Beach Time!

 We took a week and drove down to Port Aransas with our friends.  It was so much fun! The first day we camped out on the beach all day.  Here's Austin and Makayla, in the ocean, which was where they spent most of there time.  Makayla would walk out pretty far into the ocean up to her shoulders so we had to keep an eye on her! She isn't afraid of anything.  Austin kept to the waves that were knee high.

 Blake, on the other hand, wouldn't walk out to the water.  If water touched his feet he freaked out!  He was fine throwing seaweed around and playing in the sand.

 Building sandcastles with dad.

Blake also loved to walk around with a bag of goldfish and watch all the birds follow him around waiting for him to drop one.

5th Year Anniversary!

 May 1st was our 5th year anniversary and Tyler booked us a night's stay at Beaumont Ranch about 45 minutes away.  It's a working ranch that opened to the public almost 20 years ago. Here I am standing in front of the pond with paddle boats. Then off to the left is the big barn with all the food/games/dancing/live band!

 It was a great surprise for me because I love this kind of stuff.

 They even had a mechanical bull you could ride!  There was no extra charge. Tyler got good use out of it!

 This was where we had dinner.  There was a live band playing all the popular country songs that I LOVED! They also had a dance floor so Tyler and I did all our country swing dance moves and were surprised at how much we remembered!  The best part was two little old ladies came up to us after we sat down and told us how much they enjoyed watching us dance and thought we were the cutest couple ever. haha.  One of the ladies' husband was wearing a train conductor hat with blue and white striped overalls and he was definitely the cutest old man in the building.

 Our room came with an old fashioned tub. It was awesome! Made me wish I had a good tub in our house to soak in.

 After our good night's sleep (NO KIDS!) we went on an hour long horse back ride.  This is me riding Snow.  He was a great horse.  On the trail ride he tripped on something and fell all the way down to his knees! But ended up popping right back up before I could even think to jump off thank goodness.

 Tyler rode JFK.  We also played horseshoes, shuffleboard, and relaxed on some benches out by a huge playground area.  It was a very relaxing time. It would definitely be worth it for me to come back again.

On our way home we decided to take a side route and go test drive this blue Ford truck behind us.  Little did I know I would be saying good by to my trustee ol' Grand Am and driving this truck home! Yup. We pulled the trigger and now have a huge truck in our driveway.

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

 Bonnie and I planned a Cinco de Mayo/Cafe Rio party at my house.  This is my homemade paper bag pinata.  This is DEFINITELY the way to go to make a cheap pinata! It was so fun!

 There it is...ready to be smacked

 We let the little kiddos go first.  This is Baby Austin - my friend named her kid after mine. JK.

 Kai decided to joust it.

 Blake wacked it pretty good.  He's learned well from his older brother.  Sadly the only kid I didn't get a picture of was Austin!

 And now the girls!

 They all had pretty good swings

 That hangar looks like it's about to bust

 And Noah, the oldest wacked, the candy clean out of it!

 We also played pin the tail on the donkey.  I LOVE THIS GAME!

 I'm so glad most of the adults tried too!

 Cynthia and I.  She recommended pin the tail on the donkey and I'm so glad she did!  It'd been a while since I played.

Not too shabby!

Irving Half Marathon

 Here we are before the Irving Half Marathon.  It was a bit nerve wracking on the way there because there was a lot of construction and we made a few wrong turns and did a few circles before finally making it! But we ended up being just fine. 

 I ran just fine, but Tyler ran fast! Well, fast for not training as much as he should have. This was his first Half Marathon and his time was 1 Hour 33 min.  He's running another Half in July so maybe this will teach him a lesson and he'll train more.  :)

 We're done!!! I ran in my new running shoes and they gave me blisters.  I was soooo happy to take them off!  Spencer(the guy in orange) got 3RD! in his age group and Tyler got 4TH! Way to go boys! This was Spencer's second half marathon AND it was his birthday. What a fun way to spend your Birthday right?!

My First Garden!

 Last week we test drove this truck that was a great price and had everything we wanted in a truck...EXCEPT...The lift kit was too high so it won't fit under our carport.  We knew that going in, but we still wanted to test drive it to see what it was like.  It took the corners really well and went from 0-60 mph in 2 seconds. haha. Just kidding.

 We had some friends visit from Oklahoma and they stayed two nights.  They brought their dogs with them.  At first I was nervous about having dogs in the house because I didn't want dog hair everywhere, but we got used to them real quick.  Even Blake was ok with both dogs after a few hours! He's pretty hesitant around dogs that are bigger than him or have a lot of energy.

 My first HARVEST! hehe.  This is from my Swiss Chard plants from my garden.  They were the only thing I planted that was already a good size plant.  But it was fun to see the leaves grow big enough to eat.  They were yummy! We're hoping it helps with our seasonal allergies.

Austin went to two birthday parties last Saturday.  He loved these glasses in one of the party bags.

 Swiss Chard plants!

 My carrots are barely popping up.  This is my garden at almost 2 weeks old.  In the rest of these pictures, all the plants are planted from a seed.

 The ones on the left I have no idea what I planted!  The ones on the right are cantaloupe.  Or the ones on the left are cantaloupe and the ones on the right I have no idea.  Hopefully they produce so I know what I planted!

This is my Spinach.  Perfect snack to go with my Swiss Chard

 Beets! I'm excited to eat these fresh. I really hope I get some.

 Summer Squash/Zucchini.  We eat this stuff like candy around here so I really hope I get some.  Hopefully they just grow slow.

 Cucumbers. These guys get more shade then the rest of the garden but we'll see how they turn out anyways.

And finally....Broccoli! This part also gets a lot of shade so we'll see how it turns out.

It'll be a good experiment.  See how much of green thumb I have.  And now that I have plants in it, the boys don't walk around in the dirt as much anymore. Good thing!

Last Pictures of Trip Home

I think my dad should start a car washing business after he retires. Don't you think?

 I really can't go home without washing a car. This is the car I drove in high school. All of my other sisters drove it as well.  My dad has finally put a For Sale sign in the windshield. It will be sad to see it go, but my parents don't have anyone else to drive it.

 While we were washing the kids were playing. And yes I don't think Austin or Blake got dressed that day

 My mom pulled out some old toys my dad played with. My grandma saved EVERYTHING

 Time for a haircut!!! Doesn't this hair look horrible!

 He did so well since we bribed him with a cookie!

 Blake got his haircut too.  All my mom did was cut the mullet off the back.  Here they are checking out there new Hair Do's.

 Austin tackling grandpa.

 Grandma and Grandpa trying to get a picture in before we left the next day

 We went to the single branch FHE since my parents are serving there.  They were so nice and let Austin play soccer with them. In his cowboy hat. He sure looked Texan

Austin showing off his mad skills!

 Austin begged grandpa to get the remote control helicopter out to fly.  Good thing since I'm not sure when the last time grandpa flew it

Austin finally brings grandpa down.  We had a really fun visit!  My mom had spring break the week we were there so we got lots of time together.  She was so nice to let me go running every morning and it was fun to run and see some old sights.  I think College Place and Walla Walla are getting prettier and prettier every time I go.  Either that or it was soooo nice to see green grass and farm fields!