Bruce Almighty: Summer 2015

Our summer started off with a bang with a trip to South Padre with my family. We planned this trip to celebrate his retirement.

When we came back to Houston, Audrey had a dance recital on Saturday, June 6th. It was also my mom's birthday.

Audrey LOVED wearing her costume with makeup

Happy Birthday Mom!

The next week was the best week for Matthew but the worst week for me. I signed him up for a basketball camp at Jesuit Strake High School that met from 9-12am and then he had a cub scout twilight camp from 6-9pm. Matthew enjoyed learning about basketball for the first time. His friend, Andy, was there, too. And he LOVED the archery, BB guns, and cub scout projects that he learned at the twilight camp. It was a hard week for me because I was busy driving him around to all these camps at various hours of the day. Plus, trying to keep Audrey busy and get dinner ready. I was so happy when Friday rolled around.

Andy & Matthew at basketball camp

On June 15th, Audrey and Matthew both went to Vacation Bible School at our church. They really enjoyed it. It was 9-12 noon and I was worried that Audrey would not go into a separate classroom away from Matthew but she actually surprised me and she did very well. After VBS, I would treat them to lunch and then we would get into the apartment pool around 4:30pm when it was shaded so we didn't have to worry about sunscreeen.

Andy came on Friday to watch their performance

We had a picnic on Friday after their performance

For the week of June 22nd, we didn't have any camps lined up so we decided to drive to Dallas and go to our old church's Vacation Bible School. We stayed with our friends that bought our previous house there. It was fun to be a guest in our old house again. We celebrated Father's Day on Sunday and my parents drove into town and then I drove 4 hours with the kids to Dallas for the VBS that started on Sunday evening. I also met up with some friends and took the kids to the dentist and got a haircut.

Happy Father's Day

Eating popsicles with Marisa

Swimming with Bailey and Mason

The week of June 29th, Matthew went to the All Saints kids camp in the Heights neighborhood. There were 3 other boys that he knew from school. He loved the camp and Audrey begged me to take her there but I felt that she was too young for that this year but I will certainly sign her up with Matthew for that next year.

On Friday, July 3rd, we caught a flight to Michigan for our annual 4th of July trip.

Playing a game with Papa Tom

Watching the parade with Mimi

Matthew learned how to ride a bike without training wheels

Hanging out with grandma

Walking and petting alpacas

On the tractor with Pa Bru and cousins Ty and Nola

Going to Lake Michigan with the Righters (Morgan, Meredith, Marley, and Matthew)

Over the July 11th weekend, I headed to Sonoma to celebrate Jennifer's 40th birthday. I flew into SFO and then drove to Sonoma on Friday. We went dancing Friday night and had so much fun. Then we went on a hike Saturday morning and enjoyed breakfast afterwards in the square. We went wine tasting during the day and then ate a delicious dinner at an Italian restaurant to celebrate Jennifer's birthday. It was a lot of fun.

wine tasting with Jennifer and Linn

When we came back to Houston, Matthew started the U of Houston soccer camp on July 14th. He enjoyed playing soccer and he came home exhausted at the end of the day. The camp was from 9-3pm. He played with his friend, Brant, from school. Mike stayed at our place and watched Rusty for us while we were gone to Michigan. We were so thankful that Rusty didn't have to be boarded. On Thursday, July 16th, we drove down to meet my parents for dinner and snowcones for my birthday.

Snowcones

Soccer camp

Swimming in the apartment pool with Mike

Loving on Roxy a little bit longer until she goes back home

For the week of July 20th, we took a break from the camps. We tried to go to the park one day but it was too hot and everyone was ready to go home. We got into the pool everyday. Thank goodness for this apartment pool!

For the week of July 27th, the kids went to a gymnastics camp from 9-3pm. Audrey begged to go with Matthew because she knew one of the girls there in the kindergarten class. She had a great time being a big kid.

The following week (Aug 3rd) we went to the mall, movies, and anything else we could find indoors. And the week of Aug 10th, I took Audrey to school so that I could spend some alone time with Matthew. He enjoyed that. We went to the exercise room, played board games, and went out for lunch. We told Audrey we just did boring stuff so she wouldn't feel like she missed out on anything.