my mom is mean

The mean mom that I am has Julien and Logan do homework every morning of the summer for the exception of the weekend of course. They both have a general math review, times tables and divisions, reading comprehension, language arts worksheets, 10-15 sentence essays, and 30 minutes worth of reading. Some may think it is a little excessive, but it should only take them 1:30 minutes to do it all. I just want to be sure they don't forget the things they learned in their previews grades over the long summer break, and want them to feel prepared for the new school year. At the beginning of the summer it is always hard for them to start that routine, but now the kids are so used to it that they get up early and do their homework all on their own with no complaints. I am so proud of my hard little workers.

The Ring of Power

 

The pool was closed today, so instead of doing our daily afternoon swim, the kids decided they wanted to make a movie. So Julien, Logan, and I (and Kiki of course) spent the afternoon plotting a script, shooting and editing a video. It was so fun to see them get so into it. After we got done video taping, we did a little photoshoot. Those kids are so brilliant, and creative. I must say, it was fun for me to do this with them. We only had time to make part one and they are hoping to do part 2 really soon. Make sure to ask them about it when you talk to them, they are so proud of it.

4th of July

Honestly, there was not much to do here for the 4th on top of the fact that there was a fire band due to the drought we have been having; so Jon and I decided to spend our day at the beach, followed by a BBQ with our good friends Matt and Becca Meservy. 

 

 

The boys were having a blast falling back, crashing into the waves.

 

The person next to us fished for crabs and was able to catch pretty big ones. It was so cool. The kids and I often catch them but have not been able to catch such big ones.

After the BBQ, we all enjoyed popping some snaps on the driveway.

 

This was hilarious! Julien and Logan were calling out spells as they threw their snaps on the ground. They are so funny. They love Happy Potter, and can't wait for the last one to come out.  

Pigtails

Kiki sported her first pigtails today. Her hair is finally long enough that I can up it up without little wispies everywhere. She is so cute! I am having way to much fun with her.

Galveston!

 

Today we spent a wonderful day at Galveston. It was such a fun field day. By the time we got to Galveston which is no more than an hour away for us, the kids were already hungry for lunch, so we stopped and had dinner by the ocean on the seawall.

 

Then, we headed to the visitors center for more info on all the things we could do there. Let's just say we are going to have to go a couple of times in order to do all the things we want to see and do. The boys had to take a picture with the pirate statue in the entrance of the visitors center. It was so funny seeing them pose.

We then took the ferry to a peninsula in hopes to see dolphins since we heard from multiple people that they follow the boats. Unfortunately we did not see any, I guess it just means we need to take another ferry ride on our next visit. The kids still had fun walking around the boat, feeding the seagulls from the back of the ferry.

After our ferry ride we headed to Sea Wolf park to visit a WWII submarine and battle ship. The kids absolutely loved it. They wanted to go and see every part of the sub and ship.

 

Julien in front of the missals.

Logan clever as he is got on one of the bunks and pretended to be sleeping.

Jon was a little nervous going down into the submarine afraid he would not fit, but he did. 

See his surprised face!

 

Julien and Logan taking control of the sub.

 

We ended our day at Galveston at "the Spot" which is a delicious, cute, little burger joint that we had heard a lot about. It was really good, and a very fun environment. 

All in all, we spent an awesome day visiting, and enjoying each others company. Let me just say Texas is hot, and we were glad to get home to an air conditioned apartment.

Happy Father's Day

To my Dear Husband

I feel so blessed to be married to such an amazing husband. He is so dedicated to taking care of us and making sure all of our needs are met. He is brilliantly smart, a very hard worker, and loving husband and father. I could spend hours watching him play soccer, swim, snuggle, build legos, fish ... with the kids. Life is good! 

Babe thanks for being a great dad to our three beautiful children. I love you more than you know and am so happy to be sealed to you for time and all eternity.

  Julien and Jon

 Jon and Logan

Kia Ora and Jon

To my Dearest Dad

My father truly is the greatest father and person in the world. Never once in my life have I thought otherwise. He is so loving, caring, charitable, and genuine. He is kind, soft spoken, and never has anything bad or negative to say about anyone. He is smart, and very knowledgeable about life, the gospel, anything and everything.  Everyone who meet him just automatically feel drawn to him because of all those qualities. He is a great example of who I want to be. He is a wonder grandfather to my children and a great example to them also. I love him so much and am grateful to have him in my and my family's life.

Trip to the Sea Center

Today we visited the Sea Center. The Sea Center is a fish hatchery, they also have aquarium with gulf specific sea creatures, and a board walk where you can see wetland plants and animals. It was a fun cheap activity for us to do.

The kids loved the touch tank; Kia Ora was so intrigued with all the little creatures that she was pulling herself down to try and grab things.

 

Here we are on the board walk. It was very hot, and we did not see any wildlife, but it was still fun and relaxing.