Ninety Years of Bill Brady

The second weekend of June, the Houston faction of the Brady bunch packed up our boots, babes and bags to head to South Bend for an epic birthday party.  On June 8th my incredible Grampa turned 90 years old.  Anyone who has had the pleasure of meeting him knows that he is one-of-a-kind and to say that we are blessed that he is ours is absolutely the understatement of the century.  On Saturday June 11th, we threw a bash in his honor.

We had far too much fun and there are far too many stories, pictures and laughs to recount them all.  I don't see myself stringing together another 30 minutes on a lunch break for quite some time, so I'm going to try to squeeze it all into one post.  To help aid your understanding, I'll break it down into the phases of any good party experience.  Here we goooooooo...

THE GETTING READY
So, this was our first trip on a plane with the girls.  This big milestone was to immediately followed by their first time in a rental car and a 2.5 hour drive from Chi Town to the Bend.  Are you jealous yet?

To keep the Martin Family Income Statement afloat (this is an actual excel spreadsheet that my husband produces, by the way), we snagged tickets through Spirit.  This meant awful flight times, an extreme amount of time Googling travel hacks and an absurd amount of  time spent worrying by Ryan & I.  I am pleased to report that it was all basically for naught though because the girls did extremely well on the plane.  The car ride was a different story, but hey- all's well that ends well, right?  (The Hertz employee who was left with Brynnie's crumb-filled carseat may feel differently.)

Grampa's 90th was at a barn and featured his line dancing teacher coming to show us all how it's done.  Obviously boots were in order.  I'm thankful I took this picture pre-packing because Brynn has yet to leave them on for long enough to take another one.

They're looking a lot more awake than I was feeling at 4:15 am.  (Parent Tip #437: Leaving them in their jams does not incite sleep.)

The grass is always greener on see-see's (sissy) side.

This photo was taken approximately 2 minutes after take off.  At 3.5 minutes after take off, Ryan opened a bottle of water and the pressure caused water to spray all over Brynnie, waking her up, never to return to sleep again.  (Ok, maybe she did sleep at like 7:30 pm that night.)

THE PRE-PARTY

This picture was taken about 3 minutes after we got to Grampa Brady's house.  If you know my Em, you know what a feat it was that she warmed up so quickly.  I was so proud of her.

Another day, another state, another tool to be used.  Here's GC cleaning up Miranda & Trav's barn.

Be still my heart.  Watching these 7 (Brynn was napping screaming inside) brings back so many irreplaceable memories I have as a kid with my Indiana cousins.  Left to right we have Ellie (1), Ava (9), Stockton (1), Shiloh (6), Tripp (5), Lucy (3) and Emery (3).

I think I have roughly 1,000 photos of this event on my phone.

Lucy looks skeptical of Em here.  I don't blame ya, girlfriend.

Pawpaw Jim and Pawpaw Tom teaching Ellie about the important things in life- like tools and tractors, I'm sure.

Caddy & JJ getting their swing on.

This looks totally natural, right?

Sharing invaluable insights on Peppa's First Sleepover.

One of the days leading up to the party, the men took the children to the zoo while the women crafted.  It appears it went well.

Em was really working on getting Pawpaw Brady to eat out of the palm of her hand.

THE FIESTA

My little cowgirls.  (Brynn, I'm going to charge you $14 for those boots once you get an allowance, child.)

Miranda makes Martha Stewart look like a slouch when it comes to crafting.

I wish I would have taken a picture at night.  I was, however, otherwise disposed as you'll read later.

You have a fake on you, cousin Ashleigh?

Baby's first red solo cup.  Put it in the scrapbook.

So this is the line dancing portion of the evening.  Please take note of how much harder Ryan seems to be working than everyone else.

The line dancing version of running man?

Brynn showcasing some moves she did NOT get from her father.

The Pawpaws playing grill master.

Boot cake to pay homage to Grampa's love of line dancing.

And an Eiffel Tower to pay homage to his years (and years and years) of teaching French.

I am pretty obsessed with Miranda & Trav's property.  The barn is where we held our shindig.

My Grampa is truly the coolest.  It's impossible to look at this picture and not smile.

Mamcita and Patty making sure he gets all those flames out.

I think maybe I was meant to be a farm girl in a different life (but without the early rising, manual labor stuff).  Did I mention I was obsessed?

