October 2016

Brace yourself for picture overload- October was a FULL month!  :)

A childhood friend of our family's got married on October 1.  Heather came into town for it, and we enjoyed dinner with a group of friends.  I love each of these girls so much!

Eli's school hosted a 5k run, and Eric and Eli did it together.

Eli ran the entire time and got second place for his age group!

The original Bergstroms at the wedding.  :)

A rare photo of just Eric and me.  The wedding was beautiful, and it was great to see some friends we hadn't seen in a long time.

We went to the drive-in movies one night and had a blast as always.  Here is Eli all snuggled up in the back of the car, waiting for "Pete's Dragon" to start.

Anxiously waiting...

 Playing hockey in the driveway.

We went to the Texas State Fair a couple weeks ago and took CJ with us.  We had a blast, as always.

They rode so many rides!  After Disney World this summer, CJ and Eli were old pros at the scary rides.  :)

Obligatory shot in front of the ferris wheel.

Corn dogs!  The BEST fair food.  CJ looks sad, but I promise he had a blast.  :)

Big Tex!

They had this fun "Ninja Warrior" course set up for kids.  Both boys loved it and did it over and over again.

This is not a good picture, but I still love it.  Wolfing down funnel cakes at the end of our night, by the light of the rides- love it!

Our whole family went camping, as usual in the fall.  We had a blast!  Three boys in the woods:

Lots of hiking.  This is the best shot I could get with Hank in it- he won't stay still in pictures!

The guys played football for a long time.

The kids swam, too!  The weather here has been so warm this fall.

Dock jumping.

Feeding the ducks.  Or, in Hank's case, trying to figure out how to feed ON the ducks.  :)

My sweet boy.

My favorite thing in the whole world to do is walk around the Daingerfield Lake at sunrise.  I logged a lot of miles this trip, and I couldn't have been happier.  This is my favorite spot in the entire world to be!

Fishing was done, but not many fish were caught!

A rare shot of Hank at rest.  

We played whiffle-ball and kickball in the field.

Family photo.

If you happen to still be reading (sorry this is so long!)...  We ended our month with a trip to Chicago.  I was there for a few days for a work thing, and Eric and Eli met me after my meeting on Friday ended at lunchtime so we could spend the weekend together.  We PACKED our time full of activities, and we loved Chicago!  

Our first deep dish Chicago pizza!  Eli kept saying, "This is so FILLING!"  :)

The "bean."  

Whatever the reason for this thing, it's super cool to look at/walk under, etc.

The trees were so beautiful there.  Our fall has been so WARM here in Texas that the trees are still green.  It was such a treat to see classic fall foliage in Chicago.

We went up to "The Ledge" at the top of Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower).  It was such a strange/scary experience to stand on glass 110 stories above the ground!

Yikes!

Super yikes!

We walked all over the city, and at every turn there was such a beautiful view.  

This is outside the Aquarium, right on Lake Michigan.

We explored Soldier Field, where the Bears play.

We went to the Navy Pier and rode the ferris wheel and had Chicago-style hot dogs.

At the top of the ferris wheel.

Playing the boat-driving game.

We went to Lincoln Park Zoo, and they had a bunch of "fall fest" activities for kids, including this corn maze.  They kept going through it as fast as they could to "beat their time."  :)

The Zoo!

Even though we're not Cubs or Indians fans, per se, we couldn't be in Chicago while the World Series was going on and NOT experience at least a taste of Cubs mania!  We went to Wrigley Field right before the game was starting on Saturday night, and it was INSANE.  The energy was amazing- it was really fun to be in the middle of it!  Once the game started, we took a train back to our hotel and watched the game while sitting in bed eating tacos and guacamole- THAT'S how I like to watch baseball games!  :)

The end! (Finally!)  October was so full and busy that I feel like the holidays just snuck up on me!  I'm so excited for all that is to come.  Love to you all!

September, 2016

The only pictures I took in September were of our trip to Destin, Florida!  That was for sure the hi-light of the month.  We spent 4 days in Destin with Eric's Uncle Albert and Aunt Kathy, and we had a fantastic time, as always.  We played on the beach, spent a day on a boat, played games, and ate SO much good food.  It was the perfect way to end the summer.  Way too many pictures are below!  :)

First day on the beach.  

Sandcastle building!

Boogie boarding!

Attempting to catch fish with a net- unsuccessfully!  :)

No trip to Destin is complete without a meal (or two!) at the Back Porch.  

We walked around the Harbor after dinner a couple of evenings.  There is so much to do for kids.  Eli (and Eric and Albert!) loved this indoor gun shooting game.

This picture is so blurry, but Eli loved the bungee trampoline thing too.

At night we hunted ghost crabs!  At night you can stand on the balcony and look down the beach and see so many pools of light from flashlights- everyone takes their kiddos down to walk the beach and catch these super-fast, super-cool little crabs that come out at night.

You can kind of see Eli bent over in the light.  :)

One of my favorite things in the whole world is to walk the beach at sunrise.  

SO pretty!

We rented a pontoon boat one day and had a blast.

Eli caught a couple blue crabs (that we threw back)- he was so excited.

Pure happiness!

Crab #2.

We stopped at this one little spot to look for shells, of which there were MANY.  But they ALL had crabs in them!  :)  There were a ton of them all clinging onto this log- it was a really neat thing to observe.

We took the boat to a spot called "crab island," which is a shallow sand bar area with great snorkeling.  Unfortunately, there were so many jelly fish in the water that we were too afraid to get out of the boat!  :)  

I love Eli's face here.  :)

 Eli and Uncle Albert and Aunt Kathy.

 More beach pictures...

 And that's the end!  We're ready for FALL!  Much love!

August 2016

August was pretty calm, which we loved.  It made jumping back into the school routine difficult!  :)  A few pictures from our month below...

Eli built an "airplane" in his room.  The pictures don't do it justice- it was really cute.  :)

Here he is at the "control panel."

Eli and I went to Northpark Mall one day to do a little shopping, have lunch, and see a movie.  It was a great "date" together!

We met some friends at Splash Kingdom one day before school started.  The kids had a blast riding ALL the rides- even the scary ones!  Eli has had a special connection with Victoria since Primer, but we haven't seen them in a while.  It was fun to see them pick right back up where they left off, and Victoria's mom and I had a great time catching up too.

 Here are Eli and Victoria coming off the end of the volcano slides.

Hank had his second birthday this month!  He got a giant bone as a present, and he was in heaven.  :) 

First day of THIRD GRADE!  Eli was super excited to go back to school.  We're so thankful for a great school, great teachers and faculty, and great friends for him there.

Ready to go!

And this was in the care on the way home one day last week- getting back into the school routine is exhausting!  :)  His lips are blue from a snow cone.  :)  

And that was August!  As much as I love fall, I am sad to see summer slip away.  We had such a great time this summer and made some wonderful memories.  I'm very thankful!