Texas Trek Trilogy: Reed's Birthday Party

Reed turned SEVEN years old on Wednesday, June 17. When I realized his birthday and our Texas trip coincided, I was excited to plan something fun for all the "gang" to do. I spent some time researching possibilities and decided on Fun Trackers in Corpus Christi.

Well, we ALL had a good time. And by all...I mean EVERYONE from the little guys all the way up to the big guys. I guess you can't go wrong with racing go karts and driving bumper boats.

To really enjoy some of these pictures, you have to click on the picture and it will enlarge. You won't be sorry...the facial expressions in some are hilarious!

The birthday boy on his first go kart ride.

Notice how his leg is fully extended. He was just barely tall enough for these.

Uncle Mark,on the other hand, had no problem reaching the pedals though.

Here is Andy who, we discovered, missed his calling as a "full-contact"

race car driver. And he also, by the way, doesn't follow silly rules like:

"No bumping into other cars."
Gram Ava with Reed, Cassidy and Laura.

Cassidy and I racing around the track. Notice, Cassidy isn't as cut-throat

as Andy or her daddy. She had to wave at the other cars and the by-standers.

Mom and Laura getting passed by Randy the Ruthless and his sidekick Reed.

To really enjoy Mom's expression, you need to click on the photo.

Getting strapped in. Note: Uncle Mark is strapping in the car beside us and

Mom and Laura are in the car behind us.

Reed and Daddy

Reed in his bumper boat. I am quite thankful for the rule about not spraying the onlookers with the water blaster. The next few pictures will illustrate why!

Click on this photo!

What a great sport Katie was...soaking wet, but a great sport!

Again, to really enjoy these, you need to click on them to enlarge.

Take that, Uncle Aaron!

Reed spending a moment with Marla.

The kids, minus the 2 babies, at the party. Reed is

sporting his new Storm Trooper helmet. And yes, we

somehow managed to get that thing home on the plane.

I did not let Reed wear it home even though he wanted to because Roger

told him is was a "chick magnet." Thanks, Rog.
Reed and Grandma Jane
Eating cupcakes
"Happy Birthday, dear Reed. Happy Birthday to you!"
Two of our cutie cousins, Hallie and Vivian

So, as you can see, we enjoyed ourselves at Reed's birthday party! What great memories!

Team Blankinship is leaving on our next big adventure in the next few days, so the blog won't be updated again until we return and I re-surface from the mountain of laundry and unpacking I'm sure to have.

Texas Trek Trilogy : Playing in Portland!

Well, I was lovingly informed by my Dad that I needed to update the blog. He must have been feeling overlooked! Never fear, Pop...I'd never leave you or Mom out!

After spending a few days in San Antonio, we drove down to Portland to Roger and Beth's house. Needless to say, we had a BLAST with ALL of the family and friends! A few statistics:

1 Great Grandma
2 Sets of Grandparents
3 Four year olds
4 sets of parents
5 School age kiddos
6 Little girlies
7 The age Reed turned while we were there
8 The oldest age of any of the kids
9 People sleeping in Roger and Beth's house all week (Thanks, guys!)
10 Kids in all!

Obviously, with all the fun we had it was rather difficult to narrow down which pictures to post. So I didn't really try to. So buckle up and get ready...its a long post. And remember - you can click on any picture to enlarge it if that tickles your fancy!

The grandparents with some of the kiddos.

Here we are with my folks before heading back to San Antonio.

The Mommas

The Men...they look so happy because they had just finished

eating stone crab, shrimp and ling.

Eight little monkeys climbing in a tree! Thankfully,

none fell out and hit their heads. Yes, there are 8...Colten

is hidden behind Hallie some. By the by, this picture was not staged.

All the kids were already climbing all over everything. We just asked

them to look at us and smile.

Reed eating stone crabs...he LOVES stone crab!

Look at all those kiddos chowing down!

Reed and I are cracking up at Miss Marla's cutie "camera face."

Seriously, she sees the light on the camera come on and this is the

face she makes! What a DOLL!

Grandma Jane decided to wear Reed's Aggie cap.

Grandma Jane and Jo Ellen hanging out with some of the girlies.

Gram Ava and Mar-Mar

The "big" kids went fishing with the men one day. Yes, that means there

were 9 people fishing in Roger's boat. Here they are with some of the catch.

Cassidy and Laura were "helping" Beth make something yummy.

Happy Birthday to Uncle Aaron.

Reed and Colten: 2 peas in a pod.

These 2 boys were very glad to see each other. And poor Reed was

so sad on Friday when we had to leave.

We enjoyed our trip so much! Randy and I are amazed that so many people love us enough to clear their schedules, open their homes, cook us food, drive miles in their cars... JUST to spend time with us! We are truly blessed with a GREAT family and with friends who are "closer than a brother (or sister)" !

The last post in the Texas Trek Trilogy will be Reed's Birthday Party. Stay tuned!

Texas Trek Trilogy: San Antonio

All of Team Blankinship!
What can I say?

This may be gross to some, but Uncle Mark deserves some accolades!
He killed BOTH hogs WITH ONE SHOT! Yep, his new pirate name is Dead-Eye.
And, in case you were wondering, we had hog steaks for supper the next night and they were
YUMMY!
Randy and Mark took the kiddos out to a ranch for hog hunting and a pond where they could fish for bass.
Check out Cassidy's big ol' bass that she and Uncle Mark caught!

