Animal Adventures

We've also had the chance to meet some interesting animals this summer. In addition to offering a "Big Rigs" day, the library also had an animal day. We met several animals, including some alpacas. Cade and Natalie wanted to join the alpaca in the pen!



Last week, my sweet friend/massage therapist/Southern Living hostess Susan invited us to her house to meet her pet donkeys. I've never heard of anyone having pet donkeys, but she has 6 of them! They live in her back pasture and we got to help her feed them. They were very sweet and extremely interested in Cade.

Our adventure started with a golf cart ride out to the field.



Meeting the donkeys



Susan also has a music room at her house that she let Cade explore. He was in heaven!

Big Rigs, Baseball, and a Birthday

In between vacations, we've had a lot of fun hanging out with friends this summer too.

A few weeks ago, after swim lessons, Natalie and Cade got to explore some big rigs at the College Station library.

Here's Cade driving the fire truck



The kids were pretty tired from swim lessons, so they were less than thrilled about being in a picture (no surprise for Cade!)



Talking on the intercom in the ambulance



Last week, we went to Hayden's All Star baseball game. It was really hot, so the water fountain was a big attraction.



The game wasn't going very well, so playing in the dirt was more fun for Cade and Cole.



Running the bases



Where's Hayden?



On our way back from Corpus, we went to Cole's 3rd birthday party in Chappell Hill at his grandparents' house. It was a HUGE party and tons of fun! The boys smart and elected to play with toys inside while everyone else sweated outside.



Checking out the horses, General Lee and Colonel Red



Riding Cole's horse/tree swing

Corpus Vacation

Our first family vacation was a success! We went to Corpus last weekend and had a great time! We visited the aquarium, the beach, the pool at our condo, took a boat ride (forgot the camera), and ate at many tasty restaurants. Cade was really very good on the vacation and we learned a lot about traveling with a two year old! Once he got over the drama of getting sandy at the beach, he had a lot of fun as long as the water wasn't touching him. His favorite experiences were the dolphins at the aquarium and the pool that was just off the front porch of our condo. You'll notice that Cade is actually looking at the camera in very few pictures. When this kid sees a camera, he says "No pictures, no pictures!" and runs away crying.

We are already planning our vacation next summer! It is so nice to get away together.

Visits with Great-Grandparents

On Father's Day weekend we got to visit with all of our families, including a few of Cade's great grandparents. Now, being Father's Day weekend, you would think that I would have taken some pictures of Cade and Daddy, Papa, Papaw, Opa, or Grandpa Locklear. Well, being the rather disorganized mom that I am... these pictures did not get taken! However, I have some cute ones of Cade and his great grandmothers!

Playing peek-a-boo with Grandma Locklear



Water painting with Great Oma



Happy belated Father's Day to all of the dads and grandpas in our lives. We are so lucky to have all of you!

Nana's Birthday Vacation

We had such fun celebrating Nana's birthday with a family trip to Schlitterbahn and Sea World. We all stayed together at a Schlitterbahn condo in New Braunfels, which gave the kids some great room to run around. Cade has been asking to go back to Nana and Papa's vacation house ever since we got back!

These pictures got a little jumbled out of order in the slideshow, but show some highlights of the trip. The picture of Cade with writing all over his legs shows what happens when you are stuck in traffic on I35 with a very bored toddler who got ahold of his mama's pen :)

Click here to view these pictures larger

Thank you so much, Nana and Papa, for all of the great memories from this trip!

June Fun

Whew! I have a lot of catching up to do! We've had so much fun with summer already and have been so busy that I have seriously neglected the blog. So, here are some updates:

June 4 - Chance completed his 8th year of teaching! He is a patient, patient man. The end of the school year was pretty hectic, so we cooled off at the pool after his last day.



June 5 - We attended Avery and Garrett's 4th birthday party at a bowling alley. Everyone had a great time while the kids bowled a little, played a lot, and ate delicious cake.









June 8 - Chance and I celebrated our 8th anniversary! We actually just went out last night to officially celebrate since Zoe and Xavier were visiting on our actual anniversary. We had a "real" date with a movie, dinner, and ice cream. I love you so much, Chance, and can't wait to see what all the future holds for us!

June 9 - Happy 32nd birthday to Chance! We didn't get to do some of the things we had planned because there was a monsoon rainstorm in College Station, but we did enjoy a tasty dinner with his family that evening.

The next day, we embarked on a birthday vacation for Chance's mom. The Locklears, Kunoviches, and Adkisons traveled to Sea World and Schlitterbahn, and had a great time! I'll have to do another blog post about this later, as we are all still compiling our photos.

Other fun times from the past few weeks:

Natalie and Cade painted tote bags. I saw this idea online and had visions of cute stamps and handprints. Well, this is what Cade and Natalie had in mind:



Natalie and Cade also took swim lessons. Things started out a little rocky, but by the end, Cade was going under on his own and jumping off the side. This kid loves the water!

Research Park

On Memorial Day, we met Nana and Papa at Research Park to feed the ducks and turtles. When I asked Cade last week what he wanted to do during the summer, he said, "Feed the ducks, feed the turtles, see a big turtle, and build a sandcastle". He had quite an itinerary! We have successfully crossed the first three things off the list!

We had a great time at the park, and Holly got some much-needed playtime too. Chance's dad just bought a new camera, so we were also the lucky recipients of some great pictures. Just for fun, I also included a picture of Chance, Holly, and Zoe from a Research Park trip in 2007 in the slideshow. She and Cade were both so excited to play in the water with Chance and Holly.

I've been having some trouble with shutterfly slideshows, so if you can't see the pictures, just click on "View larger" and the pictures will display.

Click here to view these pictures larger

Wedding Weekend

Last weekend we went to San Antonio for my cousin Melanie's wedding. Before we left for the wedding, Cade had fun playing on my parens' swingset. This is the same swingset that my brother and I played on, and it was built by my Dad and Opa. I was really happy they set it up again, and so was Cade.



The wedding was held at a beautiful country club in San Antonio. The backdrop was an amazing waterfall, which Cade desperately wanted to explore during the entire service.



As soon as the guests stared leaving, Cade and Daddy got as close as possible to the falls.





While we waited for our dinner, Cade entertained everybody at the table.



Congratulations, Melanie and Brandon!

Goodbye Parrots, Hello Summer!

It's Summertime!! The Locklear House is very happy to welcome a more relaxed season!

Last week, Cade said goodbye to the Parrots room at his school. When he goes back in August, he will be a Bumblebee. Although he looks very somber in these pictures, he actually had a great last week, and even asked to go back to school one afternoon when we got home!

Here is Cade showing off his and his classmates' artwork outside his room.



Saying goodbye to Miss Laurie, one of our absolute favorite teachers! She is one of the nicest and most patient people I've ever met, and she taught Cade one of his favorite games - red light, green light.



We've had lots of summer fun already, with a trip to New Braunfels for a wedding, Research Park exploration (pics of those two activities to come later), and getting into a routine at home. So far, one of Cade's favorite things to do is "play" with Sarge. It is a good thing we have a patient cat, because playtime with kitty is more like Wrestlemania.



Come back, Kitty!




Leah and I took our boys to the first Summer Movie Clubhouse event of the summer. For the low price of $1 per person, you get to see a cartoon with about 20,000 other mommies and kids. I have seriously never seen this many kiddos and mamas in one location. The good thing is, if your kid gets noisy or restless, he is not alone. We saw Madagascar 2, and it was somewhat successful. I was super excited to take Cade to his first movie ever!