Happy Dino Turkey Day!!!

We've been trying to go to Glen Rose and Dinosaur Valley all year. Between the weather and us being under the weather, we didn't get to take the trip until this past Thanksgiving. We headed out on Wednesday afternoon and spent four nights exploring the area.

We stayed at America's Best Value Inn. Not a 5 star hotel, but it was comfortable and the boys were treated like VIP's all weekend long. They swam, stayed up late watching Wipe Out, got their art work hung on the walls at the front desk, ate Texas shaped waffles every morning adorned with jelly and fruit loops while watching cartoons they aren't allowed to watch at home.

We explored Big Rocks Park three times (the boys FAVORITE), Dinosaur Valley State Park, Fossil Rim Wildlife Center (twice), and Dino World. We ate at the Loco Coyote and Hammond's BBQ, which were both good in their own way. They are two MUST visit eating establishments when visiting Glen Rose.

We saw genuine dinosaur tracks, hiked at least 5 miles, and had a scenic picnic lunch at the State Park. The boys got to drive my car though the Wildlife Park and thought that was almost better than feeding the giraffes from our car. We learned about dinosaurs and sifted for fossils at Dino World, and the boys each took home a shark's tooth and a couple other random fossils of their choosing.

We had a great weekend even though we ended up having Sonic for Thanksgiving, as it was the only reasonably priced joint open in town that day.

Glen Rose is a nice little place. We would totally head back for Big Rocks Park, Fossil Rim, and camping at Dinosaur Valley. If we go in the summer I think we will add in some canoeing or kayaking on the river, and possibly even some horseback riding. The boys certainly had a blast and are already asking for a return trip.

Look Who's 5!!

This year, in the interest of time and sanity, we decided to "outsource" the birthday festivities instead of having it at our house like last year.

On the day of their birth, we had a pancake and sprinkle breakfast followed by 4 hours of games and fun at Chuck E. Cheese. Then we had a Monster celebration with a few friends and family at a place called Bounce U over the weekend. There they bounced, played, glowed in the dark, and ate. We spent tons of time the next day assembling all the Legos they got for presents and then finished out the party weekend at Hawaiian Falls water park. It wasn't totally homemade, but I think the boys still had a blast!!

Happy 5th Birthday Boys!!!

Tenerife Summer 2012

We were lucky enough to go and visit Jaime's family this summer in Tenerife. Of course Lela had our apartment ready for us and filled with the touches of Love only a Grandma can do. As always, she made us feel right at home, and the boys loved being able to run upstairs anytime to visit with her and Lelo and to see if she might be making some bizcocho.

Another cool thing was the fact that a family reunion was also scheduled for this Summer. Cousins, Second Cousins, Aunts, and Uncles all came in from wherever they lived to meet up with all the family in Tenerife. There was quite a crowd. The largest cousin gathering ever assembled from what I'm told. Two weeks flew by faster than one could have imagined. We had a great time hanging out, sight seeing, and visiting with family......and the boys had a blast!! See you again next year!

Happy Anniversary......

Nearly 17 years together, and, as of today, 10 years married!! Time sure does fly when you're having fun!! Here's the "short" version of our Anniversary video. Happy Anniversary my love, may we have at least 50 more!!!

 If you wanna see one of the LONG videos, click here.

Anyone out there??

Not really sure if anyone is still reading our blog, especially since we haven't posted since the end of October!!! Geesh!! I guess since a couple of family members have made comments about no updates, there must be a reader or two out there still checking. Funny because I used to make fun of my friends for "never" posting.......

So, what have we been up to since October? Lots of the same old same old and lots of other fun stuff. Of course, my brother and I walked in the 3-Day (but that's a post in and of itself), we celebrated Turkey Day, we geared up for Christmas and a visit from Lela (Jaime's mom), the boys started gymnastics, we did a few touristy things (Sealife Aquarium, The DMA, Dallas Zoo, Texas Discovery Gardens, The Dallas Symphony, ICE! @ The Gaylord Texan, Medieval Times), celebrated Christmas, rang in the New Year, and had lots of fun around the house - and that's just November and December! So, here's the shortest November/December catch up I could manage...........

The Month of Pumpkins!!

October was a busy month and full of fall fun and pumpkins as can be expected.

We enjoyed some welcome rain, spent time with family, visited a few pumpkin patches, enjoyed a Halloween concert at the Morton Meyerson Symphony Center, spent a day with friends at the Dallas Arboretum, played at home, carved pumpkins, went to the farmers market, celebrated fire safety month, attended a workshop at the Dallas Museum of Art, celebrated my 40th birthday, attended a community festival, enjoyed cooler weather, and, of course, went trick-or-treating. So, as has become usual, here is a recap of our October - hope you enjoy!!

Ahoy Mateys!! Our Pirate Party!!

Here it is, the long awaited pirate birthday party video!!

Despite my reservations about hosting a party with 35 guests in 106 degree weather at our house, it actually turned out pretty well (at least that's what I think). We had loads of activities and games, many of which we never even had time for, and plenty of food. We got to dress like pirates, create telescopes, engage in sword fights, walk the plank, earn gold doubloons, pop cannonballs, hunt for treasure, eat cake, make messes, and have lots of other fun.We even got to eat a delicious and beautiful strawberry treasure chest cake and plenty of yummy pirate banana cupcakes all lovingly baked and designed by my good friend Erin. Thank you Aunt Erin!!!!

