My cousins, Marianne and Brenden, and Aunt Bridey just made their annual trek to Texas. This year was super cool because we all met up at Ga and Pawpaw's beach house.

I was immediately enamoured by Brenden, or "boy" for short, especially after he started reading me Curious George stories, my fave.
Me and Marianne played at the beach - I gave her a fun for her money on being able to keep up with me. I'm just fast!
Good times building a sand castle.
And cooling off with a pop-sicle back at the beach house.
Look everyone, I'm taller than GA!
We all love to eat watermelon at the beach, especially Brenden. He's got on braces now, so he's limited in what he can eat.
Marianne and I shared pop corn, one of my new favorite foods. If I could eat ice cream for breakfast, pop corn for lunch and gummies for dinner, I'd be set. Of course I eat most of what they put in front of me, but if I had my druthers...Sometimes we get bored at the beach when we aren't allowed to go to the Ocean during the heat of the day.

Then, we have a BIG WATER BALLOON FIGHT!!!!
And get Aunt Bridey...
and dada and HIS NEW BOAT all wet!
Sweet Marianne - hasn't she grown up into a beautiful young woman?
This is one of the only pictures taken in Katy. We spent as much time at the beach as possible.

Point made. Where the bull-DOE-zers are, I am.
Ga and Pawpaw were just so happy to have all their grandbabies together.
One of our favorite things to do at the beach is get ice cream - see below for picture of the ice cream truck.
I am learning to share.
I want to grow up to be just like Brenden. He is funny and sweet and creative and of course, loves ME!Mama and Marianne checkin' it out.
A bathing suit shot? Well, she's seen better days, but mama's been working hard at the gym. Can you believe they've been married almost 5 years, together almost 15?

Pawpaw with his prize golf cart in the background, charged and ready to go.
Pawpaw did fireworks with Marianne and Brenden. I didn't like the noisy so Bridey took me inside. One day Marianne and Brenden got to go to the waterslide at Crystal Beach. That's Marianne shakin' her stuff up the hill to get to the slide.
Sweet ride.
One day Brenden, Marianne and Bridey drove to Sugarland to meet Wesley Wright, the new Astro relief pitcher. We got hugs from Junction Jack on the way in.
15 second moment of fame - we were on the Channel 13 news. Well, our feet were...

We're all growing like weeds.

But, all good things must come to an end. My buds all left last weekend and are safely back in Missouri and ready to kick off another school year. All we can do is wait for next year. Love you guys!

A few weeks back, mama and dada's friends Charlene and Robert were married. Charlene and Robert are part of the TaeKwonDo gang, so the wedding was a great chance for mama and dada to catch up with friends. The Howells family went to the wedding, and then joined us in Katy for the night. After the wedding, mama and dada took Michelle and Dave out on the town.

There was some serious fun to be had that night!

Uncle Justy brought his girlfriend, Shauna. She's a fun chick too.

On Sunday, we all got up early-ish and went down to the beach to visit Papa and Ga. The Howells family joined us. Everyone got a kick out of riding on Papa's golf cart. And then, they descended...
That's right, crazy fingers and
Crazy legs were back in town for the next two weeks.

Guest blog appearance by Marianne Martin:

at the beach with mama, cousin marianne , cousin brenden and aunt bridy, we stopped to get some ice cream. i was a mess after eating my spiderman ice cream.

Happy second birthday Liam!Liam is just about three weeks younger than me. While dada had testing at his school for his students, mama and I went to the Alden house (see link above right) for Liam's birthday party. Liam is very into Thomas the Train. So is my friend Luke. I'm still into tractors and construction equipment. Liam had cool toys - it was so exciting to see all the different stuff!

Mama thought it was very cool that Liam and I almost, kinda, sorta played together. Just a little. Most kids my age play "side by side", but that will continue to change. In a few years, we'll be playing at the beach together.

Mama's friend Sandy sent me this ultra hip sushi puzzle all the way from Chicago for my second birthday. Mama is really excited to see Sandy, and hopefully we will all get to meet Noelle and Melissa, in September in Chicago.
I love that you can arrange the pieces in so many different patterns. Hamachi, tako, maguro, tekka maki, kappa maki, wasabi...

We had a visit from some more of mama and dada's buddies, Dave and Sher. They came by to see me, of course, and see dada's boat. David and dada went fishing the other day and caught some trout. We don't eat them, though, because there are warnings about Galveston Bay's PCB levels. Gross.

It's official, I'm allergic to...

[in most severe order] PEANUTS (I have an epi pen and everything), egg whites (which makes sense because I've never eaten eggs when offered), cats, and molds. Interestingly, no pollens, which doesn't explain my nose running. But I am now taking Nasonex and we are going through 100 less boxes of clean-ex every week. It's unbelievable how much it has helped.

Pictured above, I ate something, mama can't remember what right now - GA, what was it? - but was fine. Ga took the picture so we could show the doctor, but we forgot to bring it...oops.

REMINDER FRIENDS AND FAMILY - NO PEANUTS FOR ME!!! Just like dada, peepaw and uncle Billy.

'Cause I'm a cowboy... Eatin gummies...'Climbin in the oven drawer...

Makin' mama crazy.

Every year for the last three years, "Aunt" Shannon has come to Texas - when mama was prego with me, when I was almost one, and now, when I just turned two. We are long-time buds. We hung out before I was even born!

Sha, as we call her, is a pilates instructor and chiropractor in Atlanta. She is one of the only people mama knows that has a more rockin' body now than when she was in college! Sha and mama met in college - there are so many memories.

On Sunday morning, mama and Sha's college buddy Ruthie came over to visit. Ruthie and mama were in a play together in college when Ruthie was a Senior and mama was a Freshman. They kept in contact a little after graduation, but eventually lost touch. After mama got married to dada (after dating almost ten years since mama was 18 in college, dada was a junior), she began thinking about old friends from college, and Ruthie, her dear buddy, came to mind. Mama found an old email address and gave it a shot. Ruthie emailed back to say "I LIVE IN HOUSTON!!!" The rest is history. How cool is that?

While the ladies chatted it up, seriously, I kept cool with Mickey.
Eat your heart out ladies -- check out my lashes. Oh, how mama wishes she had them. I got them from dada.

And all good things have to come to an end. I hated to see these ladies go!

Mama and I visited the Seven Lakes community pool. I ran, literally, between the beach entrance pool, to the sprinklers, to the baby pool for an hour. Mama, who had quite a workout actually, must have said "walk" a thousand times if she said it once. But, mama felt validated that night when she heard me talking myself to sleep over the baby monitor.
I said "mama WALK hold hand."
We're making progress.

I have my sights on that slide. Maybe in a couple years.

Very GQ.

Welcome Jackson Troy Allen

Mama is excited to announce the birth of Jackson, first son of Troy (that mama works with) and Jordan (that mama has become buddies with). Jackson was born on July 15 and weighed in at 8lbs 4oz, and was 21 inches long. Mama is still trying to convince Jordan and Troy to make a blog - we'll keep you posted!

STOP THE PRESSES - Jackson has his very own blog now - the link is to The Allen Family on the right.