Vacation!

We had the great opportunity to once again go with our very best friends the Shelton's (see pic) on vacation to Panama City Beach, Florida. We went with them 3 years ago and were very excited to go again! We left on Friday to go to Longview and pick up Joel (he had been having his week stay with Memaw & Papaw). After enjoying dinner at Papapcita's (of course there is no better way to start vacation than a trip to Papacita's) and seeing Randy & Sherri's new house we decided to get to bed.

We met the Shelton's at 4:10 am Saturday morning on the side of Interstate 20 to start the 12 hour drive to Florida. The first couple of hours were tough until the sun came up (see pic) but overall it was not a bad trip there (trip home not as fun-but that is for later). Of course with a total of 11 people and 6 of them being kids we did a lot of stopping. Here was the first stop where Shon was checking his roof luggage...then the very next stop Craig was up checking ours! I think we stopped about every two hours and had an interesting lunch stop at Burger King (think Bon-qui-qui on Utube). The kids excitement helped the time past and we didn't hit any construction or traffic.


We made it to the Condo around 4:30 where we promptly unloaded and Tina and I headed out to Wal-Mart to buy food for the week. Listen I am an expert Wal-Mart shopper but you have never seen crazy Wal-Mart shoppers until you have shopped at the Panama City Beach Wal-mart. Because the majority of the condos turn over on Saturday then you have 1000's of people looking for the same things -milk, bread, chips, cereal, lunch meat! It is crazy! But we finally got it all done and made it back to the condo to rest. (This is a pic from our room looking down to the ocean).

Sunday morning we were up early and ready to go. We blew up all the floats and headed out to ride the waves. The current was very strong and kept pushing us away from the area in front of the condo so we would get out and walk back down the beach and get back in. On one of these occurences a huge wave came up dumping Craig and taking his glasses with it. All 5 of us made a mad dash to try and locate his glasses. Just when we were about to give up hope Joel found them - YEAH!!! We spent all of Sunday and Monday at the beach. The condo sits right on the beach and our room was on the 4th floor, so we would just walk down 3 flights of stairs and be on the beach - it was wonderful!! Of course we also made the customary trip to the arcade where the kids played a lot of video games (Tina & I did a pretty good job of making high scores on Ms. PacMan) and rode the go carts.

On Tuesday we did what is my favorite part of whole trip - we rented a pontoon boat and take it out in the bay. As we were headed out to Shell Island we chased dolphins. We had a dolphin come right up to our boat. He was so close and would just roll over and like he was waiting on us to feed him. It was AWESOME to see one so up close in its natural habitat. It played with us for a good 5 minutes before swimming off. When we got to Shell Island we walked across to the other side and snorkeled. We saw a HUGE sting ray swim between us and another group of people. That was really, really cool. As the kids were snorkeling Christian came up with a jelly fish in his net. Talk about clearing the water quickly. Caleb (who was stung last year) hit the beach like his hair was on fire. Ms. Tina came to our rescue and threw the jelly fish far out but we all swam a litle closer to the beach after that! We got back into the boat and went out a ways and decided to try and let the kids fish. We had never fished before and wasn't really for sure what bait to use but Craig had picked up some shrimp and that is what we used. We fished forever with not one bite and the kids where ready to give up. I took a pole and fished for a little while and got the first bite. I didn't catch anything but the bite excited the kids and they started fishing again. All of the sudden Lance (Shon & Tina's son) started hollering and he had a fish. He reeled and reeled and reeeled some more - what we could see of the fish we could tell it was big, just as he got it to the boat the fish broke the line and swam off. We were so dissapointed for him but that re-excited the kids and they were back with gusto to catch something. Once again Lance start hollering and he had another big one. This time again before we got it to the boat the fish broke the line and swam off. (At least we now know that shrimp works and next year they will need stronger line!). Around this time we started noticing that Joel wasn't feeling real well. He had been coughing since Saturday but nothing series. Craig called him over and started talking to him and realized that he was wheezing as he was breathing. We really did not know what to do so we prayed for him and decided we would re-evaluate him after lunch. However within about 5 minutes he progressivly got worse. Craig made the decision that we needed to go back so that he could take Joel to the Dr. Now we were about an hour from shore and if you have ever been on a pontoon boat you know it does not go very fast! All of the kids slept as we traveled back and let them off. Joel really got bad by the time Craig found a clinic and got him in. This was the 3rd time he had had this kind of asthmatic attack and although he has never been diagnosed with Asthma that is what this Dr. diagnosed him with. They gave him a couple of breathing treatments while there. I have a nebulizer but since this is not a regular occurence for us I had not packed it. Luckily late that night Craig found one really cheap and we were able to treat him the rest of the week! Back on the boat we struck we went back out to anchor somewhere and eat lunch. We ate our lunch and the kids snorkled again. We just snorkled and swam the rest of the afternoon. Emily (Shon & Tina's oldest daughter) found a star fish (see picture - it wouldn't open up for us) and that was realy cool. We also so another sting ray and Shon & Tina spotted a sea turtle as well. This is always one of the highlights of our trip and I was so sad that Craig & Joel missed it but it couldn't be helped. We are alwasy EXHAUSTED after the boat trip so it was a very quite evening.

