Tall Kerri, B, OB

Kerri. The woman of many names. Kerri has been my friend since elementary school and we were even college roommates. She was and is so much fun! We were texting not too long ago and I asked her that if she came to town, to please let me know as I really wanted to meet Olivia - her sweet little girl. A few weeks later, her she was! We met at Heather's house as it has way more toys than I do so I knew Olivia would have something fun to do.We chatted, had pizza and watched the kids play. The highlight might have been when Lainey (heather's daughter) locked Olivia in the dog cage....welcome to a fun night at the Clarks! Poor Olivia didn't know what to think about the Clark kids. We laughed so hard. It was so good to catch up and wish she lived closer to us!

Teaching the girls early to show their muscles.

In college, Kerri always had Heather beat in the muscle game. Poor Heather never even stood a chance. Now I think heather has won!

Getting in some snuggle time from Lainey and Olivia.

Hopefully we didn't scare Olivia off...at the end of the night, she was asking to go back to her grandma's house. Oops!

First Day of School

 

Today was the first of school for many kids: Matthew and Brody started kindergarten in Flower Mound, Ashton and Caden began their new school life in Granbury,  Kellissa started her freshman year of college and Elijah started school as well - he looked so handsome today! All of the above people had a great first day and are excited for what lies ahead. (everyone except heather as she doesn't know how she is going to get up early every day and get Matthew to school...poor kid is going to be tardy so many times!)

Then you have my Hudson. He is Carey's youngest and our baby (well boy baby, as EK and Molly are really our babies). He is so so cute and he so so so does not want to go to school. He has told us for the past two weeks that he isn't going to school. Every time we bring it up, he changes the subject. We just laughed it off but this kid was serious. Carey and Jon had such an awful morning with this sweet boy. It made me so sad to hear Carey tell me about his morning. Caden even walked his little brother to class to try to make him feel better - so sweet.

At least he didn't cry all morning...he knocked it off before lunch or so he says. He also kept telling us about this little girl that just cried and cried...guess it made him feel better as he wasn't the only one. 

PawPaw and Bebe were so sad for Hudmuffin that they left work early to drive to Granbury to take the Cox family to dinner. Aunt Jenny couldn't miss out on this so I left work and drove down as well.

We made a stop in Pecan to visit the new Cox house. It is PERFECT for them. I can't wait to see it in all its glory. I know it will be fabulous.

We had dinner at Grump's. It's a burger joint in Granbury and so cute. Plus it is really tasty!

Playing with Ashton in the mirror
....anything entertains us.

A

No, we did not adopt a new kid into the family...this is Eli and he is super fun. He belongs to Chaney and Ian.
 

Not too long after we left, Carey texted us this picture. Our sweet little man fell asleep while telling his mom a story - probably about his new little friend, Caroline. I think she made his day at school and he is excited to see her tomorrow.

A little fun before school starts...

Mom brought the boys up for a little fun before school started. I met them before the game at Chick fil A. After, we killed some time by going to the Cowboys Stadium. They had a great time and are now asking to go to a Cowboys game...they think I can get tickets to anything!

After playing in the kids zone two times and watching only 3 innings of the game, the boys were itching for something else to do. Hudson was begging to play on Green's Hill - during the game - and Caden wanted to play tag. I compromised and said we are going on an adventure....to the tunnel. They thought that was LAME until I took them down to the left field gate where the grounds crew hangs out. We watched the last 3 innings from there and they had a blast. We had two players run into the wall out there and they thought that was the coolest. Mom liked it too...it meant she was closer to her favorite Baylor Bear - Murphy. She kept doing Sic Em Bears to him...Green Fly.

The boys are used to driving Kelly's golf cart in the tunnel whenever they want. This time, Kelly's carts were occupied so I entertained them with something else...the giant wienie aka The Boomstick.

The next day, we played at Cabela's. The boys got pop guns. It was really fun driving in the car listening to pop, POP, pop, POPOPOPOPOPOPOP. I am sure Carey is excited to have the guns at their home.

We dropped mom's car off at Sewell to get serviced and headed to Meadowmere Park to play. This park is brand new and on a peninsula on Lake Grapevine. It was so clean and nice plus a great breeze coming off the lake.

We encouraged the boys to get out as much energy as they could while at the park because Bebe had a long drive home with them.

Then we let the boys swim in the roped off area. They dove for cool rocks, did tricks and splashed all over the place. After this, I took them home and through them in the shower as they had meet the teacher night. The teacher liked their tattoos on their face - I didn't have the heart to wash them off. You are welcome Carey!

McQ

The Merry Marables hit the road once again to take our annual trek to the New Braunfels area. We used to do Wimberley every year but decided that McQueeney made much more sense...especially since we didn't have to do any cooking or cleaning. Amen! Do you know how many people we have in our family? We are at 22 (i think) plus a baby on the way...that is way too many people to cook and clean for.  Plus we all love McQueeney. It was a family destination for years and we all have the best memories. We are so excited to start again with the little kids. So far they absolutely love it!


Hudson, aka Scuba Steve. He was so proud of his snorkeling equipment. He brought it everywhere!

