Surviving a Texas Summer

Lucky for us, this summer has not been as hot as last summer.   But it is still Texas and it is still very hot and regularly a 100 degrees.  So we have again become pool bums! 

And Caleb has become such an amazing swimmer.  He is our fish.

We decided to take swimming lessons again.  However I don't know if we will continue them on base anymore.  They just aren't teaching him the strokes and the things he wants to learn to try out for the swim club.  So we will see what we can do.

This year, Caleb has discovered the DIVING BOARD!  He loves it and has no fear.

I love our camera, especially when we can take fun underwater pictures. 

These are pictures of Caleb and Brydon after they dived off the diving board. 

So cool!

Our awesome "niece" Lorin!  Love the underwater poise!

Sometimes I think this kid will really grow gills!

It was so fun to take fun pictures of our fabulous friends underwater.  Not pictures you get everyday!

Love Ethan!!

A unique couples photo!

Love this kid and just can't get enough of him!

We love to play with Dad in the pool.  We rarely go without him.  We like to go in the late afternoon and then dad meets us after work.  It is a great way to play as a family and then when the pool closes, we don't have an upset boy.  It works out perfectly!

Truly a fish!

Yesterday the high diving board was finally open.  Caleb has been so excited to try it out.  I wasn't really sure he would jump off it.  But as soon as I told him it was open, he went straight over to jump.  One of our great friends was there to capture the big moment.  He hardly even hesitated!  He just keeps growing too fast!

Celebrating the 4th!

This area is a bit surprising.  They love the Air Force Base and host great Air Force events but don't do much for the 4th of July.  I don't know if it is a Texas thing (because the stores are full of red, white, and blue stuff with "I Love Texas" on them) or if it is just this area.  However we did find a great little parade in Buffalo Gap.  It was about 5-10 minutes long, but we found a parade!

This was the most decorated and elaborate display of the parade.

They kiddos had fun and that is the most important part!

    

After the parade, the city did a reading of The Declaration of Independence at the Historic Buffalo Gap Village.  Then they rang the bell for each state.  Caleb got to ring the bell for South Dakota!

You can't celebrate the 4th without some yummy, yummy food.  We decided to try out some new things this year.  I think they turned out well and it was a lot of fun.

Red, White, and Blue Cupcakes!  I found a new recipe for butter cream frosting and it as amazing!  I am coming to appreciate frosting more.

Red, White, and Blue Fruit Salad....hmmm.  I saw this idea on my friends blog and had to especially try out her secret fruit salad sauce.  It was really good.  You can check it out at http://www.familyeverafterblog.com/2012/06/simple-summer-fruit-salad-with-zing.html

I was SO EXCITED to make these drinks!  I think the are so neat!  I loved the star ice cubes too.  They even tasted good!

We had a great BBQ with our friends the Bradshaws.  It was a beautiful day filled with a small parade, swimming, wonderful food, fireworks, friends, and fun.

We tried making BBQ ribs for the first time.  We even made our own BBQ sauce.  It was so yummy!  We made the Shiner Bock BBQ sauce from Chili's.  It has just the right amount of kick to it.  I had to buy beer in the grocery store for the first time.  Apparently I don't look like I need to be carded anymore, I was kind of wondering what it would be like to be carded in the grocery store.  Oh well!  It was weird to buy beer though.  The ribs turned out great and we will be making lots of this BBQ sauce again.

We were actually able to buy a few fireworks for the first time ever this year.  This was Caleb's first time ever having fireworks at home.  We got some snappers and the kids loved those.  Then we did smoke bombs and sparklers.  None of our kids had been exposed to setting off fireworks so it was funny to watch them be nervous and curious about how this works.

   

They caught on to the sparklers and really enjoyed them.  The Dads most definitely remembered how fun fireworks could be and had a lot of fun playing with fire.  We only had to remind them a few times to be good examples!

We did purchase two fountains, but had to go outside the city limits to set them off.  They were actually really good fountains!

Hope everyone had as wonderful of a 4th of July as we did!

What My Son Has Learned as a Military Brat

This is how my son is learning to respect the flag and support the United States of America.

We are proud to be Americans and members of the United States Air Force.

Quite a few months ago, Brydon was in charge of leading a base wide flag ceremony.  Caleb and I were excited to see one and watch Daddy lead all the Airmen in formation.  A friend of our family was also participating in the event in the Honor Guard and we were excited to see his wife and son there also.

It is a short and simple ceremony but we were shocked at how the boys wanted to participate in the event and were so aware of the military customs and procedures

Throughout the event, they kept creeping forward and forward to be a part of the formation.

Until finally they made it!  And then did their best to be a proud American soldier.  They were quiet and had great manners.  They just wanted to be like their Dads.

A C-130 and B-1 fly by at the end of the Star Spangled Banner.

Don't you love Nash's uniform!  Caleb really wants one to be just like his Daddy.

I love watching my son learning to be a soldier!

I am so grateful to live in America and for the freedoms and privileges we have.  I am proud to support my husband as he services in the United States Air Force and proud to watch my son learn to respect our country and be proud of his Dad.  Being in the military is such a blessing and I am grateful for the lessons we are learned and the respect for my friends and neighbors who have sacrificed so much to support American Values.

Happy 4th of July!