Our plans for Wednesday were to take the kids to the water park. But we changed those plans due to Joel. He just was not well enough to go to a water park and we figured our kids could use a day out of the sun. They spent all day in the condo playing games. I tried to go down to the beach several times that day to just lay on the chairs and read but everytime I went down it would rain. I finally gave up and stayed inside. One of my biggest hopes of the trip was to get a good family picture. The kids really aren't the problem with family pictures it is me. I just don't take good pictures so we don't have a lot of us all together. Since it had been overcast and sprinkling that day it was cooler and I decided we would take our pics that night. The thing I didn't figure in was the wind. So in a lot of the pics my hair is completely blown over to the side. But thanks to Ms. Tina's perserverance we did get some that I really, really like and look forward to blowing up and framing. That night was the adults night out!! Tina's mom goes every year and she agreed to stay with the kids so that all of the adults could go out. We had such a great time and had the best shrimp I have ever eaten in my life. It was lightly battered (not fried) in a creaming white sauce and it was AWESOME. Unfortantely, Craig & Shon had ordered it so I just stole them from Craig when he wasn't looking but it was really, really, good. After dinner we just sat down on some benches and talked. I love this couple so much and we NEVER run out of things to talk about and laugh about. We truly have a great time together.

Thursday was once again a beach day. We played really hard in the morning and then decided to be done around 2:00. Later that afternoon we took all of the kids to the Dollar Store to buy sourveniours. We then came back and all of the girls went shopping and the boys stayed at the condo and played games. I LOVED going with the GIRLS to shop (not having any girls I don't get to do that often)! We had a great time and tasted some very intersting combinations of popcorn!! We had decided on Thursday to go ahead and leave on Friday rather than waiting till Saturday. So Thursday night was spent packing up, cleaning and getting ready to go home.

We left around 9:30 am on Friday and we got back to Dallas around 11:30 pm. It was a LONG drive home and not nearly as fun as the trip down. The kids were really bored and antsy on the way home which translates into a lot of: are we there yet and hitting and aggrivating each other. Regardless we were so glad we got to go and really LOVED being there with our friends! (Here are some extra pics)

4th of July!

The kids (especially Joel) have really been looking forward to the 4th of July. I think because last year in Sugar Land Craig bought a big packet of fireworks. Because we lived out of the city limits and our house was in a cul-de-sac we had a perfect place to shoot them. We had sparklers, black jacks, roman candles and more. The boys had a BLAST. So this year they were expeting the same thing. I began noticing about 3 weeks ago these signs going up around Friso saying it is ILLEGAL to do fireworks in the city limits. I thought interesting but no big deal because we are technically in Little Elm and I had not seen ANY signs up regarding fireworks. However, I checked out the Little Elm city webiste and they had a big banner on it saying it was ILLEGAL to shoot fireworks (including sparklers) and that you would be fined $2,000. I thought OH NO what are we going to do. I mean I am serious when I say they had been counting down the days till the 4th to shoot fireworks. So I didn't say anything and thought we will deal with it on the 4th.

The kids wanted to go swimming so we all went to the pool. This was the first time that Craig went with the boys and they had a blast. They LOVE having dad to to help gang up and tackle Christian, through them in the water, and someone to climb all over (their mother normally only gets in the water to cool off - definently not to tackle anyone or get her hair wet-ha, ha).

We came home showered and changed and went in search of fireworks. We had decided we would just get some sparklers for the kids and hope we wouldn't get caught!! Since it was illegal in Frisco & Little Elm we had to drive around looking for a firework stand to purhase some (of course in Sugar Land & Longview there are fireworks stands on every corner!). We finally found a place and it was PACKED. Much to Joel's dismay we only bought some sparklers. To make it up to them Craig got them all chocalote shakes from Wendys!

