New exterior look

The houses in our area are all around the same age and it's time for everyone to do some painting. The new construction houses have been painted with darker trim, and we decided if we were going to pay someone to paint it we may as well go with a different look.

We actually got the house painted back in March, but thought we'd wait to do the pictures until our flowers were blooming and the sun was shining. It's taken some getting used to, but we like it!





We also got the entire interior painted as well. No pics of that, it wasn't a change in color, but the paint is washable and hopefully won't show marks every time someone touches it.

The house didn't look so hot between the prep stage and the painting...

Britney Spears Femme Fatale Concert in Dallas

Andrea and Amanda flew to Texas on Monday to see Britney Spears's Femme Fatale concert. The concert wasn't until Tuesday so they were able to do some shopping and met up with their Dallas cousins, Kate and Madi, for dinner and a city tour. The next day, they were able to have lunch with Aunt Karen and Uncle Eric (oops, we forgot to take a picture). It was nice for them to see their Dallas family. Thanks guys for a great lunch and dinner out!


Tuesday night was the big concert. Britney had 3 opening acts: Nervo, Jessie and the Toy Boys, and Nicki Minaj. Andrea said it was a great concert and enjoyed her short getaway with Amanda.


Go Britney, shake that thing!

Gulf Shores Getaway

The Anders extended family went to Gulf Shores for the 4th of July weekend and the following week. It was a great trip and we enjoyed spending time with everyone. Grandpa and Grandma shared a condo with the Rudolphs and we shared one with the Gobles a few doors down.

Everyone else drove down, but we decided that we would probably be better off flying with two little ones. It was still a lot of traveling since we had to drive to the airport, fly two planes, then rent a car and drive for fifty miles to get to the beach. The trip was broken up a bit in to segments and both kids did fairly well with it. Paige is constantly restless on the plane and just doesn't understand that she can't get down to play around.


Connor did really well on the plane. He was a great listener and mostly just played on the iPad and iPhones.


Mammy FINALLY fell asleep on the second flight.

Once we got in to Mobile, we got our rental car and stopped by McAlister's Deli, which was close to the airport.


After lunch, we continued our journey to the condo. It was supposed to be an hour, but apparently everyone in Alabama had the same idea for the weekend and it was a four hour drive. We averaged about 15 mph the entire time with bumper to bumper traffic. Finally, it was over though and we were at the beach house!

The vacation from there mostly consisted of relaxing on the beach or at the pool.

Paige was doing better on the beach, although she was still pretty high maintenance in the sand.


Connor got over his early apprehension about getting in the ocean water and had fun playing in the waves and floating around.

He even let everyone bury him in the sand!




The pool was great too. It was nice and big and had a deep end too. It was pretty warm, especially on the hot days it almost seemed like warm bath water. On such hot days there wasn't anything better than playing in the water, you couldn't really even be outside unless you got in the pool or ocean.




Connor got very good at holding his breath and going underwater. He's still not swimming independently without his swim jacket, but he did a lot of going underwater to retrieve his toys on the steps.


Mostly, Connor just loved to wear his swim jacket, run and jump in the pool.


There wasn't a diving board at the pool, so Nate helped Connor improvise.



On Monday, Grandpa Garry took some of us out deep sea fishing.


We all caught a bunch of fish, but Alli hooked the two biggest. She snagged a King Mackerel and a Cobia. The Cobia got away, but not the King. Holy Mackerel it was big!

Mostly, we caught Red Snappers.


Drew caught a Mackerel too, not quite as big as the one Alli had.


A pic of the crew with the day's haul.


Drew holding Alli's monster


Throughout the week, we went to various places to eat. There were lots of great places to eat with nice outside views and fresh seafood.









On the fourth, Grandma Genie fixed a bunch of sides and bought everyone fried chicken. It was delicious and we all got stuffed.

Mommy got some cute 4th of July shirts for the kids, so we had to get a few pics.



Afterwards, the little kids had to go to bed, but Mommy and the rest of the crew went down to the beach to watch the fireworks.







We had such a great looking group, so we got lots of pictures of our cute guys.







Thanks to the Gobles for sharing a place with us! We had a blast!


The later part of the week, both kids got sick. Paige seemed awfully hot, so we took her to an Urgent care clinic and after a 3 hour wait, it turned out she had a double ear infection again. Two days later Connor seemed hot and Daddy looked in his mouth and saw some ulcers in the back of his throat. Andrea took him to the same Urgent care clinic and after a two hour wait the doctor thought it was probably strep. Both kids started antibiotics and have been mostly asymptomatic since then.

The trip home was long, but at least the traffic wasn't as bad as when we drove down. The kids had some fun playing at the airports.

Paige took a 20 minute cat nap on one of the flights, but for the most part it was a constant struggle to keep her happy and from screaming. Of course, the moment they got in the car, they both fell asleep.


We had a great vacation! Can't wait to go back!