The OllieBlog: 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.

The first week, we went to East Texas (E.T.). Let me back up just a smidge.......

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....

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!