Sun...of a Beach!

Part 2: Beach and Turtles

After our Riggle family fun in Port Mansfield, we (Travis, Chrissy, & Sierra) packed up and headed even farther south to South Padre Island. We crossed the causeway and headed straight for Sea Turtles, Inc, a non-profit rescue and rehabilitation center for sea turtles. They protect the nests and manage the release of newly hatched Kemp's Ridley sea turtles outside of the National Seashore. They also rescue and rehabilitate stranded sea turtles, some of which have become permanent residents at Turtles, Inc after being deemed "unreleasable". We had hoped to catch a release of hatchlings, but alas, the little guys and girls weren't interested in hatching that day. :( BUT, we're still keeping an eye on the nests at the National Seashore- maybe we'll still see the show this summer!

Sierra being greeted by Fred, a Loggerhead who lost a front flipper due to fishing line entanglement.

Visiting Allison, the Atlantic Green with only one flipper! She lost the other 3 in a predator attack, leaving her to swim in circles. Sea Turtles, Inc recently made history by creating a prosthetic flipper (really more of a rudder), allowing her to swim in a straight line. She was rudder-less while we were there, but you can see her gear on the Sea Turtles, Inc website.




















Sierra doesn't want to be a turtle.

Of course, hotel beds are waaay more fun!

THEN, it was time for the beach!!! Yaaaayyy!!! :D (Mama was excited, can you tell??)
Unfortunately, Sierra was not amused.

In fact, she was downright terrified of the waves. (Sorry about the gratuitous, umm... me, in this picture. Just focus on the baby.)

We eventually convinced her the sand was fun. She mostly thought it was yummy. So she ended up with a pacifier in her mouth as a sand-blockade.

One last try in the waves... nope, still not a fan.


Family at the beach!
And for reference, she was gleefully splashing in the bathtub not 10 minutes later. :P

Papa playing with our new toy, the waterproof, beach-proof, freeze-proof (like that was needed) camera.


After a little baby sunburn on the beach (definitely her father's child), we hunted around for less sun-intensive adventures on the island. We checked out the UT Pan American Coastal Studies Lab and Exhibit. Nothing big or fancy, but they did have a bunch of aquariums/tanks to see smaller sea life that you don't typically see- HUGE hermit crab, seahorses, sea cucumbers, blowfish. It was an interesting display and was a cheap, air conditioned activity, so I do recommend checking it out! We also walked the boardwalks at the new Birding and Nature Center. All very nice and informative- just need more birds!

Reddish Egret (I think...)

Before we left the island, we stopped by to say "bye-bye" to the turtles. Bye Cora!!

Fun in the Sun (for all!)

Part 1: Port Mansfield and the Laguna Atascosa NWR

Last week was our annual trip to enjoy the fishing in Port Mansfield with Travis' family.

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All thanks to our most gracious friend Kim, the entire Riggle clan has top-notch accommodations in our own beach house with a pool, our own charter and fishing expert, and some seriously delicious crab and shrimp nachos (which I will be attempting to recreate this weekend). The weather, company, and food were great! But, unfortunately the fishing wasn't this year. Day 1 was "family fishing" while Sierra, Shambryn, and I hung around at the pool, but the only things caught were 2 ladyfish and a tern. All critters were returned to their habitats and the people to their pool. Day 2 was supposed to be wade fishing (while Sierra hung out with Mamaw and Chrissy went fishing- yay!), but the guide called it off early (early early) that morning due to high winds and poor fishing (boo!). So, we enjoyed some more pool time and Chrissy finally learned to play chicken-foot.

Sunrise over the Laguna Madre (Kim's pier on the right)

The 3 Fisherwomen Riggle 

(and our fearless fisherwoman leader, Kim)

Cousins Abby & Riley helping Sierra learn chickenfoot

Quick- someone get this girl a sippy cup with an umbrella in it!!

Oh yes, this IS the life! 

(and aren't you digging my super-cool hat?!?)

Papa playing with his new toy- the underwater camera!

As everyone one split different directions on Wednesday, we (T, C, & S) headed towards South Padre for a couple more days of sun and beach (more on that in Part 2).

 On our drive down, we stopped through the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge, an area dedicated to preserving the last 5% of native vegetation in S Texas and harboring the last remaining ocelots in the US. High noon on a June day would be about the worst time for spotting ocelots, so we enjoyed a quiet drive through the refuge watching birds fly around over the mudflats.

Common snipe (on some sort of yucca, not sure what kind)

I think we surprised this roadrunner...

Great Blue Heron

LOVE this sign- wish there were more. 

Little Peter Cottontail

Great juxtaposition of a cactus growing on the refuge, looking over the Laguna Madre at the development on South Padre Island.

