{Travels to Lost Pines: 2014}

We went to Hyatt Lost Pines again this year (remember last year?) and apparently we are making it a family tradition. It is amazing to look back at the same time last year and see just how much the boys have grown. We thought it was easy last year, but man oh man, this year really was a breeze. Now don't get me wrong, Chat and I worked our buns off with these boys. They are still two and four, but overall it was just a much easier trip than we have ever taken.

My boys still love their fruity drinks...and boy did we all have a lot of them!

So the first day, I tried to get a few cute pictures of the boys together. EPIC FAIL. The next few pictures are entitled How to Drive Your Mother Crazy....

At that point I gave up as families (with older children) around us started to snicker. Clearly we just aren't ready to take cute pictures with the boys looking at the camera. EVER. Ugh!!!!

However, the boys were ready to have their picture taken on the token statue horse in the lobby. It is one of the first things we do every year. Secretly I hope one day they want to ride a real horse!

My favorite part of the trip is always the s'mores. And you will see a few pictures down, that it is Ben's too. He double-fisted every night and would be begging for more as we left each night. The boy likes his food and I think s'mores tops the chart for him. What can I say? The apple does not fall far from the tree.

Traveling with these two has become quite easier as far as sleeping arrangements go. We asked for a roll-away bed for Luke and a pack 'n play for Ben. Around 9:30 pm, I realized that the pack 'n play was just not going to work. He is just waaaaaay too long for it. So I called the front desk and got them to bring up another roll-away bed and FINALLY everyone fell asleep. Ben is my night owl and, well...just wants to party till at least 10:00 or 11:00 every night. I was thinking swimming ALL DAY would wear him out. Apparently not.

Even though he drives me crazy at night, he still does some pretty cute pictures for me during the day...

So this was Ben on Saturday afternoon. We went back up to the room for about an hour or two to let the boys get out of the sun for awhile and rest. Ben proceeds to pass out with the TV blaring and all of us playing a board game. And for the life of me I couldn't wake him up. I finally got him up within an hour or so, but guess what that meant?  Yep, partying all night long and resisting bed time!

The boys played a little tether ball again this trip.

The pool was awesome -- whether it was just swimming, floating the lazy river or going down the water slides. The boys love every minute! And now that Luke is great at swimming and Ben will wear his float, it has gotten extremely easier to be at the pool with these two.

With all these amazing water activities, what did Ben really love? The self-serve water station. He was constantly add it filling up cup after cup after cup. 

A little downtime after dinner before the fun with s'mores began. We rarely let the boys play with the iPad, but they get to when we are on a trip since there is never any appropriate tv shows for them on. But boy do they get hooked quick! Luke asks me no less than 20 times a day for the iPad since coming home. Sorry Charlie!

A little family selfie was in order on the last night after s'mores. We really needed this family time together. With Chat's new job and his school schedule, we needed the time together without any distractions. We put up the phones and electronics 90% of the time we were away and it felt really good.

That is almost 90 pounds of children in Chat's arms here. I think he felt the burn.

To follow tradition, we had to ride T-Bone and Ribeye, the Hyatt's longhorns. Luke couldn't wait. And it was very important to him to be able to wear the cowboy hat. He was fired up!

Ben surprisingly did not want to ride the longhorn at all. In the end, he opted to just pet him and give him a little lovin'.

The best part about the whole resort is the water slides. The boys LOVE it and both actually could go on it by themselves (hallelujah!). We had to be at the bottom to catch Ben since you couldn't wear floats going down it, but that was no problem at all.

 

So another year down! It was just what we needed and I am in major vacation withdrawal at the moment now and trying to get over my crabbiness since we still have 2.5 weeks till school starts. How I wish we could be back!

 

{Take Me Out To The Ball Game}

We decided to take the boys to an Astros Game last weekend. I don't know who was more excited the boys or Chat because he was finally bringing his glove back to a game. On our way there he said he hadn't done that in almost 20 years. So we had both boys and both their gloves (that of course we ended up carrying for the most part). Unfortunately we didn't catch any fly balls. But the boys loved putting their gloves on during the game!  Mostly the boys wanted the Astros to hit a homerun so the train on the stadium would move, but sadly while we were there, there wasn't any homeruns. Luke watched that train like a hawk and so badly wanted to see it move!

Of course the boys inhaled popcorn once again...which you can see in Ben's mouth when I was trying to take a picture. They are popcorn obsessed!

All the other kids were taking sweet pictures with Mickey. Not ours! They immediately started hanging and trying to climb poor Mickey. These boys are determined to give me gray hair early!

The boys made it through about three or four innings before they started to get restless (see picture of Ben harassing Chat below). So we then went to the kid zone area and let the boys run and run and run! They were dripping sweat by the end of it.

Since they got their wiggles out a bit, we got one more inning out of them in our seats and got to do the seventh inning stretch before heading home. Of course they were still a bit silly...

Baseball is such a huge part of Chat's life, so it is exciting for all of us to be able to start sharing it with the boys! It is still a bit of a workout taking the boys to places like this, but it just keeps getting easier and easier as they get older!

{Trying to Catch Up}

I start posts and load up all the pictures, then totally forget to write and publish them.  Ahh!  So trying to catch up quickly...

 

1.  Luke tried jiu jitsu a few weeks ago and LOVED it!  He went with his cousin for 'bring a friend to class day". He was the youngest one by about 2 years. Everyone was 6 years old to about 10 years old. And he totally hung with all the kids!  It was really fun to watch. I considered letting him take a class, but it is three times a week.  They let you go just once, but you still pay for three, so we are going to wait for awhile :).

