Phone Dump

Instead of writing individual posts about what has been going on as of late, I decided to do it all in one. You're welcome. Also, the pictures are from my phone so they're not the best quality.
First thing's first:
We introduced the boys to a whooole 'nother experience and appreciation of culture when we took them to our friends' baby shower. It was an Indian baby shower and it made me love the culture even more. Our friends are of the Hindu faith so the music and traditions were so unique. Ethan was in awe over how colorful the food was and the fact it was vegetarian cuisine.

This stuff is like breath freshner. It looks like birdseed, but Brian and Ethan swear it's good and quite effective.

We scored Frisco Roughrider tickets from a friend of my mom. They were BOMB tickets too! Basically, we were in the shade, up close, and they were all-you-can-eat. There are little restaurant type things set up around Dr. Pepper Ballpark. You get a wristband and you can go eat whatever you want as much as you want. The boys chowed down. I, on the other hand, cannot eat like they do so I feel like it's wasted. There's even a specific place to get dessert- ice cream sundaes, apple cobbler, cookies, pie, etc. It's insane. The coolest part was Ethan got one of the player's to sign his hat.

The next day, we took the boys on their first-ever trip to Six Flags. We had free tickets and decided to use them. They were insane as soon as we entered the park! It was hot and they didn't even complain. You're not allowed to bring anything into the park to eat or drink because they want you to spend your money on their overpriced-mediocre-at-best food and drink. Meh. We did spend $15 on the plastic cup they offer because it's free refills all day, no limits. We went through a ton of drinks- mostly water- so it paid for itself at least 5x over. The boys are thrill-seekers. They love roller coasters and amusement rides of all sorts. Their favorite though? Anything water-ride related. They loooooved The Aquaman Ride and Roaring Rapids. The sucky part was the fact Caden wasn't tall enough to ride a lot of the stuff he wanted to ride. (Re: The Shockwave) Ethan rode all of those rides with Brian and would have ventured on them again and again. We had a great time and the boys are excited to go back again- just gotta make sure it's not anytime in July or August! 

 Lastly, we took a trip to Commerce to visit the planetarium at TAMU-C. It was great. We stayed for two shows. The first was about the local night sky for kids and the second was a lazer/light show to the music of U2 (Win!). We had a great time, the astronomers were so nice, and we even got to play around with the machine that tells you what your weight would be on the Sun, Moon, and the 8 other planets + Pluto.

Caden's weight on Pluto

Ethan's weight on Pluto

Their combined weight on the Sun.

Laughing at Brian looking (and reacting to) at his various weights within our solar system

Testing out their combined weights throughout the solar system

And for posterity: I found THIS at Half-Price Books. Double score!!!!!!!!

Rangers, Chaos, Fireworks, and Superheroes

I honestly love the adventures we go on as a family. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the alone time Brian and I have when we get away just the two of us. But, God has given us two kids who know how to travel. I am so grateful for that. We surprised the boys with some primo tickets to a Rangers game. Ethan was dying to see another game in person since the last time we went, we ended up sitting in left field which was miserably hot. Brian found a great deal on some tickets in a great area and the view was awesome! Caden enjoyed it, surprisingly. He is such a mess though. We had fun and now know the ins and outs of navigating our way to great parking and the most optimal places to sit at The Ballpark.

His brother is into the game but Genius McGee is pretending to have two spyglasses. Nice!

Snow Monkey night! If you don't know this story, look up 1310 The Ticket's version. It's hilarious and makes me love Nolan Ryan even more.

He brought batting gloves ("glubs") and wore them almost the whole time.





Nothing says, "Yeehaw!" like a little hazing, y'all.






We also took the boys to a drive-in double feature. That was cool. The last movie we saw at a drive-in theater was Toy Story 3 in Granbury. We ended up seeing The Amazing Spiderman (I adore Emma Stone!!) and Men in Black 3. It was a lot of fun, but the double feature will wait for a date night or when the kids are a little older. Ethan was fine with the late start and end time. Caden, however, got extremely tired toward the middle of MIB3 and was just ready to go to sleep. So, I spent the time making him comfortable and peaceful. He fell asleep and was zonked the whole way home. I wouldn't change the experience for anything. The boys loved Spiderman (and I did too!) and that was worth it.

Fourth of July brought a whole new type of fun. We did our annual tradition of picnicking while waiting for the fireworks to start at the park in town. We invited our good friends to join us and had a blast. The kids played, ran, and laughed while we all sat around talking and nibbling on some great food. It wasn't nearly as hot this year as it was last year. Thank you, God. My favorite part are the oohs and aaahhs that proceed the fireworks. Watching their little faces and seeing their excitement makes me laugh. (I think it's probably more of a nervous laughter because I'm almost positive they're plotting on what they can do with that many fireworks in their possession.)

Next up? San Diego, y'all! Brian and I are so excited to introduce one of our most favorite places in the world to our boys. We're even considering a jaunt right up to San Francisco too. Thank you, for these precious boys and thank you for giving them the hearts and minds to appreciate the value of the activities we introduce to them. I love that they love to travel. Working on getting them each a passport for Christmas...