July 27 – August 2

Sunday, July 27: Our home teachers came over after church, then I had to jet up north for a study group in Denton again. Tyler and Jamie found our masquerade masks later that evening, with hilarious results:

Monday, July 28: I watched Jack and Ruby in the morning, and I feel like Jack and I finally got to a good place. We played peek-a-boo and tickle monster, and he actually smiled at me! Success! Later that day, there was some weirdness with our dentist. I tried to get some records transferred over to our pediatric dentist, and long story short, found out our dentist is an ex-con! He had his license suspended several times in the 80s for allowing unlicensed employees to perform dental work (WHAT) and he went to prison about ten years ago for mail fraud! I had no clue about any of this; shouldn't this be readily available knowledge? Holy cow. Don't go to Forest Lane Dental in Dallas, and if anyone has any recommendations, let me know.

Tuesday, July 29: Burger’s Lake! It was the last day of summer with our family all together and I wanted to do something real summery. I had heard of this fun lake near Fort Worth, so we packed our cool chest up and started driving west. Of course, it rained the whole way there, and then for the first 90 minutes that we swam. Even still, the water was warm, and it wasn't raining terribly hard, so we stayed. And no one else left either. Texans are troopers! It was such a great day.

We built sand castles,

This castle was pretty awesome, if I do say so myself. We got a bunch of neighboring kids to help build it. There was a river that ran through the whole thing, and bridges over the river. Tyler collected all those rocks for the river, and he kept the river running :)

swam for hours,

Trying on Dad's hat.

Tyler couldn't get enough of this little jumping platform.

Jamie ran up this ramp over and over, but never quite got brave enough to jump off it into our arms. She would run up, pause at the end, smile at us, and run back down.

rode slides and did the scary trapeze swing:

Woooo!

This older gentleman is laughing at me here because he knows I am nervous and that McKay is taking pictures. He told me if the picture didn't turn out, I'd have to come back and do the swing again. I declined :)

I did it!

the high dive, and of course ended the day with ice cream for all.

Dippin Dots!

What a fun day!

Collecting sand for our jars at home.

Wednesday July 30: EKG class, McKenzie watched the kids. I took Tyler to the pediatric dentist after and found out that Tyler needs to get two teeth pulled to make room for his adult teeth. Poor guy L YW that night to help the Bagby’s pack their moving truck; they are leaving this week for Corpus Christi. Running that night!

Thursday, July 31: Busy day! Tyler, Jamie and I went to see the documentary movie Bears, then to Target for school supplies, then to Jamie’s school to drop off some papers, and finally to Tyler’s school for Back to School Night to meet his new teacher, Mrs. Jones!

I am excited for him to start school again, and I think he is too!

The RAV4 made a funny whining noise on the way home from that, and then all at once, the power steering went out and a bunch of lights on the dashboard lit up. I managed to get it home (my arms were limp noodles by the end). McKay took the battery to Autozone to test it, but it looked fine to them.

Friday, August 1: This morning the car wouldn’t start at all! We drove McKay to work so we'd have a car during the day (how did we live like this for so long?? one car is the worst), and ran more last minute errands for Tyler’s school starting.

Saturday, August 2: Autozone very kindly charged the RAV4 battery for us, and we used the charge dropped the red car off at our favorite mechanic's to be looked at. Turns out it was just the alternator, a quick and easy fix, and we had our fully functioning, happy red car back in 3 hours flat! I dragged the kids up to Costco, and then back down to Dallas to the library for a fun Pirate Party. I made McKay watch Breakfast Club with me that night while we baked a cake for the next day.

Oh, Bender.

Funny Things:

• Jamie: On the way to the Lake, called it “Fork Worth”, and refused to be corrected.
• Tyler was getting kicked by Jamie while I wasn’t looking. “Mom! Look what Jamie’s doing!”, but then he realized Jamie had stopped and I wasn’t going to see to reprimand her. So he whispered “Jamie, do it again.”