Annual Beach Trip

This year we went back to Port A and rented the purple house for our annual family beach trip.  We didn't leave as early as we had hoped Tues morning and we had a slight bumper snafu backing out of the driveway.  :sigh:  Otherwise the trip down went smoothly for having an almost 8 month old in the car.  I only had to squeeze myself between the two back seats and sit on a watermelon for 1.5 hrs of the drive, hand feeding my two kids snack after snack until Carsy fell asleep. 

It's hard work riding in a car.

We arrived a little after 3pm, unpacked, got the kids situated and prepared for dinner.  By the time everything was said and done it was too late to hit the beach.  It really takes a lot longer to do stuff when dealing with 3 young ones, two of them being less than 8 months old!

Ferry rides are fun!

We had really good weather the entire trip.  It only rained on us one morning, so we went to a sports bar to watch USA in the world cup, then hit the beach after lunch.  The water felt great but the seaweed was everywhere!  The bulldozers were pretty good about clearing the sand, but the first 5 ft of water was still jam packed with seaweed, it was like walking through a stew!  Ry didn't seem to mind, and as long as you could get past those first 5 ft then the water cleared up.  We only went out to eat a couple times during our stay.  We had one nice dinner out at Virginia's On The Bay, a lunch at Kody's sports bar and our last night there we had an awesome tempura shrimp dinner at the house.  Later that evening the grandparents watched the kids so we could hit up a few bars.  Sharkey's was a dud but the Salty Dog was a blast and the karaoke machine was rockin!  All in all a good trip, we only managed to get sunburned on our first day (ouch!).

Breakfast before beach 6/25

My nephew Mason!

1st time at the beach! 6/25/2014

Ry loved climbing the piles of smelly seaweed

building sand castles 6/25

Uncle Steve and Ry in the sand 6/25

all clean 6/25

Nice dinner out - Virginia's On The Bay

happy as a clam

Dolphin rider 6/25

Kody's sports bar and soccer/FIFA! 6/26

Ah the sea....6/26

beach babes 6/26

We like it under the pop up

Morning! 6/27

JAWS! 6/27

Mason finally liked the beach on the last day

cheesy grins

ready to surf the wake

Last day at Port A 6/27

beached babies 6/27

Extended Family Photos

My brother, SIL and their new baby Mason (only boy nephew!) came down for our annual trip to the beach at the end of June.  While they were here we decided to take some extended family pictures.  Luckily the photog we use for Carsyn's sessions was avail to handle all 11 of us.  :)  Color scheme worked out really well, just in time for 4th of July!

Pictures taken at Old Settlers Park 6/22/2014

Christina, Steve and Mason

Grandkids

Malek family

Freund/Malek/Freund family

The ladies

The guys

brothers

cousins

Ryland, Evan, Emma

Maudie's Moonlight Margarita 5K

Pfelly Lane Runners! 7/12/2014

On a Thursday evening in early June, the girls from Pfville ran a HOT as H*LL race downtown. The race started at 8pm next to Lady Bird Lake, it was still 90 degrees out but felt like 98, plus there was no breeze on the race course!  I'm very heat sensitive so I was pretty worried about how I'd feel and how I'd perform for this race. Yeah...it was brutal. I made it through the race but really couldn't push myself any faster than what I did because I was over heating.  And then 45 mins later I crashed;  chills, issues breathing, thought I might pass out...my friends were worried as I just did not look well.  Running in the heat is just not my thing.  Big thanks to Amanda who came back and ran the last 0.3 miles with Mary and I, thanks for pushing us!  They did have margaritas for all afterwards, but the line was so long we decided to leave without drinks and head to Torchy's for d@mn good tacos and beer.  ;)  Too bad I couldn't eat anything, I was trying hard to stay conscious!

Official chip time: 29:21, 9:24 pace
My Garmin: 29:23, Avg pace - 9:28
Mile 1 - 9:08, Mile 2 - 9:33, Mile 3 - 9:48 (felt like I was going to die, is this race over yet!?), last 0.1 - 0:53 (8:38 pace)

before the race and before the pain 7/12/2014

Evan Graduates HS!

Evan Graduated from Hendrickson Hawk High School and turned 18 on June 7th!  His ceremony was held downtown at the Frank Erwin Center.  Afterwards we celebrated with pizza and brews at Pinthouse Pizza.  We'll be throwing him a send off party later on this summer before he heads out to University of Houston.  We are so proud of you Evan!

Newly graduated!  7/7/2014

Sea World!

The hubby and I decided to take a last min vacation day this past Thursday so that we could take Ry to Sea World.  It was our first Sea World trip!!!  We figured it would be our last chance to go before school ended and to avoid the crowds.  I'm so glad we went when we did because it was a great day and there were no lines, no mobs, no craziness.  Ry had a blast exploring all the exhibits and playing in the splash pad.  His favorite sea creatures were the sharks, mommy and daddy were pretty excited about Shamu.  ;)  Ry also rode his very first roller coaster (with mommy of course).

We have arrived!  5/30/2014

Dolphins up close

stingrays

and sharks!

pretty color

Happy Feet!

splash pad fun

Ry's first roller coaster ride!  with mommy of course

that walrus is HUGE! 3000 lbs

SHAMU!

worn out

Ants in Your Pants 5K

Emma and I ran the Ants In Your Pants local 5K with a few other friends.  I really enjoyed this race and will run it again.  The course through Bohl's park and looped around, it was scenic and shaded from all the trees.  There was only 2 spots in the race that scared me just tad.  The first one is when you run under a bridge, the bridge was so low I thought for sure my head would hit.  The 2nd was a dip into a creek, the path changed from cement to rocky terrain and then back, I thought for sure I'd slip or fall over the rough patches and that drop was steep!  Overall a great race and close to home.  The temperature that day was perfect, around 65-68 degrees at the start of the race.  Afterwards they gave out free snow cones to the participants as well as raffle prizes!  Unfortunately we didn't win anything, but Emma and I both had some great race times!

Results:
My Garmin:  26:56 (8:51 avg pace) in 3.04 miles
My chip time:  27:00 (8:41 avg pace) in 3.1 miles.  I took 7th place in my age group and 19th in gender.
Emma's chip time:  28:32 (9:11 avg pace) in 3.1 miles.  Emma took 4th place in her age group and 21 in gender.

start line - they're off!

Emma had an excellent run!

Finishers 5/10/2014

Carsyn Baptized

Carsyn was baptized this weekend by the Trinity fountain at our Church.  It was a beautiful day and Carsyn was a perfect angel, no crying!  We named my brother Steve and SIL Christina as Godparents.  Afterwards we celebrated with family and friends at our house with Rudy's BBQ and cake.  Visit My Mom's Memos for the full recap and pictures.

The gown - I wore the same gown when I was baptized!

Welcome

"sprinkling"

God Bless Carsyn