Summer Vacation!

This summer we decided to head to the beach with the Odom Family for our vacation. Kade and Brady have never been to the beach, and Kade has been asking for two years now to go to the beach. We rented a beach house in Port Aransas for a few days and off we went. Now, we left for vacation with Hurricane Alex brewing in the Gulf of Mexico knowing that it was heading in our vacation direction. We figured we could get two good beach days in, and then it would be up in the air from that point on. We arrived in Port A Monday afternoon and checked in our beach house. As soon as we got settled we changed clothes and headed down to the beach. Kade had fun trying to ride the waves with his boogie board. Brady enjoyed looking for sea shells and building a sand castle with Mark. All the kiddos thought the beach was fun.
We had plans to ride over to Corpus Christi Wed. to take the kids to the Texas State Aquarium and go on yacht ride, but after watching the weather Monday night we decided that we better try to go over to Corpus Tuesday instead of Wed. That morning Dane and Buck took the four older kids back to the beach to play and feed the seagulls. They weren't there long before the rain starting falling and the waves started growing in size. We had a rainy ride over to Corpus Christi, but when we got there the weather actually turned out to be pretty nice. The kids had a blast at the aquarium. We saw a few shows including a dolphin show that they really liked. We were unable to take the yacht ride due to the high waves already being caused by the hurricane.
When we got back to the beach house, Dane and Buck cooked some steaks on the grill out by the pool while the kids did some swimming. With storms steadily moving in, we thought it would be best to leave the beach the next morning; we would have been stuck indoors anyway. Even though we had to cut our vacations a little short, we still made the most of the time that we did have. We had a blast yet again with the Odom family. Thank you for another great vacation. We look forward to the next one with you all.

Swimming Lessons!

Kade and Brady both took swimming lessons with Miss Kari this summer. Kade is definitely our little water bug. He loves the pool. He did so well during his lessons. He learned how to tread water, sort of got the diving thing down, started turning his head to the side when he came up for a breath, and figured out how to go down to the bottom of the pool to get toys without someone having to give him a helping push. He did great.

Now, we have a whole different story to tell about Mr. Brady. Out of two weeks of swimming lessons, we had one good day where he attempted to do what Kari wanted him to. He would kick his feet, but absolutely refused to use his arms because he was convinced that he would go under water if he used his arms. His mind was set and there was no bribing it either. After the first week, we pretty much gave up and decided it would be better just to wait and try again next year. Thank you Kari for swimming lessons. We had a blast.