Birthday weekend

I turned 31 on friday! I am not sure why 31 was harder for me than 30, but it was. It just SOUNDS so much older. I mean, 30 still sounds young and cool. 31, sounds blah and old. Ha!

The day started out great. I woke up to Brent bringing in breakfast tacos and Shipley's doughnuts before he headed to work. YUMMY! (I also got some LuLu Lemon workout gear!) As he was headed out the door, my friend, Ashleigh was walking up with a starbucks and scone! 5 of my good good friends, and I, have this birthday tradition for each birthday. We grab a coffee, some sort of yummy breakfast treat and our birthday gift, knock on the birthday girl's door and RUN. You never know who delivered the treats (we always take turns) but you know you are loved. It is so fun. Well, Ashleigh was trying to do just that, when Brent walked out the door to go to work. So, she ended up coming in with the treats and we got to talk for a few minutes. That was a fun treat in itself!

The rest of the day was your normal, mom of 3 kids kind of day. I forgot it was even my birthday. The day ended great, though. We packed our bags and headed to Canyon Lake for the weekend. My dad and his wife got rooms right off the lake in a cove off Canyon Lake. It was such a GREAT weekend. When we got there, it was around 530. We pulled up and saw a handful of deer standing in the parking lot of the lodge with people HAND FEEDING them! It was so cool. The kids got out of the car right away and jumped right in. It was so fun and crazy that we were feeding 10 point bucks and does! Brent, I am pretty sure, was in HEAVEN. The deer were so friendly. We ended the evening with good food, water activies, birthday cake, homemade ice cream and singing "Happy Birthday".

feeding the buck celery with his mouth!

pretty sure this might be what Heaven is like, for Brent!

Saturday morning, we woke up to find out that my dad had to go to the Hospital at 3'o clock in the morning. He has Chrone's and had a flare up, so him and his wife had to spend the weekned in the hospital. NOT COOL! It was sad because my sister came down with her new baby boy, Townes, that my dad and his wife hadn't met yet. My sister and Townes got in Friday night around 10:30 and I almost didn't text my dad that she made it (even though they asked me too). I ended up texting him, which I am glad I did, because they came down to help her unload her car and say hi. They were able to visit for a little bit and hold sweet baby Townes. If they hadn't come down to help unload her car, they wouldn't have seen her or the baby all weekend.


So, even with that bad news, they still wanted everyone to have a great weekend and play hard. That, we did. We wake boarded, tubed, knee boarded, drove the sea doo's, swam, relaxed ate, and did it all again! It was such a GREAT day.

view from our balcony 

My sister and nephew, Townes

Sweet baby Townes

Ezra riding the knee board into shore

This was the only thing he would "ride". He did ride the sea doo, eventually. 

The inflatables 

Some of the tubers being pulled

By Sunday, we were tired and SORE! This 31 year old has not wake boarded, tubed or knee boarded in a LONG time. It was all worth it. Such a great weekend of fun, fellowship, food and family time. The perfect birthday weekend! Sunday, some of us went back out in the water and had fun, others relaxed and read (me!). By Sunday afternoon, we packed up and headed back home. Everyone was in bed early on Sunday. I can't wait to go there again! It was such a great spot and less than an hour away!

Tuesday

Last Tuesday I had to take Oliver, our cat, to Boerne to be neutered.  I went to Hillcountry animal league to have it done because it was only $35 compared to $108 at our vet. Score! So, we had to have Oliver there between 730-830. I was shooting for 8, but with getting myself ready, 3 kids and 1 cat, we were there by 8:15. We made it, any hoo. When I walked in, the lady at the front desk was someone I worked with in Fredericksburg, at Homestead, when I was in high school. It was fun seeing her again. She was so sweet and put Oliver next in line and told me to wait around in Boerne because it wouldn't be that long.

My grandma was supposed to be meeting us in San Antonio that day to hang out and go to lunch for my birthday. I called my grandma and she met us at Bear Moon Bakery. We had a yummy breakfast, grabbed a cookie on our way out and headed for the river park. We had brought a loaf of bread with us to feed the ducks. It was a really fun time feeding the ducks with my grandma and eating our cookies. After we were done feeding the ducks we headed to Sonic for a drink. As we were leaving sonic, we got a call that Oliver was ready to be picked up.  Perfect timing. A great morning with the kids and my grandma!

Grammy and Elynn saying "hi" to the geese

Look at all those ducks!

Looking at the baby ducks

Cookie brake

sweet picture

Geese and Ducks

Today we went to Boerne River Park to meet a friend and feed some ducks. At first I thought it was a good idea and would be so fun for the kids. Then, we get there. There are SO MANY ducks and GEESE, my fear of Geese, ducks, chickens swam to the top! I seriously thought about not getting out and suggesting a different playdate, that's how much I don't like them. (side note: I was chased by Geese when I was 3 and remember it still and still have a FEAR of them!) Our friends weren't there yet when we arrived, so I found a little table away from most of the action and set our snacks on the table. I didn't want the kids feeding the ducks yet because all of our supplies would be gone by the time our friends arrived. I got out and gave everyone a cheesestick. BAD IDEA! Those ducks and geese flocked on us in no time. Ezra and Emersyn  had been sitting at the table, but Elynn was walking around with her cheesestick. She is exactly the ducks height! Two geese cornered her against a rock and were trying to peck her snack right out of her hand! She was screaming/crying, Ezra and Emersyn jumped on TOP of the table and started crying. Ezra was crying, 'I just want to go home. This is NOT FUN. Can we please go home." Emersyn was crying, "Mom, get her. Mom you have to get her!" (talking about Elynn.) I was screaming, "i know, i know!", while my fear was staring at me face to face. I had a moment of thought.. are you going to let your fear be bigger than you, or are you going to help your child!!? Ha! So, I stepped up, kicked the goose out of the way (well, used my foot to get the goose away), grabbed Elynn and calmed the other two down. Ha! I almost packed us all up and left. The only thing that made me stay was, well, 1. I was meeting someone there and 2. I don't want my fear to be passed to them. So rather than leaving on a sour note, we met up with our friends and ended up having a good time feeding the ducks! Not sure if we will go back, but I am glad it ended on a good note. Ha!

Wish I would have been able to capture the whole scene!

Alyssa Grace

Her first day with us!

On the 12th of July our family became a family of 6! Ha! Well, at least 10 days it was a family of 6. Brent's cousin, Alyssa, who is 10, came to stay with us from the 12th to the 22nd. Her parents, along with her two older brothers, went to the Bahamas for a mission trip. Alyssa lives in Frisco, so for the 1st time, she flew by herself to come stay with us. We had such a great time with Alyssa here. The kids LOVED having her here. She rarely got a break from the kids wanting to do this and that with her. She was such a BIG help with all of the kids, but especially with ELYNN. She LOVED carrying her everywhere, helping her eat, getting her dressed and getting her from her crib whenever she woke up. Elynn loved it too! When it came to quiet time and bed time, Alyssa was more than ready to go to bed! Probably from all of our craziness!

While she was here, we swam a lot:

We got to go to Sea World:

splashing at Bay of Play

Looking at the Dolphins

Shamu

Azul

Sweet Elynn was worn out

 We even made a trip to Fredericksburg. In Fredericksburg we visited my grandma at the Wildseed Farm and went to Oma and Opa's to see Grandma Lindig, Michelle and her family and Oma and Opa. It was such a great time:

Only picture I could get from them.. it was HOT

We loved having Alyssa here with us! I think she even had a good time! Thanks for coming to visit Alyssa.  We love you and miss you! Hope to see you soon.

DON'T GO!!

But, we love you and will miss you!!