Hoodies, Nealy's and Us

I don't mean to sound boastful, but I have a beautiful family.

This blog post title is the skinny of these past few weeks. Extra skinny, actually. There were thousand of extra details and curves to these past few weeks. To show you a crack of our week, I had the brilliant idea of trying out Elena's PicMonkey. 

 I think I just got addicted.   :)

One raining Wednesday in July, we left in the morning and spent a few days at my Grandma's, in Burnet. As a special treat, we  forced invited Ryle to come along. We had a great, but humid, time going for walks, watching old movies, and going to the Domain (like Houston's City Center) with the rest of the familia.

The girls insisted we peek in the creepy house for sale

As you can see, Abby and Nate thoroughly enjoyed Ryle

Grilled Pizza (grilled by Luke)

Thai eggplant from one of Dad's co-workers.

On Saturday we worked outside. We washed all four of the cars (Luke, Grace, and I had the privilege to be the first to wash Elena's new car), transplanted plants (one of which was the Thai eggplant), and did other odd jobs around the house. As a sort of reward, we went to the pool in the afternoon with some of the older Neal's.

Matthew McMuggins -simply yummy

The ultimate game of ultimate Frisbee out on the Parker's land

 

At our friend's the Parker's land for GfBC Conroe's baptism (we were invited by the Hood's for Mia's baptism). It was hot, but we had such a great time hanging with all the Conroe folks!

Mr. Wes, Mia, and Pastor David Shiflet

When I looking through these baptism pics I got a huge lump in my throat; they captured the moment beautifully!

Chicken sandwiches and and RJ Goodies cake in honor of Grace's birthday

Grace's birthday snuck up on us, so we simply had a special tea party.

But first there was Eva's birthday.

Nicole surprised mom with a spontaneous visit during which we celebrated dear Eva's berry first birthday! We didn't do anything too special, but it was just special to have her with us.

A few weeks ago, Dad went on a trip to Wales....(sigh)

The dear ducks have returned!

I believe it was two weeks ago that we spotted some ducks in our tree just outside the dining room. Since then we have been seeing them more and more frequently.

Hopey-dopey-doo and Joy

As I was sorting through the gazillion pictures, I found that I had to post these