Wilvia

Wilson and Silvia were awesome enough to come visit this spring! They were brave enough to come to Clear Lake Shores over Memorial Day Weekend...

In all of the weekend's festivities we were honored to share the bottle of wine we got from their wedding four years prior!

The little people had exceptional amounts of fun with Aunt Silvia and Uncle Wilson too! They were wonderful guests and great extra hands as we went about our busy schedule chasing around 2 children.

Thank you so much for coming to see us! Come back and visit any time!!

(I refrained from posting any of the "drag race" photos...I figured u-tube has worn those out by now...)

Butter flies?

For Ms. B's birthday, and on theme I might add, we got the opportunity to witness the metamorphosis of the painted lady butterfly!

We had a lot of fun and Blayne definitely enjoyed the experience. She often asks "do you want to play butterfly farm?"

Ms. B turns 3!

How has it been 3 years already???

Ms. Blayne chases butterflies as much as any other 3 year old so when Moody Gardens opened a butterfly exhibit in May, we planned a trip down for her birthday.

It was really a lot of fun- they had a maze that the kids shuffled through teaching them about butterflies accompanied by life size versions of caterpillars, cocoons, wings and more.

It isn't a party without some party shoes and happy cake!

Blayne's two favorite characters are Curious George and Hello Kitty. We had planned a Curious George party at her request but she changed her mind at the last minute-which, was actually really awesome luck because Curious George cakes were impossible to find.

Saturday morning we had a great little party in the park with some gifts and cake! This year the birthday girl was very shy (quite out of character) about being the center of attention- poor thing cried when we sang to her and didn't want anything to do with cutting the cake...eating it, however, was another matter all together.

We ended the day with a sleepover! Keller, Stewart, Monte and Mulligan all made a floor fort and eventually (and I mean eventually) fell asleep. We had a great day!

This now, is perhaps my favorite part of the whole weekend. As we have done every year, we had Blayne's birthday announcement put up on the marqui for our annual picture. It was up Friday and into Saturday. I kept saying "we need to go take the picture before they take it down". Ian calmed my concerns by reminding me that being a weekend, no one would change the marqui until Monday. Sunday afternoon we ventured over to the entrance to the city to find that

"Happy B-day Blayne"

had been changed to

"Happy B-day Al Burns"

What are the odds that Al would have all the same letters we needed to temporarily re-arrange to get our pic?

I won't lie to you, I have no idea where we got the E, but you will notice we cleverly framed the photo to make it look like we mis-judged the shot and cropped the Y in "DAY". Oh well, I have decided being a parent is about ingenuity and creativity- oh, and love, lots of love!

Happy, happy 3rd birthday Blayne!

Feeling Gruene?

On the spur of the moment, we decided it was worth our while to go see our beloved Robert Earl Keen in Gruene, TX. The Haynes and Ford clan already had accomodations and it was an opportunity hard to resist...

Plus, Blayne never denies a weekend with Keller...

OMG- O' Ma Gruene's cottage- it was delightfully dark. Not a whole lot to say other than it was a lovely place to sleep until noon...had we not brought babies...

Awesome ride!

Ahhhh little too awesome...getting sleeeeepyyy...

busted.

And now...the other star of the show- REK himself...just another gringo honeymoon, great show!

Swimming with the Fishes

Memo- now called "Memo the Blue Fish"- was found alive at 5pm on a Wednesday in his bowl of murky, yet suspiciously orang-ish water...

Closer investigation found that Memo's bowl had been stealthily invaded by the Swedes- three of them to be exact- three over sized sugary Swedish fish accompanied Memo all through the night and most of the next day.

The crime scene didn't reveal all the details but it did clearly prove that Memo defeated the Swedes and although shaken by this intrusion, lived to see another day.

However, it does sadden me to report that although Memo did survive this attack, a few short days later an invasion of tap water did him in. Luckily, Memo was chosen for his position as the "playmate" of a 2 year old because of his will to live (hard to kill) and camelion like qualities (easy to replace).

And although this Memo the Blue Fish will be greatly missed, he was quickly replaced with a slightly smaller but much livelier version that very same night. Our new Memo the Blue Fish is still happily swimming circles around Blayne and has yet to encounter another invasion.

Hogg Wild

Every now and again Miller time gets Hogg wild!

To Port-A we went for some R & R with the Hoggatt clan!

(note the location of the hands...those Hoggatt boys are t-r-o-u-b-l-e!- now the second shot!- smart girl!)

Of course, all Hoggatt fun aside, we had to do it Miller style- which always involves a few techincal difficulties...

Seriously? Can we go anywhere without a major vehicle explosion?

A long drive, a blown tire and a few hundred miles later we arrived: 2 cars, 2 golf carts, 4 adults, 3.5 kids (Marlina and Andy are expecting Katie mid-September), 2 portuguese, a cooler, grill, a sunshade, some swimsuits, "chanclas" and a blow up pool...ah, paradise.

oh yeah, and a swing-

so much for Baby Wise. Somehow props seem less evil the second time around...

Ah yes, another successful visit to Port A- just another drinking town with a fishing problem.