One Summer Day

I saw the idea of taking a picture every hour throughout the day to capture what a typical day looks like for your family from a friend's blog. I really liked the idea & decided to let the world, well maybe not the world but the few people who read our blog, see what a day in the life of the Pitts family looks like. So without further ado...

9:00am: I had to wake the kids up! The donuts that their sweet daddy brought them were getting cold. You can tell by their faces that they were none to thrilled to be awake!

10:00am: The kids had to pack their suitcases for their summer vacation to Fort Worth

with Mawmaw & Pawpaw.



11:00am: A little time on the computer always helps pass the time! They discovered a "scary videos" website that made them scream over and over. I'm not sure it was the most appropriate website for kids, but we all got a good laugh out of the screaming:)

12:00pm: Exercise was on the brain, so the kids made their way to the trampoline.

As you can see, the exercising didn't last long!!!

1:00pm: All the jumping made the kiddos hungry.

Popcorn chicken & french fries were on the menu.

2:00pm: All the busyness of the morning completely wore the kids out,

so they had to rest a bit! Notice how worn out Max, our dog, is:)

Cason is the child who never sleeps, so he played the Wii during his down time.

4:00pm: Cole & Carter came over to play for awhile. Since it was so hot

outside, I decided to be nice and let them play pool inside;)

5:00pm: All their bags are packed & the kids are ready to load up the car to head over to Mawmaw & Pawpaw's, but we had to make a few stops first.

6:00pm: Our first stop was to pick up Caroline, Maddie's friend, who went with them to Fort Worth. And then we had to fill our bellies with some good Mexican food from Trujillo's. Despite the semi-frown on Caroline's face, the food was delicious!

7:00pm: Our next stop was Maddie's Awards Ceremony for her summer basketball league. Corey and the boys were chatting it up while waiting for Maddie's team's

turn to get their medals.

Maddie and her assistant coach, aka Dad

8:00pm: And finally we made it to Mawmaw & Pawpaw's house!

Well, now you know what one day looks like at Casa de Pitts. Here is a run-down our weekly schedule as of lately:

Monday-boys have football conditioning/practice & Corey has softball game

Tuesday-Maddie's basketball game

Wednesday-Jackson has baseball practice & we have our weekly dinner at Bubba's

Thursday-Maddie has basketball practice & boys have football conditioning/practice

Friday-open, but most of the time something else is going on

Saturday & Sunday-Jackson has a baseball tournament

Who knew summer time could be so busy???

It's Raining, It's Pouring

One thing you don't expect to see in Texas, during summer, is rain; however, on this particular Texas summer day it rained. The boys & I took advantage of this unfamiliar, cold, wetness falling from the sky. I didn't get any pictures of the 3 us, and at one point Max, the dog, jumping on the trampoline amidst the rain. As soon as the boys moved the fun to the front yard, I grabbed my camera for some pictures. The ditch filled up pretty fast, so Jackson & Cason hopped on their bicycles to ride through the puddles of water. After riding through the puddles a couple of times, Cason decided it was easier to just run! It really is the smallest and simplest things in life that truly make you happy:)

Another Casonism...

One day last week I asked the kids if they wanted grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch. Cason said yes and was super excited about it. A few minutes later he told me he wanted to call his sandwich a "boy" cheese sandwich. It took me a second to realize why he wanted a "boy" cheese sandwich. He thought I was saying "girl" cheese sandwich! I told him they were called "grilled" cheese sandwiches, and then giggled like crazy. I love that kid!!!

New Braunfels or Bust

The day the kids & I found out that Alese was moving to New Braunfels, we started planning what kind of fun we could have at her house! New Braunfels is near several great tubing rivers, home to one of the biggest water parks, Schlitterbahn, miles from an outstanding outlet mall, & just down the road to all the excitement one could find in San Antonio. Oh, the possibilities!!!

All our planning came to reality last Thursday & Friday. My Mom left work early on Thursday afternoon so we could load up and make it to New Braunfels by the time Alese got off work at 5:00. We had the car so stuffed, I don't think we could've fit another thing in!

