Sunday Snippets

Our Week in Review

• It's pretty hot these days.  We mostly sit around the house.  Sometimes I get so stir crazy that I find the energy to take the kids to the pool in the evenings, but that's about it.
• Isaac is starting to talk more.  He learned how to say his own name this week. 
• Miss Alivia and I made caramel stuffed apple cider cookies, they were really tasty.
• Dylan lost another tooth.  
• I've started getting up at 6:30am to go walking without the kids.  It's been nice. 
• The Mr. fixed up his bicycle and has been going out for rides since his ankle is still swollen and stiff.  I'm trying to get him to fix my bike up too.

Sunday Snippets

Our Week in Review

• Dylan went to his first 4 day scout camp.  I think he really had a great time!

Day One:  BB Gun Range, learning about their flag, archery, met with fire fighters and had a tour of a fire truck.
Day Two:  Made first aid kits, played games, played marbles.
Day Three:  Singing and dancing, learning square knots and how to tie ties, more archery practice, and rock wall climbing (Dylan was the only boy his age to make it all the way up to the top!).
Day Four:  Made leather pouches, obstacle courses and closing ceremonies.

• We went with several of our friends from our ward and completed two more Texas Nature challenges.   The first challenge we completed was a nature hike around Hermann Park.  

We discovered all sorts of wildlife, including lots of ducks, turtles and fish.  

• The second Nature challenge we completed, just happened to be about 100 feet away at the Houston Zoo.  So we meandered on over and enjoyed ourselves there.  We got to see quite a few exhibits that we missed the first time around. 

 

No trip to the zoo would be complete without a picture with Smog!

• After our morning of Nature Challenges, we headed home to shower up and get ready for another Houston first...Date night without the kids!  My good friend Melissa offered to take the kids for three hours so the Mr. and I could go on a date.  It's been over a year since the Mr. and I have got to go out just the two of us so I was so excited!  As I was getting ready Derik mentioned he was going to go for a run.  It wasn't until I bumped back into him in the garage as I was loading the kids in the van that I realized the crazy man actually went for a run in the afternoon heat.  I figured he'd get in the shower and we'd leave for our date when I got back from running the kids to the sitters.  When I got home he was still lying on the floor in the front room.  I was shall we say "ANGRY" so I decided to pout and crawl into bed and be mad at him.  A few minutes later he hobbled in and asked me to take him to an Insta-care.  Apparently while walking home from his run, he fell in a hole in someones grass and tore all his ligaments (in his already injured ankle).  So we spent our date night at the Insta-care.  It was nice not having the kids at the Insta-care with us though I will admit that, we were there almost the entire three hours.  So we did our best to salvage the rest of the evening by sending the kids to bed and eating Indian takeout.  Here's to a better date night next month!

Sunday Snippets

Our Week in Review

• The Mr. and I spent memorial day hanging gladiator tracks in our garage.  We got most every thing hung and organized and for the first time since we moved in, both cars can be parked in the garage.  We really know how party for the holidays.
• Our neighborhood pool finally opened this week and we have gone to it every evening.  So glad we have something to cool off in. 
• It's getting so HOT.  I might hate Utah winters but this Houston heat is unbearable at times.  I made the mistake of going grocery shopping in the middle of the afternoon.  By the time we were done shopping it was somewhere around 1:00pm.  Just loading the groceries from the cart to the car was making me curse and sweat like a mad woman.  Once I was in my car I cranked up the AC only to discover it was blowing even hotter air that was suffocating.  It took 3 or so minutes before the AC went from hot to warm and then it took it about another 3 minutes to become slightly cool.  In the meanwhile I prayed we wouldn't suffocate or sweat to death from the HEAT, it was awful.  Poor Isaac was such a slimy sweaty mess, when I got him out of his car seat, that I wanted to cry for him.  
• I joined a bunch of ladies from my ward who are doing a biggest losers competition.  The challenge lasts 12 weeks.  Wish me luck, I'm going to need it.
• The kids and I joined some friends on a Texas Nature Challenge.  We drove out to Brenham Texas and took a tour of the Blue Bell Ice Cream Factory.  It was a short and interesting tour, but the best part of it all was the pretty decent sized scoop of ice cream everyone received at the end of the tour.  I had red velvet cake, Dylan had sherbet, Livie asked for cotton candy, and Isaac got cookie dough.  The red velvet was delicious (and not much help when your trying to be the biggest loser, but I really wanted to try it.)

 

• As part of the Nature Challenge, the kids and I were supposed to do some research on pollinators (which we didn't do, we are still learning about the Texas Nature Challenges) .  After the ice cream tour we went to visit a garden and butterfly park just down the road, to see pollinators in action and connect how pollinators are important to the ice cream factory.  Mother nature had other plans in mind for us because when we pulled into the garden it started to rain.  We ran to a pavilion and had lunch and did our best to look around the gardens but the rain was pretty persistent.  Although we didn't see many pollinators in the rain, I was ever so grateful that we weren't baking in the sun.  So for me it was a great experience.  The group of kids really enjoyed each others company and everyone got along really well, so it made everything that much better.  I loved the drive out to Brenham, and back as well, it was so pretty.  I've heard when the blue bonnets and the blue bells are blooming that it's breathtaking out there.

•  Dylan had his last day of third grade this week.  Summer has finally begun here at the Giovannoni household.  So far so good, thanks to the neighborhood pool, we spend a lot of time there.
• Saturday night I went grocery shopping at 8:30pm and the outside temperature was 91 degrees.