Trip 2 to TX

So I'm just getting to our trip to Texas we took back in April. We decided, on a whim, to make the 24 hour drive down to get some much needed R & R. The drive wasn't that bad. On the way down we drove through the night and the kids did pretty well. On the way back we stoped at a hotel for a night and the drive seemed to drag out more that way. I've learned that it's a lot easier to get through a LONG drive without a million questions, comments, needs, etc. coming at you from the back seat. All in all we would definitely do it again.

Just a few highlights from the trip . . .


My mom has lots of ceramics to paint and a kiln to fire them up. The kids LOVE getting crafty at Grammy's house and I love how washable it all is.


Poppy showed the kids all his "treasures" from "long ago". I'm not so sure the kids had the patience to listen to the history behind EVERY piece that my dad was so eager to share with them, but they definitely enjoyed the discoveries of the old box. I remember seeing that box on my parents dresser all throughout my childhood and always wondering what kind of little things my dad kept in there. It was pretty cool.


Grammy started the kids with their own rock collections. They we're thrilled.



S'mores with some of the cousins and a dip in paradise.


Baby Danni was good to put up with Charlee constantly loving on her. You have got to love that hair on KK head.


And of course back to the ranch, one of our favorite places. Molly is helping Grammy feed the cows.

Dillon and Charlee down by the water looking for bones and skipping rocks.

Dillon found this old drill bit, he was REALLY excited about that.
And I found these bones that apparently belong to an animal that looks like this called a Nutria.


We spent some time in SOCO ( South Congress), which is this super cool funky strip with lots of neat shops and fun places to eat. These kind of places is what Austin is all about. I love it!



The Bob Bullock Texas Sate History Museum



Zilker Park. I really love this place and I really love this picture that Travis took.



Then comes the tradition of it all. The Easter Egg Hunt. For the last several years my dad has been filling the Easter eggs with money for a fun pre-Easter hunt and get together. Sorry, the only way to get in on this action is to either marry one of us, or be conceived by one of us. Anyway, we all had a lot of fun and I think this might be the first time in the history of the hunt that we found ALL the eggs, which is a good thing because our eggs funded the gas for our trip.


Charlee got to hunt indoors for coins and them deposit them into her new Easter bank.

If your wondering why we're all wearing white shirts and jeans, we had just taken pictures with my whole family. I'll share those in a post to come.

On the drive home we stoped in Kentucky to visit the Mammoth Caves. It was really cool touring the caves. It's cold and dark down there, the makings for a fantastic game of spooky hide and seek.


Texas, we miss you already! I'm sure we'll be back soon.

A Hard Days Work

Dillon and I were watching Reading Rainbow one afternoon. They were talking all about children who have started their own businesses and interviewing different children on their keen sense of entrepreneurship. This is when Dillon got this great idea to have an orange juice stand. We had about 30 minutes before we had to leave to pick up Molly from school, so we put a few things together. I convinced Dillon that we had lots of limes and he agreed that we would have a limeade and orange juice stand. Dillon decorated the sign. We ran by the store on the way to the school and got cups at a price of around $2.25. Dill decided on a sell point of 10 cents a cup. But really for your dime you got a cup or limeade, a free refill of orange juice, and a Vanilla Oreo. That's a steal if you ask me. We set up at the playground at Molly's school and were sold out in less than 15 minutes. There were LOTS of kids. Total earned $5.70. That's a profit of $3.45 folks. Good Job Dillon.

Family Bowling

Here are a few highlights from our most recent bowling trip in Mentor...
Check out Molly's form. You can also check out her lip where she fell and split it open into a gaping mess. It has since healed up, but there is definitely a lasting scar. Poor girl.

He's so proud of his game. Or at least he was for the first three frames, then he got bored and wanted everyone else to do it for him.


Charlee is a little pro in the works (thank you bumpers).
Isn't it great the way the ball matches me shoes? You got to love those bowling shoes.

Last but not least, the man with all the bowling talent in our house. Daddy.

Dance

Molly had a dance recital in March. Dillon and Charlee brought her flowers and Grandma and GG were in town and able to see the recital as well. Molly did great and the girls all looked really cute up there on stage striking their various poses.






A future dancer perhaps?

Catching Up

I have a TON of catching up to do. This is from Molly's choir concert a few months back. She loves this song, so I wanted to get it on here.

My Solo in TX

So my best friend Lana (left), whom I grew up with in Austin TX and moved out to WA with after high school, convinced me to meet her in Austin, without our husbands and children, back in March.

I had a FANTASTIC time. We got to catch up with some old friends and spend some quality time with our families. Thanks Lana for convincing me that there are some definite good times to be had away from it all.


My beautiful mother taught me how to make tamales. I need to get a bunch of women over here and get an assembly line going so we can whip up a bunch at once.

etc...



A trip to the farmers market with my bro and his lovely wife and daughter.



This is a picture of my dad with the kids from his visit here just before I went down there to visit. I thought I would throw this one in, just cause it's so cute.


Lana and her nieces on the Congress Bridge waiting to see the bats.

Man, I love this city!

My kids started early this morning with things like " There's a centipede on your head!!! April fools mommy" They have been looking forward to this day for a while and I know I'll be hearing about it all day. I'm trying to come up with something good for when they get home from school. Any ideas?