July's Summer Fun

July's Summer fun started out with a impromptu trip for Fourth of July.  One of the items on our Summer bucket list was to visit the Bluebell Ice Cream Plant.  We have tired to go twice, but weren't able to get tickets.  It is a four hour drive and Grant didn't want to drive down there and back.  We decided to make it a weekend get-a-way and have some fun. 

The tour of the ice cream plant was a lot of fun.  The tour guide was awesome and was able to hold the kids' attention really well.  We were able to see how the ice cream is made and processed.  After the tour they give everyone a free ticket for some ice cream.  I thought the ice cream sample would be a small little taste, but they were big scoops of ice cream.  I also thought we would either get vanilla or chocolate, but instead we were able to choose from their 16 popular flavors as well as choose from a few of their new flavors.  After the tour of Blue Bell we got a hotel in Katy, Texas.  I picked a perfect location because the city of Katy shot off their fire works across the street from our hotel.  We were able to open the curtain and watch from our hotel room.  This worked perfect for us because Madeline does not like the loud noises from the fireworks.  This year she was able to get excited and enjoy them with the rest of us. 

Katy, Texas was just a stopping point for us.  The next day we were off and head to the San Jacinto Battlefield outside of Houston, Texas.  Anthony the huge history buff he is wants to see all the major historical points in Texas History.  The battle at San Jacinto was where Texas won its independence from Mexico.  They have a huge monument there (because in Texas everything is big), a little museum to look through, and video depicting the events leading up to the battle and after the battle.  After watching the movie I learned that it was a true miracle that we won, there was some divine intervention helping the Texas soldiers out. 

After walking around and exploring the battlefield we went across the street where they have Battleship Texas.  It was used during both World Wars.  We were surprised to learn that we could not only walk around the boat but explore it as well.  The kids had fun pretending to fire the anti-air craft, pretend to be sleeping on the bunk beads, and climbing up and down all the ladders.  We spent a good amount of time exploring and seeing how life was like aboard a battleship.  By the time we finished it was hot and we were hot and tired.  The kids were more than willing to get in the car for the four hour drive home.  On the way home we made sure we stopped in for a treat from Dairy Queen, it isn't a road trip unless you have a blizzard (or in Madeline's case, fries) from Dairy Queen. 

Unfourtnately Grant ate something that his body didn't like so he spent the rest of his Fourth of July holiday in bed.  Luckily it waited until we got home. 

On July 11 we went for our free slurpee, we have never done it before but glad that we did.  They uped the size too, instead of a small sip you actually got a decent size cup.  We have explore the Boy Scout Museum and ran through the tunnels and down the slides at Going Bonkers.  We also have enjoyed nice weather and a week long rain event.  For a week we enjoyed temperatures in the 70s that is a far cry from the 100s that we usually endure. 

We are making progress on our summer goals and I am working hard at getting ready for homeschooling third grade.  Madeline now has a school room and it has been fun setting up and getting things ready to start after Labor Day.  Seeing everything come together has helped Madeline get excited about the upcoming school year.  We still have more to accomplish before the summer is over, but we are slowing checking things off of our list.  The kids have been enjoying themselves and have not heard the "bored" word yet.  Here is to hoping the rest of our summer goes by slowly, I sure enjoy having the kids home.