Yippee....we love summer!

Look at that big boy! He is growing so fast and getting new skills and words everyday. Dylan talks non-stop, usually telling very detailed stories about his adventures and runs around with a smile on his face. I can't believe he is almost 3 and already planning his motorcycle birthday party.

Cedar Park has great parks and playscapes in an interconnected park system that is about 6 miles long. It has these great areas with fountains for the kids to run around in. This fountain was fun because the kids could "float" objects in it, like beachballs, crocs etc. Then they would run under the objects and make them fall down. We made a couple of trips to that park with Bonnie and Mimi. Along with daily swimming was trampolene jumping. Fun to watch Dylan develop his coordination as they launched each other and played endless games of "crack the egg" and "steamroller". They are enjoying playing together these days and had a great time exploring and experimenting.

We visited the Nature and Science Center near Zilker Park and had a great day playing with fossils, digging in the dino pit and checking out all the rescued animals they have on site. It is so fun to watch them discover and learn. Colter is very interested in fossils of all sorts, rocks, minerals, geodes and all animals. Dylan loves to follow Colter around and learn from him. Aunt Bonnie joined us for a ride on the Zilker Zepher, a little train that goes by Barton Springs and we went home for more bug and toad hunting. This is Colter's favorite toad, we call him the "flower pot toad"

We got to meet little Charlotte and visit with cousin Brooke! She is so cute. I love the age where they are all smiles and giggles and not yet mobile! She kicked her little legs in that floatie non-stop for about 30 minutes. We went out to Uncle Dave's house on Lake Travis for a couple of afternoon swims.

LOVE the 4th of July! And of course the fireworks AND the fireworks feature that Carrie and I discovered on our cameras. We took some wild pictures. The smiley face pic is on of our favorites and consisted of me and Colter using some teamwork with sparklers. If you ask him it goes a little like this "It was my MOM"s bright idea to swirl the sparks right over my HEAD!" Safety first----

Michael, Carrie and the boys at the fireworks show at the park. Aunt Bonnie and Colter "oohing and ahhing" at the fireworks display.

The black fuzzy wave behind my head is part of the million bats that fly out every night from a bridge on I35. Colter has been looking forward to that event since our visit last year when we forgot to go. He said it was worth the wait. It was pretty amazing to watch the organized chaos and it went on for a long time. Not a single mosquito bite from that area!

Testing out the underwater feature on the camera helped the boys learn to hold their breath longer, and jump off the side over and over and over........ We had to get the perfect shot! Both of their swimming improved so much while we were there. Colter could swim across the pool on his back (thanks to Aunt Bonnie"s "monkey, bird, soldier") and jump in and swim underwater. Dylan could swim from the ladder to me underwater by the last day. He loved the floaties and was wearing those most of the time with no life jacket.

We swam in the pool, we swam in the lake, all times of day, everyday. So, so, so love the warm water and nice weather! Dylan mastered "skateboarding" on the boogie board, he probably fell off 50 times and just kept climbing back up. He has amazing balance. Carrie doing some boatside bonding with the boys while the tube got blown up.

This is a full pteranadon skeleton hanging from the ceiling at the UT science museum. We went to all four floors and spent many happy hours looking at every mineral, fish, snake, fossil and animal they had to offer.

Tubing adventures! Michael and Colter held on just fine. However, Mommy and Dylan did not keep the hair dry the entire time. Good thing he had his life jacket on! Just kidding, I have two hands, one for my kiddo and one for the sunglasses. Also discovered a few under used muscles with a bit of wakeboarding.

Other fun activities that we did on our Texas adventure included;

glow in the dark putt-putt where Dylan got a hole-in-one, a creek hike and fossil hunt with Michael, walking to the farmer's market and barely escaping the huge downpour, driving adventures with Aunt Bonnie "who needs a navigation system anyway?" and "red light, red light, what do you say?". late night grocery store visits with Dylan entertaining the entire staff, visits with Mimi, Brooke, Charlotte and Uncle Dave, TV time with Uncle Lester-we are still talking about the River Monsters and Deadliest Catch, launching paper airplanes from the balcony, Toy Story 3, making a science sheet with Aunt Bonnie, experiments with everything from bugs to water, the daily over feeding of the dogs and cats (pretty sure they will miss Dylan), library visit where we made 4th of July windsock/hats, lego time with Michael, driving the ski boat with Uncle Lester..........we were busy everyday and had such a great trip again this year. Thanks to the Hahn's for opening up their house and letting us invade for a while, we appreciate it.

And the famous quotes from Dylan

"Wow, This is AWESOME!" and "Not me know"

Colter loves to go snake hunting with Mac-Mac. This time they found a huge snake under the hot tub and Mac-Mac let him hold and relocate it by himself. He was so proud and excited. Mommy, again, volunteered to stand back and take pictures. We were able to stay with Grandma and Mac-Mac for a couple of days after getting back from Texas and both boys loved the night they got to set off fireworks with Mac-Mac at the neighbors house. Dylan was dragging Mac-Mac all over the place and squealing with excitement the whole time.

When we got back to Telluride Daddy borrowed a friends motorcycle and took the boys for a ride in the area. Colter did good and also rode around the neighborhood to show me his new skills. He said he only fell over once and that was because he kept riding in circles and got dizzy.

Not sure what's next, we'll see what the second half of summer brings.