Texas

Because we're gluttons for punishment, we decided to take a short trip down to Texas in the middle of July to see my family and enjoy the scorching heat!  I guess I've been in Utah for too long because I'm not as accustomed to the humidity as I used to be.  Needless to say, we found lots of indoor or water-involved activities to do while we were there.

We got in late Wednesday night so we slept in a bit Thursday morning, then got Shipley's for breakfast and then went to the hospital to visit my grandpa.  The timing of our visit was perfect because we got to be there to see him and spend time with him while he was recovering from his heart attack.  Then Chris and I headed down to see my nephew's swim lessons. He's such a cute little fish and it's crazy how much he's grown just since Christmas.  The rest of the day we played, swam, ate, and hung out.

Friday we visited grandpa again, went to Kaden's last swimming lesson, ate more Shipley's, did some shopping, played games, watched a movie, and worked on cleaning out my closet.  My mom has patiently waited to reclaim the closet in my old room, but I always seem to run out of time to clean it out when I'm down for visits.  This time, she told me that was my one job... to clean out as much of the closet as I could.  It was packed full of stuff from my growing up years and for some reason she didn't want to keep all of it anymore! LOL  I actually had fun sorting through boxes, cleaning out drawers, looking through old clothes and prom dresses.  It brought back lots of memories.  Chris was such a trooper; he is the master of consolidating and throwing things away so he helped me go through everything and ultimately get rid of most of the things I don't need.  (I've come to discover that I need one of these people by my side the entire time I clean out my closet because I lack the strength to throw away useless old junk for nostalgic reasons.  It used to be Amber and now it's Chris.  :-)  Hahaha! Thanks guys!)

Saturday was our beach/fishing day.  We went down to Matagorda Bay so that Chris, Glen and my dad could fish and mom, Kat, Kaden and I could play on the beach.  The weather was perfect!  Each of the guys caught a fish and the rest of the time we played in the waves, built sand castles, walked on the beach collecting shells, and relaxed.  On the way home we made the requisite stop at Buc-ee's for snacks, souvenirs, and the cleanest gas station bathrooms I've ever seen! :-)  That night we went out to dinner at Papadeaux's, a delicious Cajun/seafood restaurant.  It's one of our favorites!  We also enjoyed one of the famous Texas thunderstorms with torrential downpours of rain.  Man, I've missed those!  Here's a picture of the fam (minus Chad) at dinner.   

Here are a few other pictures from the weekend.  I love the top left picture of Chris and Kaden playing.  If you look closely you can see they're both chewing on straws.  Monkey-see, monkey-do! :-) 

Sunday, after church, we said our goodbye's and headed back to Utah.  We had so much fun being able to spend some time playing and relaxing together!   We missed having Chad there, but we're looking forward to Thanksgiving when we can all be together again.