Sadness

Today for the first time ever Nate asked for his Daddy when he got hurt.  He was crying uncontrollably and wanted nothing to do with me.  I was unable to comfort him at all and TJ was working so unavailable to help.  Nate was stuck with me.  The big injury: his first bee sting.

The Boys Will Play

TJ just got back from a short fishing trip with a couple of his good friends:

While he was away the boys and I had a lot of fun playing in our pool and generally hanging out outside.  I treasure my time with these two rascals:

Busy Month

July was an extremely busy month for the Muir clan.  We spent the weekend of the 7th and 8th with one of T.J.'s good friends at their house swimming and hanging out.  The next weekend my sister, Laura, and her boyfriend, Mitch came over for a night.  The big boys went fishing and Laura and I hung out at the house.  Then the big trip arrived, Kabetogama.  This family vacation is a blast for all of us and the boys can't get enough.  I could describe it all in detail, but I'll let the pictures tell the story.

Date Day

My work has been extremely busy for the last week. Last Sunday we converted from paper charting to being entirely on computers. It is awesome, but in an effort to help out during this stressful week (and make some extra cash for upcoming trips) I have worked six of the last eight days. Now you may think no big deal, but those are six twelve hour shifts. With my commute that makes my days at least 14 hours. On my two days off I did stuff around the house on one day, and had a date with this fellow on the other day:

We spent the day running errands (or Erins as Nate calls them), getting haircuts, and going out to eat. Nate was very well behaved, and we had a blast. We ran all these errands on Katy, which Nate insists is his best friend. I had a hard time explaining to him that Katy is a town and not a person. All in all a successful week and date day!

Funny Sayings

I've been home by myself all week and that's always a little trying. So last night after his bath Nate said something that made the week worth it. As I was drying him off he said to me "You're doing a good job Mama."

Beach Fun!

I've been slacking on the blogging front lately.  I've been in a funk and am trying to get out.  I promise to blog more frequently!

A couple weekends ago one of T.J.'s best friends and his family came to visit, along with Laura and Mitch.  We headed to Matagorda beach for a day of fun in the sun and waves.  Nate had a blast, and once he got over his initial fear of the waves, he spent the day conning one of the adults into taking him out in the ocean.  Hudson did not have as good of a day.  Due to an unfortunate sunscreen in the eye issue he spent the day mostly hanging out in the shade.  He still had fun, but spent a lot of the day looking stoned with his eyes half closed.  Mitch probably had the most fun at all.  He spent most of the day fishing in the surf and had some good luck.  I've never seen such a big grin on a grown man's face as when Mitch caught his first fish (two at one time!).  Here's some pictures of the fun:

Recent Goings On

So I've been on hiatus for about a month and we've been busy during that time. The biggest busyness was a trip Hudson and I took for six days to Wisconsin over his birthday weekend. The reason we headed up there was because my mom was having hip surgery and I wanted to be there to help her out. Her surgery ended up not being until the day before we left to go home so we had a nice visit with my family in the meantime.

Hudson got some rare one on one time with his grandparents and cousins and I think he had a blast, especially if anyone was feeding him!

We also had a small birthday celebration for Hudson with cupcakes and all. Hudson got a lot of wonderful gifts and a delicious cupcake!

The other nice thing about the trip was we got some rare sibling time to hang out. It's not often that all four of us are together in the same place with busy schedules and families.

Finally, Laura sucked up like the good baby of the family she is. She surprised my parents by coming with Hudson and I for the trip. She traveled separately, but we met up at my grandparents house. I think my mom loved the surprise the best. She kept saying how excited she was to have all her kids home.