Spring Break Part 2 - Keystone

After a day in Denver, we drove up to Keystone. That afternoon, we had scheduled a horse drawn sleigh ride. It was beautiful and fun!

All bundled up and ready for the ride.

Our view as our guide discussed the area and history of Keystone.

We rode out to an old homestead where we were able to get out, run around, and have hot chocolate.

Aren't the horses beautiful?

Family photo!

I think the best part of the trip for the kids was the snow ball fight they had while we stopped!

Ready to head back

A great way to start our ski vacation. 

Spring Break Part 1 - Denver

For Spring Break this year, we went to Keystone, Colorado for our annual ski trip (well, I hope it's an annual ski trip).  This time, it was just the 5 of us. We were excited to ski in Colorado for the first time and were hoping for better snow than the previous year in NM.

We drove from Austin to Denver the first day and stayed with our friends the Reeves. It was a pretty good drive - kids did great, we had a nice lunch at a park, and made good time.

Our kids jumped right into playing with all the Reeves. 

Evan and the boys

Caitlin and the girls

Ryan and Andrew

Evan and Alex were in boy heaven!

All the kids!

Our attempt at getting a picture of all 11 of us!!

We had a great time staying with them. It was way too short a visit. We hope they come stay with us in Austin soon!

On a side note - Evan and Alex played so hard that Evan sprained his wrist. Which required a visit to Urgent Care to make sure he was fine for skiing. He got a brace and was good to go! Phew!! What a damper if we had come all this way and then he couldn't ski.

Thanks Reeves family for hosting us!! We loved getting to hang out. See you soon we hope!

March 2017

Besides celebrating Ryan's birthday at the beginning of March, we also had a lot of school activities.

The littles celebrated Dr. Seuss' birthday at school.

The older kids had field day! They got to play lots of games and do different stations. I was grateful to have the day off to help and watch all the fun.

Tug-of-war is always one of my favorites! 

Ryan also had his 4-year old well check. Mostly healthy and happy... he apparently had strep - no fever, just some drainage! So shots had to wait but glad we found out before we left on our spring break trip (next couple posts). 

And celebrating Papa's birthday. We are glad they are here in Texas so we can celebrate with them for all these special occasions.

Next up is our trip to Keystone, CO for Spring Break!

Ryan Turns 4!

This little boy turned 4 years old in March, and he was so ready for it.  Ryan has to keep up with his older siblings so he probably seems more like 4 going on 10! He was super excited for his birthday though.

Last nap as a 3 year old! Yes, he still is a great napper. 

We celebrate with some birthday sprinkle pancakes (like always)

For his birthday this year. what do you think he wanted to do? He wanted to go bowling and have a Ghostbusters party. So that's what we did. It was hard to find someone to make a Ghostbuster cake, but we found one!

Bowling at Mel's

He invited just a couple friends and family to join us.

It was a great day. Evan was actually supposed to miss the party for a soccer game, but it got rained out. So, it worked out pretty nicely that he and Daddy could join us. Ryan - you crack us up all the time with the things you say. You are smart, funny, a goof ball. You have to do everything by yourself. You love letters and letter sounds (especially the letter R).  You love to ride your scooter, jump on the trampoline, and play legos. You also dress up like a ghostbuster and pretend to be Peter Venkeman. You wear your proton pack everywhere (and I mean everywhere). Your favorite food is probably Mac N Cheese. You love to snuggle and give kisses and hugs. We love you so much! Happy 4th Birthday!

More February

Here are some more highlights from February! It was a busy month...

First, Caitlin got a Texan award at school for being responsible. No surprise there :) I love that it corresponded to the week she was Terrific Texan for her class.

And two of her really good friends got awards the same day! I'm glad the school does something to recognize the students. It makes them feel good to get something special.

We also have a big weekend with the Boy Scouts! They had a camp out at Camp Mabry, an army base right in the middle of town. I took the boys over Sat morning because Bryce and Caitlin had a soccer game.

We spent time playing and exploring in the woods. Ryan was wearing his "proton pack" and looking for ghosts to bust!

Then we went on a tour.

This was the first time we'd gotten to go in the Texas Military Museum. It was actually pretty neat!

Towards evening, we all left to go to Evan's first soccer game of the season. The boys played a great game. After that, we grabbed a quick dinner and the boys headed back to the campout while I took the other two kids home. I was thankful for my nice warm comfy bed :)

On Sunday, we had Evan's last flag football game of the season. 

We also attended a back to school night at Old Town. Here we got to see what the kids have been working on and they took us around the school to show us things. Ms. Johnson made this cute "students" to sit in their chairs at school.

And as I mentioned, Caitlin was Terrific Texan for her class that week. She made a poster and got to bring in trophies/ribbons to share with her class. It was a great week for her!

Trip to Baton Rouge/Houston

In early February, we took a trip to Baton Rouge with my family.  My Grandpa was driving to Pensacola to spend some time with his brother and so we tagged along to Baton Rouge.  If you didn't know, my Grandpa was in WWII on a Destroyer called the USS Chauncey.  He has amazing stories to tell from his time in the war.  In Baton Rouge, they have a destroyer of the same class as his destroyer (like a sister destroyer) called the USS Kidd. 

So, we took the opportunity to have him give us a tour of the boat (just like his own) and hear about it first hand.

Waiting for everyone to arrive

Picture with the boat in the background

Group photo!

It was very tight quarters. Grandpa was showing us the radio room. He was a communications officer during the war.

The big guns are always fascinating to the kids. He told us stories of them fighting the Japanese in the Pacific ocean.

Grandpa telling more stories. This was next to the flags where he would have to raise/lower certain ones as at times, they didn't use radio communications (which could be intercepted). Instead, they used signal flags to the other ships in the fleet.

Better picture of inside the radio room.

Picture of where he slept. Since he was an officer, he got a special room to share with just 3 others. After seeing the main sleeping area, this seems like quite the luxury!

It was so amazing to get to see/hear his stories about the war. I'm so thankful we were able to do this!

After the morning at the ship, we drove back to Houston to spend the night and go to the Science Museum the next day.

Beautiful gardens right by the museum

Ready to go into the Butterfly exhibit

Butterflies everywhere!! Ryan was NOT a fan.

And dinosaurs! It was a fun museum that we hope to go back to. And overall, a great trip. It was short but glad we could fit it into our busy schedule.