Long Overdue Summer Post

     
        Where to begin?  It has been a fast, fun, and fantastic summer.  I haven't done a lot of blogging because I haven't been at the computer too much this summer.  July is always such a fun month for our family, because we celebrate Jacob, Alison and Natalie's Birthdays.  We decided to celebrate Alison and Jacob's Birthdays on the road, as we enjoyed time with both sets of grandparents.

        We started out our little vacation in Bryan, visiting Matt's parents.  While we were there, we celebrated Alison's Birthday (even though it was 24 days early!) with a "Tangled" theme.  

Alison's Tangled cake ~ made with love 

        Matt and I had a lot of fun making this cake for Alison.  It was a layered, yellow cake, with butter cream frosting.  Rapunzel's tower was made out of rice crispy treats, molded to make the tower shape and the roof.  Then, we covered the tower with modeling chocolate, made from melted chocolate chips and Karo syrup.  Rapunzel, herself, is just a sticker, but her hair is made from frosting.  I can hardly believe that Alison is celebrating her 5th Birthday.  Here she is with her stack of presents from Gran and Opa ~

Gran and Alison

        Even Uncle Steven made it to the party via Skype.  He was a hit, with his camera tricks - Alison's favorite was the pig snout ~

        We had so much fun celebrating the kids' birthdays, the 4th of July, and simply the fact that we were all on vacation.  Here are a few more pictures from our trip to Bryan ~

Jacob loved driving Opa's "tractor"

Alison loved driving Opa's boat

Matt and Alison went for a ride on the tube

Jacob's first time on the boat

        After our wonderful trip to Bryan, we packed up the car and headed to Katy to visit Natalie's parents. On July 6, we celebrated Jacob's 2nd Birthday.  He had a "Firetruck" theme, and some of Natalie's high school friends brought their families to celebrate.

Jacob LOVED everyone singing to him!

Jacob's firetruck cake - chocolate cake with butter cream frosting

Big smiles from a Big Boy

David Alvarez and his sweet family

Denise and Josh Caldwell and their sweet kids

Mimi and Pops, enjoying the cake and party

        One of Alison's requests this summer was to go to the beach... and we finally made it!!  We loaded up the car, the cooler and all the stuff and drove down to Stewart beach on Galveston Island.  Alison and Jacob had the time of their lives!  Neither seemed to mind the salty water or the beating sun.  After about 2 1/2 hours, we decided to get out of the sun, so we headed over to the Moody Gardens. We thoroughly enjoyed the Rain forest exhibit, Bugs in 3-D, Dora and Diego in 4-D, and dinner at Shrimp 'N Stuff.  It was a long, hot, wonderful day!

First steps...

Alison was ready for the beach!

"Follow me, Dad...."

Mimi and Pops' sand castle creation

Lunch break