Fall Fun

Halloween was a ton of fun this year for Makenzie. At first she was shy and didn't want to say trick or treat but then soon realized that if she did, she would get candy! There was no stopping her after that. She would practically run from house to house with Marley and Garrett in tow. The girls were Minnie Mouse and Garrett was a hot dog. Garrett's costume was a hit this year. Everyone commented on how cool he was!











Dad scoured the pumpkin patch for the perfect pumpkin this year. Everyone takes turns at cleaning and carving and here is our finished product! Great job guys!

Marley and friends participated in the 2nd Annual Thrill the World event which is a tribute to Michael Jackson to set a world record and raise money for charity. Click on the link below to see the video. Let us know if you can find Marley.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QpJj_YYPms

Our visit to the pumpkin patch. Makenzie and Garrett could care less about picking out a pumpkin! All they wanted to do was play in the hay.

Frio Fun

We made our 7th annual Friends & Frio trip last week. The Bralys, the LaBaumes and LaBaumes all made it and together we spent a week in Concan, Texas. House for 15 please!

This year the river was the lowest we have ever seen it and for the first time since we started going we were actually unable to tube due to lack of water. Regardless, I think it was one of the best years. Last year Mike couldn’t go so it was nice to have him there this year. Makenzie was old enough to really have a good time down on the river so we didn’t have to worry about baby watching duties. Every day we’d head to the swimming hole (which had plenty of water) and sit in the water most of the day and watch the kids swim and jump off the giant rock.

This year we ventured up to Garner State Park for the nightly dance. It was our first time and what a blast it was. For those that haven’t attended, they have an outdoor patio that everyone dances on starting about dark and lasting until 11pm. It’s very hot and everyone has been on the river all day so dress consists of a combination of bathing suits, cowboy boots, summer dresses, and t-shirts. Participants range in age from 6 to 60. We figured the two 12 year old girls and two 14 year old boys would go crazy. However, it was our 8 year old Garrett that turned out to be the ladies man. As he sat in a chair, a young lady asked him to dance but he politely said no. When she asked again later he was up and dancing. She made a monster out of him. After that he was stalking the dance looking for young ladies in his age range. He was so nervous at first. He kept wiping his palms! It was very funny. I’d say he danced with a half dozen young ladies.

The week sadly ended and we headed home a little tanner and very tired. Darren loaded every spare ice chest with softball sized rocks for his flower beds! I happened to find one 80 pounder for mine! As we checked out at Neal’s, Garrett watched 2 little girls cross the parking lot and said, “I danced with her.”!!!! We’ll definitely be back for our 8th Annual!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Garrett and I took a long awaited camping trip to McKinney Falls State Park in Austin. We stayed Friday through Sunday and the weather was beautiful. Mid 90's during the day, low 70's at night with a great full moon. We took our bicycles and by lunch time Saturday had ridden every bike trial they had. We would ride some trails and then head to the Upper Falls and cool off swimming in Onion Creek. Then we'd hit more trails and cool off in the swimming hole at the Lower Falls. Garrett's favorite trail was called the Homestead Trail and it was a winding 2.8 mile loop that started as a packed dirt trail and ended up with about a half mile downhill run over tree roots, rocks, ruts, etc. He did a great job and never munched it (for the curious, no, I didn't wipe out either). Animals sighted were deer, a raccoon (that we fed marshmallows), water turtles (one of which Garrett caught), lizards, and a snake. We saw one of the oldest Cypress trees in Travis County called Old Baldy, estimated to be over 500 years old. We hiked to a rock shelter (overhang) frequented by indians. We cooked some great meals over a fire and slept good to the sounds of frogs, crickets, and other things going bump in the night.

As far as who wore who out, I would say it was a draw between the 8 year old and 42 year old.

Family Pics Sneak Peak

We had a blast today taking our family pics at the beach! We used a fabulous photographer named Amber Bright. She has put a sneak peak of the photos on her website. Go to www.AmberBrightPhotography.com & then click on 'blog'. Can't wait to share more when we get them. Hope you enjoy!

It's about time for an update...

May proves to be a CRAZY month for us! I think that the schools try to cram in every last thing that they can in this month.

Makenzie is wrapping up her Mother's Day Out with a "Party in the Park" complete with McDonald's happy meals! Her last day is next Thursday so that means our family schedule will be changing yet again...no more days off together for Henry and I. Each class has an animal name. Hers is the Skunks...also nicknamed little stinkers! Here is her class...notice she's holding hands with her boyfriend...Dalton! Too cute!

Garrett is SOOOOOOOO ready for summer! He's been counting down the days...11 school days left! He's all about staying up late and sleeping in! We just had Muffins with Mom at school and he's preparing for his performance at the VIPS (Volunteers In Public School) Appreciation Breakfast...should be cute! He will be celebrating his all A's this year at an awards ceremony June 2nd and a Family Picnic on the last day of school. He has been a reading machine this year. He has started reading huge chapter books...great job Garrett!!

Marley just had her Jazz Recital last weekend and was the cutest cowgirl! They performed a routine to an old 80's song...Wild, Wild West. They put on a great show! She also just received an invitation to the Kaffie Middle School Hot 50. 50 kids out of the whole school are nominated each 6 weeks to go to a party in their honor. Should be fun! She's done a great job this year in her first year of middle school. She even received a 100 on her report card last semester from her toughest teacher!! She's gearing up for VBS this summer as she will be a volunteer and not a student this year. She is really looking forward to her last year at Camp Zephyr this summer. We are so proud of her!

