Photo 366 #28

As you will see, vacation was so wonderful and packed full of fun.  It is always so bittersweet to go home.  I definitely suffered from vacation hangover.  Actually, it's mostly travel hangover.  Now we are all just getting back into our own grooves and trying to figure out what to do for the rest of the summer.

July 3 - Maben caught his first fish!  (kinda)  I helped hook him, but Maben did most of the reeling in.  The fish were very finicky and not wanting to stay hooked.  This ugly bugger is called a Sea Robin.  Maben was afraid to get near it, I don't blame him.  Not the prettiest fish and we threw him back, but if you tapped it's side, it croaked like a frog!  Maben loves telling people that the fish he caught says, "ribbit!"

July 4 - Happy Independence Day!  I took Maben down to the beach with me and we watched fireworks.  We were both having a wonderful time up until some (expletive deleted) decided to light a roman candle not far from us and with the wind it was right above us.  Maben freaked and ran quite a ways down the beach.  Poor Maben.  He doesn't handle noise well, but I had him warmed up to the fireworks and he was enjoying himself up until that moment.  I am hoping he remembers jumping up and down and yelling, "BOOM!" with excitement and joy instead of being scared to death and running away.

July 5 - My very first whale watch.  My MIL, hubby and the kids all took off out of Provincetown on the Dolphin Fleet for what ended up being a magical whale watch.  We saw 4 whales in total.  Three humpbacks and one fin whale.  The most amazing part was watching a mother humpback with her calf doing all sorts of fin slapping.  When the mother would dive down, the baby would start breaching.  We had a guide on board and she informed us that the mother's name is Dusty and her calf is an unnamed male.  Here he is breaching.

July 6 - My FIL, the kids and I went out on a bird walk.  We tried walking on the town of Chatham trails, they were terrible.  Overgrown and neglected.  We ended up heading to Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge.  I wish we had more time to spend there.  When we were leaving, I spotted an Osprey nest on top of some power lines and stopped to take a photo.  It's my first time seeing osprey!

July 7 - Saying goodbye to Grandma and Grandpa before heading to the airport.  Thanks for a wonderful vacation!  The boys miss you already.

July 8 - So happy to see that one of my cone flowers blossomed while I was gone.

July 9 - Getting back to normal and playing at the splashpad.

Week 3 - Go Vote

The new crafts for this week are up at So You Think You're Crafty.  There are so many great looking crafts this week.  I hope to make it through to next week.  So, go vote...hopefully for mine! 

I can't wait to reveal which one is mine.  So proud of my creation...I even completed it on vacation!  (seriously not trying to sound like Dr. Seuss there)

Photo 366 #27

Sorry for the delay in posting this.  I figured it would most definitely giveaway that I was on vacation.  You will see, it was an awesome vacation.  Much thanks to my in-laws that pulled it all together.

June 26 - New vincas that are in my yard.  So pretty!

June 27 - A very tired child sleeping on an airplane.  A horrific flying experience in which I will blog about later after we finish dealing with customer service.  The resolution to our terrible experience will dictate the tone of that blog entry.

June 28 - I got to see some new birds on the coast of Chatham, MA.  These are Least Terns flying above the beach.

June 29 - The Chatham Band concert.  A Friday night summertime tradition.

June 30 - Happy Birthday to me!  I definitely have to say this is a birthday shot.  This snowy egret kept walking towards me, I had the privilege to watch him catch a fish.  It was awesome.

July 1 - My future sister-in-law and I headed up for a girls day in Provincetown, MA.  It was a great day, even when we had to seek shelter from a thunderstorm.  This was the view after the storm clouds lifted.  It was gorgeous!

July 2 - Colton playing on the beach.  My munchkin turned into a real beach bum on this vacation.

Update

Sorry I have been MIA.  I have a few updates to post.  First, I was on VACATION!!!  I try to refrain from posting where I am and for how long for obvious reasons.  It was an amazing family vacation in Cape Cod, MA that was shared with grandparents, a great grandmother, brother, future sister-in-law and other various family members on my husband's side of the family.  Many, many photos to come, but here is one of my favorites that I have edited so far that I call, "Hi Tourists!"

Mother humpback whale with calf, both fin slapping

Sigh, only about 1000 photos to go through and choose which ones to edit.   This might take a while.

Second update, I just squeaked by in the last round of So You Think You're Crafty.  Thanks to any and all who voted for my Manly Pillow Covers.  I was very proud of them, but realized that I NEED to take better photos and my house is not a great place to take photos.  My house is so naturally dark and I think that played a key factor into the lack of votes for my project.  Mental note to self...take better photos!  I could be completely wrong, maybe the men's dress shirt refashion has been over done.  This was my take on it and I may have showed up late to this party. 

I am so happy that I made it through to next week, I cannot wait to show you what I came up with for the theme of, "Summer Bounty."  I will be back to posting rather regularly now that I am back.  Look for an update of photos for my Photo 366 tomorrow.

Photo 366 #26

Summertime brings vacations and road trips.  I took my first real road trip with the kids this past week.  While my husband was away on a business trip, the kids and I took off from Houston to Nebraska.  It was also so Clark Griswold of me to show my kids the, "World's Largest Ball of Twine."  I love the weird, wacky and sometimes crazy pieces of history you can find in the United States.

June 19 - Maben sporting his, "rock star," glasses.  Anytime he puts them on, he has to bring out his guitar.  

June 20 - I wish I could remember the name of this plant.  I just picked it up at the nursery and planted in near a tree in our back yard.

June 21 - Let the road trip begin!  Beautiful landscape somewhere between Houston and Dallas.

June 22 - Greetings from, "The World's Largest Ball of Twine!"  It's real and it's located in Cawker City, Kansas. 

June 23 - The real reason I went on this completely insane road trip (1650 miles round trip taken in 5 days).  This is my grandfather and here he is with his wife Erlene at his 90th birthday party!!!  Happy Birthday Grandpa!

June 24 - Welcome to the Geographical Center of the Continental United States!  Located just outside of Lebannon, Kansas.

June 25 - Finally, back in Texas!  We are so happy, until I have to explain to the kids how many more hours on the road until we get back home.

So, what's the craziest, weirdest or wackiest thing you have found in your travels?  The Ball of Twine definitely cracks my top ten!