7-year-old in the House!

As of yesterday, we now have a seven-year-old in the house! Fellan's birthday was yesterday and it's hard to believe what a big boy he has become.

Sometimes I worry about him because he is such a nice, naive little boy (compared to the other first-graders who seem to already be mean-hearted much of the time), but I think he's finally coming into his own.

He has finally developed his first obsession with an activity. About a month ago, he dug out the skateboard that Santa brought him for Christmas of 2008 and he has been practicing riding it every chance he gets.

There's a really nice skateboard park in Houston now, so we've been there once with him, but the bearings in his wheels were so bad, he couldn't roll very far.

So, for his birthday, we got his bearings replaced, got him a "cool" skateboarding helmet, and got him some "skateboarding shoes", as he calls them. (They're like "Vans" shoes that we found at Target.) He's also taken to wearing a t-shirt with a plaid button-down shirt on top of it. I think he thinks that makes him look more like a cool skateboarder. :)

It's fun seeing him develop this interest. Up until now, he really hasn't had anything to call his own - he likes biking, but that's only because we like biking.

I am a little worried, however. When we go on vacation to Colorado, we like to watch a channel called RSN because they're always playing shows we call "ski porn" - it's not what you think! They show all these semi-homemade videos of people doing crazy stunts on skis, snowboards, and the last couple of years, they've been showing crazy skateboarding stunts. I really wonder what he has in mind to do with his new skateboarding prowess...

Easter 2010

Last weekend, we went on a little outing to Buescher State Park for some hiking again. I think the last time we went there was this time.

The kids are almost two years older now and I guess since they didn't whine about the long hike the last time, they figured they'd better make every single minute of this hike full of whining. It was very pleasant.
After we had done the "loop" part of the hike (and confirmed that the hiking trail map is horrible), we headed back towards the car. Fellan was walking next to me when he suddenly took a funny step and ran 10 feet ahead of me yelling, "Snake!!!"

He narrowly missed stepping on this little fella. We weren't sure what kind of snake it was when we saw it, but I thought that since it didn't have a rattle, it was probably OK. I showed the picture to the people at the ranger station and they told me it was a copperhead. (YIKES!) But, on further review by some guys here at my office, I'm pretty convinced now that it was just a rat snake. (Whew.)

After the hike, our plan was to head up to Austin and check out Mellow Johnny's bike shop and then try to find the original Chuy's for dinner.

But, since the bluebonnets were amazing, we just had to make a stop along the way for the obligatory Texas Bluebonnet picture:


Hmm.... After seven miles of hiking, the kids didn't really seem too into it. Still, it was a fun day! :)

Azaleas

The azaleas in our neighborhood have exploded over the last week or so. I know that this happens every year, but for some reason, this year I'm just more amazed with the amount of flowers and the fact that they're everywhere in our neighborhood.

We walked to a local restaurant for dinner last night and on the way, I took some pictures of them.