Aydia Easton, Hyrum Hooper)

Samuel with Grammy & Grandad, & Aunt Allison and their gifts to him

Samuel had a wonderful birthday! I cannot believe that my little Samuel is 5 now and about to go to Kindergarten in a month and a half. It's been a wild 5 years buddy and I can't wait to see what the next 5 years holds in store!

Samuel at 5:

Favorites -

Books: Dr. Suess, Mouse Cookie Books, anything new from the library, Hotwheels Dino Racing

Food: Strawberries, Pizza, Breyers M&M yogurt, pretends to be picky at dinner but is actually willing to eat almost anything to get a dessert!

Toys: Motorcycles, the trampoline, Hot Wheels tracks, play doh, board games (loves these and asks to play them all the time!)candy land, sorry, chutes and ladders, clue jr., u build it monopoly, operation, and ants in the pants, video games:Mario Kart, Wii Sports, Super Mario Bros., and Ninja Turtles Smash Up

Movies & TV Shows: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Spiderman, Iron Man, Avatar: the Last Airbender (will watch anything that's on w/o complaint - have to seriously monitor his tv time)

Activities: playing make believe games with Lillie, jumping on the trampoline, swimming in the Great Northwest pool and going down the slide into the 9ft water, video games with Odell Holland and Ethan Raven, making forts, drowning the bathroom during hour long baths, going camping with Dad, dates with mom and dad, tickle monster with dad, soccer with his team the Tiny Titans

Places: Malibu Grand Prix, Broadway Kiddie Park, the Pool, Chuck E. Cheese, Pump it Up, Just Add Children (he asks every day if we can go to these places)

BFF's: Lillie, Grant (he always calls him brother when their playing), Odell Holland, Ethan Raven, Payton Billingsley, Gavin and Wyatt Peterson, Sage Hardman (who is set on marrying him! but she says "I can't tell him about it because I don't want to scare him" Too Cute!)

Not So Favorites:

Samuel is really such an easy going kid. His dislikes are what most kids hate:

he really hates it when it's time to stop whatever fun thing he's doing to do things like eat dinner, take baths, and go to bed.

These are things he says he hates but actually enjoys: running errands, and going to church

***Special Things about Samuel:

Samuel is so smart and really picks things up easily. You just have to show him once how to do something and he's got it. He has mastered writing his name, letters, and numbers and is beginning to learn to read. Sometimes he'll read words that we've never told him, they just come out of his mouth. He is such an active boy and shows a lot of potential in soccer. He likes the idea of fighting and we hope to redirect that more positively so we will be putting him into Karate in the Fall. While he is very energetic he also loves to cuddle with mom and dad and some of my favorite times with him are reading stories or talking right before he goes to sleep. He is always laughing and he is definitely in his "potty humor" stage. He knows no bounds when it comes to poop jokes and he is the crack up of his pre-school class. All of the kids just loved him. One of his little friends Ethan even made his mom call him Samuel for about a month. Samuel is such a sweetheart. Whenever he goes he just wants to have fun and is willing to be-friend anyone and everyone.

We love you so much Samuel, you are such a blessing to our family!