The girls hanging out in the pool.

Carey and Caden. He was so good knee boarding, skiing and toobing.

The Marable Ladies

Only at Lake McQueeney is it appropriate to wear your mexican dresses. It makes me so happy!

Our parents really are the best!

Bebe joined all the kids on the diving board. We were so proud of her...pretty sure her hip went out the next day ;)

 

Amber wasn't able to join us so Ash was the oldest of the trip. She really missed Amber! 

Me and my Stir-fry

Kelly and his best buddy

Uncle Kelly is definately a favorite with all the boys. You can see Caden running to get in the picture in the background.

Thanks Bebe and PawPaw for a great trip!

HOF Weekend

The highlight of my work year always comes around the beginning of August with the alumni (HOF) weekend. This year we honored the 40th Anniversary All Time Team and inducted radio broadcaster, Eric Nadel, into the Rangers Hall of Fame. We cram so much into 3 days and I am always so relieved happy when it is over. It is truly a team effort to pull this weekend off. 

Our first event is the Hall of Fame Luncheon. This is the first round table interview...always entertaining!

The 2nd round table interview. This group was funny!

The 40th Anniversary All Time Team (minus a few guys).

Listening to Eric Nadel's speech on field...at least I am paying attention!

After the field festivities were over, we celebrated up in the Diamond Club. Don't worry, those desserts were for the table.

The next day, I of course didn't rest...I went back to the ballpark to take my mom, grandma and great aunt to the game. It was my aunt's first time at the ballpark and she was so excited! I got them seats out in the bowl but it was so hot that the seats burned everyone's bottom. Good thing Rhi had a suite...we went up there and never left!

Relaxing after the long weekend of work.

It's the little things

I spent the rest of July filling up my time with baseball, playing with crazy kids, biking (i heart my bike), and more baseball. I really need to find a hobby!


Ashton came over for the night so we headed to the Clarks to play and have dinner. Lainey and Matthew loved Ash!

Ashton will be 16 in 2 years - I can't believe it - and is obsessed with Jeeps. She was so excited to see that Heather had one. I immediately offered to show off my standard driving skills and took her for a ride...to the end of the street and back. Turns out I am pretty rusty and Ashton refused to ride with me anymore. Heather came to the rescue and took the kids for a real ride.

A week or so later, Carey brought up Ashton along with some of her friends and Caden and Hudson. Kind of a last hurrah before they officially moved to Granbury. They went to the Roanoke Hawaiian Falls and then the Rangers game.
Caden is under the splash somewhere!

Hudson just had to have the Boomstick and we gave in. How can you say no to him? He only ate 4 inches of it and was stuffed...so we played pass the Boomstick until it was finished. Good thing we had 6 people with us!

The boys think the ballpark is their personal playground and only like to sit and watch the game for a couple of innings...there is just too much to do!

Once Kelly got off work, we took Matt and Allison out to celebrate Matt's birthday and Baby O. I just had to get them a baby gift and couldn't decide which team onesie we should get them so we got both. I sure hope they have a girl as the Miami onesie is not that feminine.

Being a landlord is fun!

In the keys...

Kelly and I have a HUGE list of places that we want to travel to. So anytime we get a chance, we try to take advantage of our time off and hit the road. Our trip this year took us to Key West. Total opposite of where we went last year - Alaska. We have been to the total opposite parts of the US in the past year...kinda crazy!

 

Such a cute airport!

The Marquesa - our hotel. It was perfect! We stayed on the 3rd floor and loved it. This photo is from the inside courtyard looking up. The courtyard had 2 great pools - we swam everyday as it was so hot!

Who's thirsty???

We had our first dinner at Cafe Marquesa. It was so good!We had good dinners every night and it was hard to pick a favorite.

 

Day 2 - we took a jet ski around all of Key West plus an island just next to it. It took 2 hours and we went through the calf Gulf and the super choppy Atlantic. It was really fun!
This was my first time on a jet ski since the infamous near death experience with Blake 15 years ago.

Pretty self explanatory!

The 3rd day, we got up early so we could do a snorkel trip to a couple of cool reef spots.

We know we look dorky. They made us wear the life jackets.

Just call me eagle eyes. I was the first to spot the dolphins! Pretty sure I thought they might be sharks at first.

We toured Ernest Hemingways home. He was famous for having six toed cats...Kinda creeped me out!

We tried 4 different kind of key lime pies. Our favorite was at Blue Heaven. YUM

Our last excursion was to the Dry Tortugas National Park. We took a one and half hour boat ride out to this place. Totally worth the LONG trip. It was gorgeous!

 

Forgive the face...I just really like view.
(It was really bright.)

We found lots of conch shells.

It was so fun diving down to find shells.

 

Of course I had to put in a foot picture!

We got to rent a scooter. Kelly wanted a cool one - I wasn't too sure about it so we comprimised and settled on a Key West Kruiser. It was so fun! I only drove it on the shoulder of the road. I did not trust my skills on the main highway.

My driver...he was way better than me.

It was a great trip!!!