Field Trip

This past weekend we went up to Oklahoma for a little camping trip and Kiddie Park trip. I got up there on Thursday evening, and Dave flew in Friday morning. Since our friends weren't going to arrive until late afternoon on Friday, we decided to go meet my dad and Garrett for lunch in Wynona. Wynona is the town where my dad's workshop it, and a lot of his leases are also located there. It's the tiniest town I've ever been to (about 300 ppl)...it has 1 restaurant, 1 gas station, and NO stop lights! 

Here are the kids looking at some of Papa's equipment:

After lunch at DJ's hamburger joint, dad wanted to take us to this ranch where he was going to be borrowing some hay/trailer for a hayride. My dad knows these ranchers because some of his leases are located on the land. It just so happened that the rancher was having his cows "worked on"-- castrations, brandings, ear piercings, vaccinations, etc. So, we got to observe a little bit of it:

 (yes, that's a bucket full of cow testicles)

After the science lesson on the ranch, we headed to check out some of Papa's leases.

He showed the kids how to stop/start a well:

 Then, he showed the boys "what money looks like"

 Total Papa's boy:

 going up to measure the level of oil in the tanks:

 Garrett had to do a quick repair:

It was so fun to show the kids that side of life-- of Papa's life now and of my life as a kid. I have so many memories of coming to these exact leases when I was their age (and older). 

William's First Date

Our next door neighbor's have a little girl who is about to turn 5. Her name is Savannah, and William loves to play with her. We don't see them much in the dead of winter or the blaze of summer since we're inside either keeping cool or keeping warm! So, William and Savannah play together out front in the spring and in the fall.

Savannah recently got a Barbie power car, and it's the hit of the street. She graciously (and sometimes not-so-graciously) takes turns with William in the drivers seat.

Here they are, taking a stroll down the street. 

This picture below KILLS me. Not sure that baby would survive should they get in a crash...

Grandma!

The kids have been looking forward to the visit from Grandma (Dave's mom) for awhile now. It's always a nice treat when she comes to visit because the kids get royally spoiled! (which, by the way, we're on detox now...) :-) It's ok...it's worth it...I got a little spoiled myself (shopping on Grandma's $$ at White House Black Market is never a bad thing!)

We spent the better part of Friday at the Fort Worth Zoo. We have a membership there, so we get there pretty frequently.  The boys never get tired of it (and frankly, neither do I). The MOLA (Museum of Living Art) is the newest addition to the zoo-- and it's filled with all kinds of amphibians and reptiles. Normally, I'm not a big fan, but they have done an amazing job with this. The boys LOVE it-- and their favorite thing is the Komodo Dragon.

 checking out the Gorillas:

On Saturday we went to the Pumpkin patch. The boys were SO excited to show Grandma the pumpkin patch that we go to every year. Even though Hudson isn't looking at the camera, I LOVE this picture of him looking at Grandma:

Saturday night, we went to Joe T Garcia's for dinner. This is a famous Mexican restaurant that's somewhat famous in these parts. It's all outdoors with lots and lots of trees. The atmosphere is amazing-- fountains everywhere...a very tropical feeling. The weather was perfect for this. The food is average, but it was surprisingly good that night. They serve fajitas or Enchiladas. It's nice to not have a lot of choice.

It was a great visit, as usual. The kids are very excited since they only have to wait about 5 weeks to see Grandma again, at Thanksgiving.

40

A close friend of mine just turned 40. Being the totally awesome friend that I am, I organized a huge surprise party for her. :-)

It was a blast, and I feel certain that she had no idea it was going to happen:

And what's an over-the-hill party with a really mean, but equally hilarious cake?

 (in case you can't read the "road sign", it says "It's all down-hill from here.")

Cooler Weather?

Last week a few of us friends thought we'd take advantage of the cooler weather and take the kids to the Botanical Gardens for a picnic and frolicking in the grass (actually, we were planning on going to the Mini Train, but it was unexpectedly closed that day, so the B.G. was Plan B). It was beautiful there, and the kids had a blast.

The problem was, it wasn't cooler weather like we thought it was going to be. It was a cool 97 degrees, muggy, and NO breeze. It was still fun, but we didn't stay too long because we were all sweating buckets!

Quick Getaway

We decided to take the kids on a little mini-vacation this past weekend. We didn't go on a family vacation this year because we're planning a big one next year.

San Antonio seemed like a great place: Sea World and the Riverwalk- a little bit for everyone!

Our first stop was Natural Bridge Wildlife Park. As you can see, it's a drive through park, and you get to feed the animals from the car. The boys LOVED it!

Our next stop was the Children's Discover Museum of San Antonio. It was only a few blocks from our hotel, and the boys loved it.

After a little swimming in the pool on the rooftop of our hotel, we headed out for dinner on the Riverwalk. It was yummy, and the boys thought it was super cool to be sitting right next to the river while we were eating. It was a such a nice evening.

On Friday, we headed out to Sea World. The kids didn't know where we were going until we got there. When we got there, William spotted the Shamu statue at the front, and he said "Mommy, look at that Shamu!" I said, "So, where do you think we are?" He looked at me with wide eyes, and said "SEA WORLD?" He was thrilled!

Thumbs up for the Shamu Express:

It was a such a fun day, and a fabulous mini-vacation!

Rainy Day picnic

Last night, as I was cooking dinner, I decided to go ahead and pack the boys' lunch for school today. I figured I was already messing up the kitchen and doing this-n-that, so I may as well get that chore knocked out. As luck would have it, the school called about 1 hour later saying that there had been a flood at the school so school was cancelled Thursday. Nice.

So, I decided that we would use said lunches and go for a picnic today, you know, since they were already packed in lunch boxes and ready to eat. Well, as more luck would have it, it rained all night long and off and on all morning.

Here is what we ended up doing:

There's nothing like a picnic lunch on the living room floor! The boys thought it was great. As we were eating, I said to them "So, what do you think about a picnic on the living room floor?" William replied, "Mommy, I like it, but it's weird, isn't it?" Yes, it is weird. But weird is good, no?