1st Day

I am not sure where summer has gone but it is officially over at the Lucas house as today we started kindergarten.
JT was up at 6 am. I strongly suggested that he lay back down and rest but he insisted he couldn't sleep and was extremely worried that Rick and I would forget to wake him up for his first day.
It was pure pandemonium at the school. I am very happy that we took our supplies last Friday b/c it gave us some time to talk to JT's teacher and avoid the craziness of this morning. There were parents everywhere and I felt bad for the teacher b/c all of them had questions and wanted to talk to her and you could tell all she wanted to do was get started with the kids. Don't get me wrong, I have a million questions I want to ask the teacher but I kept them all inside. If it hadn't been for Rick, politely telling me we needed to let Ms. Laurence have her class, I probably would have stayed all day.
As far as crying goes;I did really well. I held it in the entire time and then we got in to the hall and while I was congratulating myself on being Iron Eyes Meghan, some PTO/school helper lady walked by and made some comment like "What? No tears this morning?" Well that made me tear up. We made it out of the school and after our usual morning run, I think I may be okay.

Here are my photos. I didn't get as good of ones as I had hoped. I was too stressed. I am regretting it now. I also managed to delete the photo of JT's backpack, which he picked out. I'll try to get one today when I pick him up but to keep the suspense at a low, JT insisted on a Cubs backpack. And finally, for those of you wondering, he did get a haircut. maybe more of a trim then an all over cut. We will try to get a little more cut off in a month or so.

san antonio zoo

Some photos from our visit to the San Antonio Zoo with Isabella. They are remodeling the zoo and just opened the hippo section, which is super cool because as you can see in the photos you get to look into the hippo pool and watch them swim.. JT was especially mesmerized by the alligator that came up to the window and showed JT his teeth.




These photos are mainly from Chandra who had a stellar photo day with her super cool new camera. She is getting ready to go Alaska and use her photo skills there.

tuesday/thursday

I am lucky enough to work from home on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which means all summer we have been able to run in the morning. Our route includes a stop at the park so the boys can try to collect minnows.

JT likes to take photos. He took this one of us just before we headed back home.

Lost

Zach seems to have lost one of each flip flop. They are missing here in the house, somewhere. I wish I could say the house is incredibly dirty but I just had a massive purge of kids toys and clothes after Rick built new cubbies in the boys' closet.

water and paint

After a bazillion days of sun and hot weather and three days of me obsessing over the weather radar, we finally woke up to the wondrous sound of rain. It has been raining on and off all morning, which led all three boys to wander around the house saying "What can we do today?" So being the most fabulous mom I am (or really just needing a few minutes to get some work done), I busted out the paints. Who cares about the kitchen floor, Rick is going to be ripping it up sooner or later.
Zach takes it slow at first, opting to use a paint brush.

JT decides to see what car wheels can do with paint on them.

I left Rick in charge while I took a work call only to come back and find that Sully (who was supposed to be used for footprints) had been repainted.

Cutest Baby Girl Update

While I am completely bummed that I haven't gotten to meet her in person, I think it may be a good thing because there is no way I could leave without taking her. Or I would get the crazy idea to have a third kid and who really wants a house of 4 boys?

The Final Game (or so I thought)

Day 5 - We got a late start leaving Harrison and then had further delay when we learned that Zach had left Mama Horsey behind. So with an hour lost, we were a little stressed about making it to Arlington. We made it, cut out losses and opted to just get a room at the same hotel we stayed at in June since they have a shuttle service to the game (my official requirement if we continue this odyssey - all ballparks are within walking distance or the hotel offers a shuttle).

Waiting for the game to start. It was of course over 100 degrees yet again.
Still waiting but this woman in our section was nice enough to take some photos.
Here is the field on my full zoom (our seats in in center/left field). The total crowd was 44,000 and I would say almost 1/2 were Yankee fans. To the right of our seats was the Yankee bullpen so lots of fans were lining up and staring at the pitchers.

So here is our own personal butt view of JT's and Zach's favorite player - Josh Hamilton. We were about 8 rows up. If anyone just happened to be watching the game, we were just behind the guy that first touched Derek Jeter's home run in the first inning. Rick made a good effort to get the ball but it bounced over to a guy who just happened to be wearing a Jeter jersey.
And in case you were wondering how the progress of Jerry Jones' new stadium is going, here is a photo.

We made it home on Friday afternoon. I think we had 4 episodes of Zach puking during vacation which we have narrowed down to 2 caused from him swallowing gum and two from him inhaling chocolate milk without stopping to breathe. Thankfully none of them occurred in the hotel pools.

