Port A Swope Vacay - Year 2!

We returned to Port Aransas for another summer adventure of the Swope family at the end of June! We rented the same house as last year but added another little love to the mix with Sawyer upgrading #theSwopesix to #theSwopeseven.

Our family of 5 went up a day early and went out to eat at a restaurant on the water.

Playing trivia games waiting on our table

Gorgeous view! But also hot and SO MANY mosquitos!

We started our first full day with some pool time and cocktails!

When the rest of the Gurley clan arrived, Sawyer was a big star!

Our time together included beach, pool, food, dominos/cards, cocktails, repeat.

Sawyer didn't make the cut for this pic, but there's always next year, ha.

We found a Gus look-alike at the next tent named Bozo!

And my parents are the cutest! {grin}

We celebrated this guy turned FIFTEEN with a burger dinner and snow cones!

And more Sawyer time of course!

The Swope Seven!

A great time with great family! Already looking forward to next year's trip.

Two-Step Inn Year 2

We had our 2nd trip to the Two-Step Inn festival in our little town a couple of weeks ago. Once again we had a great time! Great music and great time with friends. I did overserve myself, so I was suffering some early in the following week, but it was totally worth it!

Why yes, overserving myself included shots of fireball. Oy!

The weather forecast wasn't great for Saturday {and we were more excited for Sunday's lineup}, so our plan was to go and if/when it started raining, we would head to our town square to continue hanging with our friends. I really wanted to see Pat Green, and the rain held off until his show ended, yay! I saw him several times in college and always thought he had a great show, and he didn't disappoint this time.

Ready for Pat Green!

And then the rain came...boo!

Enjoying food and more drinks at one of our favorite square spots, Tejas.

Susannah and I were both not feeling our best on Sunday. I made it to brunch... barely though!

Getting ready for day 2, ha

Most of our crew on Day 2!

We ran into one of our favorite AmpedUp customers!

And then we ran into another instructor! Love our small-ish town.

The only picture I got with Brent, sigh.

Sunday's performances were great! Ludacris and Turnpike Troubadors being the last 2 shows that we LOVED! Brent skipped Ludacris in favor of Clint Black {whose Killing Time album is Brent's favorite album of all time}, but we met back up for Turnpike.

We had such an amazing weekend, and I hope to keep going in the future.

Total Eclipse of the Heart

We were in the path of totality for Monday's solar eclipse and had a really cool experience getting to see it! The kids went to school where they got to watch the eclipse too and did some fun activities for it. Brent worked from home, so we watched it together from our driveway.

It's starting!

We got glasses from Girl Scouts for the girls BUT since they were getting to watch at school, Brent and I got to use theirs, yay!

Getting ready!

iPhone photo of totality - it was way neater in person I swear ha

Brent laughed at me trying to put a pair of glasses on my iPhone camera.

I was trying to get a better picture, sue me!

When it got dark, it was really eerie. It wasn't like sunset - it just all of the sudden got dark. More like when a big thunderstorm is coming in.

Bad quality, but my favorite couple!

There was a really cool reflection on the driveway - I'm guessing the light reflecting off the back of my car?

The school posted this picture on Facebook - 

what a cool view of students watching the eclipse!

And a neighbor took these pictures! How cool, right??

This was definitely a really neat experience, and I'm glad we got to witness it.

Houston Natural Science Museum

Brent's nephew had a great idea in the summer to go to the Houston Natural Science Museum. He remembered going with Brent's parents when he was a kid {reminder - he's 28!} and thought our kids might enjoy it. And they did! We had a great little trip Saturday-Sunday before Labor Day.

We went up Saturday mid-day and spent the late afternoon swimming at the hotel pool, had dinner in the hotel, and had a relatively low-key evening. Trent and Branden shared a hotel room and played YuGiOh for hours! I love that these cousins have bonded over this game!

Sunday morning after a delicious breakfast at Starbucks we headed to the museum. We knew that there were a few extra exhibits happening right now {including a Shark exhibit, and Paige is OBSESSED with sharks}, so we planned to enjoy the main museum but knew we needed time for a few of the extras.

Smile! {sigh}

Drew had to go visit Zoltar, but we told her to 'not get Big'. Ha!

We started out going to see the dinosaurs. This was Branden's favorite, and I think he would have stayed her a lot longer if the others hadn't been more impatient.

A sloth for our sloth-loving girl!

We paid extra money for the shark exhibit, and honestly, it was disappointing. I don't think it was worth the extra money.

Although it was worth getting these shark earrings for Paige!

There was a station at the end with sea creatures we could touch, including some small sharks. The little kids found this neat, and we did have to drag them away.

Touching some starfish

We also paid extra for the butterfly exhibit, and this was a hit for everyone! There was a whole room of insect displays before we even got to the butterflies, very cool.

Look at this cool electric blue frog!

The kids had so much fun forcing me to look at cockroaches.

Nana with her grands

Got them to pose with me, yay!

The last exhibit we went to was the Egyptian exhibit. They had a special {meaning more money} exhibit about King Tut, but we didn't have a lot of time left, so we focused on the main exhibit.

A REAL MUMMY!!!!!

Running out of steam here...

A cool sarcophagus!

If we had planned a little better, there were some movies we could have seen - and there was one about sharks I wish we'd made time for. BUT we bought a membership {cheaper tickets, cheaper parking, discount on the gift shop/food}, so we might have to go back to see all the things we missed.

It was a great trip, and I think everyone had an awesome time!