August 2010

This month, we tried to do some fun things before school started.  Here are our adventures:

Children's Museum

We really need to go to the Children's Museum a little more often.  The boys alway have a good time shopping in the HEB supermarket or showing their creativity painting a picture.

Roller Skating

One of the most exciting things we did was go roller skating.  We had taken Brock several years ago, but he was way too young then (maybe 3) and wasn't interested at all.  A friend of ours found a place in Brenham that had a "learn how to skate" session on Thurs. mornings.  They had these skate trainers made out of PVC pipe with casters on the bottom.  It was really neat and we had so much fun that we went back the next week!

The rink had these toys called "turtles" that Ryan loved.  They did look fun...you sat on them and then pulled the handles and it moved you along.  I think Ryan had more fun on these than actually roller skating!

Mommy and Ryan

Anytime Ryan fell down, he stayed lying on the floor for about 5 minutes until I made him get up.  This is how I saw him most of the time.

Brock skating across the floor (end of the second day of skating)

Ryan skating across the floor (end of second day)

After skating, we went to the Blue Bell ice cream factory and got these great hats and some free ice cream!

We came home a different way after the second trip.  During the entire trip, the boys were asking what the different crops were that we were passing.  I finally stopped and let them see and touch some cotton.  I explained that cotton is what their clothes, socks, towels, etc. are made of.  So, not only was our trip fun, but it was educational, too!

Monster Trucks

Steve took Ryan and Brock to a monster truck show in town.  Apparently the show wasn't that good, but the boys really liked the trucks.

Their favorite was the "Reptoid"

Anniversary

Steve and I celebrated the 10 year anniversary of our first date.  We went to Six Flags and I knew he was a keeper when I got sick on a ride and he still wanted to see me again after that!!  He bought me these beautiful roses to celebrate.  I love you, Steve!

Bricks

We were at my brother's house in Belton before they moved and I saw a stack of bricks in his backyard.  I knew he wouldn't be taking them with him and we really needed to replace some rusted edging in our yard.  I asked if we could have them and he said we could.  So, we loaded them up and brought them home.  Steve said he'd pay the boys $.05 for each brick they moved.  They moved all 364 bricks out of his truck and into the backyard.  After several weekends of Steve's hard work, our yard looks awesome!  Thanks Greg and Diane!!  You saved us a ton of money!

We even had enough leftover to make a small firepit!  It's not completed, yet (we need to mortar it), but we're excited to have one for the fall!

We used all the large rocks that had been lining our trails to line the entrance to the trails from our main yard.

Oklahoma

"Meet the Sooners" Day

The first morning we were in Oklahoma, OU had a "Meet the Sooners" Football Team Day.  Since Daddy has brainwashed Brock into being an OU fan, they went out to meet them. 

Brock said he really liked the assistant coaches.  When I asked him why, he said because they talked to him about Star Wars.  (He was wearing a Star Wars shirt.)

Brock and Papa at Owen Field.

Brock enjoying being on the actual football field where the Sooners play.

Brock and Daddy at Owen Field.

Steve and his dad, Gary.

Brock wanted to take some pictures, so he scripted a photo shoot.  Papa throws the ball...

...Daddy catches the ball...

...Brock dives to catch a ball.

Andy Alligators

There is a family fun center that the boys loved.  They had miniature golf, go carts, bumper boats, bumper cars, rock wall climbing, arcades, etc.  Here is Brock tee-ing off.

Ryan putting it in.

Cousin Logan hitting from the rough.

 Gramma with her three grandsons after a rousing game of mini-golf.

Brock, Logan and Ryan after the game.

 Brock on the go carts.  He loved these things and rode them over and over and over.  I think one reason was that, for the first time, he was tall enough to drive all by himself!

 Brock and Ryan on the climbing wall.  The lady running it said she had never seen a 4-year old go as high as Ryan did!

Oklahoma City Science Museum

This place was awesome!!!  If you ever go to OK City, you HAVE to go here.  We spent almost the entire day here and could've stayed longer.  It was the neatest place we've ever taken the boys...and they loved it as much as Steve and I.

Astronaunt Brock O'Neal

Astronaut Ryan O'Neal

This was the coolest treehouse ever.  It had two parts to it.  On the right side was a rope and pulley with a bucket attached that someone on the bottom could fill with foam balls, then the people at the top could pull it up, there was a slide from the top, brainteasers.  There was also a pulley from the right side to the left side.  It was really cool and the boys loved playing in it.

Brock riding a Segway

Steve riding a Segway.

Ryan on a Segway...obviously enjoying himself!

 There was also a place where kids could go do different hands-on cerebral activities.  One side was for kids up to 7 years old, the other was for 7+.  The younger side had things like a water table where you could put different boards and make dams or cause the water to go a different route by moving the boards around.  The older side had a lot of brain teasers.  We all enjoyed trying to solve the brain teaser puzzles.

 Ryan enjoyed the "fire station" with a fireman's pole that he could slide down.  He also showed me that he could shimmy all the way up the pole...pretty strong for a 4-year old!

Our First "Almost" Emergency Room Visit

On July 31st, our family had our first minor emergency.  Ryan was racing Brock in the backyard to a pile of bricks and fell onto the edge of one of the bricks, busting right below his knee wide open.  Luckily our pediatrician is open on Saturday mornings.  I took him in and because it was a jagged cut, they couldn't stitch it up, but instead put strips of tape on it (like butterfly stitches).

Six days later, we took the tape off and this is what was left.  It doesn't look near as bad as it did when it first happened, which is good, I guess!  The doctor said that he'll have a scar...but what boy doesn't have a scar somewhere?!?!  That's part of being a boy, right?

July 2010

After an afternoon of Lego building, the O'Neal men showed off what their wonderful imaginations created.

We went to a park one day and I got a couple good pictures of the boys.

We actually got a pretty good rain one day.  Brock and Ryan had been waiting so long to play in the rain and finally were able to don their raincoats and go play Star Wars in the rain!

Our Vacation Bible Study was titled "Adventure on the High Seas" where they learned about Paul.  We had great props that the boys got to play on.

 The College Station Library held a reptiles day.  Brock and Ryan held a python...

 ...and took a ride on a huge turtle.

(The turtle-riding was right after the boys got their hair cut.  Ryan asked Mr. Wes to give him a mohawk.  I wasn't quite going for that hair cut, so Mr. Wes styled it like a mohawk and that was good enough for Ryan...and Mommy!!!)

 One of the local swimming pools has a diving board.  We had never been swimming at this pool before, but were invited to a birthday party there.  Brock and Ryan both absolutely loved jumping off the diving board.  A friend got this picture of Brock.