Time To Go Back Home!

Okay, so I think is time to go back to Beaumont now.  We had two wonderful weeks here in San Antonio. The first week, we got to spend a lot of time as a family.  Dave and I also had several opportunities to spend some alone time, which was nice.  The second week, I took advantage of and started preparing for Luke's 3rd birthday party, which is quickly approaching.  

We were able to do quite a bit.  In addition to the things I already blogged about, we also enjoyed the following: 

We went downtown to an amphitheater to see a Mexican Folkloric Ballet.  

We went to the zoo with Dave.

The kids and Dave played a lot of basketball.  Games like CAT and Around the World.  Carson challenges every time, where as Natalia will never challenge.  Man, did Carson enjoy every minute of that.  Natalia always has such a hard time loosing, but she hung in there.  

When I came outside, I noticed that Luke was getting hit with the basketball way too often.  The basketball hoop was right next to the sandbox, where he was playing.  Nobody thought about moving the basketball hoop.  LOL.  They would just laugh every time they hit Luke with the basketball.  Poor kid.  Then again, you would think that if it bothered him that much, he would have moved or at least say something.  Luke is just a though little guy, I guess!

Oh, let's see, what else did we do?  Oh yea, we went on a "Nature Walk", as Natalia calls them.  It was the perfect day for a little hike.  The kids were so into catching bugs and looking out for snakes.  We saw several deer and a whole bunch of bugs.  

  

  

I also attempted to potty train Luke.  Ha, what a joke!  Not even close to being potty trained. I'm so mad at myself because I believe that he was ready to be potty trained last November.  He was already letting me know when he wanted to go, but with moving out of the house and all that construction project, I just pretty much ignored the whole thing and now, I wish I would have worked with him.

I've tried this week.  He gets to play with my iphone while he sits on the toilet.  We even have Wall-E calling my cell phone!  You should see the kids' little faces light up when they see Wall-E on my phone screen.  They get so excited.    Wall-E sounds so much like Dave, it's amazing.  But then again, Dora and Barney also sounded like Dave. Geez, I wonder why?

Anyway, we had great times here in San Antonio, but enough is enough.  It's really time to go home.

This time, we only broke an old chair and messed up the bed's comforter in our room with a marker.  Yea, I think my parents would also agree that it's time for us to go back to Beaumont.

Thanks Dad and Mom for everything.  We appreciate all you've done for us!  

Running away from Ike!

Enough is enough. I was going a little crazy not knowing what we were going to do. Didn't know if we were going to stay or if we were going to evacuate to Dallas or San Antonio. We definitely didn't want to get stuck in traffic like we did three years ago, so we were a little reluctant to just pack up and go to San Antonio. Finally, on Thursday after having an "emergency planning meeting" (just an excuse to meet and have good food for lunch at Pho's Vietnamese Restaurant), sitting in Dave's office while he did a root canal, and then having a "follow up emergency meeting" (another excuse for some more good food and good company), we decided that we would evacuate to San Antonio at 4:30 a.m. the next morning. We tried to convince Matt to go to San Antonio with us, but he would have nothing to do with the idea. He decided to stay!

We left Beaumont on Friday at about 6:30 a.m. It was a great trip. No traffic at all. As soon as we got to SA, we dropped off the kids at my parents house. Dave and I escaped and had a quiet lunch at Freebirds! Oh, it was so nice. Although, Matt (kind of) ruined our day because we could not stop thinking, praying and talking about him. We constantly checked on him. Poor guy, he was probably sick and tired (that was for you, Elizabeth) of us calling and texting him, but we couldn't help it. We were too worried about him. Dave and Matt probably stopped texting at 11:30 p.m. or so and then Matt called at 5:00 a.m. the next day. Boy, were we glad to hear from him again. ~We are so thankful to God for keeping Matt safe! I'm telling you, next time, we are NOT leaving him there. No way!

Tracking Hurricane Ike

Dave and Natalia have been tracking hurricane Ike on a daily basis.  Natalia has been listening to us mention that we might be evacuating to Dallas.  After seeing where the hurricane is going, she asked (with a heavy East Texas accent), "Daddy, why are we going to Dallas?!"