Hill Country Wedding

At the end of October my cousin, Sarah, gave us all an excuse to get together for her wedding.  We love Justin and are super thrilled to have him and Jayden officially part of our family (though they have been for a while now).

Hots with SK before the wedding

The boys found the photo booth!  (J, L, & Cousin J)

 My hot date :)

Cousins!!!  (me, M, & K)

More cousins!!!  (E, R, M, & me)

The boys waiting in the chapel for the ceremony to begin

So much fun.  Love my family!

Luke Turns 8!

This guy is 8!

We started the day with his favorite breakfast and our traditional scavenger hunt.

The following weekend L celebrated with friends and family.  His birthday request was a Gaga Ball pit, so Hots built one and the kids had a blast playing Gaga ball at the party.  This was L's first birthday party in Kerrville and it was a fun time.

L in his new Gaga Ball pit.

football

Lots of Gaga ball was played.

L wanted an ice cream bar instead of cake (just like J had at his party in May).

Luckily for SK some of L's friends are the older siblings of some of SK's friends.  :)

L enjoys his friends, thinks his brother hung the moon and is happiest when he's doing anything with J, loves his little sister, is easy on his parents, enjoys school and does well in school, likes his Legos, likes to be silly and is easily embarrassed by his parents-Ha!

We sure do love you, L!
 

Halloween '17

Halloween kicked off with the Pumpkin Parade at the boys' school.  It's a fun tradition that's been going on for many years and involves decorating a pumpkin if they'd like and then parading through the cafeteria where parents can watch them before having a look at their pumpkins.

Part I:  Painting Pumpkins
This year I decided to step it up in the pumpkin parade department after last year's pitiful entries by the Bowers kids due to no involvement whatsoever by their parents.

It was quite obvious all I'd done was provide the pumpkins and open the paint containers.  Both pumpkins were covered with various colors of mixed paint.

This year I had a plan!  It was important to me that the boys do their own work and that it not be complicated. Fortunately for me, Pinterest provided lots of options and we settled on an Angry Birds theme, complete with three different birds so SK could participate as well.

I happened to be at a little venue for a girls' night where they had pumpkins for sale so I bought the boys' there and planned to pick one of those tiny ones up at Walmart or HEB for SK.

But when I checked into that they only came in bags of 5-6 and cost more than I wanted to pay so I somehow sold SK on the idea of an apple instead which actually worked out much better, as it was easier to paint.

A Xanax would've been helpful as it is not my idea of a relaxing time having three kiddos paint anything though I will say they did a great job and no clothing was ruined and I'll probably paint with them again.  :)

This is why I mentioned Xanax.  J is painting his hand.  With red paint.  Apparently L was not present when I told J that was not a good idea and asked him not to do it again since L painted his on day 2.

The kids each painted their pumpkins the color of his or her angry bird, then I drew the faces on, they painted those, and I touched them up.  We were all happy with the finished product!  (L's is yellow, J's is red, and SK's is the little green one.)

Here are our inspiration birds.

The kids were pretty proud of their work!

Part II:  Pumpkin Parade
J came through first and was a storm trooper.  (Yea for a store-bought costume!)

J with his best friend, C.

Me with my favorite storm trooper!

Then L's class came in.  He was Eli Shane from Slugtera (an animated series).  His was my project costume this year and if you remember the episode of Cosby where Denise makes a replica of a designer shirt for Theo then you'll understand when I tell you that is exactly what happened with L's Eli Shane shirt.  It looked so easy in the 4 step Pinterst post...  But L was happy with it!

My favorite Eli Shane.  :)

Part III:  SK's Fun Day
SK had a fun day at her school where we played games and did fall crafts indoors because of the weather.

SK has some of the sweetest friends.  R loves her sooooo much!

Part IV:  Trick-or-Treat
Our sweet friends invited us over for pizza and Trick-or-Treating in their neighborhood and we sure did enjoy our time with them.

SK was Doc McStuffins and her costume was compiled from various places.  Kaydie provided her lab coat and the other pieces came from Goodwill and Walmart.

Eli Shane with his weapon (which we didn't let him take to school for the parade).

J, L, & SK ready to hit the street!

The whole crew

And they're off!

Hots & SK

As always, we had two stops to make after trick-or-treating with our friends.

First stop, Grandmama's!

Then to Kaydie's!

Fun Halloween!

Quick Visit with Gran

Back in October Hots and I made a quick trip to Georgetown for a work related dinner and Gran was kind enough to keep the kids for us.

They were thrilled and I think Gran was, too.  :)

On the way there they asked if Gran would have cookies for them to "make" which means peanut butter cookies right out of the oven ready for them to put a Hershey kiss on.  Of course she did but that was after we made the drop and run so I have no picture.  And she always sends some home with us.  :)

They also love for Gran to read to them and she always has the most interesting books.

