college station day

back in july, we made a trip to college station...our first since february!  we missed katy and college station so we remedied both while we had the time.

first stop, wings 'n' more for lunch.  then, we paid a visit to the renovated MSC on campus...which is an awesome student center.  not all that often do i put something from any other campus above anything from alabama's campus, but this takes the cake.  job well done, a&m.

from there, we made our way to the garrett house for some swimming.  the garretts were as gracious as ever and cooked dinner for us, as well.  the kids enjoyed playing with brendan who was much more entertaining than the last time we visited.  jennings shared his cars with him and the girls took turns holding him.  lots of fun in one day, but totally worth the drive!

zoo day!

i have been anticipating brendan's first zoo trip for quite some time now.  i knew that he might be completely oblivious to everything around him, but i also knew there might be a chance that he could enjoy part of it as well.  if nothing else, the boy already loves being outside so that helps!

to add to the fun, i opened the invitation to many of my girl friends at dinner monday night...the more, the merrier, right?!  two girls said yes so we began planning our group outing.  not until later did i realize that one of these friends has zoo membership that got us all in for free!  yes!

we arrived shortly before the parking lots opened so we were able to walk in as soon they opened the gates.  let me just say that i may never go to the houston zoo during the summer in the afternoon again...the morning is totally the way to go.  unfortunately, a couple of the main exhibits were closed today, but we still got to see giraffes, rhinos, lions (who were actually up & moving for once!), elephants, and a really cool dinosaur (think animatronic...(spelled right?)) exhibit that is here for the summer.  overall, it was a great day!

excited for the zoo!

brendan and dax taking in the dinosaur exhibit...not sure how they feel about it

justin and railey

i have no words...

adults can have fun the children's zoo area too!

hahaha

railey was not at all impressed with the dads

dax, on the other hand, wanted a turn at the slide

brendan liked the petting zoo...i think he will really enjoy it when he can walk around himself

water break!

brendan was telling railey how bummed he was that the chimp exhibit was closed

if you look closely, you can see a tiger between us!

love these guys!

happy pilgreens after a fun zoo day

mommies and babies

a sunday stroll

i am not sure about the weather where you live, but the weather here today was pretty much perfect.  we loaded brendan up in the stroller and set out on a walk through the neighborhood.  we tried out our mini playground area with him, but there is only so much a 5.5 month old can do and only so long his attention span will last before he just wants to eat every last little piece of padding on the ground.

after the playground, we walked around the rest of the neighborhood...taking in the gorgeous day and perfect temps.  i think everything is better on a beautiful day...even

on the way back, i noticed that brendan was quite relaxed...laid back, with his foot propped up on the stroller.  i think he enjoyed the walk too.

nature

all summer long, lee has worked so hard to make sure our grass and plants do not die off in this miserable houston heat. almost every single night for weeks, lee would turn on the sprinklers in the front and back yard, move them to different spots to make sure every part of the yard was being watered, and check everyday for any remote hint of growth. we even purchased some "weed and feed" (if that's even the correct name for it) for the more difficult areas, as well as rosebush food for the plants in the backyard.

lo and behold, we have finally received some summer showers over the past week or so to quench the thirst of our yard. last thursday, we looked into our backyard and saw this wonderful site. multiple blooms at the same time on our rosebush and deeper pink blooms on the plant beside it! (that's right, i don't have a clue what kind of flower it is)we were perfectly content with God showing off in such an amazing way, but He decided to one-up Himself and really give us a show on friday. with the beginning of what seemed to be a simple summer thunderstorm upon us, lee ran out to grab us an afternoon snack. no big deal...just some rain and a little rolling thunder. or so we thought... while he was away, i was trying to make sure a project i had been working on was staying dry from the rain under its cover when lightning popped right in our backyard and sent pieces of bark flying across our deck. from my view point, i could only see the tip of the tree that received the powerful blow but was still amazed at what had happened. the sound, the wind, and the lack of cable/internet in our house were plenty shocking for me.

