Houston

We traveled to Houston to visit Scott's parents. I was amazed at how well the kids did in the car! I was expecting all kinds of mutiny. However, the DVD system that came with our car was totally worth the extra cost! We watched/listened to movies almost the entire drive. What a life saver!

We played in their pool. The kids had a lot of fun! I could tell improvements in their confidence and ability from the first day to the last day of our trip. Marie and Peter were very timid the first day and it took a lot of encouragement to get them to stay in the water. By the last day, they required almost one-on-one supervision, because they wouldn't even stay on the shallow ledge. They couldn't balance well in their life jackets, and so they needed an adult to keep them safe. Marie was especially fearless.

Marie would gather every floating device should could hold in her arms.
Notice the one on her wrist that is WAY too big.

Peter loved to go for rides.

I went to my brother's white coat ceremony to start off medical school. I was glad I could represent our family.

He's getting his coat here.

We also went to Galveston. The air and the water were so much warmer than the Pacific! The sand burned our feet. Peter hated the water in the Pacific, but he would crawl around in the water in the Gulf. They all had a great time! We got extremely sandy, but that's what happens at the beach.

We went to the Space Center. Marie and Peter were a little young for the experience, but Richard and Audrey seemed excited to be seeing space stuff. 

We went to the Children's Museum. We had to divide and conquer, because Marie and Peter were too young for most of the exhibits. Richard and Audrey were too old for the Tot area. I don't have any pictures of Marie and Peter, because they were with Scott's parents.

We went to a nearby park with water features. The kids had fun with that until Richard got stung by a fire ant and then was paranoid about getting stung again.

Scott's parents wanted to do a birthday party for the kids since they can't ever be there for the actual day. So, we went to Target and the kids picked out their presents. Then we had my brother and his wife over for dinner and we went swimming. The next day, we played Pin the Tail and had a silly string fight.

Remember this? This was Peter's response to his first birthday cake.

Yea, he got over the fear of cake! He ate cupcakes as fast as we would give them to him!

So, we had a great trip!

Soccer

I signed Richard up for soccer. The information said it started "at the end of August." I figured that meant it would start when school starts, which is next week. We went out of town for 1 1/2 weeks. They started soccer practice last week. So, he missed both practices, and they aren't having any more. So, he gets to start playing games on Tuesday without a CLUE how to play. Maybe it won't matter. How many kids in kindergarten really know how to play soccer?

Disappointed

I just did final registration for Richard for Kindergarten and signed him up for his assessment. He was not put with the teacher I hoped he'd get. Despite requests and hopes that I was there first, they still put him with my second choice. It seems really dumb that I feel this way since I don't KNOW either teacher. I've heard they're both good. However, the teacher he got has had poor reports when she's pregnant. So, let's hope she doesn't get pregnant! Also, he only has one child from our ward in his class. There are 23 kids from Richard's grade in our ward. Oh, well. I guess that's the way it goes. It will probably be a great year and I'm disappointed for no reason.