August 2017 Update

MAYBORN FUN

Audrey driving the bus.  She asks me often when she will be old enough to drive.

Dressing up in the Around the World room.

The kids had fun building and racing LEGO cars.

The littlest mail carrier.

Building a shadow city out of blocks.

The kids really like the building room.

BROOKLYN PICTURES

FAMILY FUN

We are really proud of Madeline reading the entire Book of Mormon on her own.

Maddy cuddling Brooklyn

We had a double baby shower at our house.  Lots of girly fun.  The girls loved it and Nathan was disgusted by all the pink.

Grandma cuddling Brooklyn

Audrey loved having her grandma C come visit and read her books.

Brooklyn really likes sweet potatoes.

Brooklyn cuddling Jared.

Brooklyn likes sucking on her big toes.

NEW BRANFELS

My parents stayed a few days after the baptism and we joined that at the Worldmark in New Braunfels.  We had a fun train ride around Landa Park.

Brooklyn with her mom.

She had fun swinging for the first time.

Audrey enjoyed having a baby buddy to play with.

Playing at the park

Paddle boat fun

Brooklyn all ready to swim.

Hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa by the pool.

The kids at a blast at Schlitterbahn with their dad and Grandpa D.

While everyone else as at Schlitterbahn, Grandma went antiquing and I took Brooklyn and Audrey to The Jumping Place.  At first Audrey seemed lost without her older sliblings to show her the ropes, but once she figured things out she loved it.

Brooklyn with her baby friend Darren.

Audrey has gotten into dressing up lately.  It is always fun to see the creative outfits she comes up with.

SOLAR ECLIPSE

Jared finally took the DAT on August 5th, unfortunately we were so focused on the test that we failed to prepare for the eclipse.  We were too late to get viewing glasses or to find a place to stay near totality so we watched it with pin hole viewers in our backyard.  Our library also had a viewing telescope with a solar filter that we were able to look through.

SOUTH PADRE

Since Brooklyn is still nursing and Audrey would freak out if we left her, we decided to take the kids on our 15 year anniversary vacation.

All ready to set sail on a dolphin watch cruise.

I had a hard time timing my pictures right, but it was amazing to see the dolphins swimming right by our boat.  You should have heard the squeals of delight from Abby and Maddy.

Dolphin fin with South Padre in the back ground.

We saw a dolphin and her baby riding on a pressure wave in front of one of the nearby boats.

Largest permanent sand castle in North America.

There are amazing sand castles at various tourist sites, hotels and restaurants all over the island.

We enjoyed visiting the South Padre island birding and nature center.  We saw a lot of beautiful sea birds and even a few turtles and alligators.  Audrey had fun feeding the ducks and turtles.

The center had a nice look out tower that allowed us to see the whole area.

View of the nature boardwalk from the look out.

The beach was absolutely perfect.  It wasn't crowded, the water was warm (about 82-84 degrees), and the weather was lovely.  Brooklyn seemed to enjoy her first trip to beach.

The kids enjoyed riding their boogie board in the waves and building sand castles.

Nathan liked building tunnels and holes.

Audrey with her sand castle.

Abby built a light house with a piece of driftwood.

Maddy with her castle.

We enjoyed seeing the sea turtles up close at the sea turtle rescue center.

Audrey looking at a sea horse.

The kids all got to feed flowers to a South African tortise.

We took one last walk along the beach before we had to evacuate for Hurricane Harvey.


We were sad that we had to end our vacation a day early, but we still had a great time.  Unfortunately the traffic back turned our 7 hour drive into a 10 hour one, but we were glad we got out safely.

Audrey singing I'm So Glad When Daddy Comes Home.