however, once lee got home and the rain died down, we decided to venture outside to get a better look at the yard. remember, i assumed only the top of the tree had been affected. but i was wrong...thankfully, we have some wonderful neighbors who not only came to check on us but also assisted lee in cutting down most of the mangled limbs. we are so grateful for their help as well as God's provision that none of it touched the house or messed up the fence.

home improvement

so, i know the last post on our new house was not very in depth nor was it decorated much. i thought i would let you see what we have been up to over the past couple of weeks. since i am writing this after it is practically dark outside, i still do not have a very good outside shot (because i did not think to take one ahead of time) but that will come for those of you still curious.

here is a better shot of the living room - yes, lee is playing the xbox and yes, those are boxes off to the side. i should have moved them but that's part of it right now...they are boxes of books that have no bookcase to call home yet so for now they reside there. i also need a good "something" to go over the mantle.

our new table and a look into the kitchen - anyone have any thoughts on a cute (but not too tall) centerpiece for the table? we may also add cushions to the chairs at some point for comfort. the tall fruit basket you see to the right through the kitchen opening as well as the corner stand you cannot really see due to the coffee maker in the back left corner are my steals from hobby lobby...one was 30% and one was 70%!the guest bedroom, complete with a bed (yay!), a new desk for the computer, and lee's sports memorabilia (with the future addition of a couple more prints that still need frames). the bedding in here was also an amazing deal...$29 for nautica bedspread and sham from homegoods!and, the guest bathroom - i'm pretty pleased with the color scheme in here. random, but it just needs a little trashcan and it will be complete. ha!come see us!

friday night lights on saturday night

high school football season has begun in the state of texas.

when multiple schools in the same district share the same (really nice) stadium sometimes you play on friday night and sometimes you play on saturday nights.

we enjoyed a fun and relaxing saturday and finished it off tonight with the first game of the season for AHS (the school where i teach). we met up with some teacher friends, saw some former coworkers, and enjoyed a night of football. can i pause for a second to say i am so stinkin' excited for the beginning of football season of all kinds?! thanks. anyway, i enjoyed the opportunity to point out all of my current and former students on the team to lee. one of them scored a touchdown and others were in on quite a few plays on both sides of the line.some of my female students were also on the field during halftime performing. i have many girls who are "patriettes". they dance along with the band during the game as well as on their own at halftime. i was so into watching their performance and talking to friends that i forgot to get a shot of them. they are a really talented group of girls though.

oh yea...the eagles got their first win of the season with a 38-18 victory over south houston!

rollin' on the river

san antonio. the riverwalk. floating the river. it is all about the river. and a little bit about the alamo.lee, katy, and i took a weekend trip to san antonio as an end-of-summer trip (and because katy had friday off from work). this was my first time to experience san antonio and all of it's wonderful mexican food and humidity. seriously, of the four meals we ate while on our trip (we skipped lunch on saturday), three of them were mexican food. we stayed in a hotel that has been around for 100+ years so everything was very historic-looking. our upgraded room was huge!by the way, i have no idea why we look so awkward in this picture...i blame it on the heat.

this is where we had breakfast the first morning, mi tierria (GREAT recommendation, suzi). i loved the waitress's uniforms and the cool decorations!

floating the river was even better than i had heard it described. after a very unorganized hour-long sign-in time, we tied everything to our tubes and began our journey down the guadalupe. we lost some sunglasses, a dr pepper, and our cooler even broke after some pretty hard core currents.

my best attempt to take a picture through katy's awesome waterproof bag of one of the many turtles floating alongside us. that's a turtle head popping up out of the water:by the end of the day, we had some serious sunburn and dinner with jason, cara, ainslee, and 9-day old baby hattie. we also got to explore the little town of gruene, tx...they had an awesome antique store, pecan shop, and gruene hall which has been featured in movies like Michael!
modeling our sunburn:
one more note, we took turns making decisions each day because we are by far the most indecisive group of people EVER. lee was kind of enough to decide on stopping at the outlet mall in san marcos on our way home on his decision-making day. who doesn't love outlet mall shopping (and a guy who is willing to go outlet mall shopping)?!