July 4th

We celebrated July 4th this year in a laid-back fashion.  We invited friends and family over to eat pulled pork bbq sandwiches, sit in the heat, and watch the kids pile into the the baby pool and crazy inflatable ball thingy.

There was a lot of this...

And then Henry and Will always find themselves alone at the table together.

Cousins being adorable.

I thought water balloons would be fun.  And they were for the kids.  It took an adult though to fill them up and then tie each of them off, and that was me.  As labor intensive as it was it was still fun.

Eventually they learned to save their balloons as I filled them up rather than chucking one at a time.  Then came the water balloon fight.  Will and his over-tired self lost it at the end in full melt-down mode.

I made strawberry margaritas and even the grandparents enjoyed them!  :)

I put Johnny in the pool amidst all the chaos and he was a wee bit overwhelmed.  Later, after all the kids had gone inside he had the pool all to himself and had a ball.  He had the audience all to himself too, and that makes all the difference.

Vacation!!!

Y'all, we went on vacation in June.  And it was awesome.  I am about to overwhelm you with photos, so I apologize, but there's some good stuff here.  We spent the better part of a week in Port Aransas at the very fancy Cinnamon Shores.

We arrived on a Tuesday afternoon and very quickly put our suits on to go check out the beach.  We were excited, obviously.

Johnny was very impressed.  He thought the beach was a really good time.  I put him down in the sand and he just crawled straight into the ocean without hesitation.  He began to get swallowed by the waves, so I had to scoop him up several times.  He kept going back for more.  This made for one tired boy everyday.

Accompanying us on this trip were the very fabulous and always fun Pam and Tim.  Somehow, we convinced them to come with us, and it was so much more fun to have them there.
Fun beach times.

The pools at this place were so nice.  Beach front entry, vanishing edge, plenty of shallow water for the little ones that was all connected to the "big" pool.  And they were salt water pools which I really enjoyed.  The boys were always asking to go to the pool.  More than the beach.  Go figure.

We made lots of good sand castles and holes and trenches on the beach.  Here is one of our works of art accessorized with found treasures scavenged along the shore.  I did all the digging and hard work and Matt decorated.  He was great in the supervisory role.  :)

Another interesting aspect of the place we stayed was that it was a golf cart friendly community.  All of the beach house owners had golf carts, and as renters visiting you could rent one yourself or place a call to the office and they would shuttle you by golf cart to and from the beach or pool as you pleased.  We were stubborn and walked everywhere we needed to, but caught a ride a couple times by a cart passing by.  It wasn't too far to walk where we needed to go, but it was too far to go with all our stuff.  Steven drove the Runner down to the beach so we could set up camp everyday.

Johnny loved the pools too.  He likes to wrestle his brothers as well and is not scared to pile on top of them.  He is the first of our boys to not be deathly afraid of the water.  He is quite the opposite which is wonderful, but I couldn't take my eyes off of him.  He had his head under water every 30 seconds so I kept having to scoop him up.  He loved it.  And it was exhausting for me.  I'm so glad he loves the water though.

Snack time!  If there's one thing Jones boys love to do, it's snack.  Johnny pounded those goldfish that day.

My view one morning.  Tim & Pam were back at the house with J while he was taking a nap, so I got to enjoy a more relaxing morning at the pool with Steven and the big boys.  Our days were spent like this: beach time, pool time, lunch and nap time, more beach and pool time, dinner, and finally bed.

We had our own beach races.  Matt is super fast.  Steven barely outran him.  And Will loves looking at himself as he runs.

Johnny had fun with the extra large shovels while they were running.

All good things have to come to an end, and Matt was clearly a little sad to be leaving.  We really enjoyed ourselves.  The house was lovely with plenty of room for all of us.  The boys had a bunk bedroom and bathroom to themselves on the bottom floor, and Tim & Pam had the other room & bathroom downstairs.  Steven & I and J were upstairs in the master.  There were porches on every floor and one off the master as well; the views were lovely.  Our house was situated right on a stocked pond, and we attempted fishing one evening.  The resort was busy and there were plenty of people around, but it never felt overcrowded or loud.  Several mornings we had the pool to ourselves for awhile.  The place was beautiful, and I definitely see ourselves going back.

It was a fantastic week.  It was a lot of work, but totally worth it.  I got pretty burned, and the kids got some red faces.  Reapply, people!  Don't forget it.

We grabbed some Whataburger breakfast on the way out.  Steven ordered a breakfast on a bun without egg.  And they placed this sticker on his sandwich.  I couldn't stop snickering.  It is SO appropriate.  :)