I think the kiddos and even a few adults had a good time. Happy 4th Boys! Enjoy the video:

Our 4th of July

OK, so it's the 13th of July, but things seem to be running a little behind around here lately. We had a great 4th of July weekend hanging out with Trav and Trev and their families. We had a BBQ and some small fireworks on Saturday (there was a burn ban in Midlothian this year), then we hit the Ft. Worth Science Museum on Sunday followed by tasty Mexican food, then it was "pool" time and house work on Monday the 4th capped off by a great festival featuring the Grand Funk Railroad and fireworks in Flower Mound. Unfortunately my camera ran out of batteries Saturday evening and then wasn't functioning properly the rest of the weekend, so I only snapped a few pictures and videos...Still, here's what we got:

Water, Water & More Water!!!

Our Memorial Day weekend was filled with lots of water activities and BBQ!! First we were invited to a Wacky Water Party where the boys played tons of fun games, ate yummy food and snacks, and got totally wet. Next we headed over to another friends house for delicious fajitas and swimming. Then we hosted Trav and the girls at our apartment pool for MORE swimming and more BBQ. Needless to say it was a weekend spent in our swimsuits!!! Too much fun!

Mother's Day Weekend

Here we are....my 4th year celebrating Mother's Day as a mommy.

This year my friend Cass organized a Saturday morning picnic at the amazing Celebration Park in Allen. Several families joined in, and the kids had a blast running through the spray park and playground.

On Sunday, Jaime and I took the kiddos to Mayfest in Ft. Worth. We enjoyed fun activities, good bands, and tasty food. Our favorite stations though were the free ones put on by Tom Thumb and the Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife. Once again, it was a great Mommy's Day weekend.

Spring Break 2011

Okay - so every week is pretty much Spring Break in our house, right? Actually, we tried to lay a little low during Spring Break here in Dallas. We wanted to avoid all the other kids and families who would be crowding all our favorites spots. We still managed to have a little fun though.....

Where have we been?

I knew we hadn't posted in awhile, and I actually had a couple posts in draft status....and I'd been meaning and meaning to write......and then my cousin sent me an e-mail and mentioned that she missed reading about the boys...That's when I realized an entire month had passed without publishing. So,once again, I'm here to do a quickish update post with a random montage of photos and videos. Hopefully someone is still reading this blog.

So what have we been up to? Well, we headed to the Dallas Zoo a couple more times. Once with Connie and the girls and again with the Alex & Connor's friend Lucas. We hung out in Midlothian, rode bikes, played at parks, celebrated Trevor's birthday, built a fire pit and made a great fire, played in the snow when it snowed again, played dress up, went to a friend's birthday party, worked out with Uncle Travis, played some more, went to lots of parks, rode bikes again, did lots of Valentines art, went to a Valentine's party, baked cookies, hit the museum, fed the ducks....and generally repeated as necessary. Here's our video re-cap for February, hope we won't be such slackers in March even though my constant companion camera is broken beyond repair and I haven't gotten a replacement yet.

NYE Weekend 2010

We had a great NYE weekend over at my brother Trav's house. We had tons of food, fireworks, games, grapes, and fun. On Saturday, we went to the park, sat on a horse, and celebrated Trav's 35th birthday with my other brother Trevor and his family.  On Sunday we had a leisurely breakfast and then packed up the kids for the final day of Holiday in the Park at Six Flags over Texas....I don't think we could have squeezed anything else into our last weekend of 2010 and our first weekend of 2011. Happy New Year Everyone!!!

For the third week of Christmas...

For the second week of Christmas...

For the first week of Christmas...

December, December....it's already here!!

This year we decided to create an activity advent calendar for the boys with various activities or treats counting down the days until Christmas. Anything from a Christmas Light Parade, to making ornaments, to eating candy canes...And, since we aren't going to torture anyone by posting on each and every activity, we've decided to do a "week in review" each Sunday/Monday instead. Here's what we were up to this past week:

Back in the U.S. of A

Hard to believe we've almost been back in Dallas an entire month! Our flight was great and we're as settled in as we can be while intruding on family space.

We spent our first week getting all the "necessities" like a car and a phone and whatnot, and then Jaime got down to the business of looking for work. Lots of resumes sent out across the US, but nothing promising just yet.

Then it was Thanksgiving week...and now it's December!

Otherwise we've been hanging out and enjoying the TX weather fluctuations from 84 one day to 37 the very next day. We've been enjoying the local amenities from neighborhood parks to library story time, and we've been attending some of the many Christmas time activities throughout the metroplex. Here's a little video of our Dallas November:

Family Picnic

The day after Halloween was a holiday here in Spain, so we took the leftovers from our Halloween party and headed to the mountains/forest with the family for a picnic and some "hiking." It was a relaxing and delicious day.

H-A-L-L-O-W-E-E-N

This past Sunday we decided to throw a Halloween bash as a sort of "Adios" party. It took some looking around and a few trips to different stores, but we found lots of goodies for our fiesta. Alex was Dracula and Connor a Rumba Guy. We had food, games, music, and fun. While it started off a little slow, it turned out pretty great in the end. Happy Halloween everyone!

SO far behind....

Our time in the States has just FLOWN by!! I find myself sitting here on the eve of our last full day, and I am already sad that we have to go. I can't believe 8 weeks went by "just like that."

I am so very far behind on the blog and we've done loads of fun things, but I've only had time to put together one more video. I'm working on one for the second half of the trip as well as one from our early celebration of the boys birthday too, but that will take a bit longer.

Here is a (long) look at our 4th of July week spent in WI. We hung out in Germantown with my grandpa, and enjoyed a long weekend staying with my Uncle John and Aunt Mary up in Prairie du Sac on Lake Wisconsin. It was a fantastic week, the boys had tons of new experiences, and we thank everyone for their generosity and hospitality. Enjoy!!