We thought we left early enough that we would miss most of the Austin traffic, but we were wrong. I'm not sure the traffic in Austin ever really dies down. Even with the traffic, we made good time, so we stopped in San Marcos at the outlet mall. My Mom wanted to stop at a shoe store & I wanted to see what the Under Armour had to offer. I didn't find anything in the Under Armour outlet I couldn't live without, so we moved on to the shoe store. I knew the boys would have no interest in the shoe store, so we made our way to the Old Navy outlet-not that the boys enjoyed it any better. I just don't understand why boys don't like to shop?!?!? While, Maddie, Mom, & I could have shopped forever, the boys were done in about 15 minutes;however, we did manage to get Maddie some school clothes & the boys a couple of new t-shirts.

About 5:00 & while my Mom was in the shoe store, Alese sent a text saying that she was going in to do a colic surgery & she would call when she got out. We had no idea how long the surgery would take and needed to find something to occupy our time. Since New Braunfels is known for their rivers, we decided to drive into Gruene & let the kids feel the river water.
Maddie & Cason were the first to test the waters, and by their reaction Jackson decided he did not want to even stick his big toe in the water. I did stick just my big toe in & the water was absolutely freezing. I knew it was going to be cold, but you forget how cold that water really is!

Slowly, Maddie & Cason made their way farther and farther out. Maddie wanted to get her swimsuit on & really swim in that frigid water. We decided wading in the water was good enough. Neither Mom nor I wanted to have to go in & rescue someone who got whisked away in the current.

Evidently playing in ice-cold river water makes you very hungry because the kids were starving afterwards. We still hadn't heard from Alese, so we decided to go visit Casey at work & get a recommendation from him for dinner. He suggested a Texas Tuscan Pizzeria called Oregano's. It was a great choice because the food was delicious, but we were very sad that Alese & Casey weren't with us:( About half-way through our meal, Alese called & said she was out of surgery. We told her we were already eating & we would bring her something home.

Once we got to Alese & Casey's house, the kids batteries had been recharged & they were excited to Alese, so they were bouncing off the walls. We visited with Alese for a while & then tried to get the kids to go to bed. It was very difficult because the excitement was still in the air from the evening, but the kids were also excited about our trip to Fiesta Texas the next day.

Friday morning we woke up & got ready to head to Fiesta Texas. Alese & Casey had to work , so they did not get to join us on the trip to San Antonio. My Mom suggested we stop at McDonald's for breakfast because they have a pretty good "dollar" menu. Once we finally made it to drive-through, the kids decided that they did not like anything on the "dollar" menu. Since my Mom is a little bit of a sucker, the kids ordered whatever they wanted even though it wasn't from the cheap menu. By the time the kids had finished their not-so-cheap breakfast, we were in the parking lot of Fiesta Texas. The park did not open until 10:30 & we arrived about 10:00, so we used that time to take a few pictures. The kids earned free tickets to any Six Flags theme park through school, and because I'm a teacher I received a free ticket as well. One of my oh-so-generous co-workers, Raygan, donated her teacher ticket, so my Mom got a free ticket too. Thanks Raygan!!

Because we already had tickets, our line to get in wasn't too long, which was great because it was already getting pretty hot. Once we got inside, Cason & Maddie found a map of the park & started planning where they wanted to go first.

Like father, like son-this picture of Cason looks just like some of the

pictures I took of Corey in Italy.

Here are the kids on spinning tea cup ride

The boys were not old enough/tall enough to ride the bumper cars alone, so my Mom got suckered in to riding with Jackson while Maddie rode with Cason.

After the bumper cars, we rode the log ride & the roaring rapids. While standing in line for the roaring rapids, Jackson saw "The Rattler," which is a very big, wooden roller coaster. After watching "The Rattler" for a while, Maddie decided that she was not going anywhere near it. Jackson couldn't wait to get on it, and being the super-mom that I am(ha ha), I decided I would ride with him. We only had to wait about 45 minutes for a 1 minute brain rattling, neck thrashing, thrill of a ride. Jackson loved every bit of it even though his head was hitting my arm so hard, I was sure I was going to have a bruise. I can't say that I wasn't counting down the seconds until "The Rattler" was done rattling. Here is a picture of Jax & I before we took off:

While Jackson & I were rattling around, Maddie & Cason were going to ride the Roadrunner Express, a small roller coaster. While they were in line for this ride, Cason decided he had a fear of heights & wouldn't ride, so Maddie had to take him back down & therefore, didn't get to ride herself. She did get to experience this breath-taking ride...can you see the excitement on her face????

