Stephen F. Austin State Park

The week after spring break we tried camping again-- this time in our tent and with our dog.  We had so much fun that BOTH Jared and I ended up writing to our families about the trip.  So this post will have portions of Jared's emails because there were some things that I just couldn't say any better than he did.  You will recognize his words by the different font.

Griffin stayed tied up while we set up the tent and started the fire.

Micah (and Luke, but mostly Micah) loved the "camping fire" and was pretty impressed when I couldn't get the stupid thing lit and resorted to hosing it down with lighter fluid.  He thought that since I "turned on" the fire with my lighter, I could turn it off by pushing the lighter button again.  When that didn't work, we decided to dump water on it.  

Both boys enjoyed cooking hot dogs over the fire even though they both refused to eat theirs and dragged their food in the dirt instead.  Griffin appreciated the dirt coated hot dogs, though.

I tried to get a good view of the inside of the tent but it didn't work so well.  I like camping but just can't seem to tone it down.  Jared thinks a sleeping bag and pillow are all we need.  I am not so much of a minimalist.  I brought air mattresses for Jared and I and for Luke.  Micah slept in a portable crib.  Griffin had his crate and cushy bed.  We also had toothbrushes.

Jared describes our night pretty well:

The campground was beautiful and right next to a swamp that had a bunch of vociferous critters in it--chirping, croaking, chortling, singing, caterwauling, cawing, and generally yakking at each other in hopes, no doubt, of passing on their genes this year.  The critters were not annoying for some reason.  The humans at the campground, however, were.  Until 1:00 a.m. (my best estimate), they were yelling, singing, shouting, tripping on our tent's guy lines, trying to pet our dog, running while screaming, and generally acting like drunken rednecks in hopes, no doubt, of passing on their genes this year.

Griffin did great until we had him in the tent and were ready to sleep.  Then he started barking and kept barking, so we locked him in the car.  Micah woke up around 4:00 a.m. and starting singing Frere Jacques.  We told him to be quiet and go to sleep.  He did.  Until Luke woke us all up at 6:00 a.m. after a bad dream.  At that point, we courteously took our kids and dog on a "hike" (I don't think a walk through the woods can be called a hike if there is no incline or decline involved, but we were definitely on a "trail"--said the sign).  Then we played on the swings, packed up the wet tent and muddy tarp (it rained a little during the night), and went home around10:00 a.m.  

Swing Time!

Griffin crashed out for the rest of the day.

As for the rest of us: After we came home, we got to mow, edge, ride bikes in the cul-de-sac, clean the house, wash the stinky dog, wash the stinky kids, and draft a response to a request for an Attorney General opinion.  Then we woke up the next day, got me packed, went to church (Luke cried when I told him I had to leave early to go to Virginia to review documents in a warehouse for two days--now I know he loves me), and I went to the airport, leaving Stacy to wrastle the young'ins.  Ahhhhhh, relaxing weekends.

Houston Children's Museum and the Rest of Spring Break

Another day during Spring Break we met a friend at the Houston Children's Museum.  In Jan we went to the zoo downtown and, while standing at the sea lion tank, I felt a tap on my shoulder.  I turned around and there was my friend Sherry from Williamsburg, VA!  Her twins were in Luke's preschool class and we used to do play dates often.  She lives in Sugarland now, a suburb south west of Houston. Anyway, we met up with her and her family at the Children's museum.  Unfortunately it seemed like everyone with kids in Houston had the same idea.  It was pretty crazy in there, so while I brought my camera, I didn't actually take too many pictures.

This was the boys' favorite thing.  It works like the drive through at a bank (sort of.)  The balls come down on the right-- blue-- side and then the boys would put them into a hole on the left-- red-- side and the balls would shoot up the pipe, wind around, and then fall back down to the blue.  They did it over and over and over.

The museum was very big, so we didn't see everything, but we went to the mini grocery store that had working scanners.  Luke loved being a checker.  We went to a room with emergency vehicles.  Micah loved the police car.  Then there was a building room with legos, paper, and more.  It's really pretty hard to describe the room, and I obviously didn't take pictures of it.  There was a big ramp race track.  The legos were for making cars to race on the track.  There were also some wooden block cars with a stick standing up on the back.  The paper was to make sails for the car.  There was a flat track running parallel to a row of fans.  The point was to make a wind powered car, but Luke was only interested in the fans.  He turned them on over and over and would then start shrieking in excitement.  Micah spent a lot of time fighting with Luke for a turn with the fans.  I spent a lot of time yelling at Luke to LET Micah have a turn with the fans.  The boys liked that room a lot, but it was not my favorite.  Let's see.  There was a room with lots of climbing equipment.  I can't remember much more about the inside.

