Everyday that the kids go to school, Jason insists that he is old enough to join them.  He touches his toes and then runs his hands up his body until he gets to his head while counting.  By the time he reaches his head he usually hits around 15...which he then proclaims to be his age.  Definitely old enough to go to school, he reasons.  That is pretty reasonable, if he actually was 15, but since he is still 3, he's stuck at home with Mom.  Poor kid.

This whole process happens again when he sees Robert going to work.  Boy, this kid wants to grow up fast.  He hates missing out on all the awesome things that he just knows everyone else is doing.  One day, when he was crying over his fate of spending another day with me, Robert announced that he was going to take him to work with him.  

You should have seen the way that child's face lit up.  Are you kidding?  Going to work with Dad?  A dream come true.  He rushed around to get all ready for the outing.   He wanted to look just as fancy as his Daddy...and I have to admit, he did look pretty smashing.  Here they are, about to head out for their adventure.

Jason, showing a little love...

"And I love you, random citizen!"  - Metroman (Mega Mind)

Future Politician...or Computer Geek.

When they came back, after their work-lunch, Jason was ready for a life-time of hard labor.  Fortunately for him, his Mama insisted that he go to the park instead.

After a whirlwind summer, we suddenly found ourselves thrown back into school.  Not just any school, mind you, but this year all three of my precious big babies were thrown into the scary, preteen world of MIDDLE SCHOOL!  NOOOoooooo!   I refuse to think of them going to such a cut-throat place.  Not only are they going there, but they are getting themselves there by 7:30 every morning.  That means a 5:45 wake-up, so they can be out the door by 6:40, so they can ride their bikes there before the first bell.  What has this world come to?  

For such a frighten situations, they sure did look pretty happy for their first day of school.  Weird.

Alaina - 6th Grade

Austin - 6th Grade

The twins being all twinnie.

This is all old hat for Ethan.  Middle school?  Bah!  He laughs in the face of Middle School!

Ethan - 7th Grade

Bring on the 6 periods!  Bring on the hours of homework!  Bring on the after school clubs!

But please, just don't bring it on too quickly.   I'm struggling here.  :(

As soon as we got back from Texas, we got an overnight visit from Scott and his family.  Aaron had a ballroom competition going on at the M.  It was so much fun have a little (more) cousin time.  We don't often see Scott in these here parts, so it was a treat to have them.

This was the first ballroom competition I've been to.  I couldn't believe all the glitz and glamor of it all.  Aaron danced beautifully and his partner was stunning.  It is so interesting how they pick a partner to dance with and stay with them for as long as they can.  It was, however, clearly a very aggressively competitive sport.  All those dancers were out to win.

All dressed down again (a few of mine were questionably so...)  After dinner they were on their way again. A short, but definitely sweet visit.

One morning Emmett woke up especially early.  I didn't want to wake anyone up, so I thought it would be a good chance to go out and watch the sunrise.  

It was worth it.

Emmett and I had a great time hanging out with each other before the day got too hot.

He love running along the sand and I enjoyed the view.  

I thought it was so beautiful that I convinced a few more people to join me on our last morning in South Padre.  Unfortunately, that morning was stormy and cloudy.  The twins and Mom and Dad braved the early morning with me, and this is what we saw.

In fact, this was a smallish funnel cloud out in that storm.

 We did get some kind of sunrise without actually seeing the sun, however.

It may have not been the most classic sunrise, but it was sure beautiful.

We got back and packed up to go.  We loved our time with the Joneses (all of them!).  We'd make it a yearly thing if Ron and his family wasn't going to move to San Francisco this next summer.  Well, San Francisco has some pretty amazing sunsets, so we might still go and visit.  :)

One evening we went to the end of the Island where we heard you could watch the dolphins swim.  We were not disappointed.  We loved being so close to those pretty dolphins.  All the kids loved watching them, but I think Alaina was especially in heaven.  

You can see how close they were to the rocks...

After they swam off, out to the ocean, we did a little beachcombing.

Look close and you'll see some scary looking critters.  

These two were too silly together.

Serious gang signs going on.  Using my extensive gang sign fluency, I know that this particualar sign means, "Peace out, Grandpa."  That's some deep stuff.

Arianne and the kids with their treasures.

This little love was ready to sleep.