When I Grow Up...

The Children's Museum has a new exhibit!  It's all about dress up and careers.  The kids had a blast dressing up!

Let Down

For his birthday, Jack requested we go to SPAR water park again.  Unfortunately, withing moments of getting there, the thunder and lightning kicked in and we got one ride on one slide.  What a bummer birthday!  We made plans to try again on Friday! Let's hope that the weather cooperates this time!

Double Digits

TEN YEARS! Ten years we've been blessed with this smart, passionate, curious boy! He has a passion for many things...reading, swimming, dinosaurs, building, and all around learning.  He knows everything about everything.  He always strives to do his best in everything he does.  We love him so much! Happy birthday, Jack! Welcome to the double digits!

Mighty Marlin

Swim team is officially over for the summer.  Jack swam in the championship meet and placed in all of his events, as well as getting personal bests in each of them. 





He also received the Mighty Marlin Boy award for his age group. This award goes to swimmers that placed the highest throughout the season in their races.  This boy can swim!

Almost Ten!

Jack's birthday is coming up! Instead of a party, he asked that we have a family day.  He specially requested a family water gun fight, dinner at Tony's Pizza, and rolled ice cream from SD's.  Can't believe he's almost 10!

Moon Week

With a hurricane looming on the gulf and the fiftieth anniversary of the lunar landing, we spent the week feeling moony! We've watched October Sky, First Man, Despicable Me, and the Apollo 11 documentary.  We listened to podcast about Neil Armstrong.  And of course, we've had the telescope out to look at that amazing specimen, the moon!

Fly Me to the Moon

The last stop of our trip was the Houston Museum of Natural Science. 



With the fiftieth anniversary of the moon landing approaching, they had a lot of fun moon displays.





And of course we had to stop off at our favorite exhibit - the dinosaurs!







Now we are headed home.  Hurricane Barry is headed our way, so we are hunkering down with snacks and moon movies to watch!

Back to the Zoo

After Jack's camp showcase ended, we made a quick trip to the zoo so that our dinosaur lover could see the awesome dinosaur exhibit!



The dinosaurs actually roar at you as you go by.



Jack was in heaven!





We made a quick trip around to check out the favorite exhibits.











We love the Houston Zoo!

Envision: Pathways to STEM

Our main reason for visiting Houston this week is so that Jack can attend the National Youth Leadership Foundation's Pathways to STEM camp at the University of Houston. 



He got a special invite - only a few in each area in the country are invited to attend.  They had tons of amazing STEM activities, like dissecting a beef heart,





Learning first aid







building robots,



doing blood drop analysis, building bridges, taking fingerprints, making a model lung, and learning leadership skills!



It was an amazing week full of so many new skills and memories to take with him!

Batman

When you visit Pop Pop's apartment, you have to walk over to the Waugh Street Bridge at sunset to see the bats. 







Plus Houston at Sundown is pretty awesome too!

Make New Friends But Keep the Old

Best day ever!  Not only did we get to see our friends the Tureks after we too long, but we also got to play at their super amazing community pool with them. 





We are going to miss them when they move overseas!

I Love To Pose in Front Of the Temple

Mom and Dad took turns doing sessions in the Houston Temple and Kate couldn't resist her traditional temple photo shoot. 













She's going to make an amazing bride one day!

Where Dreams Come True

We spent almost six hours at the Children's Museum in Houston and the kids still weren't ready to go!





They loved hanging out in Kidtropolis. 



And they were obsessed with the ropes course!













They learned science experiments



Plus they played in the ginormous water tower.  They can't wait to go back again!