Sweden

Justin had to head to Sweden for work. He left on Thursday the 23rd and will be home on the 1st. He was a little aggravated that he had a middle seat on the flight to London and was next to a guy who was lit like a Christmas tree. He said everyone went to sleep (7:50pm flight) until some *&%$# turned on a movie at 1:00am with out head phones and woke half the plane up. He was not very thrilled. He then had a layover for about an hour before his flight to Denmark. He then had to catch a train to Sweden.

He said that it is only dark from 11:00pm until 3:00am so it was kind of hard to sleep.

We cannot wait for him to get home!

The Carlsberg Brewery

At the brewery with Jimena (she is on her tip toes)

In Nyhaven Canals in Copenhagen

Justin standing next to a replica of the tallest man to have lived. He is from Copenhagen and was 8 ft. 11 inches tall. Makes Justin look short.

The Caravellas are here!

The boys have been counting down the days for Piper and Ansley to get here. They went as far as making a calendar and marking days off every morning. They asked EVERY day when they were coming. I had to explain to Jonah that they were not going to be staying with us the entire time they are in town. They can spend the night but will not be here every night. Jonah just did not get it. He asked why they were not staying with us since we stay with them when we are in CO. I told him they had family here and they all want to see them too. He put his hand on his forehead and dropped his head and said, "WHY do they have to see their grandparents and other family, whey can't they just stay here"?

Daph and I met up with the kids and did a little shopping and went to lunch at Corner Bakery. Just for the record... ALISON MORTON ATE OUTSIDE IN 95 DEGREE HEAT, ALISON MORTON ATE OUTSIDE IN 95 DEGREE HEAT! Did you hear me people? OUTSIDE in the 95 degree heat IN TEXAS at the end of June. I survived. I must admit we were under an umbrella so that did help but it was still a little hot.

We headed to the mall and told the kids if they were good then we would head to the Lego store. Long story short... they were so we did :)

Wed. night the girls were coming to spend the night. They played so well together like they always do. After Daph and Benton left I could hear all four of them upstairs playing and getting along, this lasted about an hour and a half until they all came running down to tell me to come and look at the Lego play park they have been working on. They were all talking at once and telling who did what and then the only part that caught me ear was "the men at the bar" and how mad they were because it was taking too long for their beer to get there. REALLY? How would they know to do that? Do they hang out at bars that often? lol

I had them all in bed by 9:50 and hoping by 10:30 they would all be OUT. I even told them I would buy them donuts in the morning if I did not hear them talking and did not have to come back up stairs. So at 10:30 I snuggle in bed and get comfy and guess what... here come foot steps. SHOOT ME NOW! It is Jonah, he is asking if he can read. NO, GO TO BED! He goes back up stairs and a few minutes later comes back down. I finally tell him to crawl in bed with me so he will just go to sleep. It is now after 11:00 and I am beat. I knew my 6:00 alarm clock (Sophia) would be here really soon.

The men getting mad at the bar because it is taking too long to get their beer.

16 Months old

Sophia is 16 months old and thinks she is one of the big kids. She constantly has a bump/bruise on her head from taking a fall. She is still eating like a trucker and has even resorted to digging in the trash if she thinks she still needs a little something to eat. So far it has been a pop tart and a chicken breast. Thank goodness the chicken had only been in there for about 20 minutes.

She is saying a lot of new words and putting a couple together. We are still working on her keeping her hair in a rubber band but it never lasts longer than about 2 minutes.

She is finally wanting someone besides momma all the time. She will now hold her arms out to Mimi after she warms up to her. WOOHOOOOO we have made progress, it only took 16 months but at least its working!

A man on a bike and my 6,000 pound suburban

Let's just say that a grown man on a bike does not make a good ornament for my suburban! A few weeks ago I was pulling out of my neighborhood making a right turn onto Lebanon. I was the only car coming out and I was looking to my left waiting for a chance to pull out. A car passed and another one turned on its signal to turn into my neighborhood and was slowing down so I took my foot off the break and before I could get my foot on the gas I saw something out of the corner of my eye. I immediately put my foot back on the brake and I see a GROWN man put his arm out as if he were going to stop my truck. My first reaction was to look up Lebanon to make sure no one was coming so they would not flatten his dumb self like a pancake.

