Road trippin'

Hellllooooooooooooo!!!!!! Anybody still reading this thing?

O.k. so I took a month off.

No big deal.

Moving on ....

The first of July marked our first attempt at driving all the way to Texas as a family! We're talking 16 hours. In the car. Both ways. Honestly, I wasn't sure what we were thinking attempting this (of course, our main purpose was just to save some moola), and I fully expected it to be miserable. But to my surprise, not only was it not miserable, it was actually a pretty good time! The kids were AMAZING on the drive! Well-mannered, toilet trained, plugged in to various electronics for a good portion of the time :) It just didn't seem all that bad. Don't get me wrong. I'm not itching to do it again any time soon. But I'm game for doing it again next year. We saw some beautiful country on our drive and spent some good times together!

Cate chillin' in the car. This girl is an all-star road tripper!

We rolled into Arlington on the 2nd, and then spent a couple of nights with Jake's family at the fabulous Gaylord Texan, where we played at the new water park by day and watched 4th of July fireworks by night! It was a great time with the whole fam, and Cate and Max finally got a chance to spend some time with their much talked about but rarely seen cousin Carolina.

DSC_3124-1">

DSC_3134-1">

Cousins! (Girls weren't quite up from their nap yet, but still cute :)

DSC_3118-1">

DSC_3115-1">

DSC_3117-1">

DSC_3178bw">

I tried really hard to get one good picture of Cate and Carolina at the hotel while we were waiting for fireworks. Unfortunately, bad lighting + crazy girls is a pretty bad scenario for a photographer ... or a good one ... here is the blooper reel:

DSC_3180bw">

DSC_3148bw">

Tired girls ready for fireworks

DSC_3246-1">

DSC_3222-1">

DSC_3105bw">

DSC_3092">

DSC_3113-1">

DSC_3093">

After the Gaylord, we spent some time in Arlington, and then Jake and I got away for a little pre-anniversary trip to a couple of gorgeous resorts in Austin and San Antonio. It was SO NICE to have the chance to spend some time together in these beautiful places! We laid out by the pool, ate delicious, adult food, and thoroughly enjoyed the sounds of other people's kids having meltdowns in the hotel lobby, precisely because those sounds were not our problem (sick, I know!) (Oh and, for the record, our kids would NEVER have a meltdown in a hotel lobby! ;D)

Per the vacation norm, my camera didn't see a whole lot of action this trip. Just a few more to share:

Cate always loves going on the Carousel at the mall near Grann's house!

face off with Grampa

hungry man!

Stay tuned for some summer catch-up posts over the next few days! I'm going to try to get back on top of things before the school year starts. Max takes the 2nd grade by storm on the 15th!