Claudia gets a taste of the Orient in the South. . .

Claudia was very excited to try out the Hibachi Style Grill at Kobeya!  So fun and the kids loved it, too!

Micah was not impressed. . .

Marek's First Soccer Team!

Team Pride was their name (Rawwrrrrrrr) and there was another Merrick on his team!  What are the odds?!  His very first team sport.

My sweet boy - he has so so so much fun out there - Coach Cory playing airplane with him . . .

Micah really enjoyed watching her big brother!

She thinks he's hilarious.  I agree. . .

Long Time No Blog...

Well, not much has happened here since my last blog..... Okay - maybe just a few things.  Let me see if I can summarize...

A few of my fave pictures:

June 2010:

Madelyn and Micah at Whisenants

Madelyn's Dance Recital to Material Girl...

July 2010:

This just makes me laugh (Fourth of July at Lake Granbury):

Cousin Time!!

Going on a walk with Nana...

Or run if you're Marek . . .

Cousins minus Micah and Ava

Madelyn's big catfish catch!

July 7th - Marek's 4th Birthday!

Not to be outdone, Madelyn lost her 1st tooth at his birthday party!

 Tom took me on a surprise trip to Vail, Co.  It was all my favorite things in my favorite place!

Mountain Biking...

Hot Air Balloon Ride!!  It was so beautiful!!

Check out our shadow!  

Our captain...

Hot tub with the view of the ski slopes in the background...

Girls Trip to close off July...

Love these girls...

August 2010

Madelyn's first day of Elementary School!  My little Kindergartener...

Micah growing like a weed!

SEPTEMBER 2010

Madelyn and our Au Pair, Claudia, making cookies!  (Madelyn's such a poser!)

Marek's first day of Preschool!!

Father's Day in Houston

We went to Houston to celebrate Father's Day and Mimi and Dziadek's anniversary.  Tom flew in early for business so Claudia, the kids, Brock and I all packed up in the new Suburban and headed down on Friday after work!

We drove straight to Gena and Dan's new house and it's just beautiful and is close enough to Mimi and Dzidek's house.   

On Saturday, we headed to Mimi and Dziadek's for some swimming!

 Swing, batter, swing!

 Gena really worked hard to plan a nice weekend for Mimi and Dziadek.  We all pitched in to get a limo and the destination(s) were a surpise . . .

 The limo was . . . a bit warmish.  It was mid June but this ride was not cooling down at all.  It made for a very intense road trip.

 After a bit of us complaining, they had another limo meet us at one of our destinations which was, I believe, Mimi's mother's house.

Gotta move to the other limo. . .

 Ahh, white - maybe that will help . . .

 Well, it didn't and tempers were flaring at this point.  Even the limo driver was getting stressed.  He slammed on his breaks at one point and we all flew forward.  I was drinking a Firefly Vodka lemonade and most of it landed on Mimi and in Dan's crotch.  He was actually pleased because it cooled him down.  I'm so glad to help . . .

 After that incident, we opted for our own travel.  We picked the 'Burb complete with comfortable seats and most importantly air conditioning!

Gena read from her script as Dan drove us from place to place.  All of the destinations were places in Mimi and Dziadek's life - Rice University (where they met), Mimi's mother's house, their first home (where Tommy was born), and the final destination was the Petroleum Club for dinner.

Brian had had enough after the limo fiasco so Brian and Jessica met us at the Petroleum club for dinner!

It was a wonderful and very memorable day.  We even discussed that there was probably a lot more wars and murders before air conditioning was invented.

Thank you, Gena, for making the day very special for your mom and dad.  :)