But there was a big outside section too-- divided into 3 parts: a water section, a playground area with  sand, and a big grassy area where children could climb into these giant blow up balls.  Sherry's kids wanted to do it, and I was surprised when Luke wanted to go too.  The line was pretty long, but it moved quickly because each child got about 30 seconds inside the ball.  Anyway, while Micah played in the sand, Luke stood in line for his turn.  I was glad I could get some shots with my camera from the sand box.

We ended our spring break with a short trip to the Houston/ Conroe KOA campground with Jared.  It was not real camping at all.  We stayed in a "cabin" that was really more like a cheap hotel suite.  There was a small living/ kitchen area and then a bedroom and bath off of the living room.  I like that kind of camping every once in a while.  We got to the cabin late because Jared got delayed at work.  But we went to the camp playground because it was lit and we could go even though it was dark.  They had a big BLOB-- which is like a big rounded bounce house with no sides.  Micah liked walking around with Jared looking for camping fires.  I remembered to bring my camera to the cabin, but I never remembered to bring it with us when we left the cabin to do the fun stuff.  So no pics.

The next morning we went swimming and then headed back to pack up.  Jared got to have a quick run in the woods, and he loved that.  He definitely misses open spaces.

It was a very short trip, but we had so much fun that we vowed to be regular campers.  In a tent, so we could afford to go often.

We actually went tent camping the very next weekend, and I will post about that soon.

Blessington Farms

We had a lot of fun a few weeks ago during the boys' spring break.  My friend Carrie invited us to go with her and her son to Blessington Farms one day to pick strawberries.  The boys were very excited because Daniel Tiger goes strawberry picking in their favorite episode of Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, which is Micah's favorite show.  He kept singing songs from the episode as he hunted for ripe berries.

The berries were planted very differently from anything I had seen before.  They were planted in bucket tiers that could be turned.  Rows and rows of these tiers.  And still it was hard to find berries that were ripe.  We got there 30 min. after opening, but we passed several people leaving with bucket fulls on our way in.  Apparently to get the best you have to be there 30 min. BEFORE it opened.  But really, the strawberries are cheaper at Costco.  Picking was the true experience and we got to do that.

Here they are with Luke's friend from school,

hereby known as L

These boys are such hams together.

Too cute!

This farm had a whole entertainment section separate from the berry picking.  If you've ever been to a commercialized pumpkin patch with hayride and mazes and petting zoos, etc. you know what I'm talking about.  The cool thing about this place was that there wasn't any marketing other than the pass to get in, and there were so many neat things to do.  Luke loved the pedal cars.  They are like go karts that you pedal with your feet instead of being motorized.  He wanted to go back to the cars over and over.

Poor Micah!  None of the pedals were close enough for him to reach.  There were bigger pedal cars with child seats in back, but Micah refused to ride in one of those.  He is Mr. Independent.

Micah loved the giant slides!

So did Luke!

There was a GIANT sand mountain there with buckets, shovels, toy dump trucks, etc. to play in the sand.  Micah and L loved the sand and spent a long time digging.  I was glad Carrie could keep an eye on Micah while I watched Luke at the cars.  I can't believe I didn't get a picture of Micah in the sand!

The picture below is Micah and L on the barrel train.  Luke refused to go on it, but Micah loved it.  The tractor pulling it when fast and wove a lot to make the barrels whip around.  Micah had a huge grin on his face, but sitting in the first car was a bad idea.  He and L got all the exhaust.

Luke got pretty brave on the slides!

We will definitely be hitting this again next spring break!

Cowboy or Cowgirl?

So I guess there is a new trend in finding out the gender of a baby.  At the ultra sound the doctor or technician writes the sex of the baby and seals in in an envelope.  The envelope is then delivered to the party planner and that person plans the great reveal.  The fun part is that the couple gets to find out while surrounded by friends and family.

Cara and Michael decided to go with the trend.  Emily and I (mostly Emily!) were the party planners.  She did a cowboy or cowgirl theme.  There was a stack of brown hats and a stack of pink.  On entering guests chose a hat based on their gender guess:  brown for boy and pink for girl.

