Celebrating Freedom at Surfside

Tuesday, July 6, 2010.  Since both Amy and I had our July 4th holidays at work on Monday, I let her have the boys that day while I worked (Mondays are always mine with the boys), and then I took Tuesday off and spent it with the boys.  The best part of taking Tuesday off was that Surfside Beach was almost entirely empty when me and the boys went.  It was so nice to be there and have it not be crowded.

The painful lesson I learned: my arms aren't long enough to put sunscreen on my own back.  After all afternoon in the sun, I came home with a super red 6x10 rectangular window of burnage on the upper half of my back.  It hurt too much to laugh when it was red...but now that it's nice and tan, it cracks me up to see in the mirror.  Next time, I'll have to bribe one of the boys to give me a hand.

Cowboy Sam ready to roll.

With a little coaching from big brother, he realized that boots might not be the best way to do the beach.

Nut flinging dirt in his own face.  Such a Nutty.

The toeheads making their trek to the waves.

Standing triumphantly with the volcano we made.

First Baseball Game

Thursday, June 24, 2010.  Today, Noah's summer program field trip was to Minute Maid Park downtown to watch the Astros' afternoon game.  Naturally, I could not possibly miss my boy's first ever baseball game.  Just couldn't do it.  So I met up with Beeju's group before the game and then spent the day with him.  I didn't take a ton of pics...just enough to capture the day for posterity.  After all, a boy's first baseball game is a big deal.  He's now well on his way to being a man.  Next step: learning to chew/spit sunflower seeds.  We're working on it.

Proud Papa moment

For the first hour or so, he wouldn't let me get up. Every time I tried, he kept waving me back. He's almost never "clingy," but I kinda like it when he is.  So cute.  (Could've done without that blasted Cowboys hat in this pic.)

An even prouder Papa moment...seeing his boy air punching Astros players.  Atta boy!  Go Pirates!

Getting ready to race that giant mechanical baseball player behind him. Beeju smoked the dude.

This is a key place to have on your map if you're going to an Astros game with a youngun'.  Not a bad play area.  And it gives them a chance to stretch the legs and burn off some energy.  Another pic below.

You can't take a 5 year old to a ballgame and not have cotton candy.  What started as a gigantic mound o' sugar...

...quickly turned into an itsy bitsy corn-on-the-cob sized snack.

Washing it all down with a cold one.  Game #1: success!  Hopefully next time we'll get to see the Pirates.