We went over to my mom and dad's new house to shoot the sparklers and watch the fireworks. Due to the wind we had a hard time getting the sparklers lit and we did catch the grass on fire in one place but the kids had fun! Their house was the perfect place to watch fireworks because we could see the fireworks from Little Elm and other surrounding cities coming up over the lake.

No big plans for this upcoming week but in the next couple of weeks all three are going to Grandpa Billy's & Jo's. Their house is a little boys heaven with huge acreage, fishing, cows, guns, etc. They can not wait!!!

2 Weeks Down - 9 more to Go!!!

I am of course referring to the fact that school has been out for 2 weeks and 9 more until school starts again!! The first week Caleb spent with Memaw & Papaw (Randy & Sherri). I can't tell you the difference there is when just one of them is gone! The noise level is drastically less and there is so much less fighting! I think this is one of the only times that Caleb has gone somewhere by his self and he had a BLAST. It was he and his cousin Connor and they ruled the roost for that week. One of the highlights of the week was Caleb catching 19 (yes 19) fish at Randy & Sherri's house. He was so excited to have caught more fish then anyone else in our family! Bless his heart he cried when I picked him up! He said he was going to miss Memaw and Papaw and that it had been so nice not having his brothers annoy him!! Joel & Christian enjoyed being the only 2 home. Joel made a double play last week at his baseball game. He caught a fly ball playing 2nd base and then ran off and touched first base!! He was EXTREMELY excited. (Of course he thinks he can coach the team his self so this reinforced to him that he is awesome!)

This past week was the first week with all 3 home! Monday was AWFUL. They all three fought and fought! I was at my wits end thinking how could it get any worse and then it did! I don't know what was wrong with Joel but he broke my lamp in the living room and then decided to play dodge ball in the media room and broke a window in there. By the time Craig got home I was ready to sale all 3 of them on Craig's list. Thankfully Craig had a little more grace with them then I did. Luckily we have double pane windows and he didn't break both panes so there isn't any heat or bugs coming in. That was such a blessing since they had to order the glass and it won't be fixed until tomorrow.

Tuesday afternoon I was getting ready for Caleb's last baseball game when Craig came downstairs with Joel and said he has fever. He had 101.6 and said his throat was hurting. He had just had strep throat 12 days before and had finished his antibotic on Sunday. I took him back to the Dr. and sure enough he still had strep throat. Craig took Caleb to his game and I got Joel's antibotic. (It explained a little bit why he was so bad the day before, usually when he is so mean it is because he is sick.) Caleb's team lost their last game but he had a good game! I think he is very glad baseball is over and he now says he doesn't want to play again!

On Wednesday Christian started band camp. He LOVES band and this is a camp that is put on by his band directors. They meet once a week for 2 hours, learning new songs, and trying different things that they can't do during the school year.

On Friday we kept a friend of mine's little boy named Micah. Micah is a year and half and he is so sweet. The boys (especially Joel) love him and love to play with him. I am going to start keeping him two days a week for July, August, & September and they are very excited. He truly is one of the most laid back little boys I have ever been around. We took him to the pool (we spend about 4 days out of the week at the pool) along with 2 other families and had a great time!

Saturday was Joel's last baseball game. He played catcher the first inning and while he didn't get any outs he really looked CUTE in his gear. For the 2nd inning he played second base and got two of the three outs for that inning. He came into the dugout and hollered at Craig and said dad I got the first out and the third out. (Again did I mention how much he loves baseball!). Whenever he gets an out he pumps his fist up and high fives the coach (and sometimes the other teams coach if they are near). He definently wants to play baseball again in the fall! I LOVE baseball but I am glad the season is over for now. It is simply to HOT!

I love my kids and they say the funniest things. Like Joel recently said - "I didn't know I had to brush my teeth since it was summer vacation and I didn't realize we still went to church during summer vacation." (I guess since this is the first time he has been out of school he thinks everything stops for summer vacation.) He was repeating his Bible story to me about Abraham having to move his whole family in obedience to God. So I asked him Joel where did Abraham move to and he said "God told Abraham to move from Texas to Oklahoma." Today I asked Caleb about his lesson at church and he said we learned about John the Baptism man!! They are so funny!!

Craig found out Friday afternoon that they settled the lawsuit against the hospital he worked for in Houston so he does not have to go and testify this week. He was VERY, VERY relieved and glad. I was glad for him as well because I know how much he wasn't looking forward to it but I was a little disappointed because I was going to go with him and I was looking forward to getting away without the kids and staying in a free hotel room - ha. ha!!

So I now think we are all caught up!

Last Day of School - Great is thy Faithfulness!