Thanks for having the kiddos, Gran!

Colorado in August (which is my new favorite time to go)

After J dislocated his elbow and broke his arm in June, canceling our week-long family river trip, Hots immediately planned a trip to CO where our super generous cousins have a condo they let us use.

It did give me something to look forward to and I'll admit it worked out perfectly.  Mid August is now my favorite time to go to Colorado due to the relief from August in Texas as well as the lack of crowds since many schools have started by then.  Read:  no lines, no traffic.

We planned to spend one night on the way there and one on the way back, making the drive quite relaxing.  Or perhaps the drive was quite relaxing since the kids are older.  I'll take it!

Speaking of the kids, they did GREAT!  We changed our technology use practices (which admittedly had previously been decided by the length of battery life each one had) to alternating equal times with and without.  That made the time fly and the kids did a great job of staying occupied with books, car games, drawing, and chatting with us and each other.

Fist stop:  our motel in Dalhart.  The kids swam-Hello, motel pool!-then we had a nice supper at a local steakhouse before turning in.

Let's just say no one under the age of ten was actually excited to go to sleep.

Eventually they did, probably after their parents.

Hey, kids!  Look directly toward the sun and smile!

On our first full day there we hit Epic Discovery in Breckenridge.  The had an American Ninja Warrior kids' course, zip lining, sleds, roller coaster, mining station, maze, a bounce house, and several other attractions.  We thoroughly enjoyed it and, again, it was so nice that the kids could do so much.  (This definitely motivated us to get into better shape so we can continue to hang with the kids!)

Horseback riding in Breckenridge was a blast; one of the boys' favorite activities of the trip.

SK rode with me, which was great!  (Though I'm surprised they allow riding double.)

Hots found a steed his size.  :)

Riding in the mountains was just fabulous; super interesting and so peaceful.  J in front of me, then L, then the guide.

Another selfie of SK and me.

J, me w/ SK, H, and L

Breckenridge Stables is a great operation with well trained horses.  We will definitely ride with them again.

Probably the kids' least favorite part of the trip was some time in Keystone because what kid wants to stroll the streets in town checking out various shops?  But we did find this guy!

And we also found some delicious ice cream.

One day we hiked Loveland Pass.  We climbed 721 ft and 2.8 miles.  So pretty and the boys did great.  SK enjoyed being toted via the Ergo carrier and Hots and I appreciated the workout.  He toted her up and I toted her down.

Enjoying the view!  (L, J)

This one cracks me up!  Check out SK's little hand waving by Hots' ear.

J

J striking a pose

L

We found a fabulous bakery where the kids chose dessert items (the adults may have, too).  SK chose a Cookie Monster cupcake and wore it on her face.

We appreciated the fresh flowers in the condo lobby.

The boys are now expert Joker players who may have won several games against Momma & Daddy.

We were headed home on the day of the eclipse and this is one of the roadside pics we took, though it was pretty anticlimactic.

However, there was a lone coyote just walking among this herd of cattle.  They were paying no mind to it and it was paying no mind to us.

J having a picnic lunch at Royal Gorge before we headed in.

J, L, & SK

This sign at the gorge cracked me up and I think they should be posted here in the Hill Country!  "...beware of cactus and dangerous foliage." 

Hots and SK at the viewing area.

J & L taking it all in.

She loves her daddy.  :)

The boys wanted to do that huge swing out over the gorge but to my great fortune (I was vehemently opposed, having birthed them and all) the workers said though they were tall enough, they were "too skinny."  (Fist pump!)

So we moved on to something much more my speed-this beautiful carousel. 

All three kids enjoyed this massive playscape that was built so that adults could play in it, too (think Chick-fil-a's or McDonald's on steroids).

J, L

SK loved the slides.

 Then we crossed the gorge.

Everyone was happy to get right near the edge.  Except me.  I'm not a heights person.

This cracked the boys up.  :)

I did pose near the railing for a photo or two but I was shaky!

And then there's this thing that extends out over the gorge.  Two thumbs down from me.  I was not about to venture out there.  But of course the kids and Hots did.

L, SK, J, & Hots

Hots & L

On the way home we stopped at the old Colorado State Penitentiary. 

We didn't have time to take the official tour, but did read some of the history-it was later a women's prison-and looked around for a bit before we took off.

This old gas chamber was most interesting.  Next time we'll plan to take the tour!

I snapped this pic since some of my relatives and I appreciate interesting roots.

Lukey bug all tucked in at the motel.

It was a fun trip and the kids did great.  Here's to many more!