Dinnertime in Port Aransas!

Great dinner with great people!

Shark!

The people next to us on the beach went fishing right where we were swimming and caught this little shark!  I just glad none of his friends took a bite out of anyone! 

The Gristmill

Both of Sam's brothers and their families drove down to San Marcos to spend the night on the way to the coast.  The cousins were all excited to see each other!

We had dinner in Gruene at a restaurant called the Gristmill.  The food and the atmosphere were both wonderful!

While we were waiting for our food the dads took the kids down to the river cool off for a little while.

Outside the Gruene Dance Hall

Floating the River

Time to begin our summer vacation!  We left home and headed for San Marcos to spend a few days.  The boys (and mom and dad, too!)  were excited to be on the road!

Our first stop was the Guadalupe river.  We rented tubes and packed a cooler full of snacks and drinks and off we went!  The river was running really nicely and was shallow enough in some places for the boys to be able to get out and walk/swim.

The next day we floated down the Comal River and at the end we spent some time swimming in the freezing cold water.  It was quite a workout because the river was flowing pretty fast.  We had 2 fun, relaxing days!

Summer Scholars 2015

The boys attended the Summer Scholars program at HPU again this summer.  The theme was "Energy Wars".  They both had a great time and learned lots of new an interesting things!

Thomas loved the 3-D printing program.  It's amazing what computers can do these days!

Will had a great time, too!  

This is one of my favorite all time pictures ~ Cate and Will are the best of friends!

Proudly showing off their certificates for a week of learning!

Quick Trip to Lbk

We took a little mini-vacation to Lubbock.  We spent the morning at the Texas Tech Rec Leisure Pool.  It had a hot tub, swimming pool, lazy river, water slide, and slash area in the shape of the Double T.  

That night we went to the movie and dinner at Alamo Draft House to see Minions.  The boys were surprised and excited to go to a restaurant what was also a theater!  

Vacation Garden School

The boys attended a week long Vacation Garden School at our local community garden.  They loved learning about plants and garden creatures.  On Wednesday it rained and rained and rained!  The Abilene newspaper came to photograph and do an article on the school and got some fun pictures of the kids playing in the flood waters.  Thomas and Will were both featured in the newspaper! 

Lake Brownwood is Back!!

At the beginning of May each year the boys and mom go out to the lake to see how things look.  We also cut down the weeds that have grown up around the dock.  

 May 9, 2015
The Moore's dock is on the left and the Stewardson's dock on the right.  The water is actually higher than it was at the end of the summer (2014).  We got a little bit of rain throughout the winter.  The water just reaches the ramp where the paddleboat is sitting.  

 May 13, 2015
Just 4 days later you can see the difference a few rainy days made!  The water is completely under the ramp and rising.  Our dock is still on dry ground, but the water is finally touching the end of the dock again!

June 15, 2015

One month later ~ the lake is back!  It's about 90% full.  More water than has been there since 2011.  The Moore's walkway broke and their dock floated into ours.  Luckily it was an easy fix to repair the handrails and push it back over.  (Notice were the tree stumps are in this picture, and then in the next picture!)

 July 8, 2015
And then the "Flood of 2015" hit Lake Brownwood!  It rained and rained and rained.  Not just in Brown County, but in the watershed, where it would flow into the lake.  The water rose and covered the lawn.  The boys thought it was fun to stand in the grass, but also to be standing in the lake!  We saw several floating fire ant beds ~ they were really fascinating!

July 9, 2015

As the water rose overnight, so did the lake.  It reached about 4 feet past the second little retaining wall.  The water covered the handrails of the walkway to the dock.  I wouldn't let the boys go out to the dock ~ they would've needed a lifejacket just to go into the water that was covering the lawn!  

We are thankful for every drop of rain we have received and hope it keeps on coming!  

4th of July 2015

Now that the lake is full again, it's fun to celebrate the 4th of July out there ~ swimming, tubing, boating and setting off fireworks!

Kirklyn, Will, Luke, Quincy and Thomas 

Kirklyn and the boys had fun lighting the fireworks ~ with help from their dads, of course! 

Time for sparklers! 

Will was very serious about conducting an imaginary orchestra with his sparklers!