General June Fun-ness and a Blog Binge (It's About Time!)

 Today was a great day. Have I mentioned that my brother Alex is getting married? Woohoo! Yep, he and Deidre and tying the knot next March. We are all really excited for both of them and this next step. And I am super excited and honored to be in the wedding. So, today. I got to spend today with Deidre, her sister Vanessa, her two friends Brady and Lauren, her mom Alexa and my mom - to help Deidre pick out a wedding dress! So fun! Here are the girls (sans moms) at brunch before the bridal boutique appointments.

 Definitely more festivities of the Alex+Deidre variety to come! 

A couple of funnies:

Kyle thought the dress shopping was for all of us. Like we're all just going dress shopping together. When I explained further he asked if there would be mimosas and quiche. Touche. Just to make a point we had mimosas and fritatas.  

Rebecca ran after me as I was getting into Bee's car to leave to tell us to tell Deidre to get 1) a white dress, 2) a headdress, 3) a flower headband. 

This girl already knows her wedding stuff!

Okay, so after a fun day with the girls I came home to a QUIET house. Kyle was working. The kids were at my dad's (so I could do the entire dress day extravaganza). QUIET. So I watched Pitch Perfect because apparently it was too quiet. And I blogged. A lot. Like there are 87 new posts below. Okay, not quite but there really are 10 new posts below this one going all the way back to Easter. If you scroll down you'll be going backwards in history - sorry about that!

So at this point I'm up WAY past my bedtime. And these were the few random June things left but I'm out of words...so here you go.

Rebecca spending her saved up allowance - new wings, wand and an art kit.

Owen spending his money - a robot crab kit, an outdoor sling-shot target game.

Mom took the big kids to ride bikes when I was in the intense first few days of potty training Maggie. Whew!

Franny also took them swimming a couple of times. What would I do without these ladies? My mom then took them to the new children's museum.

I can't remember why but one morning (maybe right after the girls got out of school but Owen was still in school) my mom took the girls to see the peacocks at Mayfield Park.

It's definitely summer here in terms of heat...but I've still been enjoying one of my happy places - running at Town Lake. I love the people watching as I go and it looks so neat to see the lake all filled up with boats and stand-up-paddlers.

We love summer!

Port Aransas - Mezger Beach Trip 2014

It's hard to believe it had been since summer 2012 that these Mezgers had been to the beach. Port Aransas was calling us...

So we loaded up.

And headed to Bucee's. (That's or you Uncle Carlos!)

We kept going and finally made it to this place. (Not the ugly building in the back. The quasi-ugly but thoroughly enjoyable beach in the front.)

We stayed in a great little VRBO townhouse in a community with two great pools - Cottages at Pirates Cove. Thanks Aunt Mel for the recommendation! Arrrrg! We probably spent 1/3 of our time at the beach. Another 1/3 at the pool. And another 1/3 watching movies and playing games. Not having a baby eating sand was so awesome!!! This felt like a real family vacation. We hope its the beginning of big things for the Mezger Family!

But back to the beach.

That's seaweed. But the kids don't seem to mind. Our first day was pretty overcast and windy but still great for playing.

This Boy.

This Girl.

This Girl.

(Can I add here that Maggie surprised us and was totally able to take a nap on the beach - under our shade tarp thing - she would ask and I we would happen. Easy-peasy-banan-squeezy. - Rebecca)

One day was sand castle day. And lets just say it was awesome. Mote - check! Bridge - check! Sports - check! ??? (those are supports - per Rebecca)

These are my people.

One day we spent mostly at the pool but came down to the beach in the evening. Rebecca was on a shell-finding mission.

Owen splashed...

And relaxed.

And we all watched a little girl with a butterfly kite and were inspired for later...

It was nice to not have to worry with the shade and just relax!

And try to capture that sweet shot of all 3 on the beach. Nope.

Bring her back!

Two out of three = happy = is a win!

There she goes again.

What happened?

Okay, daddy fixed it. Now on to smiles and such!

Photobomb!

My strong men!

And one strong lady!

How old are you???

Picking up shells...

 Quickly turns into Ninja Practice.

And trying to teach the Elder.

The moon is out now - so lovely!

I didn't take pictures every day. There was too much fun being had! These are from the last day.

Having a little snack

Rebecca gave Maggie her old hat. So sweet and selfless.

Because she wanted the one with more bling.

Watching the little clam shells crawl back into the sand. Fun. And just a little gross if you think about it too much.

Uh oh. That's not a good sign.

Daddy to the rescue - Ocean Bath!

Ah yes, our $1 Target bin kites. We busted them out on the last day - pretty much the only day at the beach without significant wind. But Kyle worked his magic and we had kite success.

Flying her kite AND picking up shells at the same time - beach master.

And the last big experiment - the boogie boards!

Rebecca didn't want to go out w/ Kyle, but she loved playing on hers in the surf.

There they go!

I need to start handing the camera off to Kyle so people believe I went to the beach as well. I'll try to prove it to you. Here is my hat. 

Those are my feet (and Kyle and Owen in the distance).

That is my shadow.

For this non-beach-loving girl (mountains anyone?) we had a GREAT trip. Oh, and we can't forget our ice cream stop the last night...Preceded by the most-asked-for activity while we're at the beach - crab hunting! The kids did so great catching our ten little friends and then releasing them.

And the ice cream - Blue Bell "Krazy Kolors" - aka your poo will never look the same (sorry, but its true).

Horribly unhealthy fast food we ate: Wataburger, Church's Chicken, Bucee's, Dairy Queen. 

Games played: Pandemic, Settler's of Catan

Movies watched: How to Train Your Dragon, The Sandlot (You're killing me smalls!)

Times we brushed our kids' teeth: one????????

Number of bottles of spray sunscreen we went through: 4

Pools Kyle dove into fully clothed rescue a kiddo from pool-noodle-does-not-equal-safety-device swimming: 1 

Days of family fun in the sun: 5.5 (plus all the fun of driving there!) ;)

Truly a great way to kick off the summer. Until next year...