Samantha on the horse

Horse Camp

Samantha just finished a week at horse camp. She had a wonderful time riding horses in the morning, swimming with her fellow campers in the afternoon, and spending the night with Honey and Big Daddy. She loves to ride but she hated having to wait in line for her turn. Patience has never been her strongest quality. Here she is waiting (her favorite part) for her turn on the horse.

Get that leg over girl! Her horse's name is Max. She really liked him.

Waiting AGAIN for the other riders to finish the course.

Moved up, but still waiting!

Samantha did a great job leading the horse around the course. Here she is waving to her Daddy.

These two girls fell for Samantha. They looked out for her all week. Those big brown eyes get 'em every time.

Life with Cole

Yesterday, I was down stairs doing laundry and Cole was upstairs playing. He got real quite so I decided to go see what he was getting into. When I walked into his room I discovered that he had sorted a box of building blocks by shape and put them into rows. Brandon and I have decided that he is either a genius or rainman. And definitely OCD.

Beach Trip

What a wonderful week! We just spent a week at Seagrove Beach, FL. We were there with Brandon's brothers and families, Terri, David P, and Meemaw. The kids had a blast playing with their cousins and swimming. Samantha discovered her love for the boogie board. She got pretty good at riding the waves.


One afternoon Kelly 13, Maggie 6, and Samantha 4 got tattoos. Kelly got dog footprints on her ankle. Maggie got dolphins around her bellybutton. And Samantha got her name "Sam" on her arm. They were very proud of them.

We spent Thursday afternoon playing in Sandestin at Baytown Warf. The girls got their tattoos and bungee jumped on a trampoline. We all had fun!

Here are the little boys playing together in the sand. Jase 19mths, Harrison 2, Cole 2. It was great to spend time with Jase and really get to see his fun playful personality.

Cole drinking out of the cap of a water bottle.

Aunt Becki buried Samantha, Maggie, and Harrison.

Then it was Jabo's turn.

Thanks for such a great vacation ,Terri. It was so fun to all be together. We are looking forward to another trip next year!

Saturday on the Lake

On Saturday we went to Lake Conroe with Brad, Bethany and all the kids. Uncle Brad wanted to show off his new boat, and we were thrilled to be along for the ride. It was HOT so we found a nice place to anchor and swim.

The Girls had to see the light house, they wanted to dock and go in but we were to tired to climb stairs at this point.

Cole liked the water so much he never wanted to get out, Mom and Dad had to take turns with this Texas Tornado. He would swim from one person to the next saying "paddle, paddle, paddle" instead of "kick, kick, kick."

Cole loved the boat but loved the water even more!

The girls and Harrison were the lookouts, while Cole stayed in the back and ate everything in site.

Fishing on the Freedom

On Memorial Day several men from the Morton clan went fishing on the Freedom. They were kind enough to let Samantha tag along. She had so much fun on Saturday she really wanted to go again. Of course she didn't realize how different deep water fishing is compared to shallow water. The guys were fishing for Lemon Fish and of course Sam couldn't reel that big of a fish in. So between catches she watched movies on Brandon's computer in the salon. Whenever someone caught a fish Sam would leave her movie to go run and check things out. The men only ended up catching Sharks. My cousin Conley showed Samantha how to touch the sharks eye and pet it. I think that was to highlight of the trip because she is still talking about how she got to touch the sharks eyes.

This is Samantha with my Paw-paw. Yes, my father looks just like Paw-paw. The guys anchored for a while so Samantha could go swimming with Brandon.

Samantha got to spend some time with Bubba. She misses him so much and was thrilled to see him on the boat. Another highlight of the trip was getting to steer the boat. She told me the boat has a "pirates wheel."

Sunday in New Orleans

After church on Sunday we went downtown to enjoy the beautiful day. We all went to the aquarium and I-Max. This is a picture of Samantha and Cole at the River Walk with the Mississippi River behind them. We saw lots of boats. Big Daddy, Uncle Frankie, and Uncle Tim pointed out of the different boats to the kids. I think they enjoyed watching the river even more than the kids.

Samantha's favorite part about beignets is the powdered sugar.

Cole loves EVERYTHING about a beignet. He got sugar EVERYWHERE.

It was a very hot day!! The kids and I stuck our feet in the fountain in Spanish Square while Brandon went to get snow balls for the kids and himself.

The Morton Family in front of the fountain. Thanks for such a great weekend!!