Oh, and also admire her pink, sparkly movie star sunglasses. I know.

Grandma Jane and little Cullen.
One of my FAVORITE pictures for obvious reasons.

So, you can tell from these photos which adults were

sent outside to play with the kids. And notice who used

their superior size and strength to commandeer the water hoses! Hmmm.

Here is Aunt Becky using Cassidy as a human shield.
Where's the love?

Oh wait! Aunt Becky indiscriminately used children as human shields.

What does that say about Aunt Becky? For that matter, notice that Randy

just kept right on spraying. And no, the Stringers have NOT adopted the European custom of Speedos...its just Seth in his Spider-Man undies!

I've been going through the pictures of our trip to Texas and I don't know HOW I'm going to be able to choose which ones to post! And since its my blog...who says I have to choose!

We had a GREAT time!


So, in the words of Julie Andrews in the Sound of Music, I'll "start at the very beginning. It's a very good place to start!" Yes, Becky, you can sing it!

We started our trip in San Antonio. The first weekend we were there we saw ALL of Randy's family. So Team Blankinship was all together and that was FUN. Adding to the fun was, of course, my sister Becky. Look up fun in the dictionary and guess whose picture you'll see...yep, its Becky. We also got to see the Stringer family(and since they didn't have swimming suits...we saw A LOT of Seth and Blake :) ) and, most importantly, the newest little Stringer.

Thank you Uncle Mark and Aunt Tamra for the great accommodations, FABULOUS food and for planning/hosting all sorts of fun and excitement!

What happens when Alaska meets Florida? SUNNY FUN!

The Johnson Family at Emerson Point.
The kids...and a mangrove crab.

No...no one fell (or was pushed) in...

much to the delight and surprise of the adults.

Elizabeth is showing one of her many lizard conquests.

That girl is one mighty hunter...its genetic I think.

Just your usual group photo. Well, don't your photos

have one person trying to cut off their own head and another with a lizard?

Of course Randy, Paul and Jay went fishing off shore...this is Randy, Paul and Jay

we're talking about here.

We are having quite the action-packed summer so far! Loads of family, friends and fun! We just returned from almost 2 weeks in Texas visiting so many of the people we LOVE (posts and pictures to follow)! In fact, we saw so many people and had so much fun, I'll have to split it up into multiple posts!

But this post isn't about our trip to Texas. Nope, its about my dear friend Julie and her fabulous family! The Johnson clan came to our casa at the end of May and boy, did we have a BLAST! They were game to try out all of our favorite places...and even one of our favorite restaurants - Thai Wasabi. Did you know there are children (besides Reed) that list sushi as their favorite food. Well, there are and their names are Elizabeth and Miles. Those 3 kids ate a LOT of sushi that night. Cassidy and I may have stuck to sweet and sour chicken and steamed rice...or not, I'll never tell.

We had such a great time being together. The kids played from sun-up to sun-down everyday: the pool, the water slide, lizard catching, caterpillar watching, Mote aquarium, the beach, Emerson point, Build-a-bear, etc. The Johnsons even managed to pack in an all day trip to Sea World! Needless to say, fun was had by all.

I always love being with Julie! We have the kind of friendship that spans years in the blink of an eye and picks up right where you left it. A friendship marked by laughter and an "easiness" that you don't take for granted. And the fact that Randy and Jay have similar interests, get along and just shrug when we're laughing at something only we understand is just chocolate sauce on the sundae of our friendship!

We love you, Johnsons...come back soon!

End o' the Year Festivities

Oh so happy...
and yet, slightly confused with the hand motions to the songs.
(he gets that from his dad...not me...never me)


Happy Cass

The kiddos.

Boy, we were certainly happy the school year came to an end! The time was especially enjoyable because we had our good friends, the Johnson Family, visiting from Alaska. I'm going to blame them for the delay in posting these pictures.

Reed was with his class and teacher for two years as they "loop" at his school. So, it was definitely bittersweet to be saying good-bye. Well, it was for me...Reed was all smiles. He was actually laughing at me when I got a little teary during the video slide show thing his teacher put together. He hasn't stopped grinning that he is on summer vacation. I'm thinking it might be a long 11 years until he graduates...hmmmm.

Cassidy hammed it up at her preschool program. Well duh. She may or may not have been one of the only children clapping her heart out during the chorus of, "I've Got the Joy, Joy, Joy." And we may or may not have it on video. And, potentially, she is directly responsible for leading the nice little boy next to her down the wrong path. The path that had him doing a John Travolta finger point for each "I'm so happy, so very happy" in the chorus. The good news is she still has another year at the same preschool! I know the staff is REALLY pleased.

Welcome Summer Vacation!

Whacha' eating there, Reed?


Nothing says healthy like a Grape Cream Slushie for breakfast!

School's out and it is our FIRST official day of summer vacation. So...I didn't even bat an eye when I found my kids eating left-over Sonic ice cream shakes for breakfast instead of the oh-so-healthy bowls of Frosted Flakes I fixed for them!

I've got TONS of things to post about. So, I'll be playing catch up over the next few days!