You can see the boys guesses.

And mine.

Michael and Cara and Libby's guesses

Emily made a vase "volcano" so when Michael and Cara poured in some vinegar, the vase bubbled up to reveal the sex of the baby.

"It's a GGGIIIIRRRLLL!!!"

 

We are excited to meet Miss Sadie in August!

More Kinder Eggs!!!

My brother, Nathan, travels to Germany on business sometimes.  On his last trip, he found a few kinder eggs for the boys.  They came on the very day that Luke got his first "red" at school-- meaning he'd had bad behavior at school.  Luke could not have any special privileges that day, so he could not open his eggs.  Probably the best (for me) and worst (for him) punishment EVER.  But I promised him that if he could get green-- good behavior-- at school the next day he could open his eggs after school.  Poor Micah!  Because Luke lost eggs, Micah also lost eggs.  So Micah was also very anxious for Luke to be good at school.  Micah started looking for Luke's bus by noon the next day.  He couldn't wait for Luke to get home with good news.  Finally Luke made it-- and he was green.  The boys rushed inside to open their eggs.  SO EXCITING!!!

Thank you so much, Uncle Nathan!

Plants

Also around the end of February, Jared made his first decorating request for our house.  He wanted some plants.  I have NEVER managed to keep a plant alive, but I decided I'd try it.  So the boys and I bought some plants and some dirt and got to work one Sat. morning.  They had lots of fun transporting the plants.  We got 2 for the kitchen, 2 for the living room, and 2 for Jared's office.  2 of them were big, and the rest were much smaller.

One day Griffin tried to bury a bone 3 DIFFERENT TIMES!!!

After cleaning this up the 3rd time in one day, I moved the plant (and thought about getting rid of the dog!)  It is now in Jared's office, and we haven't had any more problems-- at least with plants.

And here it is mid March and none of them have died yet.  Progress!

P.S. How is it only mid-March?!  Maybe it is just because I am ready for summer, but time has SLOWED DOWN.

Katy Rodeo

The last weekend in February, Emily told us about and invited us to join her family and a friend's family for the Katy ISD livestock show and rodeo.  It was the perfect sized rodeo for a family with little kids.  Micah was thrilled to see lots of pink pigs.  He and Jared spent a lot of time in the livestock show.  

Libby liked the pigs too!

There was a show arena near all the animals.  It was a big semi-circle of bleachers around an open area of dirt.  But ABOVE the open area was a GIANT CEILING FAN.  Luke thought the bleachers were set up so people could sit down and watch the fan.  He commented on how nice that was.  

We sat by the fan and had a snack.

Then we went to the outside rodeo arena to sit with Michael's and Emily's families and watch the events.  The actual events are done by a traveling rodeo company called iRock-- so no students were out there risking life and limb.  Micah loved watching the bronc riding.  I grew up watching the rodeo, but I never before realized how violent it is.  Those cowboy's heads looked like they were going to fly off!  Those people are super brave or super crazy.  Or both.  I don't know.

At one point there was a stick race that little kids could enter.  They had to have a stick horse to run, and then they just ran a few yards across the arena.  It was cute.  K ran in the race.  Hard to see, but he is the one in the red jacket.

Done!

And ribbon in hand!

Lots of fun!  The boys didn't last for the whole show.  We didn't really expect that they would.  And that made the Katy Rodeo all the better because it was close to home and only $30 for our family.  So for the next few years we will stick to the Katy Rodeo.  When they get older we will brave the huge Houston Rodeo-- maybe.

Mima's Visit

Luke and Mima

We had a great visit with Mom!  She flew in on the 7th of Feb., the same day that Dad headed back to Utah.  She arrived late, so the boys didn't see her until the next morning.  We kept her pretty busy although we didn't do many of the things we had originally planned to do.  The weather was pretty cold and rainy most of the time she was here, so outside plans were a no go.  We ate lunch at a delicious mexican restaurant her first Sat. here.  Later that evening I went with Mom to a wedding reception for the daughter of a family in my old ward.  It was fun for Mom to see many of her friends.  I knew a few people there too, but I mostly talked to Debbi and Terry Herrera.  