Summer fun

What's summer without pool time and baseball?
We inherited a couple tickets to the Astros game (thanks Amy!!) on Tuesday, when they played the Nationals. Sierra wasn't all that interested in the game, but the bright, flashing screens, the cheering, the vendors hollering- it was all a fascinating scene. Of course, bed time hit at the end of the 5th inning, so we had to head home before the really amazing part of the evening- the Astros won! and with a 2 run walk-off RBI!

Sierra dressed for the 'Stros!


Papa explaining the rules of the game.


Look- Papa caught a fly-baby! (Actually, we were in fly ball territory and Mama got an F at being aware. Good thing Papa was looking out for us!)


Getting tired...


We took Sierra for her first trip to the pool last weekend- man does this girl bring a lot of stuff! But, she looked adorable and had a ton of fun splashing and riding around on her Papa. Gigi and GrandDoug even joined us to cheer her on. Cousin Jenny was lifeguarding, so Aunt Charlotte and Uncle Dick stopped by too! That night was also the best night of sleep S (and therefore Mama) had gotten in 3 months. We may be going to the pool everyday...

Hot stuff!!


She'll be disappointed to realize she can't float this way..


Happy bear-baby (who already burns like her Papa, hence the extra protection)


Splash, splash, splash


Tackiest float ever, but you should see the canopy on this thing!


Getting tired again. And back to those toes.


Have you ever seen such a tired little face?

A weekend of firsts!

Wow what a weekend! We were a very busy little family this weekend, but we had a lot of fun! Sierra had a lot of "firsts" this past week and, of course, Mama was ready with the camera (or at least iPhone) for all of them!

Sierra finally got to try out the swings at our neighborhood park and had a lot of fun!


So, we decided it was time we hung her very own swing in our backyard. Sierra was excited, of course, and was a big help.

By the way- that awful patio is next on the list of backyard improvements.

With her help, we got the swing hung from the tree and she was ready to go! (Please ignore that obnoxious lady who keeps making funny sounds behind the camera. Geeez- she never shuts up!)

YouTube linky for the non-flashers
The squirrels like the swing too:

YouTube link
Now, if we could just control the mosquitoes in our yard, we'd be set! Anyone know where I can buy 5 gallon buckets of citronella?

Friday night, we headed down to Brazos Bend State Park for an evening hike around the lake. Amazingly, it was really nice- not as buggy and humid as we had expected. (Actually, the marshy lake had far fewer mosquitoes than our backyard.)
Sierra enjoyed the hike- she even stayed awake the whole time! Yay! I swear she was trying to say "alligator"- at least that how I interpreted "ahhhhgaga".


As we walked, we noticed crawfish claws along the path and wondered who had been snacking. Then we figured it out:

This yellow-crested night heron was having his supper. And we're inviting him to Easter next year, because this guy is hard-core. We actually watched several herons and egrets do the same thing. They snatch one out of the water, fly to the trail, and rip its little pinchers off. Then they fly back to the edge of the water, toss the critter around a couple times, and then- gulp!- swallow the crawfish whole! Ouch! It made my stomach flip-flop a couple times thinking about trying to digest that shell. After a little research, I found that these birds have a special stomach acid to aid in the digestion of shells, since crustaceans are a large part of their diets. Wild!

After our Animal Planet adventures that night, we decided a trip to the Natural Science Museum was in order. The next day, Sierra got to enjoy her first trip to the museum!! Ok, so Mama-Nerd was waaay more excited than Sierra. This was the same museum I enjoyed as a kid, and it was a lot of fun to drag her around explaining everything like she understood it all. Haha! Someday it will be fun for her too- or maybe she'll just be rolling her eyes at me. In fact, as my child, that's the more likely scenario. Anyways, here are Sierra and Papa ready for the museum!



We went through the Cockrell Butterfly Center first, which was really cool! As soon as we walked in (and before I had my camera out), butterflies were landing on us. Of course, as soon as I had the camera ready, they had lost interest in us and never did it again. Punks. We were really impressed at the number of butterflies! We'll have to keep going back- what little girl wouldn't love a room full of butterflies?? Sorry- these are crappy iPhone photos. No doubt Travis will be headed back with his "real" camera soon.



Travis and Sierra learned all about caterpillars (and cockroaches- yuck) in the Hall of Entomology.


Next up- Sierra's first trip to the pool and her first baseball game! Yay!!

