Roller skating fun!!

Yup!

Roller skating.

Uh huh.

Daddy decided that we were going to go roller skating.

I married a smart man.  One with a keen sense of adventure.

A guy who sure does like to have fun.

We told the kids after church that we had a surprise for them, had lunch and loaded up for a drive.  We drove to Brehnam and they all crashed out in the car on the way.

Once we arrived, we told them what their surprise was...they just LOVE that part!  We went in and got our skates on (after returning a few pair in order to get the correct sizes), and we realized that they even had skates small enough for Jacey...yeah...how cool is that?!?!?  Then Daddy gave the kids some lessons.

And we spend the rest of the time (all told...about 2.5 hours) just playing.  Generally speaking, the kids stayed close to the walls, but then we got a little 'cheater' walker set so they could get a little practice getting their balance and getting good.  Tatum went first because Daddy was just working more with Kellen and she really got the hang of it quicker (it may have helped that her wheels were pretty tight), then Kellen got the walker and practiced some as well.  Then we let Jacey play and practice with the walker and once she got it, no one else was really able to practice any more on it.

The rink played some fun games, did some races (Daddy came in third place in one of them!) and it was just all around fun.  I haven't had this many bruises on my knees since high school drill team (Mommy is NOT a good skater, but trying to help 3 kids half your size stay up is all-around difficult!) but it was just an absolutely fun family day (oh, and the roller skating is a total of $5/person, including the skate rental!).

We stayed until they closed the place down for public skate, turn in our skates, grabbed some water, and then headed to our favorite playground in town to play for just a bit on the playground there.

Have I mentioned before how much Jacey loves slides?? 

 
Overall, the kids were remarkably well behaved and given the amount of physical energy the activities required, I'm surprised that only one of them was out by the time we got home!  I love our family fun days....and I love it when Daddy comes up with his great ideas!

Fun Family Day

It was a fun family day...and we totally needed it!  It was a nice and relaxing day...one without much of a schedule.  We don't get those that often!

So we headed to Independence in search of bluebonnets, then headed to Brenham to the park for a late lunch/early dinner and to play at the park.  We headed back to town a different path, stopping along the way  back for a nice milkshake treat (which was interestingly the only out-of-pocket expense of the day).

We had a blast.  And we have the pictures to prove it (some are better than others, but hey...the memories are priceless!).  Here are some of the better ones from today.

I'm glad I took the day off today.  Happy Good Friday. 

Remember...the cross is for you. No matter who you are!  Thank God that the cross was for me!

Spring break preview.....

Yes...our spring break was that much fun....more to come.

Aggies win!!

Thanks to a great friend, I was able to attend the A&M bowl game, along with Maw Maw, Tatum, and another friend Donna.  Our beloved babysitter Emily watched Jacey, while Paw Paw and Aunt Boo attended and sat with some other friends, and Daddy and Kellen sat with yet another set of friends.

It was a fairly good game, and the Aggies managed to break their streak of shooting themselves in the foot on national television during bowl games.

Whoop!

Here is my sweet princess and I.

Notice that she's looking at her own reflection rather that at the camera, but hey...she's 4.  And she did remarkably well during the football game!  Sat nice and still and was fairly attentive for the entire first half, which in my book is pretty darn good!!

She ended up playing in the concourse area during the second half with Maw Maw and Paw Paw, who could still watch the game on the numerous TV's well positioned there but who enjoyed playing with her almost (or more??) as much as watching the game.

We had a really good time.  It was a long day, and Tatum was quite the trooper during the whole thing.  She finally gave out and fell asleep on the way home, which was to be expected.

Gig 'em, Aggies!!

Weekend fun!

It had been a-g-e-s since Jules and I had gotten a chance to catch up, so we tried to get together this weekend to do so.

We planned a zoo trip, then decided to hit the splash pad.  The kids had loads of fun, and we decided that we would have to make our family get-togethers at *least* an annual occasion.  We also decided that we would have to meet up sans kids to actually get a chance to catch up on each others lives. :) 

Here is our day in pictures.

The kids were worn.out. by the time we got home, and quite honestly, so were Matt and I! 

Rockbox

So I discussed the Rockbox in an earlier post about our anniversary weekend getaway, but I wanted to display some of our photos from that show.

Let me once again reiterate how incredibly fun that night was!

Still as goofy as ever!

 Roy Orbison...

Bette Midler...

ZZ Top...Santa style

The English Brothers (who were the guest performers for the night).  They sang Cowboy Christmas songs and we loved them so much that Matt ended up getting an early Christmas present...they were selling their CD's!

I'm so glad that we were able to go to this show!  Thank you, Matt's friend, for getting us the passes!!

10 Year Anniversary Weekend

Matt and I made use of some free hotel nights in the Hill Country on our anniversary weekend and went away to celebrate our 10 years together. Maw Maw and Paw Paw graciously watched all three kiddos while we were gone.

Did you catch that? All three kiddos. Yes, I went off and left Jacey for an entire weekend. Wow.

Anyway, we had a relaxing weekend and just enjoyed being together without having to wipe someone's nose or bootie, which is rare for us.

Here is a recap of our weekend, primarily in photos.  Most of them center around food...but the food was really good!  Unfortunately, I just realized that I didn't take any pictures of the picnics and sandwiches that sustained us for the majority of the weekend, but oh well!

Friday night we walked around Fredericksburg and window-shopped. We went to eat at Auslander and had the first meal of a weekend that included some really good German cuisine.

We went to the downtown area and admired all of the festive Christmas lights as well.

Saturday morning we made our way to breakfast at Save Inn in Kerrville.  We ate there on Sunday morning as well. Great breakfast, and you know it's good if it's packed with locals and cops (eating, not patrolling)...means good and quick service!

We went to the Pacific Museum on Saturday for a while, then walked around the town.

One stop we had to make was to the Rather Sweet Bakery. Here's a picture of the delectable goody Matt and I shared and a picture of the storefront.

Later on Saturday night, we ate at Der Lindenbaum and here is a picture of my fabulous meal and the storefront.

And a picture of our dessert....yummy goodness with icing so rich neither Matt nor I could eat it all. And that fact alone should tell you something!

We were blessed with passes to the Christmas show at Rockbox. I highly recommend it and if we're able to get passes again, it's worth it to plan a trip to the Hill Country around this show. Really. Good, clean, family friendly fun!

On Sunday after breakfast, we leisurely made our way to Fredericksburg, stopping to see a few sights on the way.

We have a few shots of this particular cross, which is the first of what appears to be a large prayer garden project. It was H-U-G-E, as if you can't tell from the tiny two people standing near the base of it.  I have some hilarious pictures of Matt running toward me to get this picture, as we had to have the camera on a timer and taking two - yes two - pictures to actually get the entire thing in frame.

This was just a cool (large) piece of art made from scraps (hence the license plate 'Scrappy') and it thought it was so neat that we pulled over on the side of the road to take pictures of it!

We then went to the Pacific Combat Zone guided tour, which I highly recommend.

I just love this phrase....very appropriate for wartime, don't you think?

Then we went around the town square again to get some pictures to commemorate the weekend.......

All in all, it was a wonderful anniversary celebration!