She's such a good big sister!!!

Since we were only going to be at Fiesta Texas until about 5:00, we decided to grab some lunch & head over to the water park. Before we went to water park, Cason decided he wanted to try & ride the Roadrunner Express again. The kids & I got in line, and about 2 minutes later Cason decided he was afraid of heights again. After several unsuccessful attempts of getting him to ride the roller coaster, my Mom came up through the Flash Pass line to get him. Maddie, Jackson, & I stayed in line & all three of us loved every minute of the Roadrunner Express.

At the water park, Maddie, Jackson, & I enjoyed an inner tube ride, while my Mom and Cason floated along in the lazy river. Then we all cooled off in the wave pool until it was time for us to leave. About 10 minutes in to our drive back to New Braunfels, this is what we found in the backseat. We had 2 tired little boys!!!

By the time we made it back to New Braunfels, Alese was off work & we were all ready for dinner. We decided to go back to Gruene to eat at the Gristmill. My Mom and Alese had been to this restaurant several times & thought the kids would like it. We had to wait for a while & like most kids, the boys do not wait very well. Luckily, there was a big, grassy area for the boys to play. Cason wanted someone else to play with, so he went & asked these 2 boys if they wanted to play tag. They declined his offer; however, there was another little boy that was interested.

Having a playmate made the time pass by quickly & the boys played until our table was ready. Mom & Alese were right about the Gristmill, the food was great and the atmosphere was awesome!

As we were walking to the car, the kids spotted the perfect climbing tree & off they went like little monkeys & climbed right up without any problem.

We had a fantastic couple of days in good ole' New Braunfels. Thanks to Alese & Casey for letting our craziness invade your house! I'm thinking next time will be a girl's trip for shopping:)

Weekend O' Fun at Lake Limestone

Last weekend, the Lewis family invited our family, along with 5 other families, to join them at Laguna Jack's Beach Resort at Lake Limestone. This resort is perfect for several families with lots of kids, which is exactly what we had. The house had a full kitchen, pool table, ping pong table, foosball table, tv with satellite, couches, a juke box, 2 huge bedrooms with about 10 bunk beds in each room, & 2 huge bathrooms with a washer & dryer in each. This house had everything you needed! Outside, there was a sand volleyball court, basketball court, horseshoe pit, & covered picnic tables. We had our own dock with a water slide going into the lake & paddle boats. There were 2 real boats, but we did not use them because of the amount of kids we had in attendance. To pull behind the boats were 2 huge covered inner tube things. Since, we did not use the boats, the inner tube things were used for the girls to lay out on & the kids to use as trampolines. There are lots of pictures showing the fun we had at Lake Limestone!

Here is a picture of all the kids-14 in all: Mason, Luke S., Brock, Cameron, Addie, Grace, Aiden, Maddie, Luke D., McCray, Jackson, Cade, Cason, & Kayley

And here are all the mommas: me, Cheryl, Amy, Lora, Brooke, Michelle, & Andie

The "Big Kids"-Grace, Maddie, Cam, & Mason

Cade & Jackson seem to be having a deep conversation on their paddle boat ride!

Cason & I

Cason really enjoyed the paddle boats

I'm glad Cason was with Tom on this paddle boat journey. My legs could not

have paddled that boat back home!

Jackson & Cason on the inner tube things

Jackson jumping onto the inner tube things

Cason says "Put your hands up!"

Cason's turn to jump

Now, the mommas turn on the inner tube

Corey, Tom, & Matt must be having the same deep conversation as Cade & Jackson in the paddle boat

Lora & Maddie

Yes, Corey is riding a whale! And, no it did not pop!

Corey sent Jackson, along with all the other kids, sailing through the air!

Maddie & Grace-They are the same age, yet notice the height difference.

Laguna Jack's had great climbing trees too.

Here is Cason ready to eat his s'more!

And, here are the big kids who already enjoyed their s'mores!

Many thanks go out to the Lewis' for the invitation to Lake Limestone, and to all the other families for many laughs & memories! We are very lucky to have such amazing friends!!!