I throw my car in park and jump out feeling like I was going to vomit. The man looks at me and says, "your car is fine, your car is fine, are the kids ok?." REALLY DUDE, you really think I give a rats hind end about my truck? I could have killed you! I did not say that exactly but I did say, "I don't care about my truck, are you OK?" All while he is riding off. He waves me off and yells he is fine.

I must say that he should have made eye contact with me if he was stopped at the corner. I am pretty sure he was stopped because when he hit my truck because he never fell, I saw him the whole time over my hood. I know we have to "share the road" with bikers but I think they need to realize that they can die if they are pinned under 6,000 pounds of metal so maybe next time a little eye contact with the driver would have been a better choice.

Needless to say I had to take a minute to regroup before I could drive again. It still puts a lump in my throat just thinking about it. I am ALWAYS getting onto my kids for riding in the street and not looking. I guess they will never get it if a grown adult can't!

Ride on...

Swimming

We went swimming at Mimi and Papas while Nico was in town visiting Tyler.

Lakeway Regional Medical Center

Sam's hospital is coming along. Here are the latest pics and some info. on the progress. Way to go Sam and Amy!

Highlights of the construction process are:

• All structural concrete is complete

• Propane pad and curbs are complete for our 20,000 gallon tank and the 2,000 gallon tank are set and scheduled for repainting.

• Stone installation is complete at the east elevation and 80% complete at the south elevation

• Helipad construction is 90% complete

• Main electrical switchgear has been delivered and is being installed

• All air chillers and heat exchanges are installed in lower level 3

• Oxygen and propane supply piping is complete

• Kitchen hood and freezers are installed

• Daily main power in site is approximately 305

We anticipate having the hospital watertight in the next 45 days.

Fathers Day

I am not sure how we did not get ONE picture of Justin on Fathers Day but we managed. The plan was to head to Jonah's soccer game at 1:00 and then head over to mom and dads to grill out and swim. Did you hear me folks? I said, "THE PLAN"... you did not think it would work out that way did you? We ARE The Mortons!

Saturday night around 3:00 am I hear a little person coming down stairs. It is Jonah and he is telling me that he is going to throw up. How the boy makes it down the stairs and into my room and literally WAITS until my feet hit the floor to walk in the bathroom with him I will never know! Sure enough, we get to the toilet and here it comes... shoot me now.

He crawls in bed with us and of course he wants the end so I have to crawl in the middle which is my WORST nightmare EVER! Not only am I stuck between two bodies that are radiating heat that is just not natural it is so hot but I am pinned against my will under the covers. HELP ME! Jonah is tossing and turning and I really do not want him breathing on me :)

30 minutes later he sits up and says, "mom, I'm going to throw up, COME ON, COME ON, COME ON" as he is waiting for me. I finally yell, "JUST GO, I am right behind you". I know it is a little abrasive but come on dude, momma does not want to clean vomit off the floor :)

Thank goodness he made it to the toilet again.

So we crawled back in bed and of course I never went back to sleep seeing as how I was pinned and stuck between two blow torches, pretty much what I picture hell to be. Thankfully he did not get sick anymore.

I started thinking back to what we had done that day and remembered he did not really eat lunch or dinner, he never said he felt bad, just that he was not hungry. I guess that was a good thing so his stomach was empty.

We obviously did not go to his game even though he was running around all morning like nothing was wrong. Around noon we headed over to mom and dads and go in the pool to cool down. Again, you would have never known that Jonah had been sick the way he was swimming, hooping and hollering.

Happy Fathers day Justin, dad and Pops!

Pirate eye patch

The boys have been asking for a pirate eye patch. I got crafty and made them one with some elastic and a pirate bandana backed with card stock.

Snow cones and bread making

This afternoon we went to have snow cones for Landry's birthday. The boys always pick the blue ones and end up with a blue mouth.

Ronan, Jonah, Landry and Luke

The whole crew after snow cones

Keiser, Amezcua, Morton and some other friends

Luke wearing daddy's first baseball jersey

Making bread with Pops

Lazy Day

Today the kids stayed in their jammies most of the day. That is until 5:15 when Jonah decided to go and get dressed because he wanted to go outside and play. He comes out wearing jeans. Really dude, it is 105 out there and you put on jeans? I think I broke out into a sweat just looking at him :) He goes out and a couple of minutes later comes in with sweat dripping from his face and asked, "where is the weed bag"? I admit... I chuckled for a second. He was wanting to pull weeds and needed somewhere to put them.

