So much to say...

So much has happened since the last post, I hardly know where to begin.

Swimming lessons went well, particularly the last week when the indoor pool heater was broken (we suspected that in week one when CR shivered in the pool the whole time), he really enjoyed it in the outside pool and got some good skills like being able to hold his breath when he goes under. He is a long way from swimming laps, but enjoys the pool now very much.

After that came 4th of July weekend, the family trip to Canyon Lake for Charlie's parents' 50th wedding anniversary. We had a great time, we stopped at two wineries on the way there, we were between San Antonio and Austin, it was a part of Texas I had never seen before and it was beautiful! Charlie Ross loved spending time with his cousin Katie. The house we stayed in was the perfect size and layout for all of us, and it had abundant deer in the backyard that came nearly right up to the sliding glass doors. We went to Sea World one day, and it was a hot day, a little while after CR's nap we let him get his fill of Shamu's splash town which he loved(!) -and we loved watching him - and he was in an incredible mood for the rest of the day (including a long ride home full of laughs with cousin David, and a 2 hour dinner out after that).

Two weekends after my parents came to visit, it was my Mom's 70th Birthday, and I was really happy we could spend it together. One of Charlie's favorite teachers from daycare babysat (he was stunned to see her at the house), and we went out to dinner at Carmelo's (yum!) for Mom's birthday.

Last week Laurie and Bess came to town, Gina organized for us girls to go see a Sherlock Holmes play at the Alley (it was great), and they came over with the Diluzio's and Orgeron's Saturday night and we had dinner and played Mexican Train Dominoes (which has become a quick family favorite over the past several months, very fun).

In between we have been splashing in the blow up pool in the backyard quite a bit, which I got not too long after the water table as it proved to be an exceptionally hot June and July. Besides swimming, or splashing with his favorite pools toys (Tupperware, which he endlessly enjoys filling, and pouring out or into the other containers), his next favorite activity is coloring, it is pretty much the toddler scribble you would expect but he loves it and approaches his coloring with GUSTO! He still will remain completely engrossed in either Dora or Diego, and we are amassing quite a Dora collection of books (he got some new ones from Mom that he cannot get enough of).

And finally on to this week when we had a very big scare, in (way) brief form: CR went to the ER with croup on Monday and we had to stay overnight at the hospital. It was a pretty scary experience for him, lots of breathing treatments, but he handled it like a champ overall. He has recovered significantly this week, but Charlie and I (and Gina who he stayed with later in the week - big thank you!!) are still analyzing everything about every cough he makes.

So that has been our summer so far, hopefully by next weekend we can start finishing up the summer with more fun times, CR seems like he is ready to get back in the action, and it is hard to hold him back.

Just a few pics, because we got a new video camera for Father's Day and a number of summer pics are still on there.