On Monday, while Micah and Luke were in school, Mom and I started some projects I wanted her to help me with.  She was a trooper and complied.  Monday was the shopping and prep day.  We went to Walmart to get fabric.  Mom Wilkerson and I found burgandy fabric at walmart to make the drapes for the living room.  My mom and I went back to Walmart and found the same color of fabric with a slightly different design, but it matched the other fabric very well.  Then we went to Lowe's to buy wood and JoAnn's to get batting, pillow forms, and cording.  It took us a few nights throughout the week and help from Emily's husband Jeff (Thanks for cutting the wood, Jeff!), borrowed tools (Thanks, Michael!) but we completed 2 beautiful padded valences for the kitchen windows (one of them over 10 ft. long!) and another padded valence for Micah's room.  And then my mom sewed me 4 pillows for my couches.  I am thankful for the crafty women in my life who have helped me make decorating affordable.  The valences turned out just as I envisioned, and I love having the bright color and finished look in the kitchen dining area.

Other than crafting we did some shopping.  We took a trip to a great thrift store down by my parent's old house.  I found some really cute things and left with 2 sweaters, 6 shirts, 1 skirt, and 1 pair of jeans for $47!  That is going to be my new favorite store, I think.

The boys each got to show off for Mima at tumbling class.

Micah's eye started gooping on Thursday.  By the evening it was pretty clear that he had pink eye.  I took him to the doctor to get medicine on Friday morning.  When Mima said something to him about his pink eye, Micah got all excited and yelled, "Pink Eye!  That's my favorite color!"  He was very disappointed to miss his Valentine's party, and even more disappointed that he couldn't go to Chuck E Cheese for Valentine's Day.  He had been talking about Chuck E Cheese for at least 2 months.  We went on Saturday instead.  Micah was so, soooooo excited!!!   He was smiling so big his mouth covered the entire width of his face and his cheeks were squished up to his eyes.  I love to see my boys that excited!

On Saturday morning, before Chuck E Cheese, the boys went to the cul-de-sac with Mima to show off their bike riding skills.  Jared ran around with Luke a few times but within 10 minutes Luke was starting and stopping by himself and riding around without any help at all.  After Jared went back to the house to do some work, Mom and I took the boys to the neighborhood community center and Luke and Micah rode their bikes along the walking trails.  Luke is officially training wheel free!  And so very proud of himself!  After they rode for awhile I took the bikes back to the car and the boys played at the playground.  Luke made friends with 2 brothers who came to the play ground with their dad.  They had a big chocolate lab with them named Casey.  Luke played with the boys throwing the ball to the dog and bringing the dog drinks.  They played chase games and then all went exploring.  While watching him play, I started to cry.  I couldn't believe how well he made a friend and played!  When I see how much our boys have blossomed in this community among family and this good environment I know we made the right choice in coming here.  It has been hard on Jared in many ways, but there is no doubt that this was the best choice for the boys.  I feel very proud that Mom and Dad both got to see so much progress in our boys!

On Mom's last night, which was a Sunday, we had a big dinner with Michael's family and the Herreras.  As an added bonus, Jennifer's husband was in town!  He is working in Brazil right now, but he flew in to surprise her for Valentine's day.  So he finally got to see our home, and it was great that Jenn and Victor could come.  Mom and Dad used to be in an empty nesters group with the Herreras and a few other couples from Bear Creek ward so it was good to all get together.  I had forgotten that I signed up to feed the missionaries that night, so they came too.  And Michael's family was here also.  It was a full house!  I wish I could have had Emily's family too, but there was already a severe lack of seating.  We will have to get a buffet table and a big stack of folding chairs so we can have bigger groups more easily.

Mom left the next morning.  We sure are going to miss her, but we are so glad she could come to visit.  My one regret is that ONCE AGAIN I forgot to take pictures!!!

Papa's Visit

A few weeks ago we were lucky to have a very long visit with my dad.  He came into town to work as a consultant doing some training at his old job and stayed with us for 3 weeks.  The boys had so much fun playing with and showing off for Papa.  I had lots of fun talking with him and planning fun things for us to do.  Jared and Dad had lots of conversation time every morning and every evening as they commuted together.

Over the few weeks we went to the zoo, ate Mexican and BBQ food, rode bikes, went miniature golfing and played at the park, showed Papa tumbling class, went for ice cream, and played around the house.  Unfortunately I hardly took any pictures.  These first few are from when the boys really needed to get out and run on a rainy, cold day.  We went to the playground at the mall.

And these pics are from our visit to the zoo.  Luke controlled the camera for most of the day, so we don't have many good shots.

Monkeys:

And Papa!

Come back, soon!