Second week of summer begins

After a fun week with cousins in town for over a week and daddy out of town for the weekend I thought this morning we would take it easy and do nothing... That was until Colin sent a text telling us they were headed to the park. It was still early, 9:00 so how hot could it really be? It was H O T I don't care if it is only in the mid 80's. The boys obviously got hot because they were over sitting against the wall in the only shaded part at the park.

Colin invited us over to come swim for a little while to cool off. It was a bit chilly at first but then felt great.

Found a turtle on the way to the park

Tyler, Jonah and Luke

Sophia in the swing

Jonah flipping with his double jointed arms.

Luke's turn

Cousin Fun

The Prose have been here for a little over a week and the kids have been swimming and playing the Wii every day.

Boys games

The boys had a nice cheer section at their games today.

Luke was on fire and had an assist. Their team won and it was a big win too. Jonah had a great game as well and almost made a goal himself it was 6-0.

Justin and Dads Florida Trip

Justin and dad headed to Florida this weekend to go Tarpon fishing. Our neighbors are from St. Pete and Chad has been asking Justin to come out. My dad has always wanted to go Tarpon fishing so Justin asked him to come along. They headed out Friday afternoon and sat on the plane for an hour for maintenance. After finally landing they had some dinner and headed to bed, they were getting up at 4:30 Saturday morning to meet a guide to take them out.

There was a women's Tarpon tournament going on and there were boats everywhere. Dad got a bite but then lost his fish. They saw a shark out in the distance have a tarpon for a snack, they even saw the blood in the water. They said that there were not a lot of catches that day. Even with the tournament there were only three fish turned into the weigh station.

They headed back out Sunday morning on their own and did not catch anything. They also went to Chad's uncles house and got to see his trophy room. He had so many trophy's even dad did not know what some of them were.

As we all know the Mavs are playing game 6 tonight and when they booked their flight they had no idea that the Mavs would even be playing in the playoffs or what day it would be. They had late flight out of Florida and should land in Dallas around 8:30. Justin asked me if I was going to be watching the game when it started or if I would wait for him. He could hardly stand it.

Coming in to Florida

Papa on his way out to find the Tarpon

A self portrait

Luke FINALLY gets it!

It has been easy for me to watch the boys swim at my parents house only because Jonah is the one in the deep end jumping off the board and swimming all over and Luke is a little more hesitant and likes to get reacquainted with the water. For the past two years he will stay in the shallow end and swim form side to side and tell me that he cannot swim in the deep water. I tell him that if he can swim it does not matter how deep the water is. He just does not get it. Last weekend Luke went to a birthday party at Emler and I saw them put a life jacket on him. When I went and asked him why he had it on a dad told me they put it on him because he would not swim the length of the pool so he had to wear it. Luke, Luke, Luke.

This is only our third or so time to swim this summer and I had Luke swim to me while I was in the middle of the pool and of course he said he did not want to so I told him that he was going to have to get out of the pool. Needless to say, he swam to me. He continued to do it and I would scoot further and further into the deep end. Within 15 minutes the boy was swimming only in the deep end telling me how much fun it is! He then decides to go off the diving board. He is now a deep end swimmer and having a blast. I am so excited that he finally got up the nerve to do it! YEA LUKIE!

He is even letting Hunter throw him up in the air towards the deep end. Who is this kid? I guess the little boy who made his momma sit in the garage in the 100 plus degree heat during swimming lessons two summers ago has finally gotten it. It's OK Luke, I will remind everyone YEARLY that you made your momma sit in the garage and melt because you would scream bloody murder during swim lessons with Mrs. Sally. :)

Cousin fun

This morning Jonah and Luke knew that their cousins would be here "in the morning" while Elvia cleaned Mimi and Papa's house. Of course they were up at 6:00 ready to go. We left here around 7:00 to take Justin to work so I could have a car since the burban is in the shop having the AC looked at. We were on our way home from dropping him off and the boys are asking when they are going to be here. It was not even 8:00am. I told them that it would be in an hour or so and Jonah's reply, "you said, they would be here in the morrrrnnnnning". I agreed and told them that if they had not gotten up so early it would not have seemed like it was a long time away. IT STILL WAS MORNING DUDE! If you were not up at 6:00 IN THE SUMMER our days would not be so long.

The three amigos

Dakota and Jonah

playing a little b ball

Hunter trying to sleep, Sophia says no.

Chloe did not want a picture :)

cheek to cheek