HOW WE SPENT OUR SUMMER VACATION

I have done a terrible job of keeping up with this blog over the summer. I owe a giant apology to my parents and Kelsey. Here's how we spent some of our time. I'm sorry it's over now that school has started. I miss Ava and Eden when they are away and it made me happy to look on back on how we passed these very hot days. What isn't included somehow are any pictures of us swimming, which we did almost everyday. Ava still doesn't like to put her face in despite swimming lessons, though her teacher said Ava was a very strong, graceful swimmer. Eden is a fish, swimming under water easily and happily. Safa bobs around comfortably with her arm floaties.

Enjoy the picture parade of a Romberg summer well spent...

WE WENT TO AQUARINA SPRINGS

There aren't any Sky Gondolas, no
Ralph the Swimming Pig or mermaids,
but there are still glass bottom boats
and some vending machines.
Inside the tiny aquarium, there was
this little room showing a "movie"
about the Edwards Aquifer. It was
terrible. It was from about 1982 and the quality was sooooo bad. That didn't stop the girls from sitting down and watching it until it was over.

WE PRETENDED TO BE HIPPIES

My parents sent a box of clothes containing many dresses with matching headbands. They don't really wear headbands and so put them on like this, which I sort of dug in an edgy-individualist soart of way. So I didn't correct them. Then I told them they looked like hippies which launched a discussion of the Hippie movement and then a discussion of the kinds of names hippies had. Ava and Eden both choose Rainbow. I was Moonbeam Unicorn. Safa? She chose Rainbow Sally. We played for hours. Outside we ate sunflower seeds of our giant sunflower and looked for a place to live. They kept doing the peace sign. Inside I showed them pictures of real hippies on the internet. They loved the whole thing...

FUTURE CLUB KID?

I wish the quality of this picture was better.
I saw her and quickly put on house music and
my platform boots. She was dressed like this for
hours. I eventually started calling her "Tootie"
She didn't get it, but I knew Kelsey would.

WE GREW A GIANT SUNFLOWER

It was Eden's...

WE HUNG OUT WITH THE DAWSON'S

Holy moly that's a lot of kids!!

WE REBUILT THE PLAYSCAPE

Breakfast in the playhouse

WE WENT TO THE CRAPPY, EXPENSIVE SAFARI

A friendly Brad Wilkes-type offered to take our picture.
We decided to let him take it despite this.
Just kidding Papa...


Eden's butt-crack and goats..

Ava took these

WE MADE DRESSES

I took them to the fabric store, let them pick out what they wanted, we found an "easy" pattern. Then I spent the entire day making those dresses.
My back hurt and I was cranky by the time Erik came home. I asked him to please slap me if I ever decided to do something so foolish again. But they did look very sweet.

AUSTIN ZOO

This picture cracks me up. Ava was freaked out by the goats in the petting zoo portion. Erik, Safa, Eden, and I were all in with the goats. Safa and Eden were feeding them. Ava stood outside, facing the opposite direction, pouting, and the goats STILL wanted her. Such an Ava moment.

THIS DAY SUCKED

This is the picture Ava took after I took the pics of Safa. I was hanging on by a thread...I didn't realize she got captured my emotional state until I looked at the pictures later. Hilarious.

If you look closely, you can see lots of towels hanging on the fence. This is because it took every towel in the house to clean up the flood in the laundry room when the washing machine overflowed. It took a long time to clean up and while I was busy, so was

Safa. She seized the opportunity of a mother on

the verge of a nervous breakdown.

This is what she did when I asked her to show me how she felt about being so muddy...

Eden under the banana tree

A post-swim flop...