Welcome to Belize! White sands, crystal blue water, schools of fish tickling your legs as they scoot by. The beautiful coral, the cocktails on the beach. The sunsets, oh the sunsets...amazing.
Ok, we're not in Belize, we're at.....
....the Prairie Grove Aquatic Park. Whah whah whaaaaaaah.
It doesn't sound as good as Belize...but it IS fun.
They have corndogs!
And water slides!! I'm not talking about those sad slides we had when I was growing up, either. You remember, they had about 7 steps on the ladder and spit a tiny stream of water on half the slide so that you would burn off one thigh and buttock on your way down, and then bang your heel on the side of the pool once you hit the water b/c it was so close to the side of the pool.
No, these slides are the real deal and Ben LOVED them! (I enjoyed them, too.)
So, we didn't escape to some tropical getaway, but we did escape the house and beat the heat. That's close to the same thing, right?
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Wish You Were Here!
Posted by OllieEsty at 2:22 PM 1 comments
Sunday, July 11, 2010
And the bike was happy.....
Once upon a time there was a little boy that got a GREAT bike for his 6th birthday. [Seriously, folks, this was no Walmart special]
The little boy loved his bike and admired his bike...from a safe distance.
And the bike was happy.
A year passed and the bike, feeling sad and taking up needed space in the garage, moved to the attic where he could watch the boy from above. He loved the boy, so he would wait.
And the bike was happy.
Two more years passed. The bike had a nice life in the attic. There was extreme heat and extreme cold...but he was an "extreme" kind of vehicle. He had watched the boy grow and was now watching another little boy that reminded him very much of his blonde owner.
And the bike was happy.
A month and a half away from the boy's 9th birthday, the boys parents cleaned out the attic. The boy, being reminded that the bike was in the attic, wanted the bike to come down.
And that made the bike happy.
The bike was cleaned and shined and had its inhibiting training wheels removed. The bike heard the little boy say that he wanted to learn to ride the bike.
And the bike was happy!
The boy, the bike and the boy's daddy went to a nearby parking lot to learn to ride the bike. Tensions were high.
Team Ben was ready to support the boy and his bike. See, check out his shirt.
Balance was tested, but the bike was very gentle with the boy.
And the bike was happy.
Team Ben cheered for the boy and the bike. There was a sense of community. The crowd ran with them!
And the bike was happy.
And as the bike supported its rider and the rider trusted its bike, there was....
SUCCESS!
And the bike and the boy were so happy.
And they lived happily ever after.
Posted by OllieEsty at 9:55 AM 0 comments
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
E.T., "POW" and the Blueberry Bandit
So far this summer, we have been pretty busy. In fact, I was shocked when I counted how many weeks were left of summer and realized that four weeks have gone by. Man!
E.T.
I was the fifth to last person on the planet to join Facebook. When I did finally join (at the prodding by my dear Missy), I found my 5th grade teacher, the fabulous Cindy Best! I contacted her to say "hello" and tell her who I was, sure that she wouldn't remember me......I wasn't *ahem* "memorable" until my high school years.....but she DID remember me. She even had an Annie Oakley postcard that I sent her from our summer vaca to the Grand Canyon. AND, she came to see us last October. See, fabulous!
So, the first weekend of Ben's summer vacation, we went to East Texas to spend the weekend with her. It was the 3rd time that I've seen her and her sweet hubby, Shane, since we reconnected.
We did the normal things that you would expect to do with your former teacher.
We climbed in their treehouse.
Went to an AMAZING park.
Played Rock Band, Beatles.
And Just Dance.
She even made me chocolate covered bacon.
Look, people, her name isn't "Best" for nothing.
It was a LOT of fun and I'm looking forward to the next visit. Planning will commence soon.
Then we went to Henderson to see Wade's grandmother and my grandmother.
This is Wade's Mammaw.
And Wade's Aunt Diane. Toward the end of the trip, Oliver was DONE with pictures.
Nope, there's no picture of my grandmother. Please, you didn't think Dixie was willing to pose for a picture?! Something about "permanents". I don't know. But it was soooooooo good to see her!!!
It's so crazy because my grandmother has lived her whole life in Henderson. When I was a kid and went to see my grandparents, I went to Henderson. I had no idea who Wade was way out there in West Texas...where all his family was. But about a year ago, Wade's grandmother moved from West Texas to Henderson. CRAZY! Of all places!
"POW"
I have no amazing news to share about the 4th of July, other than everytime Oliver heard a firecracker or pop or dog park he said: *gasp* "POW".
There's almost no point in taking pictures on the 4th because a lot of them are aimed blindly in the dark and turn out like this:
We had some kiddie fun in the kiddie pool. Here's our cabana boy/pool maintenance man.
The rest of the pics are of the after-dark crowd and will be found on the non-kid blog.
The Blueberry Bandit
I do have photos of our 5th of July adventures. We went blueberry picking! It was pretty cool...and hot.
Most of my pictures of Oliver are him with his hand to his mouth. He would pick one, show it to me and say, "I eat?" or he would pick one for the bucket, put it in there, and then take one out and eat it.
Eating....
Eating....
Oh, hey, he's picking one....
Oh, he ate it....
We were all in on the pickin' (and snacking)...
What surprised me is that Ben really liked the blueberries. He's not a huge fan of the ones that I get at the store. I guess that's a testiment to how good the fresh stuff is. He would find a big fat juicy one on the plant, pluck it and eat it. He ate a ton of them that evening, too.
They gave us a gallon bucket and we filled it to the top. It doesn't look like as many as it is when it's in the bucket. When you put them in a plastic bag to take them home, it looks like a trillion blueberries.
I have made blueberry jam and blueberry muffins so far. I think I'm going to try to make a blueberry poppyseed salad dressing and who knows what else.
Very soon, we will look like Violet Beauregarde!
Wanna know how our three day weekend ended?
A little homeade icecream....
...and this.....
No lie.
Posted by OllieEsty at 4:39 PM 0 comments