The Lake!

One of my favorite things to do when I was growing up was to go to the lake. If my parents had owned a lake house, I might likely have been known as a lake rat. I loved it. I loved to use my friends for their lake houses. :-) I think I was in college when my parents finally broke down and bought a couple Sea Doos. I used them as much as I could, even conning them into bringing them all the way to Tyler, TX, so that I could play on them one weekend when I was a summer camp counselor.

Robert Alan made his debut at the lake this weekend. Brittney's fiance, Clay, has a lake house at Lake Granbury and it is, well, AWESOME to say the least. It's actually his parents' house, but who's counting? Anyways, we've been wanting to go for awhile, but things always came up every weekend, so we finally made the trip. It was perfect. Only 1.5 hours from Waco and a very pretty drive at that. The house is beautiful, like nice enough to live in full-time. It has a pool, hot tub, outdoor kitchen, and dock with jet ski and boat. We didn't get on the boat or the jet ski, Clay and Nick did, but RA and I had plenty of fun in the pool looking at the lake. He was wonderful during the trip. There were no interruptions in his sleeping patterns (by the way, does anyone else's kid wake up at 5:00 a.m. every morning, talk to themselves, and then go back to sleep around 6:00 until around 7:00? Just wondering because mine does. I have a feeling it's not normal. It's also probably not normal that I ignore him during that time and continue to sleep as best I can....but I digress.) He ate well, even though we didn't have a high chair. In fact, we successfully managed to use his Bumbo finally. Remember when his thighs got caught in it several months ago and he was very unhappy sitting in it? Well, those days are long gone. I think he actually enjoyed sitting in it. He had more freedom to try to grab everything around him than he does in his high chair.

RA also made his first trip to Wally World over the weekend. David and I didn't want him to wake everyone else up in the house when he got up in the morning, so we decided to go buy a cheap, smaller stroller so that we could walk him around the neighborhood for a little while. I have the best stroller ever at home, but it's not really the kind that you would keep in your car and take to the mall with you, although I have a couple times, so I thought it would be good to go ahead and get one and keep it in the car. Well, our little jaunt to Wal Mart lasted over 45 minutes as we had to buy David some shirts (he left his hanging in our room in Waco because I was rushing him out the door too quickly he said), and then we found some Rangers gear for RA which, of course, we had to buy. Well, needless to say, we bought the stroller, but by the time we got home, people were up and ready to play, so it never escaped the box it came in. Oh well. At least we have one for next time.

While I'm on the subject of Wal Mart, might I say that I can't stand the place? Nothing seems to be where it would logically go, and the clientelle are less than desirable. I almost got into an argument with a lady there, and I was in a particularly good mood that day, so it took a lot to irritate me. Here's the scoop: David found a Rangers shirt that he wanted for himself, to match RA, of course, and he needed me to find him an XL. As I was going through the shirts, all I could find were XXL and 3XL, so I'm going deeper and deeper into this cavern of shirts. Meanwhile, this lady and her two teenage daughters (I'm guessing) walk up to the row of shirts next to me. They don't find what they want there, so they proceed to start looking at the row of shirts that I'm looking at. I quickly find myself pinned in by 3 women who obviously have never heard of the concept of wait your turn, don't push others, and chill out about the Wal Mart t-shirts! I couldn't believe it! I backed out as best I could and said, under my breath but as loudly as I could under my breath, "Excuse us!" David freaked out. "Maybe there are some over here, dear!" he exclaimed as he walked to the other side of the grid so that we could get out of sight and earshot of the 3 little piggies. "Traci," he said. "Calm DOWN!" "David," I said. "Can you believe what they just did?!" "Traci, it's Wal Mart," said my every-so-calm-and-rational husband. "Consider the source and chill out." "Oh yeah. Wal Mart, land of the dilinquent shoppers who don't know how to act in public," I thought to myself as I slowly stopped the steam from shooting out my ears. In the end, the heffers left, David found an XL shirt, and we went on our merry way, but if that happens to me again next time I'm in Wal Mart (and there's a reason why RA has never been there before--I avoid it at all costs), well, you can imagine what I'll do. :-)

So, enough about Wal Mart---back to the lake. I got really excited on our ride home thinking about how RA and his cousins are going to grow up together going to the lake all the time. I can't wait to put them on the banana and pull them behind the boat, although I believe he'll have to wait until he's 14 and mom feels comfortable with him being on such a dangerous thing. I don't think I'll even want him on a boat until he's 5 or so.....okay, maybe 3. :-) I am excited about the experiences they'll have and the stories they'll tell as they grow up and have fond family memories of the lake. I have those same memories, and I am so happy to have the chance to provide that for my son. Below are some pics that Aunt B took this weekend....

"Good morning, Everybody!  Let's play!"

Trying really hard to get to the dog outside.

"Hey Mom!  Can you come help me?"

Maybe I can slide this door open...

If I could just get through this glass, I could kiss that thing on the other side!

Dad sleeping.  Not abnormal.

My kid does not know how to smile for the camera.

There is way too much stuff to do at the lake.  We had a hard time focusing on the bottle.

Aunt B made me model the Big Red Hat.

I found my belly button.  It's so cool.

Hanging out with Funcle Nick in the big boy rocking chair.

Finally!  Smiling at the camera in the outdoor kitchen.

 

"Wow, Dad!  That's a big bathtub!"

Fourth of July

We had the best fourth of July weekend! David and I, my sister and her fiance, and another couple friend of ours, the Peels, all went to Austin and stayed at Barton Creek Resort & Spa for two nights. No kids. It was heavenly. We stayed in a villa that had three bedrooms and a huge living room and kitchen, granite, double oven, everything. We cooked dinners both nights, and Jenny made the best french toast I've ever had. Everything was so great and it was nice to get away for a couple nights and not have any responsibilities over another human being. Don't get me wrong, I missed my little man, but I also REALLY enjoyed my time away. You might say my chatty side came out a time or two after a couple really good banana daq's.

At Cattle Baron's Ball the night Brittney got engaged!

Meanwhile, back in Wack-town, my mom was keeping Robert Alan. They had a good time together, and she took some pics for me. It wasn't all good, though. Monday morning as we were leaving, my mom called and asked if we were on our way. She told me RA had been running a fever since about 10:00 Sunday night. Turns out he had an upper-respiratory infection, we think, and he ran somewhere between 99 & 102 for the next three days. It was miserable for both of us. If I hadn't had the getaway before, I'm not sure I could have come out on the other end of the illness as together as I did. It was his first time to be sick, so it was especially hard because I couldn't really help him. It was sad, but we're all better now, thank the Lord, and we'll be heading to the pool as much as possible in the next coming weeks since I'm about to have to go back to work soon. (Yuck. ...Not really. I'm ready, but work's work, right?)

"Happy Independence Day, Everyone!"

Okay, that's it. Talk to you later.