I just had to blog today -the last day of school! This school year was anticipated with much anxiety, prayers and yes even some tears and the fact that today is the last day is so significant to me! As all of you know one of the hardest issue with our moving was the fact that Christian would have to change schools as he was going into sixth grade. One of Craig and I's main prayer requests during this transition was that Christian would go to school with the same kids that he goes to church with and that the transition to middle school would be easy. God quickly and completely answered that prayer. The first Sunday that we were all in church Tracy Hook introduced herself and her family to us. Tracy & Jeff have a sixth grade boy named Hayden who was going to the same middle school as Christian. Hayden & Christian are the best of friends and that connection is one of the many reasons his sixth grade year has gone so smoothly. Hayden and Christian attend the weekly Jr. High youth meeting at church, play in the band at school and are families are close friends. I thank God for his faithfulness to send us the Hook's as friends!

Although Caleb has had a rough year (does anyone remember the great spelling meltdown ) - he finished very strong. He was awarded the Science award for his class and finished reading on grade level!! He is very much looking forward to the summer and a little bit looking forward to being a 3rd grader!

The last huge transition was sending Joel to kindergarten. I was so sad and yet so excited to see him start school. It has been VERY NICE not having any children at home during the day but it was VERY SAD as well that he was growing older. He (like Christian) loves school and has enjoyed kindergarten. He is very attached to his teacher Mrs. Hodges and he doesn't understand that she will not be his teacher next year. He however declared this morning that he was no longer a baby since he is going to be a first grader tomorrow!!

I have always known that God is faithful. But I think most of you would agree that when it comes to your children seeing God's faithfulness to them means so much more. So, if you are struggling with something in your life and your wondering will God come through - GOD IS ALWAYS FAITHFUL! Lamentations 3:22-24 "The faithful love of the Lord never ends, his mercies never ceases, GREAT IS HIS FAITHFULNESS, his mercies begin a fresh every morning, I will say to myself the Lord is my inheritance therefore I WILL HOPE IN HIM. The Lord is close to those who depend on him and to those who search for him. So it is good to wait quietly for salvation from the Lord." God is sovereign and he is truly working all things together for your good!

*The first picture is the picture I took on the first day of school this year. The next two are from this morning. The third picture is of Joel with his teacher Mrs. Hodges and the final 3 are of Caleb and his friends at his end of the school party and doing the limbo!

A Big Week for Caleb

Before I share all of Caleb's news, just wanted to share some of the week's happenings. We went to Randy & Sherri's over Memorial Day Weekend. It was the first weekend in a while that Craig was off and we had NO baseball games. It is SOOOO nice to only drive 2 1/2 hours rather than 4 to see family! We started out with lunch with the Shelton's at our very favorite Mexican food place of all time - Papacitas! Really it is my all time favorite place but I have brainwashed the kids into thinking it is there's as well. We then spent the rest of the afternoon with them! Can't wait for vacation!! Then it was off to Memaw & Papaw's. The kids had a great time fishing on Sunday. Our hooks were to big for the massive size of the fish (just kidding if you notice Craig & Christian's large catch!) so catching those little perch was HARD. But the kids had a great time. We enjoyed wonderful steaks and baked potatoes and just had a great time.

Then on Tuesday Joel talked Craig into shaving his hair. Joel HATES to have to fix his hair every morning so Craig told him this was the only way to change that. I was a little nervous but Craig did a great job. I don't know if you can really tell by the pictures just how short it is but it is VERY SHORT. Joel however LOVES IT!!

Now on to Caleb. Caleb is playing his 4th season of baseball. This year has really been hard for him. He is now in kid pitch and it isn't an easy transition to make. He has spent most of the season in left field and seen very little action. (Which if you know Caleb at all he NEEDS action!). Anyway on Tuesday at practice his coach asked him if he would like to pitch and Caleb said yes. The coach worked with him on Tuesday and encouraged us to work with Caleb at home. Christian practiced with him a little big on Wednesday before his game. The whole way to the game Caleb kept saying, "I really, really hope I get to pitch tonight." I was thinking I don't think there is anyway you will get to pitch with only one practice and I hope not because your dad is working. Sure enough bottom of the first and out to the mound he goes. He was SO excited at first. He did really well for the first 3 batters. They all got hits and he threw strikes to each batter. The bad thing was the defense behind him was sleeping so the bases were loaded with no outs. He then started to struggle - really struggle. The more he struggled the more upset and frustrated he became with his self which means the more bad pitches he made. The coach left him in and he pitched the entire first inning. Caleb was distraught by the time he got to the dugout. He kept saying he had been a horrible pitcher (his words not mine)! I really encouraged him that he had done a great job with only 1 practice under his belt. By the end of the game he seemed better and I think was proud of his self. I was certainly proud of him and the job he did pitching for the first time.

