New Mountain Climber Playset--Hooray!!

Today has been an awesome day for multiple reasons.

Reason #1: It's Sunday. The day that we slow down (or at least try!), focus on God and spend extra time in worship, and spend time with family. What's not awesome about that?

Reason #2: Russ's parents were here for a short visit and they were able to hear Russ share his testimony at church this morning. I'm so proud of my hubby for giving God the glory through his story of protection in Iraq.

Reason #3: The Wells men put together a brand-new mountain climber playset for Garrett! He LOVES it. He was go go go from the moment he saw it. And he didn't stop for nearly 45 minutes straight. Needless to say, he's been in bed for about half an hour already.

After such a fabulous day, I'm about ready to hit the hay too. And it's barely even 9 pm! Here are some pictures and *hopefully* some short videos of Garrett enjoying his new backyard adventure. Thanks for the incredible present, Grammy and Grandad! He'll be loving it for a long long time.

It only took the Wells men about 40 minutes to put this thing together. Nice job guys!

As you can see, Garrett loved it from the start.

His first go-around with the mountain climber. He can climb up unassisted already and slide down all by himself. He's growing up so fast!

The second time around he discovered more fun to be had.

Fun on the deck and...

...fun down below!

Wells Men x 3

What a goofball! He's going to be speaking whole sentences before we know it. (If he ever decides to stop screeching, that is!)

One final shot: Garrett trying on his Grandad's sun-hat. It's just a teeny bit too big. Ha! :-)

Anniversary Date Night

Russ and I are blessed to have friends who love Garrett and were willing to spend time with him so we could go out on a date to celebrate our anniversary. Garrett was so excited to see Ashley that night! It made it so much easier for this momma to leave him behind knowing that he was in good hands. :-)

Before our big date night...Garrett wasn't too sure about the flashing red light on the camera. He looks so uncomfortable!

Playing in the office with Ashley and Daniel. This was his first time staying with non-family members as babysitters. He had a blast!

More fun pictures with Ashley! Thanks for being sneaky, Mr. Photographer!!

Happy Anniversary #4!

Four years ago Russ and I began our married-life journey together. I think we've packed a lot of adventure into these last four years! We've lived in many different places (together and apart), grown our family by two members (Lucy and Garrett), and started down a new career path (DTS). God has been with us every step of the way and blessed us beyond measure. Thanks for a wonderful four years together, honey! I love you more now than I did back then...I never dreamed that was possible! (Sorry for the cheesiness folks, but that's what you get on our wedding anniversary!) I'm looking forward to the next 4 years together too--actually, that should say the next 40 years. :-) Here are some photo memories of our special day.

The "before" pics of me and some of the girls plus the two momma's posing in their matching (amazingly!) dresses.

Yay!! We're officially hitched!

Some of the posed pics.

Two of the most important parts of the reception (besides greeting all of our fabulous guests!). Dancing with my new husband and showing off the groom's cake.

And finally, making our great escape amidst the bubbles. It was a magical day!

Galveston

Last weekend we sent Lucy off to play with some doggy friends and packed ourselves up to head to the beach. Russ's grandparents rent a beach house down in Galveston and invited the whole family to visit when they're able. This was our first year to go and it was WONDERFUL! I'd never been to Galveston (hadn't really heard of it, to be honest) and was excited to see it. After a painful (!!!!) 7+ hour drive in torrential rain and bumper-to-bumper traffic, we arrived at the house. You'll see it in the background of some of the beach pictures...it's beautiful. Although it was stormy the first full day that we were there, we were still able to squeeze in some beach time since we were literally about 50 yards from the sand. Garrett was kind enough to wake us at 5:30 a.m. on Saturday so we could get in an early morning walk on the shore before the storm hit. Anyway, we really enjoyed our time with all the family and playing in the ocean. Garrett especially loved playing with his cousin Kaylie (okay, technically his second-cousin, but who says that??). They're quite the duo! So here are the pictures...bear with me, there are a lot of them! Thanks again Granny and Grandpa for such a relaxing weekend and 4th of July. :-)

This was the first night we were at the beach house. Garrett and Kaylie were already pals and hopped into Russ's lap. So cute!

Garrett loved having all of Kaylie's toys to play with too. To Russ's chagrin, Garrett seemed drawn to the pink toys. :-) Of course, being a girl, she has a lot of pink things so it was inevitable. And he loved the duck game he's playing with in the bottom pic. He and Kaylie "played" with Sarah and Hannah too.

The younger portion of the family went out to lunch on Saturday to a fun local place called Spot's. Garrett is like his Mommy and didn't appreciate the clown making balloon animals. Scary.

I warned you...there are a lot of beach pictures

Fun in the sand!

These pics (and the beach ones to follow) were taken by our cousin Corrie. She's got a gift for taking fabulous pictures and was the family's unofficial photographer for the week. :-) Thanks Corrie!!

I know that these all look pretty similar but I couldn't decide which ones to post--they're all so cute!

Garrett wasn't sold on the water idea, but got braver the longer we were there. Actually his courage came and went with the tide...he'd run into the water and love it until a stronger wave would come and he'd fall on his swim-diapered behind. Then the tears and clinging would emerge and back to the sand we'd go. A few minutes later we'd repeat this whole scenario. All in all he did really well, though.

Family picture on the 4th of July.

Hello!

The little man loved to show off for a crowd, especially when Kaylie was nearby. He was spinning, blowing kisses and dancing all over the place.

Kaylie and Garrett are so good to each other. Garrett put her pony's pacifier in his mouth and she'd copy him. And they both were caught orange-handed with the cheetos in the last picture here. Two of a kind, I tell you!

And what did we do while the kids were napping? Played games like Blokus, cards and the Wii, which is what you see going on here. These two look so serious!

I love this picture of the two kiddos. They look so sweet and it's the perfect way to end this post about our time in Galveston. We're ready for next year's trip already!