Mother's Day was a great relaxing day! I got a bike (and Kenzie carrier) from Henry and the kids so we've been out riding in the evenings. It's been fun and good exercise. Henry is running Beach to Bay today with a group of friends. I am so proud of him for taking on that challenge! He's been busy working some OT at the PD so we can have a fun summer. Thanks Babe! We've got our annual Frio River trip coming up in July and looking forward to a ton of beach time with the kids. I'm sure that Henry will get some golfing done as well. We are also taking family pictures soon so be on the look out for those. We haven't taken a family pic since Garrett was one!

Hoppy Easter!

We started off this fun filled weekend by coloring eggs on Saturday! We had so much fun and as you can see....made a rainbow of eggs!! Now getting the kids to eat them is a whole other story!

The kids were so excited to see what the Easter bunny brought them that they woke up REALLY early!! Notice the sleepy faces...good thing mom isn't in the pictures!

That morning, we looked out in the front yard and thought that the Easter bunny had left something special for us! Then we saw the "Golden" eggs! Thank you Brown Family for giving us an Easter morning laugh! You'll have to ask Henry for (as Paul Harvey would say) the rest of the story!!!

Henry had to work, so Nani and Aunt Tracy came over to have lunch with us. We had our non-traditional Easter lunch of Mom's famous hot dogs!! They played a game of Rummikub and are still arguing over the rules!! It was fun!

After Henry got home, we had an egg hunt in the back yard. Mom and Dad hid the eggs pretty good this year they said! Makenzie had so much fun...she found an egg with money in it! Even Sadie (our dog) got into this year. She moved a couple of eggs before we let the kids out. It turned out to be such a beautiful Easter Sunday! In all the fun we had this weekend, we can't forget the true meaning of Easter!!

Annual Guys Only Camping Trip

April is here and that means the Guys Only Camping Trip to the Medina River. The trip started years ago when Marty and I went up to Medina, Texas in the Hill Country to spend a weekend with Steven. We camped out and spent the days hiking up and down the Medina River, fishing and swimming in the crystal clear (but cold) water. As the years went on, we invited a few friends and started bringing kayaks. We are up to 7 guys that go now. Unfortunatly this year, Mike could not make it due to work so it was Darren, Arron, Bruce, Marty and I meeting Steven at the ranch this past weekend. We figured this was the 11th year for the original 3.

The weather was perfect with Saturday reaching into the 90's and both nights in the low 50's. The Medina/Bandera area had plenty of rain in the weeks prior so the river had some water in it, although I wouldn't say it was raging. We paddled around Friday, warming up for a long run on Saturday, played plenty of horseshoes and began hydrating! Saturday we put in at our favorite spot and headed down river. Of those attempting the waterfall that's halfway down, I was the only one having to do it twice! The cooler strapped to the back of my kayak threw off my balance on the first try! It took us a little more than 6 hours to reach the pick up point, just in time since we were out of drinks.

Another good meal on the campfire with Bruce's beans to go with it and more horse shoes. Sunday morning a cold front hit and got everyone up and out of their tents pretty early. It was still a cloudless sunny sky but windy and getting cool as we broke camp and headed home. 11 months until next years trip!

This years "Red Cross" award went to Arron for both legs and his palm.

-Henry




Henry on the river.

The original tres amigos-Henry, Steven & Marty

Spring Break!

We took a road trip to Red Oak (Dallas) to visit the Braly family. We had planned to stop in San Antonio and take the kids to the zoo but when we got to the zoo the line was out the door. There were about 100 people waiting on people to come out so they could go in. We decided that we would do the zoo this summer! So back in the car we went and decided to stop at the outlet malls in San Marcos to stretch our legs and give the kids a break from the car. We hit a few of our favorite shops...Quiksilver and Coleman Camping Store for Henry, Aeropostale Clothes for Marley and the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory for Garrett and Kenzie. All my home stores will have to wait until next trip! We then drove 3 1/2 hours straight with a ton of traffic and the crazy truck drivers! It should be a law that all 18 wheelers should have to drive in the far right lane! We eventually made it to Red Oak and had a nice relaxing evening catching up with everyone.

The next night we went to the big town of Garrett, Texas (population 340) on our way to the drive-in movies. Mike took us to the local Police Dept. (a.k.a. a small storage shed!) Garrett was grinning from ear to ear!




Then we were off to the drive-in movies! We saw the Race to Witch Mountain. It was a little chilly so we all snuggled up under blankets. The kids had a blast and made a memory for life. We'll definitely go again when we visit.



We took Makenzie to Build-A-Bear Workshop. She insisted on getting the pink bear with hearts even though Henry tried to talk her into getting a traditional brown bear. She wasn't too sure on the whole stuffing thing and her favorite part was the washing! She had a hard time picking out clothes and shoes because they have so many. Chelsea is now part of the family!



We did a little of this...



and a whole lot of this...



Sadly, our visit with Mike, Melinda, Ryan, Michaela and Samantha had to end. We all had a great time and hopefully will be invited back next year!

On the way back, we made a stop to eat BBQ at the Salt Lick in Driftwood, Texas (outside of Austin). Henry was a happy camper! Then we made a quick stop at Garden Ridge outside of San Antonio for me! After a long day of driving we finally made it home. This was Makenzie's longest road trip and she did great!