Memorial Day is for Swimming

We decided to do Memorial Day weekend up right this year, which means we didn't stay at home at all. We started at the zoo to see the new baby elephant. Pretty freaking cute! Emmy just stared at him and said "baby! baby! ooohhhhh!"

Besides that Emmy cared about each of the animal for approximately 3.2 seconds and then told them "bye bye." It's really hard to care about much of anything when it's 850 degrees. She was more intersted in taking off and putting on her hat, running around and walking in her new favorite way. You are chosen to hold one of her hands, it's not necessarily the person closest to her. And if she choses you, you better run because patience is not a virtue she inherited. Ok, she never really had a chance of getting it from me anyway. I couldn't decide which one of these I like better so you get to look at both. You can see just how many curls she has now! She's getting more and more everyday!
We capped off Saturday with a little swimming in GiGi and Pop's pool. At first she said "no, no, no,no" but then she got wilder and wilder. You'll notice the "Vacek Open Mouth" in all the pictures below. It's a family trait that means you're REALLY REALLY having fun =)

First she poured water on Daddy's head. That was pretty fun.

Then Daddy poured water on her head and that was REALLY funny.

Then she said, forget that wimpy bucket, I'm going to stand under the gigantic high pressure spigot. HILARIOUS!The rest of the day, poor Blake spent making Emmy "JUMP!" this was the best of all. Blake can't lift his arms today, but it was worth it to Emmy. She also went down the big kid water slide, by herself. DARE DEVIL!

The next day guess what we did, we swam MORE! We tested out the Graesser's new pool for a Memorial Day cook-out! Ellie showed us what she learned at swim lessons, and Benjamin made Emmy look like a big wuss with his serious jump off the edge of the pool!

And we had lots of fun, as poven by the gigantic open mouths in this picture!

From Khasakstan to Galves-stan

So life has been a litte crazy lately because of some big projects that I had going on at work. We have all reached new levels of exhaustion. I'm taking a bunch of clients around to do some benchmarking on some of Chevron's most important projects. One of those projects just happens to be in Kasaksthan. Kasak-what you say? That's right. I basically got on a plane without having a clue where I was really going. 15 hours later I ended up just north of Iran. The good thing is, I got to fly first class! WHOOHOO! I don't know if I can go back, just LOOK at my footroom!

Kasaksthan (or at least the part I was in) looks a lot like Midland. Flat, brown, bare, and really kind of ugly =( I think other parts are actually very nice.) There was only one green part in the entire place and that was around the sewage retention pond- NASTY!)

My hotel in Atryau was very nice and brand new. But here's where I stayed for a night, no that's not a prison, this is the camp for the plant, which is basically and hours ride into the middle of nowhere from the bigger city I was staying at. Since most people who work at the plant work rotational, the rooms are set up for them to live while they're onsite. It's kind of like a little town. They have bars, a swimming pool, and the picture below is of the movie theatre. Yes, the food was nasty. They eat powdered eggs, I just couldn't go there.

That's about all the pictures I got because I had to be "Cool" with the clients and not run around like a geeky girl with my camera. Overall summary: Food:eh, People: Nice, First class travel: YES PLEASE!

When I got back home from my whirlwind trip did I rest, of course not. We headed out to the Stros with Caroline! It was Carloline's first Astro's game and amazingly she sat completely still and silent for 6 innings. Betsy and I just stared at her for a while. Betsy decided she's going to the Astro's game weekly =)

The next day we headed down to Galveston to look at a beach cabin that Mom and Dad are thinking about buying. We were excited to take Emmy to the beach for the first time. we slathere on the sunscreen and decided to give it a test run before we all got in our swimsuits. Emmy's feelings about the beach can be summed up in one picture...

HATED IT! That's a look of sheer panic on her face. She didn't want to be put down, didn't want you to hold her in the water, didn't want to look at or talk about the water and forget the sand. She just shook her head and said "no, no, no, no, no, no, no.." I think we may pretend like this never happened and call her next time the first time at the beach. We still had to take a family picture juuuuust in case =)