Texas

It's always a great time when we can go to Texas to hang out and reconnect with our family down there.  I love to see my kids play with their cousins and to build those friendships.  Clayton and Nolan have enjoyed playing sports with each other.  They are both shy, but competitive kids and they have a great time when they are together.

When we are in Texas, we alway have to stock up on the Shipley's donuts.  We pick them up for breakfast about every other day.  Cooper loves donuts, so he is alway in heaven when he gets to eat Shipley's!

This was the last time Grandma Cooper would venture down to Texas.  She came for the wedding and actually stayed for a week afterwards.  It was fun to have her home with Mom and to be able to spend some time with her.

Shayne and Tyler always rope me into exercising with them while I'm in town.  I actually love it because I get exercise after I over indulge myself with all the wonderful food, but I love getting that individual time with them.  We all grew up being very active and competing in sports, so its always a good time to run or play basketball together.

Sherrie's neighborhood is full of the neatest activities for the kids.  They have splash pads, and playgrounds and basketball courts.  They have canoes and paddle boats available to reserve and use on all their lakes and ponds.

Sean and Kellye have a lemon tree in their backyard.  I thought this was so cool, because I had grown up listening to the song, Lemon Tree, but I had never seen a lemon tree.  I had to go outside a get a picture in front of the lemon tree.

Gotta love the warm Texas rains!  We had a great time playing in the rain.  I showed the boys the fun adventures of running up and down in the gutters and sitting in the warm rain.  We had leaf and twig races down the streams.   We had a blast and it totally brought back memories of me playing in the rain all the time as a child.

Tyler and Myriah's Wedding

We were able to make it just in time to see Tyler and Myriah get married in the Houston Temple.  It was a beautiful ceremony.  After they came out of the temple, we took pictures with all the family from both sides.  It started to down pour and so some of the pictures were great and the others captured the wet hair and clothes.  It was fun to play in the rain and enjoy the wedding.

Later they had a wedding reception at the LDS Institute in College Station.  They served panini's, fruit and cake.  We were able to see a lot of old friends like my best childhood friend, Neal Claborn.  It was good to catch up on life with Neal and his family. We had a dinner the night before at C&J's BBQ.  The food was great and it was nice to get to know Myriah's family a little better.

Traveling to Texas

We had quite the adventure on our way to Texas.  We were lucky enough to have Jacqui help me drive down there.  She wanted to be apart of Tyler's wedding and also see the family while there.  Our first stop was in Durango Colorado, where we met Torri at McDonalds so we could eat lunch and let the kids run around and play.  We also went down to the river for a small walk.

The first night, we stopped in New Mexico in a dumpy town and slept in a dumpy hotel room.  The town looked like a ghost town and we were a little scared to be by ourselves.  The swimming pool was not working, so that was a huge let down.  We watched a little TV, ate some KFC and then went to bed.

The next morning we were up and gone by 3 am.  Little did we know that up ahead there was an accident that would strand us on the freeway for 8 hours.  It was crazy and crappy and made for a long day.  But, it will never be forgotten.  When the kids woke up, we took them outside to walk around the road with all the other people.  We got to know some of our neighboring trucking friends.  It was pretty interesting to try and entertain a 16 month old for 8 hours while we sat there on the roadside. Quite and experience!

Along the way, we did a quick stop in Moab so the kids could stretch their legs and climb up to Wilson's Arch.

Trip to Texas

 In May, Cooper had his last concert of the year.  He really enjoyed participating in choir and loved his teachers.  They did a great job on their performances and Cooper was able to show off his talents in singing.  The week before school ended, we pulled the kids out and headed to Texas on a 24 hours drive.  Jacqui helped me drive and the kids all did a great job in the car.  Just after we crossed over the Texas border, we sat on the freeway for 8 hours.  There had been an accident that had blocked the road, so we let the kids out to run around on the Interstate. We made some trucker friends. It was early morning around 4, so it was pretty cold and the kids slept for a few hours before waking up to face hours and hours of sitting on the road.

 We did so many activities while we were in Texas for those 5 weeks.  We were still in a transition phase because we didn't have a home yet, so we decided to stay for quite a while and it was so much fun to bond with our siblings and cousins and Grandma and Grandpa.

 We had a little incident one day while we were up at the University.  We decided to go up there on an unusually cool summer day to walk around campus and see the new stadium.  We had been throwing the football and talking and visiting when all of a sudden Parker looked up at Shayne and just smiled.  At that moment, Shayne realized that Perri was asleep in the car when he unloaded the other kids.  He instantly took off running as fast as he could and he found Perri still sleeping in the back.  What a tender mercy from our Lord to have an unseasonably cool day in May!

 We went to a Children's Museum while we were down staying with Sean and Kellye in Spring.  There were many activities for the kids and they had a great time playing in the sand, pretending to shop, and also driving cars.

 Steph and Paul stayed at the Marriott next to Mom's house and so one evening we all went over to the pool to eat dinner and enjoy the water. It is always a treat for me to watch my kids interact and create friendships with their cousins that they don't get to see very often.

 We went to Sea World in San Antonio and it was so hot. The kids had fun, but us adults were not quite sure what we thought about it.  We were sweating our guts out and there was no relief.  The kids liked watching the dolphins and whales and we even watched a show with some seals. There were some rides that the kids enjoyed and also the cold ice cream kept us going!

 WE also visited the Alamo while we were in San Antonio.  Bryce and Cooper went in and looked around at all the old artifacts.  Afterwards, we walked down along the RiverWalk and ate lunch at a yummy Mexican restaurant. It was definitely warm, but we seemed to survive!

Adventures in May

We enjoyed going to down to the River Walk in Riverdale. We could either walk or ride our bikes along the trails.  The trail ran next to the river, so the boys loved throwing rocks in it.  Its kind of a quaint little trail next to a busy city, but you would never know because its so quiet and peaceful.

Steph and Paul keep their pool heated in the Spring, so we spent some days over in their pool.  The boys have become excellent swimmers and they love spending time in the water.  Its always fun to swim in a heated pool when its still cool temperatures outside.

We took a trip to the Willow Park zoo with Clayton's kindergarten class.  Parker loved looking at all the animals.  She especially liked this little duck that would hang out by the fence.

We took a ride on a razor in the later Spring time.  It was cold but Parker just hung out in her carseat and enjoyed the ride.