June

I'm WAY behind on my blog posts but that's because we've had an extremely busy but extremely wonderful summer! I took a few months off from blogging just to soak it all up and enjoy it and now it's time to play some major catch up!

The week after school got out Kyndall and I packed up and took a road trip home to Tallahassee. My nephew Easton would be having heart surgery in Gainesville so I came into town to help take care of my other nephew, Wyatt while my parents and sister stayed with Easton at Shands.

Passing the time on the 13 hour car ride

We made it to Nonie and Poppie's house! Cousin sleepovers are fun!

We spent LOTS of time in the pool that week

Kyndall's friend Abbie came over for a swim date

Brownies by the pool

Always catching critters

The girl who never naps passed out cold on Nonie's couch 

Meanwhile sweet Easton was recovering in Gainesville...

One day he's going to make up a really cool story about his "shark bite"!

Wagon rides down the driveway are a favorite activity at Nonie's house

Cousins make the best of friends!

More pool time

And more critters

Kyndall got a Nintendo Switch as a special end of school year surprise and she and Wyatt had a lot of fun playing with it.

I was so happy that we were able to meet up with my lifelong best friend Amber and her 3 kiddos while we were in town...

Kyndall loved chasing Abi around so that Amber could have a break

Aunt Sissy life is the best life!

You're never too old to stuff yourself into a Publix grocery cart and ask for a free cookie in the bakery!

We spent the rest of our week in Tallahassee at my parents' house so that the kids could attend Vacation Bible School. Kyndall looks forward to this every year and I think it's pretty cool since this is where I attended Bible School myself as a kid.

I caught this sweet moment between Kyndall and her friend Lily Kate during worship time at Bible School

More pool time at Grammy and G-Daddy's

And again....More critters!

Easton was released from the hospital and able to come home to Tallahassee after just a few days--A much shorter hospital stay than they had anticipated!

It wouldn't be a trip to Tallahassee without at least one meal at our favorite restaurant, Barnaby's!

And frozen yogurt at Nuberri

Take Kyndall to Sam's and give her a soft pretzel and an Icee and she'll love you forever!

We were able to eat lunch with Nonie one day while she was working in Tallahassee

Sweet Easton was still in a lot of pain from his surgery but such a trooper!

While cleaning out my childhood bedroom closet I came across my wedding tiara and of course Kyndall wanted to try it on. I'd love it if she decides to wear this someday in her own wedding!

My Grandma turned 81 while we were in Florida so we took a day trip over to Two Egg to celebrate with her. 

Poor Easton still wasn't feeling good from his surgery but I didn't mind giving him some extra cuddles!

Kyndall and Wyatt love helping take care of my Mom's dog, Albert. I'm not entirely sure that Albert feels the same way!

Our time in Tallahassee was drawing to a close soon so I decided we needed an Aunt Sissy Adventure. Off to the mall we went where they had treats of their choice....

And then we checked out the new bounce house place inside the mall...

Love these two and our time together!

National Donut Day happened to be taking place during our time in Tallahassee and we weren't about to miss out on free donuts at Krispy Kreme! 

Kyndall had been wanting to see Secret Life of Pets 2 so we decided to do that while we were in town as well so that we could bring Wyatt along...

Before we knew it our time in Tallahassee had come to an end and we had to make the long drive back to Dallas.

Kyndall's new favorite restaurant is Raising Cane's chicken and she would eat it everyday if I allowed her to. She really missed it while we were in Tallahassee so as soon as we got back into Cane's territory on the drive home, we found one and she fulfilled her craving.

The following week Kyndall participated in Forney Independent School District's STEAM camp. STEAM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math. I let her choose two STEAM camps to participate in this summer and she chose space camp and an art camp which she would do a few weeks later.

Here are a few pictures her camp teacher took throughout her week of space camp....

On the last day of camp they took a field trip to the planetarium at The University of Texas Arlington. I tagged along as a chaperone and if you look closely you can see me behind the bus in this picture.

I think I was more excited about this field trip than the kids were. I have always been fascinated with astronomy and wanted to be an astronaut when I was a kid!

Kyndall and her friend Hannah

Inside the planetarium

Lunch on the UTA campus

She says she wants to go to college here

And of course, she couldn't resist the critters on campus

Starbucks treat on the way home from the field trip

That same week so also attended a local Vacation Bible School in the evenings here in Forney at her friend Ashlyn's church...

Malani hung out with us on a Friday night after gymnastics...

Surprise package in the mail from Nonie!

In the spring Kyndall's 2nd grade class plated vegetables and her teacher sent the plants home after their week of learning was over. Kydall kept hers and watered it faithfully, even talked sweetly to it and took extra good care of it and low and behold it finally produced a teeny tiny bell pepper!

We celebrated Malani's birthday with a girls day out for lunch and we even surprised her with a cake.

Kyndall gave her two best friends matching bracelets

Then things got weird right there in the middle of the restaurant....

We've lived in Dallas three years and we've really never taken the time to be tourists in our own town. Despite the heat we decided to take a Saturday and explore some of downtown. We started out with lunch at the Katy Trail Ice House which has a really neat atmosphere but we all agreed it would be much more enjoyable in the fall when it's not 102 degrees outside.

We ended up running into Malani and her family while we were there...

We checked out Ripley's Believe it or Not...

Next we made a stop at the Dallas Farmer's Market

She cannot pass up a good macaroon! 

Next we checked out the Deep Ellum area of downtown. I'm convinced this sign was made for me!

We heard Emporium Pies was a "must do" so we made a stop there and tried their infamous pies...

We wrapped up our day at Picole Pops for some gourmet popsicles...

Another night, another frog to catch...

She slept until at least 11:00 each morning with her record being this day which was 12:45 pm! Just like her mother, she is definitely not a morning person.

We celebrated the best Daddy in the world on Father's Day and made sure he felt loved and appreciated all day long.

Cute Father's Day photo booth at church

Kyndall made him this special treasure at church

This is one of their favorite ways to spend time together...Playing video games

Everyone loves him--Even the dogs

Spending some of her chore money at Target while drinking a Starbucks. Who is this teenager??

Krispy Kreme came out with their new chocolate filled donuts and they were giving them out for free which gave us the perfect excuse to check them out!

She spent much of her summer break crafting at the kitchen table

Hanging out at gymnastics with Ashlyn

"Breakfast" at 11:15 am

Every Tuesday during the summer was kids night at Chick-Fil-A which meant kids ate for free. As you can tell by now the Hughes don't often turn down free food!

Summer haircuts for the boys and the groomer gave them Texas Rangers scarves

Matthew and his employees joined an adult softball league and we enjoyed cheering him and the Southeastern team on during their games on Sunday evenings...

I think she just came for the snacks.

Kyndall was bored one day and created this graphic on her ipad for me. Check out the details like the shadow on the ribbon. She makes me so proud!

Another STEAM camp--This time it was art camp and her friend Ashlyn was signed up too which made it extra fun.

Each day when I picked them up they wanted an Icee at the 7-Eleven. By the end of the week the ladies working there knew them by name.

Kyndall made some great pieces of art that week but this on was definitely my favorite. It's a ceramic piece depicting our dogs Cam and Huck.

June was a BUSY month but July would bring our long awaited beach vacation and that meant some much needed relaxation!