grant turns 7!!!

i'm not sure how this is possible. i still remember the day we brought him home. 

cutest baby ever with his tufts of blonde hair, big blue eyes, adorable smile. 

he's such a great kid in so many ways, 

and we had so much fun celebrating his birthday.

i love pictures of them together. chase was almost more excited than grant!

grant is in love with dragons, so he got a lot of dragon themed toys/books.

he got a voice recorder he's always wanted. not the best idea ever. 

we've already caught him a few times secretly recording us!

one of grant's big presents was a hermit crab. we actually got the first one, "crawly," 

a few months ago in case the pet store was out of them by his birthday rolled around.

i read they do better with a friend, so he got a second crab on his birthday - "sandy."

spy glasses - he's spying on chase

chase loves his donuts!!!

chuck-e-cheese! it's a family tradition to take them 

on their birthday and they love it!!!

the red crab is "sandy"

the purple one is "crawly"

blowing out the candles!!

one week later school started! i hate school starting. 

i miss my boys playing together and us having fun all summer. 

grant is still the tallest kid around. and the most handsome. :)

beach

a few weeks ago we had a great beach day. friends, surfing, food, sand, sun....it was a great time.

grant stood up multiple times on the surfboard, which was awesome to see.

(i'm so sad i didn't get any good pictures of grant. he did a lot of boogie boarding too

with some awesome friends of ours that took him out time and time again.)

and chase got really good at boogie boarding and rode some big waves for the first time.

schlitterbahn!!!

this year we decided to take the boys to schlitterbahn in new braunfels, 

just a few hours from Houston. schlitterbahn is a HUGE family friendly water-park.

we figured the boys were old enough to have a great time. 

oh my gosh, i think i underestimated how much fun we were going to have.

as you can tell from the pictures, they were in heaven for the two days we were there.

here's poor chase coming down a fast tube slide!

and getting sucked under the water! he was such a good sport. 

chase was so brave! being so little, he really got thrown around in his tube, 

but he loved every minute and begged for more! i'm surprised he never fell out.

the first day we went to the side that is fed from the comal river. brrr!

the water was freezing and most of the waterpark is in the shade. 

great for not getting sunburned, but bad for those of us who get cold easily 

(poor chase's teeth were chattering as he cried getting off the rides.)

on day two, jason and grant ran to try the rides with a height limit. they 

had a blast while chase and i did the smaller kid pools.

we all ended up loving this river that went around the whole park and had multiple falls.

we couldn't pry the boys off this one, and we went round and round a lot this day. 

the water was much warmer (but chlorinated) and it was in the sun, so chase just LOVED it.

you can see grant and chase coming down the falls!

you go up this conveyor belt to start the ride all over again

me and grant on a fast enclosed tube ride. jason and chase rode the other side with us, 

and i'm sad i didn't get a picture of them. jason got a cool video of chase screaming on the way down!

you can tell it's the end of day two....everyone's pretty much worn out.

brothers! and good friends too. one time chase got sort of sucked under

the water, and i wasn't right there, and grant quickly jumped over and yanked him up.

i was so proud of him! he's always been good at looking out for chase.

i'm not sure how this is fun, because it seems to me the water would shoot RIGHT 

up your nose. however the boys did it multiple times, so it must have been fun!

i can't believe how much fun we had. we can't wait to go again!