So after a nice weekend of getting unpacked and settled in, I get online to learn that our tball crew has planned for a night out at the Round Rock Express so last night we were back at it again. The game was fabulous and I think our rowdy crew only offended a few spectators. And as luck would have it, while at the game we got the call that they have a spot for our tball team for fall league. Looks like our weekends are going to be booked up again through October.

Branson, Missouri

There really isn't much I can say about Branson but I do have lots of photos. We stayed at a Marriot hotel that was really nice and I would go back to the hotel and to get in some more people watching.

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Day 3 of the Baseball Odyssey

Day 3 - After our visit to the Gambills we made it to Harrison, Arkansas late Sunday evening. We spent some time around town on Monday before heading to Branson, Missouri. We checked in to our hotel and then got back in the car and headed to Springfield, Missouri for a game at Hammons Field.


Our seats for this game were on the first base line about 13 rows up. Good seats in a very packed ballpark.
JT moved to the front row and tried hard to get a ball from a player. We went to the gift shop around the 5th inning and got a Springfield hat to replace his Cubs hat. It didn't help JT get a ball but he does love his new hat. JT also made a little friend while sitting up front and it was cute to watch them talk to each other during the game. Of course JT can't remember his name or where he was from but he was very excited to have someone other than his family to interact with.
Here we are after the game with Rick's mom. We stayed until the 8th inning and then JT asked if we could head back so he could get in some swimming.

More OKC Photos

Sunday morning we got up early and went for a run in downtown OKC including a stop at the OKC bombing memorial. They are working on restoring the area and most of the original buildings. I would have liked to spend another day in the City and gotten to spend more time learning the history but we had a date with the Gambills in Siloam Springs. Unfortunately I forgot photos of the Gambills but we had a great but brief visit with them. We did get time to visit Brad's honor program that he has set up at John Brown University. Unfortunately the photos of the Honor's Program Center aren't updated on the website but Brad has done a great job creating a cool place for the students to hang out and study. Rick and I both want to enroll.

The OKC bombing memorial.


This is the street corner at the ball park (Rick's favorite band in case anyone is wondering the importance).

Day 1 of the Baseball Odyssey

Day 1 - We left about 9 am from Austin with the goal of reaching Norman by early afternoon so Rick could stock up on OU wear and then get to our hotel in OKC and make it to Bricktown ballpark by 5ish so we could get the Mickey Mantle bobble heads. Everything was going well until about 30 miles outside of Norman this happened.

It was a pretty scary moment but luckily Rick was paying attention and we were able to get over to the side of the road safely. Of course once at the side of the road we weren't sure what to do with the kids. Do we leave them in the car or make them sit on the side of the hill in 105 degree weather?(we left them in the car.) Rick meanwhile got the spare tire and all the parts. Things seemed to be fine until he came to the realization that the jack tools that Ford gives you won't work (I don't know the proper terms but the attachment used to jack the car up was too short to fit under the truck and let Rick jack up the tire). I spent a miserable 15 minutes on the phone with roadside assistance while Rick tried to figure out what to do. He finally opted to try and flag someone down. Lucky for us, it only took a few minutes before a nice couple on their way to Wal-Mart stopped to help out. They had the proper tools and the spare tire was on in no time. They also escorted us on the back roads to Wal-Mart so we could air up the tire. At this point we are way behind schedule and opt to go straight to OKC and check in to the hotel. When we got to the Sheraton the front desk didn't have my reservation. I made our reservation via priceline; I tried the name your own price, which was great b/c we got a fabulous deal but crappy when the hotel doesn't have your reservation. I was on the phone for about 45 minutes while I went from one customer service rep to another only to have the final one tell me that she had to put me on hold while she called the hotel. I told her I was standing the lobby and could hand my phone to the front desk but she insisted that she had to call from her phone.
We finally get checked in, quickly freshened up, and then divided up so Rick and JT can get to the ballpark, claim our tickets and hopefully get a bobble head. Zach and I were close behind but it was slow going with Zach as he was tired and there was only so long I could carry 40lbs of Zach. It all sounds perfect until you factor in the 105+ degree weather at the ballpark. We missed getting bobbleheads but lucky for JT and Zach the couple sitting behind us offered the boys their bobble heads. Zach broke his the next morning and JT broke his as soon as we got home (he wanted to see Mickey Mantles bat).
Our view from our seats. We were about 15 rows back from home plate.
A very tired, sweaty, and stinky family. We opted to leave after 6 innings and head back to the hotel via the river walk that OKC has recently built. Along the way, we found a kids water park (the one that has the water shooting up from the ground) and the boys got to cool down.

Baseball Odyssey

For anyone wondering, the Lucas Family is in the midst of a baseball odyssey. I'll post some photos and updates later today. We are all well but so far there is no lounging on a beach for me; not sure how that part of the baseball odyssey got left out.