Summer Fun With Aleisha!

I'm a little behind on my blogging, so I've decided to combine the past couple of week's activities. We have enjoyed having Aleisha home and true to my word, she has NOT been bored!! We have crammed it in. And why I ask you, must I bribe my oldest child into coming home with guarantees of continual fun I don't know. We started out last week buying a new tramp. Not because we wanted to, the upholsterer couldn't sew it anymore! The kids haven't wanted a new one because the old one was really bouncy not to mention a member of the family. But, a major catastrophe was inevitable if they kept jumping on it. It was missing nearly half of the springs and there was a rip in the middle. So one day in Walmart we gave in. We had a ceremony when we took the old one down! It had served us well. We jumped on it with the sprinkler, slept out on it at night, used it as a fort, jumped off the treehouse on to it, jumped off of it into the pool, jumped from the treehouse to the tramp and then to the pool, and for one whole summer it served as Steve's bedroom (complete with TV)! Ode to the Tramp!!!

The end of an era!

Out with the old!

To put it in perspective, I found this picture. Look how young the tramp is!

In with the new!

A new generation of jumpers, sprinkler and all! Remember Daniel jumping at this age. He didn't even make a dent, neither does Zach. The new one is okay, but it isn't as bouncy and the top is so tightly woven, the water can't get through. But Zach loves it with the sprinkler and a popsicle and it has been slept on twice! Welcome to the family!

This is the end product of a entertaining afternoon of doing nails! Kendall is very in to nails, so we made a day of it. We had flowers and butterflies, WITH jewels! Good times!

Aleisha has such stubby toes, she barley has nails. But we made it work!

Mike took this picture. Look at the concentration! She was attempting a flower on her toes!

Kendall has a lot of nail polish. I mean alot. On her blog she tells you the website she watches to learn how to do the designs. We referred to it several times. Kendall tends toward the bright colors. She had them mustard yellow for awhile. And my favorite, her nails were white with black zebra stripes and a pink french tip. Awesome.

This weekend we went to visit Jerry's sister Shelly. She lives 30 minutes from the Gulf. We spent saturday at the beach. The ocean is not really my thing. It is big and there are sharks! But the kids really like it and I do like watching the surf and looking for shells, both of which can be done safely on the beach.

The kids however, go way out. The only rule being that Jerry is out the farthest. You know, in case of sharks. The surf was about 3 feet saturday so the kids could body surf. They had a great time.

Shelly and her husband Steven love to fish and really wanted to teach Dan to surf fish. I'm not sure you should stand in chest high ocean with dead fish on the end of a pole but they tell me it is fun. I said "What about sharks?" and Steven said "Yea, I hope we catch one!"

Why Aleisha agreed to this I don't know. Daniel buried her and did the scuplting. We were worried there for a minute about Dan's anatomical knowledge but then he added the top two abs! "Oh, there abs!" Whew. Jerry helped by pouring water on her face, slowly! We had a good time. The girls got very sunburned, even with sunscreen. But we ate fresh shrimp, swam in Shelly's pool, drove to Galveston Island and now we are exhausted. All the time we were there we missed all of you and wished we could take you there. It would be fun. We could rent a beach house. Come anytime! Hint, Hint.

6 Flags . . . More Fun!

That's what the commercials say anyway! I beg to differ. I really don't enjoy amusement parks. I don't think hurling your lunch is amusing. But, I took one for the family and went. Luckily, the Weather Fairy took pity on me and I think the high on Tuesday was 85 degrees. Amazing for this time of year. Also amazing, were the short lines. Must have been the work of the Short Line Fairy!

My role on these amusement park outings is to hold everyone's stuff and take pictures. I think I did very well. Jerry's role is to go on all of the rides with the kids (not because they need him to, but to prove he can!) and snack. He is great at the snacking, the riding is getting tougher the older he gets. He was doing really well riding rides until they went on one that is mostly in the dark. Most of his snacks ended up on the side of the exit path! As I have stated, hurling is generally not amusing, but the kids died laughing. I'll admit to giggling a little but I refrained from pictures. Even Jerry had to smile, after awhile. There is no quit in Jerry, after that ride he made a beeline for the nearest turkey leg stand.

This coster is called the Titan! Tallest, fastest, narliest ride in the park. I can't remember the numbers but it goes really fast, drops you incredibly quick and pulls 4 G's. A hurling machine! Mason routinely blacks out when he rides it, which he does over and over! Kendall and Brandon had never dared attempt it and I can't say as I blame them. They prefer whirling tea cups and parachutes. However, this time Kendall said "Look Brandon, I don't want to go my whole life and not be able to say I didn't dare ride it, let's go!" Brandon said, "Are you kidding? Alright, but if I die it is your fault!" What was poor Jerry to do but man up and ride! This picture is actually of them going up.

Here are the fearless coaster riders after the ride. No one died . . . or hurled. Although, Brandon was a slightly different color. Kendall asked Aleisha, "Does that ride go under ground or did I blackout?" Aleisha said, "It goes under ground but how would you know your eyes were squeezed shut?" Kendall said, "Well it got blacker for a second and I thought maybe I passed out." We went from the Titan to the kiddie rides for some much needed recovery time! We had a great time. Jerry figures that was our last. He says we are too old. I don't know about that, I stood at the end of every ride holding the stuff and taking pictures just fine. He plans on sending the kids by themselves next time. Which was my idea this time.