One of the things we'll miss...

Many of you may know by now that we are moving from Texas to Indianapolis in the next month or two. We are very lucky to have had the opportunity to live in the Texas Hill Country and will miss so many things about it. The heavy rains we've had over the past week have reminded us of one little thing we'll miss once we get to the Midwest--the geckos singing at night. While there are a few gecko species indigenous to Texas, the ones I refer to here are none other than my old friends from my missionary days in Spain, Hemidactylus turcicus, or the Mediterranean gecko. I knew from my time in Andalusia just how loud these little guys could be, but we're still amazed at how vocal they are. It's still a cute little chirp, if you ask me.

Here is a stock photo:

And here are a few shots of the guy (gal?) that was singing above our front door tonight:



Here is a link to hear what they sound like. Not quite the classical "ge-cko" sound that gave the family Gekkonidae it's name, but I prefer the chirp anyway.

The Mediterranean geckos are just one cool species of Lacertilians we have around here. The boys favorite lizard is the ubiquitous Green Anole, which they love to catch so they can watch them turn from bright green to completely brown in just a few minutes. Of course, my favorite Texas lizard is probably the horny toad, which is not as common around the yard, but very cool nonetheless. Plus, horny toads eat ants!

That's probably enough herpetology for now, and I'm not too worried that the boys won't be able to find something to catch once we relocate. But for now, we'll enjoy hearing our geckos sing us to sleep.

Endless Week

I never knew that a week could seem endless. Well, that is exactly how this week has felt since Joe started his new job in Indianapolis. It's just the little things I miss like sitting on the couch with him at the end of a long day and rubbing each others feet while we watch our favorite t.v. shows, or waking up in the morning and having someone taller then 5 ft. next to you. I wish I had him around to figure out why the smoke alarm on our vaulted ceiling is going off multiple times in the middle of the night for no apparent reason and to top it off tonight for the first time since living here we had a gecko running around in our house. Yes, you guessed it, I had to catch it all by myself and set it free. I miss Joe.

The things they do...

One of the things we like about parenting is getting to laugh at all the things our kids do. It seems like lately there have been a lot of unintentionally funny things worth blogging about:

Joey has a tendency to try to join Charles for a late night reading party each night when they go to bed. We've even resorted to locking him in his room on the nights where he just won't stay in bed. The other night when Grandma K was visiting, Charles slept on a mattress in our bedroom so Grandma could sleep in his room. Sure enough, Joey crept out of bed to join Charles, except Charles had already fallen asleep. Rather than going back to his bedroom, Joey just helped himself to our bed. This is how we found them.

Most mornings the boys wake up and head downstairs to play/read/watch tv. Until this morning, they have always waited for us to get up, go downstairs and make them breakfast. Joey apparently decided that he could do it himself and got eggs and yogurt out of the fridge (one of their usuals) and got breakfast ready for all three kids (but not us). But the funny thing was that they didn't actually eat it--they got distracted by another task (see the next picture).

When Liz came downstairs and found Joey's breakfast all prepared, she also overhead them talking about "trapping something" and went to investigate. She found them barricading an ant that was crawling across the floor with two rubber snakes. The ant must have been intimidated because the barricade worked. Joey is made in the mold of his Aunt Carol and insists that we "don't kill any of Jesus' beautiful animals," including ants, spiders, etc. We have to catch them and take them outside.

Tonight we got home and found that the boys had convinced the babysitter to let them sleep together. Again, they do this so they can read books in bed. Joey was still awake when we got home, but Charles apparently crashed out so quickly that he didn't even have time to turn his head.

A Sea World of W.T.

A few weeks ago we went to Sea World for a few hours in the late afternoon/evening to see a few of the night shows. It was ridiculously hot that day--still near triple digits at about 8 p.m. The kids asked if we could play in the kids area and we relented, and then for no apparent reason, we decided to embrace our inner white trash and let them go into the water area without bathing suits. I keep telling myself that it was a one-time aberration because of the oppressive heat, but who knows when you might see the boys shirtless again. Probably soon. Regardless, here are some pictures.

Tori, delighted to be stomping around in the water.

Charles driving a boat through a waterfall.

Charles was beside himself, while Joey was trying to stop the water from flowing.

Liz and the boys on the Shamu roller coaster. They're the blurs at the end of the train.

Tori waiting with me, rocking the "drowned rat" look.

Pioneer Day

The last weekend in July we had a Pioneer Day celebration along with an impromptu visit from Uncle Vaughn. Here are some pictures to document it all:

The boys participating in a sack race. Charles didn't quite grasp the "holding onto the sack" part of it.
Charles giving the "thumbs up" riding a horse.
Joey with his shy/embarrassed smile (very rare) on a horse.
Tori looking good going barefoot on a horse. She was squealing and yelling "NEEEIIGGHHHHHH" to the horse the whole time.
Liz was going to make Joey pick between the sno-cone and cotton candy until I intervened and said he could have one of each. He didn't know what to do with himself and just stood there looking back and forth at each item before he devoured them.
Tori was ready for her close-up.
Uncle Vaughn and the boys at the Founder's Oak at Landa Park in New Braunfels.
On the 17th hole Vaughn was hopelessly buried in the trap. Notice how dark it was--we didn't get in hole 18...or I would have beat him! (okay, not really)