Earlier this week I got a call from his 2nd grade teacher informing me that Caleb was going to receive the Science award for his class. I was so excited on Thursday for me and Craig along with my parents to get to see him receive the award. He had no idea and I think was surprised. He stood up and got his award and sat down so fast I couldn't even get a picture until afterwards. I have shared many times how much Caleb does not like school and can struggle in specific areas so we were so proud of him to receive the award.

This is our last week of school - YEAH!! I think we are all ready for a break (and I an sure about week 2 I will be ready for them to go back - LOL)! They have big plans for the summer: 1) to spend a week with each of the grandparents (Billy & Jo and Mom & Dad I am sure you haven't heard of this plan since it was just discussed in the car today on the way home from the pool because they already are going to Randy & Sherri's so they think they should go to everybody's), 2) Caleb & Joel have free tickets to Six Flags so that is in the plans and 3) our vacation to Florida!

Week in the life of the Wilson's

As school is "winding" down it seems that our activity level is "speeding" up. This week was no exception. I am teaching/hosting a Bible Study every Monday night here at the house. I am really enjoying it but it does mean we have to get "creative" with what we do with the boys especially if Craig is working. This past Monday he was off so they left - which was great!! Then early around 3 am Tuesday morning Joel got up with a stomach bug. So far (thank you Lord) he is the only one who has had it.

Wednesday night was Christian's Spring Band Concert. He was very excited and participated in 4 of the songs. He played 2 songs with the jazz band and 2 songs with the beginner band. He was recognized for receiving a "1-Superior" at the Solo & Ensemble Competition. He also received a special recognition because he received a Judges Award. Out of 86 soloists only 6 received a Judges Award and he was one of them. He really loves playing and is very good at it (I guess he gets that from his Uncle Kyle). He is going to continue to play next year! (Sorry the pictures aren't very good - the lighting was really bad in the auditorium).

Friday was field day for both Caleb & Joel. They were both participating at the same time so I spent a lot of time running back and forth around the entire school. Unlike when I was young and did field day there day is a little different. They don't compete against other classes just against their own class and they do not receive ribbons or anything. The kids have a great time but I kind of miss the sack races, relay races, and a tug of war amongst classes. Anyway, they did have a tug of war between 2 classes and that was the kids FAVORITE event. In a close 2nd was something called "Jump the River" where they had to jump over 2 jump ropes laying in the grass. If they miss and land in between the ropes it is called the river. They also had several games of trying to "put" the golf ball into a hole, throwing noodles a certain distance, racing on scooters and carrying pingpong balls on a paddle. Luckily the weather was perfect- overcast and windy (the afternoon classes weren't so lucky!). (Pics of are both Joel's class and Caleb's class doing the tug-of-war)

Speaking of Friday afternoon we had received word that the pool in our subdivision that is closeset to our house would open on Friday. My kids are pool addicts. With 3 kids we spend A LOT of time at our pools within our subdivision because they are free and convenient. Believe me when we decided to build in our subdivision here in Dallas high on our list was how many pools do they have! Our subdivision has a total of 4 pools and the largest is the nearest to us! I decided yesterday to take the kids after school. I know that we had a chance of rain in the forecast for today (Saturday) and wanted to make sure they got to swim this weekend. The water of course was FREEZING but they didn't seem to mind and all 3 of them swam for two hours before we left. They had a great time and I enjoyed getting some sun and reading (it is so nice now that all 3 can swim and I don't have to worry so much about them)!

So today (Saturday) Joel was scheduled to play baseball. But the forecast was right and so far it has rained since about 4:00 am. Therefore baseball has been canceled and I am home with 3 boys who can't go outside and a husband who is sleeping from working 12 hours last night. So we have so far made 2 trips to Game Stop! They "pooled" their money and bought a used game - which of course didn't work -thus the 2nd trip back to Game Stop! My hope is that they will quietly play this game the rest of the afternoon - I don't really believe that will happen but I can hope anyway - right!! My plans are to continue reading the book I started yesterday, listen to the rain, drink some Diet Dr. Pepper and watch the Astros (who are playing the Cubs which is never a good ending for the Astros but again - I can hope!)!! (Pics - Caleb: jumping the river; Joel: jumping the river; Joel putting; Caleb putting & making a whole in one; more swimming).