The Boys

The boys and I headed to my hometown of Bradenton last friday. Brett spent the weekend canoeing and camping down the river with people he works with and since I couldn't leave Brody for a whole weekend (nursing) I was not able to go. I figured instead of us spending the whole weekend at home alone, since we do that all the time anyway, we would go on a trip of our own. It worked out well too because I had a class reunion planning meeting and social and a baby shower all down here this weekend. It's been a busy but enjoyable time so far. I've had a lot of help with the boys which has been a much-needed change of pace for me. I love my boys with everything i've got but they are certainly a hand full. Houston and Brody spent most of saturday with my mom while I helped plan my class reunion and had some fun with some old friends.

Here's photo from Saturday night. This is me with Larry (left) and Kris (right). These are two guys that I grew up with. We all lived in the same neighborhood and hung out together, rode the bus together, played basketball in my front yard, talked at school, all that stuff ... It was really fun to reminise. (i probably didn't spell that word right .. so sue me)

The boys spent the day with thier Pappy Tom and Grammy Lee on Sunday while my mom and I went to my cousin's baby shower. Houston went fishing for the first time on saturday and actually caught a fish. He's already telling fish tails too. It's the cutest thing, if you ask him about the fish he will tell you it was "this big" and even holds his hands up and spreads them out as if to show you just how big the fish was. I hope to get a copy of the picture soon so I can post it here.

Houston spent the day with my mom on monday and Brody and I went shopping. Apparently I had my proverbial head up my arse when I was packing last friday. That's what I get for staying up so late the night before. Friday was a very rough day for me. Brett was already canoeing down the river and I was trying to pack and load the car and take care of the boys ... which proved to be very challenging to do all at once. I was pretty good with all the extras like toys, the computer, my knitting stuff, gifts for the baby shower and bridal shower, beach bag ... all that stuff ... it's the clothes that I failed miserably at. I forgot to bring a nice outfit for both of the showers I have this week. I forgot my sneakers. I was folding laundry as I was packing and I had two piles going on my bed ... one was all of my clean undies that I was going to pack and the other pile was all of my sports bras and a couple pairs of undies that I don't really like. Obviously I meant to pack pile A but to my dismay I soon discovered (while getting dressed for the shower on sunday) that I packed pile B. I have more sports bras than I know what to do with (and no sneakers to go jogging) and no undies. That lead to a trip to target after the shower on sunday for some undie shopping. Then I also realized that I did not pack much to wear. So ... on monday Brody and I did some outlet mall shopping and I got an outfit to wear this saturday to Rachel's bridal shower. And while we're talking about what I didn't pack ... since I didn't pack any decent walking shoes, I went for a long walk today in my flip flops and now have sunburned toes and big blisters on the tops of my feet where the straps to my flip flops sit. Lovely!

Here's Brody on the walk ... he turned around to look at me through the back of the stroller and ended up passing out that way. He slept like this the whole hour that we were walking and when he woke up he had this big red line across his face from where his forhead was sitting on the edge of the stroller.

Houston decided to walk for the last half of our journey. He kept up with me really well and I was very proud of him. We were naming everything we could find. He is so funny. We talked about all of the houses and the mailboxes and he even learned what a fire hydrant was. We talked about what color everything was and how certain things were big and others were little. Then every time we saw another mailbox he exclaimed loudly "more mailbox". And every time we saw another house he said "more house". Too cute. His speech is getting better and better every day. I think this trip has been really good for him. Here are a couple of pictures of Houston on our walk.