Galveston Beach

Last Saturday we headed to the Gulf Coast to go check out Galveston with the Tingeys.  The girls had a lot of fun, and we did too!  It is so much more fun to go with other people because you can go out in the ocean to go play in the waves with other people, and not just by yourself.  Being the smartie that I am, I totally forgot to bring my camera.  

On another note, these pictures are from our most recent outing to the beach yesterday for our Ward's play goup.  Allie loved playing with all the other kiddos and remembered my camera this time.  I took pictures for about 2 min and then played the rest of the time.  Yea for living close to the beach!

(and to answer your questions, no - there was not any oil, it is all east of Texas)

This was my usual view of Allie - running towards the water to go play in the waves.  Allie loves the waves and just laughs as they crash on her (small little gulf waves).  She just keeps going deeper and deeper into the ocean until I have to pull her back so she doesn't drown.  When did my little girl get so big?  She looks like a full on toddler in this picture!

Allie in her hat that she kept on for about 10 min.

Meet Madison - Allie's BFF 

At the mention of Madison's name, Allie gets all excited and will not do anything until she gets to see Madison.  Good thing we live in the same complex and Angie and I totally click.  We both grew up in Orem, went to BYU, and have little girls 1 month apart.  We would be totally bored without them!

Angie and Madison

July's Little Moments

I guess Allie wanted to sit down AND play with her table at the same time.  She did this all by herself one RAINY afternoon.  It has been Monsoon season here in Houston, so we have had to come up with things to do inside.

I was doing laundry and Allie built herself a little fort on our bed and then leaned back and read her birdie book.

This is Allie's new way of keeping busy while I cook dinner.  She will go to the pantry, take a can and then walk all the way around the kitchen and into the dining room and put the can on the table, then repeat.  I love it because she is not begging to be picked up; totally worth the unorganized pantry.

Monday night we had ice cream for our family night treat, but our dishwasher was broken, so we all shared one bowl to cut down on the dish-factor.  I think Allie ate more ice cream than dinner, but that runs in the Meldrum line.  Mike's grandma insists on eating ice cream before dinner.  

4th of July

This 4th of July was a bit different for us, but it was still fun.  Being in downtown Houston, we were not able to do ANY fireworks, even snappers!  So, this year we just partied instead of fireworks.  One of Mike's fellow residents had a pharmacy party at their house on the 3rd.  It was good to meet some of the people that Mike works with.  We brought this flag cake, but I felt funny  bringing my camera to their house to take pictures of my cake, so this is the cake the next day.  It actually looked really cool as each slice in the cake looked like a flag.

On the 4th, we went to church and then walked down to Hermann park where they had the Houston Orchestra and the Texas Tenors perform with fireworks after.  We went by ourselves but ended up meeting up with 3 other families in our ward so it was a ward party among the heathens. It ended up being quite long and we did not get home until 11, with Allie awake the whole time.  But it was totally worth it, because I can't go a year without seeing some fireworks!

Mike and Allie watching the fireworks

It was still really hot and humid even at 10 at night, so we were still all sweaty. 

On the 5th, we co-hosted a pool party at our complex with our new friends, the Tingeys.  We invited some people from our ward and enjoyed some BBQ, lots of watermelon (everyone brought watermelon as a side dish), and Allie's new favorite: Cheetos.

We had a good 4th, but next year we need to go out of the city limit to have our own fireworks!

If you love Taipan . . . Check out this blog!

I grew up next door to the owners of Taipan Trading and I have always loved going there to get some decently priced home decor items.  Well, Jenni is their fashion guru and she has a blog where she constantly gives away super cute things from Tiapan.  She is doing a week of giveaways and today she is giving away a $50 gift certificate!  Go check out her blog HERE!

Here are a few things from her blog . . .

She is giving this necklace away today too!

Go over, check out her blog and enter her giveaways!

A New Favorite Game

This past week has been a wonderful adventure. I have been working in the pharmacy at the VA while finishing orientation. However, since I am actually licensed they had me working my own floor this week. That was a new kind of adventure since I don't really know what I'm doing yet. On the plus side I learned a lot. On the plus, plus side I don't think I screwed up at all. On the plus, plus, plus side no fatal mistakes.

Another fun thing this week is discovering how much Allie likes getting surprised. This is great fun for me since Rachel absolutely despises it. (The difference between Rachel and Allie? Rachel gets physically violent, Allie laughs hysterically and gives you a big hug!) So this is our new favorite thing to do in the evening.