 

2. This is Luke and Ben talking about poop outside after a walk. It is their favorite topic much to my displeasure. Okay, sometimes it is really funny when they get going!

3. Luke got these pink teeth out of a vending machine and proceeded to wear them all day a few weeks ago. And profusely drooled might I add.

4. This boy loves his corn. And if you don't believe me, check his diaper the day after he ate three whole ears. 

5.  This one just kills me. He is super emotional and super whiny these days.  But oh so cute!

6. We went to the zoo in the blazing heat about two weeks ago with cousins Molly and Jack. They boys LOVE their cousins, so zoo with cousins is even better! Both the boys looked they had dunked their heads in water by the end, but they didn't...they are sweaty SWEATY boys.

 

7.  I love moments like this. They were just holding hands as they were eating watermelon. It makes up for the massive screaming matches I hear at times!

 

8. You can barely see them, but that is Luke and Ben. They are just blurs. This is what we are resorting to at times to beat the heat and get some of their energy out.

9. Luke is super into writing and trying to spell these days. Here are some of the words he writes over and over again since he knows them. I am super proud of my buddy!

10. We are still battling Ben with naps. If he takes one, he is up till 10:00 at night. If he doesn't take one, I usually find him like this around 7:30 pm. So it is truly trying to pick between a rock and a hard place. Either get a break during the day as he naps for an hour and then be kicking myself that night or have to deal with getting through a loooooong day with no break but being super happy for the early bedtime.  Oh decisions!

11. Impromptu pizza nights are the best! Since most moms know I am a single mother on Monday and Thursday nights, if anyone is ever without their hubby, they know to call me and we call for pizza and enjoy some company! It makes the nights Chat is gone go by so much quicker!

12. This boy would rather be naked. Nuff said.

13. I am seeing using a bra as a sling shot in their future...

14. We love fun playdates with friends this summer, especially those we don't see often because of school conflicts. We headed to a train ride and feeding the ducks (which really means pigeons these days). 

 

Okay, hitting publish before I get distracted for the thirteenth time! 

(Our Little Swimmer}

We finally have a swimmer on our hands!! 

 

Luke started swim lessons when he turned two and took them for about a year before stopping last summer. He learned some things but to be honest I didn't feel like he was old enough to really grasp anything about true swimming. So as summer was approaching this year, I felt like it was time to try it again. I knew it would be hard at the pool with both boys if he didn't get some independence. In late March we signed up with some friends and he has made huge strides in the past four months or so. He can swim independently across the pool now! He still has trouble coming up for air while swimming though, so I try to get him to do shorter distances or he literally will be gasping for air when he finally gets to the wall. 

He has learned how to use his goggles as well and that has really helped. Luke loves to dive for things at the bottle of the pool too. He really has turned into a little fish! He does get tired eventually and then will put on his float if I ask him too. He can really wear himself out and that is when I don't think he is really strong enough to swim without me being right there to help. But he is happy to oblige once he gets some time do the fun stuff first!

I realize now between four and five years old is the best age in order to really learn strokes and how to swim. So I have decided to hold off on Ben this year and we might start him next year as he will be a bit closer to four years old.  He is just happy with his floats on and just kicks around the pool!

{Railroad Museum}

It is no secret that Luke is train-obsessed! It started when he was 18 months old and is still going very, very strong. So when I heard about the Rosenberg Museum just about 40 minutes away from us, we were game to go!  We went some friends of our's that also had two boys the same ages of Luke and Ben. 

The museum had a small indoor area that had old railroad and train items. They also showed a video of railroad safety that was a cartoon, so the boys sat for a few minutes and watched that. They did have pages for the boys to find six items in the museum and got stickers to place on their sheet when they found it. Luke was super into that and found all six! Ben just followed him around.

We then went out and got to see a few old train cars. This was an old caboose that showed where workers would sleep, eat, etc while on the road.

We also got to see the big machine that would tell trains when to go or stop or which railroad to take, etc. It was actually pretty neat and something Luke had never seen before.

Luke posing with an old railroad crossing sign...

This was an train car that was 135 years old.  It had two bedrooms, a kitchen, a sitting area and a dining area. Apparently a very wealthy family owned it and donated it once it retired back in the 50s.  Luke was saying "Choo Choo!!" in this picture...

 

This was the hallway in the fancy train car...

Of course Ben was interested in the food (that wasn't real).

The last part of the museum was this room that had a whole model train set up. This was truly a treat -- the boys loved it!

The museum was located right next to real train tracks. They built this deck that was high that this kids could go on when real trains went by. At first the boys freaked out about how loud it was when the trains went by and blew their whistles, but ended up loving it. What a great idea this museum had to do that!

We had a picnic lunch on some picnic tables right outside the train cars. The boys ate a little bit, then chased around a poor, lonely chicken and then we all got our picture taken for an article about the museum for the Fort Bend Newspaper.  Ha!

Here are a few more pictures of the museum and area. Overall a very small museum, but great for a bunch of small kids who love trains. 

Right across the street was an old fashioned soda shop. So after lunch, we decided to treat the boys to milkshakes!

The boys actually opted for a sprite/sherbet concoction that they loved!

 It was a great morning that wore the boys out! It is really fun now that the boys are at an age we can do more things like this. Both boys snoozed on the drive back to Houston and were roaring to go again by the afternoon!