For Miss Amber

Before I begin a very light-hearted blog, we did want to share that we are so grateful that Dave's parents' home in Hackberry, Louisiana is still standing and in pretty good shape (Go, John, for building to hurricane code!). Their area was hit very hard by Ike and a lot of their good friends and neighbors have been affected. We are so thankful that their first trip back to the house on Tuesday was not as bad as it could have been!

Onto much, much lighter things.... Miss Amber has been trying to get Sam into cheering since she came to visit her in the hospital! I think Sam must have heard her encouragement, as she has shown some interest in cheerleading (as much as she can possibly know about it at this point!). Also, her cousins, Ashleigh and Brooke, are competitive cheerleaders, and Sam really looks up to them! I think all this encouragement is starting to wear off! This is a little hard for mommy since I was the one who made fun of cheerleaders!

Soooo, Sam did a little cheer camp this weekend. She was sick, but she "Ra, ra'd it out!" Here are a few pics of her from camp with her Mustangs shirt!

Reluctant to pose or smile until....

Daddy made funny faces behind highly-respected mommy!

Cheerleaders from McKinney Christian Academy who led the camp

Awesome pose, Sam!

Happy 88th Birthday, Papo!

How better to celebrate one's 88th Birthday than with a Spongebob Square Pants Cake??? What a great surprise for Papo when we showed up with this! The best part is that we were going to have a girls' morning, eat lunch together, and then go to Mamo and Papo's for the afternoon. Well, Sam started having these weird side pains- I got freaky and called Dave. He got freaky and said, "Go to the doctor now!" (Dave's appendix ruptured when he was in elementary school so he is a little sensitive to that.) After calling a nurse off her lunch and $100 later, we found out that Sam was just constipated! Good stuff! So, we had some fun after we found this out and took some pics to document our interesting, unexpected day!

Afterwards, I had something to go to in Dallas, so that meant Sammy got to go to her Daddy's office! Who wouldn't love that!? The ladies spoil her with candy and she gets to color on his dry erase board! You can see her excitement below!

Calculators, Semiconductors, Speak and Spells- oh my!

"Honey, I luuuuuv you!"

Sam and Papo are like two peas in a pod! Happy Birthday, Crazy Papo!

Papo all proud of the Spongebob Cake selected by his great Gandaughter!

Just constipated!

"Holiday Road"

Okay, so I am still getting this blog thing down. After spending way too much time uploading these photos, I realized I did them in the wrong order! Lesson learned! So, we went on our first real family vacation- we have done a lot as a couple and going to the grandparents, but not just the three of us. So, because we are first timers at this, we learned that it is probably a good idea to call ahead to the attractions you are thinking of taking on before driving to them. Remember the Griswalds and Wally World? Well, it turned into The Youngbloods and Sea World. Yeah, not open after Labor Day except on the weekends. Either way, we had a blast with Aunt Kat and Uncle JP! Please enjoy our pics in the reverse order!

Aunt Kat and her new puppy, Major!

Sam's introduction to Major! They hit it off!

These next few photos are courtesy of Samantha! She chooses the most interesting items to photograph! This is the barbie on Sam's Barbie computer....

She liked the dog on the billboard because she gets tickled at any form of personification- like her mom! We sure did miss those Natural Bridge Cavern signs with the weird-looking dinosaur!

This one is disgusting- Sam wanted to take a picture of her dirty foot from the Snake Farm! Gross!

This photo is EXTREMELY important! This is a pic of a Hannah Montana room that Sam found in a magazine. This is one of about 15 photos of this ad. I am so sad that she has been swept into this Hannah Montana thing- working on that!

Well, I had to share this one! I knew Amber would appreciate that Sam stopped to photo this! There is nothing wrong with letting your kid look at US Weekly to keep her occupied on a long car ride!!!!

The flash from this photo cross-eyed Sam and she was kind of out of it for about five seconds!

How can you travel down I-35 and not stop at The Snake Farm? That is Emily's first and last trip there, FYI! I vomited all that night and I am pretty sure I caught some rare disease from one of the random animals!

Sam feeding the goats with Aunt Kat!

Sam's Number One obsession (followed by Hannah Montana), Sponge Bob.

Sam, Aunt Kat, and Mom floating down the Lazy River

Where are Aunt Kat's legs???? We buried her! Notice Big Daddy in the background who freaks out if he gets near sand!

Beautiful Mermaid carved by Aunt Kat and Uncle JP

Uncle JP is getting his Master's in Architecture- it showed in his impressive sand castles! This is the only photo that didn't show his booty crack!

Mom and Sam at the pool

Sam washing daddy's hair

Mommy and Daddy breaking record times on the waterslide

Sam made sure to jump on the bed at every hotel- she is very into Fancy Nancy and The Bonjour Butterfly- Fancy Nancy takes a trip and stays at a hotel, so we were very into ice dispensers, jumping on the bed, bellmen, etc!

Sammy building sand castles with some of her new friends

These pictures crack me up- this was at the children's museum. Dave tends to think he is a weatherman sometimes, so his dream came true!

Sammy Bear in front of the Children's Museum- this was our Sea World replacement... Sam handled it better than Dave and me! I would much rather learn about Hill Country animals, energy, and mummies than be at Sea World!!

Dave and JP on their way to save the world from monsters with their laser guns (and super sonic glasses)

Sam having an unloaded daiquiri!

Crazy Uncle JP!

Another one of Sam's great pictures of mommy!

We really enjoyed Dave's history lessons!

"There's no basement in the Alamo!"

Sam was really happy about the family photos!

Sammy Crockett (mommy got in trouble for this one- no pics in The Alamo!)

We were grateful for a nap and a chance not to hear Shrek III or Barbie's Princess and the Pauper in the car!