We are on day four of our summer vacation. We left around 9 am Thursday morning for the 3 hour trip to Oklahoma City where we met up with Sherry and her family. The boys discussed who their favorite transformers were (Adam’s is Optimus Prime and Zach’s is Bumblebee, both part of the Autobots who are good transformers) and we played “I spy” and “20 questions.”

We ate lunch at Steve’s parents house and then everyone did a switcheroo with the traveling arrangements…I rode with Sherry, Katie and Matthew and Scott rode with Jake, Steve, Adam and Zach. It we pretty uneventful until Zach threw up in the car about 2 hours outside of Dallas. Then we hit rush hour in Dallas and that added about 30 minutes onto our already long trip. We made it to the hotel in Dallas where Zach stayed in the room with me, and everyone else went downstairs to eat. It was lucky that our room was right by the guest laundry because I had to wash Zach’s clothes and car seat cover. Yuck!

Friday, we headed out for Galveston. We stopped at a really cool rest stop that had lots of trees, and indoor eating area, playground, lake and nature trail. After we ate, the kids went over to the play ground to burn off some energy. I took Zach to the bathroom, and as we were walking back he stopped in and said “there’s something that hurts in my bottom” and dropped his drawers in the parking lot.

We arrived in Galveston around 4 pm and headed straight out to the water. The boys loved it…it was their first trip to the ocean. Dad went and scrounged up some food (pizza, salad and pasta) and we ate out on the deck overlooking the ocean. All the older kids (minus Matthew) slept in the same room which had bunk beds and two twin beds.

On Saturday, we headed out to the beach again both in the morning, and after rest time in the afternoon (we had to watch the space shuttle launch via internet first). We built a sandcastle and body surfed in the water. We had grilled chicken, hot dogs and hamburgers for dinner, with s'mores made from the fire of the grill. Then we went out crab hunting. The boys all donned their “headlamps” (lights on a stretchy cord that goes around your head) and we found some pretty big ones. They scurried about and tried to get away from us, while we all “eeked” and screeched as they hurried across our feet. A couple of the big ones made themselves look real big by standing up real tall and raising their pinchers.

I think the start of summer is officially here. It’s been the 80s the last few days and the forecast is calling for some 90s next week. I’m a warm weather person, so I always look forward to this time of year.

We have a little birds nest in one of our trees with three baby birds in it. We’ve been checking it every day. I’ve only seen the mommy bird once. Yesterday the boys were having water fights in the yard and the mother bird was very nervous. She kept flying around trying to find a good time to make it into the tree. I made the boys go into the back yard and sure enough, she swooped in several times to feed her babies.

The boys have been enjoying the water gun fights that have become the game of choice in the neighborhood. There is usually at least four boys playing, and sometimes as many as six or seven. Zach seems to have an issue with the water guns…he wants to play, but then gets upset when he gets wet. I’ve tried to explain that getting wet is the whole point of the game. He usually goes into the house crying and changes shirts, then comes back out and everything is fine.

We had our first T-ball practice this weekend. Adam and Zach said they enjoyed it, although Zach made the comment that it was too hot. I’m hoping he’ll get used to it, since our practices are at 11am and go through July. Kansas in the middle of the day is definitely not for the faint of heart. There are 11 boys on the team.

Adam wanted to know how old he had to be to take "soldier lessons." Then he said when he grows up and is a soldier, he’ll take one day off a month to play golf. Scott told him that he can do that if he’s in the Air Force (speaking from experience, I guess!)

Zach is still into tying, hanging and balancing toys, household objects and clothing around the house. I find bottles of lotion hanging by a hairband from the lamps in our room, toys hanging from string that is wrapped around the spindles near our stairs, rubber bands hooking two cabinets together and a stopwatch hanging from the screen door. He also likes to pile up his dirty clothes in a little corner in his room, instead of putting them in his dirty clothes. "Because I might wear them again," he says.

The boys are at preschool while I’m writing this, so the house is quiet and peaceful! We’ve had a few busy weekends with relatives in town and the excitement of losing a first tooth!

Earlier this month, Scott’s parent’s came down for the weekend. Adam had just lost his first tooth, so that was the excitement of the day. He had mentioned to me a few days earlier that his tooth was loose, but I didn’t really think anything of it. Then, I noticed that he had a tooth missing! He doesn’t know what happened to it, so he thought he should write a note to the tooth fairy that said "I lost my tooth. I can't find it." He wanted to make sure he still got a surprise, even thought there was no tooth to show for it. Then Zach decided he wanted to write a note to the tooth fairy too (even though he had not lost any teeth). His note said, "I still have all my teeth in my mouth." He put the note under his pillow and the tooth fairy wrote him back "I’ll keep looking!" Adam got $1 and put it in his piggy bank right away.

Last weekend Mick and Jackie came to visit. The boys were so excited to play with cousins Maggie and Max. We went to the zoo on Saturday morning, then celebrated Mother’s Day on Sunday. The boys picked out a "Superheroes" DVD for me…28 episodes of Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and the Wonder Twins. I also got two other movies that are more my style.

The weather has warmed up so we’ve been playing outside more and more. We’ve had a few very windy days and lots of storms. We only have a few more weeks left at preschool, and then the boys start their mom’s day out programs at their preschool and at the Y.

The newest craze in the Dyer household is golf. You might remember that recently miniature golf was the favorite sport. Well, we bought the boys a jr. golf set and they hit balls all morning in the backyard...Scott was happily playing along with them.

We have two soccer games left and both boys have enjoyed the season. Zach has really started to "get" the game and made three goals on Saturday. Adam continues to be confident on the field as well. The next sport we’re trying is T-ball, which starts the week after soccer ends. Tonight we tried out our new bats and baseball mitts!

We are glad that the days are warmer and the kids can play outside without hats, gloves and coats. We’ve had several nice days and it brings all the neighborhood kids out, which is both good and bad. Good in that there is always someone to play with, but when all eight boys (yes, there are eight boys between the ages of three and seven) are playing together, you have to have a couple of adults around to act as referees. The funniest thing was when they were all trying to play a soccer game. The three oldest boys were bossing the younger ones around, who weren’t really paying attention in the first place. One of the boys had never played soccer before so didn’t know all the rules. One boy kept moving the goal, which made Adam burst into tears. I was trying hard not to laugh because all the kids were just hollering at each other - it was pretty chaotic.

Both boys got new bikes last weekend. Adam is growing out of his little bike, and we thought the excitement of a new bike would encourage Zach to start riding. It did, until a few seconds after getting on his bike, he totally wiped out!

Zach was so anxious to start riding his bike (his has training wheels)…so he pedaled out on the driveway and started to turn, and fell flat on his back. He got really upset and said he didn’t want to go outside “ever again!” and refused to get back on his bike and start riding again.

Adam was a little better, although his new bike is bigger than his old one, so his feet are not flat on the ground when he’s not riding. He crashed a few times too, but in the end, decided that his new bike was “way cooler” than his old one. It even has a HAND BRAKE!

By the early evening, Zach decided he wanted to try again. So this time we went across the street to the sidewalk, so he could get used to riding in a straight line, without having to navigate the turns. He crashed a few more times (one time he said he hit his eye, one time he got his hands wet in the grass, and one time his shoe fell off) and there were plenty of tears, but each time he did get back on and continue riding. By the time we went inside, he said he was riding his bike so fast that FIRE was coming out the back!