Quick Trip...

During our last weekend of summer, we took a quick trip to Sandestin. To my bitter disappointment, Anna HATED the beach. She wouldn't go near the water and wanted her hands washed constantly.



Luckily, Anna loves the pool. Our hotel room looked right over the pools, so needless to say, we spent a lot of time in them.



Anna and her "noonale" spent many hours together.



Anna found some toys in the skimmer basket, so now she thinks ALL skimmer baskets have toys in them. I had a tough time dragging her away from them at the YMCA once we got home!



She's a little brown bear now! (Despite copious amounts of SPF 50)


So, it was a nice trip. We went back to work today and the kids come on Friday :-(
We love our jobs, but we love the summer more!

Forget the Firebolt- The NEW Swiffer2009!!

Anna pulled the Swiffer out of the closet to ride during the flying scene of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Unfortunately, Smitty and Fritz have issues with cleaning appliances and tools. Smitty reacts if you just say the word, "vacuum", thanks to Uncle Mike and Uncle Stephen.

Stupefy!

Anna has recently become very interested in Harry Potter. She has watched the first five movies (with all of the scary parts edited out), and her favorite scenes include the flying car and the dueling club. The following videos show what happened when Anna found a magic wand lying around the house!

We LOVE Summer!

We have really been enjoying the summer! Anna's at the age where we can do lots of new and different fun things!
We've experimented with making bread from scratch- with fairly good results. Anna likes to knead the dough, eat it, and wallow in the flour.


Today we drove in to New Orleans to spend the day with Kathy. We went to City Park, which has really come back after the storm, thanks to volunteers, good leadership, and of course, the Schrenks.

First, we rode the carousel. Anna refused to ride on a horse, opting instead to lounge on the bench and watch me get dizzy.



Next, we rode around the park on the train. Anna liked it a lot, and the breeze felt great! If you look closely in the succession of pictures on this post, you can see her get hotter and droopier in each one...







After we finished on the train, Anna drove a dump truck. She took this very seriously. The trucks circled counterclockwise on the track and Anna just kept turning left, left, left.



She also flew an airplane. We showed her how to pull up on the steering bar to make the plane "fly", but at the end of the ride when the planes descended, she kept pulling up and getting mad that she was going down...



Then we went over to Storyland. Anna enjoyed the slide down Jack and Jill's hill. If you click on this pic, it will zoom in and you can see the look on her face. Priceless.



Since Anna liked Jack and Jill's slide so much, we figured she'd LOVE Puff the Magic Dragon's slide.



Not so much, though. It was HOT! Look at all of the Spanish Moss!



Anna really liked the fire truck and drove it very solemnly.



Cinderella's pumpkin coach.



Alice in Wonderland's house.



Omm, this is supposed to be "Le Petit Prince", but it's more like "Corporate Sponsorship"



ARRRRGHHH- on the Pirate ship and hot!



Even hotter on the queen's throne. I think the fleur de lis on each arm is a nice touch.



After the park, we went back to Edmund and Kathy's for lunch and a swim, then drove back when Anna got fussy. Here she is after dinner wearing the shirt that Dingo (Kathy's dog) gave her. It says, "NOLA City Bark".

We really had a great time today and Anna was asleep by the time we got to the end of the block! Thanks to Kathy for such a wonderful day!

Congratulations Krachts!

Congratulations to Eric, Christie, and big sister Hannah!
Caleb was born on July 6, 2009



Anna and I went for a quick visit this evening. Anna was amazed at how tiny Caleb was! We are so happy for our friends!

4th of July at Jay and Tom's

On Saturday, Jay and Tom resurrected their annual 4th of July party- but this time it was in New Orleans instead of Houston! Anna arrived ready to have a good time!



But then quickly refused to wear a swim suit, insisting that the Nemo on her diaper qualified it as a real suit. This was a battle we decided not to fight...



We hung out around the pool all day and it was fantastic!



Anna LOVED the flamingo drink holders.



You can play volleyball in the pool WAY better when you don't have a drink in one of your hands.



Grandma played some ball with Anna and her cousin, Owen.



I swear, Kathy has the most fantastic deltoids. Look at that definition!



Grandma played some more...



I thought these videos were cute of Grandma, Anna, and Owen in action.






It was a great day! Special thanks to Jay and Tom for hosting the party!

New Camera!

We bought a new camera and brought it to the park to give it a try. There's even a "kids" setting with a faster shutter speed that I found AFTER I took this picture.





She's into "hanging out"



Anna's also into jumping right now.




And if a late-evening trip to the playground in 94 degree heat wasn't enough to wear Anna out, she alternately pulled the wagon and ran the entire way home!