Summer Fun

We had kind of a crazy summer, with moving out of the house and into the apartment and starting on the new house. But we managed to fit some fun stuff in along the way!

Last swim in our pool.

First lake trip of the season.

I decided I'd admired Charlotte's bob long enough and got one of my own.

Fun with cousins at Tita and Papaw's house.

Brian and I got to to go New Orleans for a work trip with Kari and Todd.

I don't have pics of swim lessons, because they were so traumatic, but we took swim lessons. Jensen did fine and never came up from underwater without a huge smile on his face. Charlotte, however, did not enjoy swim lessons. She screamed the entire time. It was awful. I began to think she would never learn to swim and we were scarring her for life making her take these lessons.

Then lessons were over, and a week or so later, she decided she wanted to swim. And she liked to swim. And that was that...no looking back. Once her mind is made up, it's made up...and fortunately she made up her mind to swim! She's great at it now and LOVES it!

More trips to the lake and jet-skiing for Jensen and Charlotte.

She even decided jumping off the side is fun.

 Being silly at the apartment.

Looking cute in her maxi skirt.

In July, we took our family vacation. We started the week with a few days at the Hyatt Hill Country. We loved it! The kids loved the lazy river and we thought it was a great place for a family trip.

'Smores by the campfire was a favorite for both kiddos.

We made many trips around the lazy river.

 For the second half of the week, we drove to Horseshoe Bay to join my parents and Uncle Dot and Aunt Biff. We made a pit stop on the River Walk in San Antonio for lunch.

The weather this summer was very strange. It got downright cold some days, which is unheard of. Right after this picture was taken, Charlotte said, "This weather is doing something crazy!".

We rented a pontoon boat for a morning. Jensen loved it; Charlotte was over it after a little while.

Jensen also got an introduction to fishing from his Grandpa and Uncle Dot. He absolutely loved it and there will be many fishing trips in his future!

This was our first summer to take the kids on a couple of trips to Hawaiian Falls. It's not all that easy to take them at this age, so fortunately Grandma came along to help out. Ellison came too!

More cousin time at Tita and Papaw's.

A cloudy afternoon at the country club.

A pretty afternoon at Tita and Papaw's.

In August, my brother and Tiff and some other friends were going to Mexico and we decided to tag along for a very quick three-day getaway. It is very hard for me to resist Mexico and we had a lot of fun with our friends.

The guys got to go deep sea fishing...

When we got there, we realized we had come during prime whale shark season. Since swimming with whale sharks is something I have always wanted to do, we decided to take a day and go for it. It was amazing! Definitely something we will never forget.

So that just about rounded up our Shelton summer fun! School started back for the big kids and we still had a week off, so we took advantage and hit up the aquarium (Jensen's favorite place) one last time.

And after that, it was time for Back to School!

Moving

In 2013, we purchased a lot in a neighborhood we loved. We were still fine in our current home, and we certainly hadn't outgrown it, but there were always just little things about it that kind of drove us crazy...a formal dining room we never used and a formal living room that we definitely never used just added up to wasted space. There were also a few other weird layout issues and the fact that we really would've liked to be in a neighborhood with more little kids (there were pretty much zero kids for C and J to play with). So we figured we would hang on to the lot for awhile and build "someday". 

But then the real estate market kind of went crazy and the interest rates for building went really low...we figured now was as good a time as any to start building. Since I am the opposite of a risk-taker, we wanted to make sure to sell our house well before our new house was ready to avoid two house payments. We figured this would lead to a few months of apartment living, but we were okay with that. We ended up deciding to list the house in late May, when the backyard looks its best and the market was really strong. 

This was a sad day.

Long story short, the house sold for over asking price to the first couple who came and looked. Thank goodness it went so quickly...keeping it ready to show with two four-year-olds was not the easiest feat. But on the flip side, we now needed somewhere to live. So I got busy packing and Brian got busy finding us an apartment. 

The kids were so helpful with all the packing!

It was so emotional for us to leave our house. I still get sad thinking about it. We were there for over seven years and made so many memories...telling Brian we were going to have a baby (which turned our to be babIES), bringing those babies home, and experiencing so many of their "firsts". At the same time, we also have many pre-parenthood memories...Sunday Fundays in the pool with friends and many goldens fostered throughout the years. We were happy that the people who bought the house had kids and were so excited to raise them there. I know they will take really good care of the house and make their own happy memories there.

Once we were all packed up, Brian told me he had done a final walk-through and NOTHING was left in the house. Fortunately I did one last walk-through of my own...look at the treasures we would have left behind! 

One last pic of why we loved our house so much...the backyard.

The room that once held two little cribs.

 

So long, Creekside Court.

Dancing in the empty living room.

A few last selfies in the backyard.

I hope this tree survives without Jensen's frequent waterings.

So we moved out of our house and into an apartment. It had two bedrooms, a teeny little kitchen, an attached garage (thank goodness) and a little patio:

And we made it work in the apartment for a few months. We were a little crowded, a little in each other's business all the time, and a LOT tired of listening to the neighbors. So we said goodbye to the apartment (no tears shed during that goodbye) and are currently living with my parents for the next couple of months until the house is ready. We are so thankful that they invited us to come stay here and we have really enjoyed getting to spread out a bit...and play outside in a driveway and yard! 

Here are a few early pics of the house being built:

In the beginning, there was dirt...

...and then came a port-a-potty.

Foundation

Walls.

Two little stinkers sitting where the outdoor fireplace will be.

I love this one because I caught Jensen and Daddy walking up to it.

We are so excited for the house to be ready...and to hopefully not move again for a LONG time!