Cheers to 90 incredible years.

The whole crew.  Left to right: Paul, Stockton, Kara, Travis, Miranda, Shiloh, Ava, Ashleigh, Kyle, Ellie, Lucy, Nonnie Jan, Pawpaw Tom, Tripp, Grampa Brady, John, Nennie Jean, Matt, Nonnie Kathe, Emery, Dad, Me, Ryan, Brynn, Julie & David.

THE HANGOVER/STORIES FROM LAST NIGHT

Memorial Day Weekend 2k16

Hello from the other side.... of summer.  I suppose now that it's nearly O-V-E-R I should get to documenting it, huh?  You know my M.O. when it comes to the summer holidays.  I spend too much time relaxing, gorging and chatting which inevitably leads to horrendous documentation and a random smattering of photos.  I regret to inform you that summer 2016 I did not turn over any new leaves.  Let's get to it, shall we?

Right before the holiday weekend, Conroe and its neighboring suburbs were hit hard with rain.  The lake level got up higher than it's been since my parents have owned their house there and it was breathing down the neck of historic levels.  This was very unfortunate but led to this awesome picture of my Mom rescuing Matt's canoe (kayak?).  I have no doubt she'll be SUPER pumped I put this in.  (Love you, Mom!)

This was the view from my parents' walkway down to the dock on Saturday.  You can tell by all the mud that the water came all the way up to the edge of the walkway.

My tribe*

Cheese?  Nah, I'm good.  Cupcakes?  Gimme, gimme.  That's my GIRL.

Clearly we had offended Emery.  Probably by refusing to let her play on the iPad.  As any good sister would, Brynn supported Emery's cause by laughing.

Probably talking Pawpaw into downloading the YouTube kids app.  These two are trouble.

Brynn's love for da-dawgs knows no bounds.

I hope you all had equally family-, fun-, and food-filled weekends.  The sincerest of thanks to all those who have, do, or will serve.  Nothing would be possible without you!

* The use of this term is in no way meant to imply my agreement to Ryan's self proclaimed Native American heritage.

Easter 2016

This Easter we celebrated the way that we celebrate most holidays.  We started out in Conroe visiting the Boarman bunch and wrapped up our celebrations in the Branch with the Martin clan.  Because you know the drill, I'll spare you a lot of verbiage and skip straight to the pics.  :c)

The girls having a little pre-game pep talk before the Walden Egg Hunt.  As you can see, our hunters were in the zone.

Daddy trying to explain the delicate art of throwing some 'bows when needed.

Clearly a seasoned vet, Em hopped right out into the action as soon as she got the go ahead.  Brynn wasn't quite as snappy.

Aunt JuJu laughing at helping her nieces.

In her element.

Perhaps her wedgie is what was holding Brynn back?

Pick me up, Non.  I'm over this.

Pretty solid haul.

Are we done with the pics?  Kinda need to check out what's in these eggs, y'all.

Notice where Em went when it was time to start ripping into candy?!  Right next to Pawpaw.

Couldn't find Ryan for a bit.  Discovered him outside walking our child in the front yard with a makeshift cooler on top of the stroller.  Back off ladies, he's taken.

The Easter Bunny visited.

My kids are cute.

After a fab time at Camp Conroe, we took the party to Grandma & Pawpaw Martin's house to meet up with Aunt Niffy and Ky.

Peeeeeeeeps.  Making kids bounce off the walls since like 1903.

Checking out their basket loot.

"Boo!  Boooooo" (book) - Brynnie's fav.

Brynn still wasn't totally clear on the objective.  Is it to get eggs or to try to wander down the street?   Who can say, really?

Get da one, Daddy.

Gotta lift with your legs, folks.

This is NOT Kylie's first rodeo, obvi.

Trying to take pictures with small children: a photo essay.  2/3rds of them looking at a camera.  Not necessarily yours, but a camera nonetheless.

3/3rds looking at a camera.  2/3rds looking pleased. 1/3rd on the verge of meltdown.

2/3rds cheesin'.  1/3rd really about to lose it.

1/3rd about to resort to eating elements of nature because that usually ends photoshoots pretty quick.  1/3rd still cheesing.  1/3rd looking like that Sarah McLachlan song should be playing.

Don't put all your eggs in one basket.  'B-Zilla will take them.