Full-time Mommy

Since graduation a couple weeks ago, I'm officially a full-time mommy! Wow! And let me tell you- it's just as glamorous as it sounds. Haha! Ok, so it's not glamorous, but it's definitely been fun!
Sierra has been growing into quite the deluxe model baby. She sits and plays with her toys and can pull up on anything she can reach. She LOVES her walker, in which she can now fly across the tile to follow Mama around the kitchen, chase dogs, or even drive the water bowl across the dining room. I'll catch that with the video camera one of these days!

Until then, here are Giggling Baby and Zoe the Floor Buddy:





Last Friday, we sneaked through San Antonio to meet our newest "cousin" Wesley Sidle. Yay! When Wesley was born 2 weeks ago he was the same weight as Sierra (7 lbs, 1 oz) and just an inch longer. It was really incredible- I really could not remember Sierra being so tiny! It was a lot of fun to see them beside one another as evidence of how fast they really do change in just 6 months!! (Pardon my hands- Sierra was very intrigued by that hair Wesley had!)





Also keeping us busy has been our backyard renovation project. So far, we have a new fence (quite fancy, I might add), new grass (adios, dirt farm), and a bunch of new plants (native flowering plants to bring in butterflies and hummingbirds). There's still some more landscaping to do, and possibly some work to the patio. Pictures will be coming soon!

Catching up!

We've been busy! So this post is a whirlwind tour of our last few weeks:

Part 1: Dallas!
After a weekend camping and a weekend in Austin, we loaded up the car for the third weekend in a row! My brother Travis and his lovely fiance Ashley were having their engagement party at their swanky pad in Dallas, and this couldn't be missed! Our traveling circus (Travis, Chrissy, Sierra, and Zoe) crashed at Uncle Austin's place in McKinney and it was dog heaven! Saturday morning we took Zoe, Captain (Austin's English Mastiff) and Brady (Austin's roommate's lab mix) to the K9 Kerplunk in Plano for their annual dog-only swimming event. A total zoo, but everyone had fun and Z was completely worn out. Yay!

Then we showered up and the human portion of our circus headed into Dallas for the big party! Travis and Ashley are an adorable couple and we're SO excited for them! They had a great party too!

Part 2: Graduating Grad School
The following week, back in H-town, was equally as wild as Chrissy finished her last week of graduate school!! It was a fun time- full of maddening fights with Word trying to print the final dissertation and The Great Signature Hunt. That pesky registrar put up a good fight, but there was no way (after 7 years) that an accounting error would stand between me and that doctoral hood. Finally, it was all complete: I delivered a final copy of the dissertation and all 15 signatures to the graduate school on Friday at noon. Yay 11th hour!
5 years of research, reduced to a measly 120 pages.....

Graduation ceremonies were actually the next day and wow was that a wonderful feeling! There were 50 students receiving their PhDs in our ceremony held at the Rice University campus.

Getting hooded:

Yahoo!!!

Shaking hands with UT Regent Robert Stillwell: (Check out the hood!)

After the ceremonies, we headed back to our house for a wonderful graduation party hosted by my mom. I felt so incredibly lucky to have so much love and support from my family and friends- thank you!!! :) More pictures here, including those from T's "studio", if you're interested:



Part 3: Mother's Day
Despite our very strong desire to stay in our pjs all day, it was our day to celebrate our mothers- who undoubtedly felt the exact same way many, many days when we were kids. It's no surprise that I have a whole new appreciation for what Mommies do for us this year. THANK YOU!!! Thank you for caring for us, teaching us, supporting us, and not killing us!! Haha! :) We met Gigi, Granddoug, Uncle Travis and Aunt Ashley for brunch at Pappas Steakhouse (yum!), then headed to Katy for time with Mamaw, GrandPapa, and Uncle Austin. Somehow, we managed to buy a fridge and make it to church also. Wheww! 
Papa and Sierra found a little time to relax and read a book (Cat in the Hat) before bed time:

Part 4: The most important part!
Who am I kidding? You read this blog for the baby pictures... haha! So here you go- your patience for making it all the way through this absurdly long post is rewarded.

Look Mama- Izzy can give me a bath!!

Ooooh Zoe!!! 

Ok- you can clean my mouth, but I get to pull your face fur... (We may have the world's most baby-tolerant dog).

N

Sierra is becoming more mobile- we don't have any real crawling yet, but she excels at spinning in circles and moving in reverse. Which is how she ends up under the coffee table. I'm not sure what this means, other than it's time to baby-proof this house.

 I mean no disrespect to the other Mommies out there, but yes, we do have the world's cutest baby. (Ernie was my fav as a kiddo!)

Congrats on making it to the end!! I have a backlog of videos that I haven't been able to edit and post due to lack of space on my hard drive. As soon as I get that issue sorted out, I promise to post more of Sierra-in-action. Stay Tuned!