Sunflowers

We have had the most incredible fields of sunflowers at the beginning of Summer! They are all up and down the major highways. 

 

Since our "Bluebonnet" pictures bombed, I wanted to try and get a few with the sunflowers.

 

Bryson was excited because we've been talking about the enormous flowers and how they are taller than him and bigger than his head.

 

 It was really hot outside, but I thought it would be alright since we would only be out there for a few minutes. NOT.

 

Who am I kidding? I should just give up on getting pictures for a while! haha

The girls were NOT having it. it was hot, the sun was in their eyes no matter where we went, and well, they're just cranky. ;) Fortunately, as soon as we picked them up, they calmed down.

 

 

 

Bryson was running around talking to all the other families taking pictures telling them his life story (clearly we need to talk more about stranger danger with him. The kid has never met a stranger.) He could not have cared less about our pictures, he just wanted to go talk to the other kids!

A sweet man offered to snap a quick picture of our whole family right as we were scooping everything up to go back to the car.

 

 

I hope the sunflowers come back next year!! :)

Family Reunion 2011

This past weekend, we headed to Possum Kingdom Lake for the annual family reunion. It's always special to spend a whole weekend with family you love. :)

We  had to make a little stop to take a few pictures in a special little town ;)

Bryson had such a blast at the lake! He would have been in the "wa wa" all day, every day if it wasn't a billion degrees outside. We did swim a whole lot, though!

While we all sat outside catching up on life, Bryson played in the dirt. And since it wasn't time to swim in the water, he decided to swim in the dirt :)

Uncle Beau and Carter spent a long loooong time throwing rocks in the lake with Bryson. He was in heaven!

Mammaw and Pop brought Bryson a stuffed frog that moves his head and mouth and sings "What a wonderful world." It's really cute, but after the Rainforest Cafe, he was a little apprehensive about it at first. After about 3 songs, Bryson loved him and even tried to share his water with him a few times :)

Grandma got a big yummy yogurt kiss!

Family picture time...

Mammaw and Pop and Bryson

Four Generations! :)

It was a really fun weekend, but holy moly it was SO exhausting. I was on Mommy duty times 10. There was a bunk bed in the cabin and I'm not even kidding when I say Bryson climbed up the ladder about 50 times. Also, about 20 feet from the front door was a 10 ft drop straitght down to a bed of rocks. Bryson was constantly trying to sneak out the door to go outside. I was so tired on Saturday night that I ended up going to sleep with Bryson super early! Uncle Beau was a super hero on Sunday morning and swooped up Bryson as soon as he woke up so Michael and I could get a few extra minutes of sleep. :)

We always look forward to our fun reunion! We already can't wait until next year!! :)

Week 3&4- Noah and the Rainbow

We doubled up for this theme, so we got to spend 2 weeks with Noah, animals, and the rainbow/colors. It was so much fun!!

Our scripture for the week was Genesis 9:16 "God always keeps his promises."

We read the story of Noah every morning.

{Mimi even read it to him one day. What a treat! Bryson called Noah "no no" the whole first week-- complete with the finger shake. :) }

We made animal cookies.

{He LOVED wearing his apron and rolling the dough. He asks to wear the "ah pie" whn he sees it hanging in the pantry. I will definitely be pulling out some playdoh soon. :)}

 

We mixed colors using coolwhip

{My friend Jenny did this with her son last year and I loved her idea! I think Bryson liked rubbing it all over himself more than mixing or eating it. Such a boy :) We also used some of it for icing for the cookies. }

 

We drew a rainbow and an arc with chalk

We played in the "rain" and stayed dry with an umbrella

{I think it's rained like 4 days total since Bryson has been born (that may be an exaggeration. or it may not. I don't really remember!) but he got to learn what an umbrella was and why you use it. It's always neat to see him learn something new}

 

We ate lots of Animal Crackers

Went to a Safari Park

And ended our week(s) with dinner at the Rainforest Cafe

This is pretty much a whole post of it's own. Man oh man, Michael and I laughed a lot!! The restaurant has robotic life-like animals all over the walls and every 10 minutes they "come to life". Bryson never cried, but was scared out of his poor little mind the first 6 times they came on. He litterally climbed up me and held on for dear life with a look of complete terror. Michael and I probably looked like crazy people because we were dancing and making silly noises while the animals were "alive" so Bryson would think it was ok and not be scared anymore. He kept vigorously telling them "all done" and "nigh nigh" to make them stop. He never really enjoyed the live animals, but towards the end, he actually started to do monkey and elephant motions along with us. He did, however, love the fish tanks all over the restaurant. Nice, calm, noise-less, motion-less fish enclosed in the glass walls. :) We will definitely be going back...but maybe next year or so! Ha! :) 

(sadly, my camera battery died about 10 minutes into eating, so we were stuck with phone pictures. SO sad)