Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Mom & Dad Visiting

My Mom and Dad came down for a visit last weekend!!! On Friday, Dan had to work, so I took them on a tour of Texas A&M-Kingsville. My Dad jumped at the opportunity to ride the Javelina statue in the middle of campus...

Saturday was spent replacing our kitchen sink. The faucet had rusted out, and the sink itself was pretty scratched up, so we decided to replace the whole thing. There's something about my family scheduling home fix-up projects while we visit each other...

Dad taking out the old sink
Dan drilling the holes for the faucet...
Dan scraping the remains of the old caulk...
New sink! Dad putting the finishing touches on the plumbing...
Sunday was beach day! We hadn't been since the infamous "Eat Sand" day with Jay & Em. It was a little breezy this day, but not nearly as crazy as that day.

Dan and I getting ready to ride some waves!
Dad thought it was a good idea to feed granola bars to the sea gulls, until he got a present from one of them!
Mom did get a good picture of some sea gulls, though...

We had such a fun weekend with them! Thanks for coming to visit!!


Friday, April 3, 2009

Our First Visitors!!!!!

Well...our first visitors who we didn't put to work! :-) My Mom did visit the week after we moved, but I don't think she would call it so much a "visit" as "Dan and Stacey made me sit on a chair in a corner and peel wallpaper from the wall, then paint, then clean up spilled paint" (OK, it was mostly Dan - I mean, Stacey). She can't complain too much, though - we took her to a Michael W. Smith concert, and we enjoyed a morning at the spa.

Now onto our first real visitors!!! Jason & Emily Nye and their 3 beautiful daughters joined us for 5 days over their Spring Break! We have missed them so much since we moved, so it was wonderful to spend time with them. We've grown accustomed to only seeing our friends from Indiana online via iChat (God bless iChat!), so we really enjoyed getting to have a live conversation with them! (Josh & Katie, you're next, right?!) I took lots of pictures during their visit, but here are some highlights!

Their daughters, Chloe and Sophie, climbing in the trees in our backyard!

The first day they were here, Dan and I both had to work, so they went to the Texas State Aquarium and saw the sights of Corpus Christi. Dan and I both took off the next two days so we could spend some time with them (Well, Dan took off two days...my students got online assignments and class cancelled - they were so disappointed!).

The next day was supposed to be Beach Day of Fun number 1. Unfortunately, it was rainy and COLD - so we ended up nixing the beach plan and took them to Port Aransas, a fun tourist-y town about 30 minutes away. We had yummy seafood, and found some tourist traps to play in, then took them to the beach to at least see the water!

Sophie and Chloe trying their skills at surfing...

Em and I showing them how it's done...

Dan showing us how incredibly strong he is. He's holding the shark's mouth so the girls could run in and out...

At the beach, despite the rain and cold, the girls LOVED it!

Charlotte's first day at the beach...bundled up with Mommy!

Jay, Dan, and Charlotte...it took 3 takes to get this shot with the boys acting like idiots. I forgave my husband because he looks super hot with a Broncos logo on his chest...

The next day - we tried the beach again. It was sunny and hot, but SUPER windy. I don't know what happened to our weather that week. I'm figuring out that spring in South Texas = wind. It was a much better trip, except we were all covered in sand...I think I'll be picking sand out of my ears for the next 3 weeks! Picture putting on sunscreen with sand pelting you, and the mix of sunscreen and sand lathered on you, creating a film of sandy, sticky mess. Ah, the memories! The water was still a little chilly - but Dan braved it and went out with the girls.

A fun picture of the girls, in front of some random poster in Old Navy!

Thursday night, we went to the Corpus Christi Hooks v. Houston Astros game. The Hooks are a Double A minor league team of the Astros, so we played them in an exhibition game here in Corpus. It was the first time since 1958 that there has been a major league baseball team here in Corpus! We got lawn seats and just enjoyed being somewhere without sand! The field is pretty family-friendly - the girls had a blast playing on a bunch of play structures, and jumping on a trampoline while connected to bungees. The game was pretty sweet, too - the Hooks beat the Astros in the bottom of the 9th with a walk off home run! Dan and I really enjoy the Hooks, and are thinking about getting a mini-season ticket package for the summer!

Dan and I at the Hooks v. Astros game!

Jay & Em - it was such a blast to have you here!! We hope you enjoyed your trip as much as we enjoyed having you! And...we would be lying if we said the weather has been perfect since you left :-) (remember, spring in South Texas = wind).

We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our next visitors - my parents are flying in from Colorado on the 16th!!!!