Napping in Style

I liked how the colors in this photo worked out. And it still just amazes me that Portia will nap on her own on a bed in a strange house (the one the grandparents rented close to the camp ground)!

The Rig

This is the rig that we have at the beach. It's 27 feet long, sleeps 8 (in theory) and makes our car (Neal optimistically calls it the "truck") look awfully small. We are pretty close to our towing capacity, but we made it to Galveston just fine!

Wiley fishing!

Wiley's caught the fishing bug too! Good thing he has a patient aunt to cast for him over and over so that he can work the reel.

When it's just too hot outside

It's nice to be able to come in from the heat. Jay and Wiley are coloring pictures while Graydon and Claire work a 100-piece "Frozen" puzzle and Portia takes a nap in her swing. And all of this in our trailer - yippee!

Portia's Unique Accomodations

It turns out that there is not enough space for a pack n play in our RV, so we had to be creative with Portia's sleeping arrangements. Turns out she just barely still fits into a standard sized laundry basket (diagonally)! Here she is all bundled up. Awake one minute, asleep the next - yes!!

There's camping...

... and then there's RVing. Keep in mind also that it's Texas in July and we have air conditioning! Vive la difference!

Mami has a little more freedom...

...now that we know Portia will take a bottle without issues! Slurp slurp! The flip side of that equation is that Mami now gets to hook herself up to a machine much like the one in A Princess Bride to produce the milk for the bottle.

Drip Irrigation Success!

Looks like the drip system was doing a great job on our geraniums while we were on vacation. Ms Nancy said she was enjoying them, too.

Pro Traveler

Portia (and the boys, too) were pro travelers today. Nary a whimper (ok, maybe just a few quick notes to remind Mami she was hungry) from any of the kids. We rewarded everyone with a dip in Ms. Nancy's pool before bed. We had a wonderful trip but are also glad to be home.

Just hanging out

I don't even remember what was going on when I took these photos. We were all just hanging out on the "lawn" at the cabin, post-birdie game, I think. Wiley still likes to push wheeled vehicles around...

Tennis

While the "birdie game", a.k.a. badminton, kept Graydon entertained for a couple of days at Ste Emelie, he was very eager to try "real" tennis. So as you heard in a previous post, we went for a trial run at the municipal tennis court in the town of Ste Emelie. We had lots of fun despite the heat!

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Proud Berry Picker

Here is Graydon showing off his latest haul. 

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Graydon in the Lilies

Quiet Time

We've gotten lazy while on vacation and allowed Graydon to spend more time than normal watching movies on his phone (he especially enjoys Dumbo these days).  This is what we found one afternoon post-swimming at the cabin when the boys were unusually quiet in their room together.

Daddy's bear and little girl

Rocking his tunes

During the tennis lesson

Mami started teaching Graydon how to play tennis at the municipal court (singular) in Ste Emelie the other day. Daddy and Wiley participated as well, each in our own way.

More Lilies

Once they started, they really got going. In case anyone is interested in the actual data, we counted the following number of blooms on the first six days: 1, 2, 8, 24, 89, 101. Note that because each flower only blooms for one day, those are all new blooms each day. We left the cabin and came back into the city today, but there were MANY unopened buds yet to bloom.

Berries!

We've had crepes with freshly picked wild strawberries and blueberries for almost every breakfast for the last two weeks. You would think it might get to be boring, but it's so good, why mess with it??? This photo is with a few of the blackberries from the grandparents' house in town picked just before we came up to the cottage.

Today's hike was a repeat visit to some patches a couple of miles in where we had seen lots of unripe blueberries last week. The hike produced a spectacular blueberry yield (about 3 pints worth) - berries were so dense on the bushes that you could just sit down and then pick for several minutes before moving on. Imagine a whole patch full of bushes like the one shown here! Graydon is the master berry picker - always enthusiastic and looking for helpers!

Hiking through the Lanaudiere

More hiking pictures

Hiking with Granddad

Despite Gramps's warning about 5 year olds, Graydon has done quite well hiking. Wiley and Portia have quite well riding.

Lots of little strawberries

Graydon is quite the strawberry picker.

And today there were two!

The first lily

The first lily of the season at St Emelie. It looks like there will be many more to come!

The Zoo is on the Move!

Thank goodness that we were checking all the items on the cart (two bags and three car seats...). Thank you Tante N for the airport drop-off and this photo!

On our way

At the airport, waiting on our flight. Can you guess where we're headed?

Scuba Lessons!

Having mastered the swimming classes for this summer, Graydon's next water adventure was a scuba lesson from Daddy with his friend Vincent at his family's pool this afternoon. Both boys got some quick instruction time, some practice with the regulator, and then both toured the bottom of the pool several times. I think they're both hooked! Happy 4th!

Swim Class Success!

Graydon is now a "Penguin" level swimmer! He had a lot of fun with his City of Austin swim class.

Out for a walk in the neighborhood

Daddy and Graydon were at swim lessons yesterday evening so Mami and Wiley (and a sleeping Portia in the Björn) went for a walk / tricycle ride. Wiley had so much fun that we went for a second mini-lap after we got home from the first one. He's gotten to the point where he pedals all by himself almost all the time and just needs a little boost to get up the steeper hills. We also had lots of good neighborhood pet sightings: our local buck was out eating leaves off a neighbor's oak, and we saw three pairs of new fawns, how cute!