Deep in the Heart of TEXAS!

I found a good price on airfare so I booked a trip to see Mitch's brother (Kirk and Leann) in Texas. Unfortunately the flights included red eyes and long layovers.

 The kids were excited at first, then it turned into misery. Mitch flew a direct flight with Pyper, his company flew him there. So it was me with Ellie and Max.

 Here is happy Max at 2 in the morning.

 Eventually we made it and I have to admit, I planned snacks perfectly.

 We took a trip to the Safari park, which we all loved.

 All the 'kids' loved each others company.

 Ellie and I got this cute ostrich to eat out of our hands. It was so fun!

 Max was a great safari man. Each kid got $10 to the gift shop and he had to have a Safari hat.

 We then made our way down to the Gulf and found ourselves at the South Padre sand castle festival.  The water was warm and the kids were not afraid to jump in!

 We had the unfortunate opportunity of being there during red tide. It's when this red algae blooms and kills all the fish and makes the air miserable to breath. It makes you cough, sneeze and ooze out the nose and eyes. It only comes every few years so it's such a bummer that it was there when we were.  It made going outside miserable. Boo hoo.

 But the sand castle festival was AMAZING! Here are Ellie and Elena, ages 5 and 6.

 The kids had so much fun catching these little crawdads crabby thingies.

 Cute Calvin led the brigade.

 Here we are with our gas masks. They made the beach bearable with the red tide.

 We were for sure watching out for sharks.

 We also found a few pirates on our trip. Pyper age 18m.

 Then on the way home we had a 12 hour layover in Colorado. It was LONG. So we rode the bus into town.

 Met this crazy dude named Jimmy. He was an artist. A tatoo artist. He was awesome so we took a picture with him. Did some bowling, and went to the movies.

Then it started to rain and we were homeless. So we hopped on the bus and slept to stay dry. Then there was a wreck on the freeway which made us almost miss our flight. We literally got on and they closed the gate behind us. It was so awful.  I told Mitch, no amount of savings is worth a 12 hour layover with kids. However, we had a great time playing with our cousins!

Staples! :(

They say the oldest child sets the tone for the family. If this is the case then being adventurous is the way they will all be. Ellie was playing out on the trampoline with her friend Madie. The trampoline (a small one) was set up under the monkey bars of the swing set when Ellie fell off it backwards and hit her head on the bottom rung of the metal ladder for the monkey bars. OUCH@

Luckily, our neighbor across the street is an ER nurse so she came over and helped us out.

Here is Ellie's cute face when they were cleaning it out and numbing it (at least 20 shots). She was so tough! She barely flinched, I just told her that it would feel like they were pulling her hair and she was great!

4 staples later she was good to go and off to school the next day!

Halloween 2016!

 This Halloween has been so much fun. There are those scrooges out there who don't love it but honestly with kids, is there any thing more fun then scaring the begeezee's out of them?! Oh yes and watching them dress up like the adorable little monsters they are... I mean the cutie patooties they are!

Here we are at J & J nursery with our cousin Ben. They have a free hay ride and visit to the pumpkin patch. This year was successful I'd say (which is a great turn from 2 years ago when I was super pregnant and I bumped 3 year old Ellie off the tractor trailer with my big pregnant bum in front of 100 onlookers. Ellie was fine but I cried. I felt bad and I was humiliated.)  Anyway, this year was much much better.

 Ben seriously had the biggest fattest pumpkin there. It was nearly impossible to carry all of these pumpkins and Pyper in one arm. Somehow I pulled it off!

 Spider Max, somehow Grandma Sherrill always has the coolest treasures at her house.

 Sometimes I try to convince my kids to be the most ridiculous costumes. You should have seen the horse costume I was trying to talk him into. But in the end, Captain America won out.

 He took his costume very serious.

 Here we are at Lagoon. Their Frightmares is really fun. Mitch started a new job working for my dad and has been working A LOT.  I was glad to have lagoon passes to help the time pass with the kids in the evenings.

 Seriously Pyper is SOOO WILD.  I took her off the counter about 12 times this day. Here she is sitting on a wobbly pumpkin. Pyper is 19 months and is pulling EVERYTHING out, drawing on walls and couches, and putting my makeup everywhere. I've had to hide it from her. She is totally crazy.

 I polished up my halloween cooking skills by making these cute little stuffed peppers.

 Here is the wild child again. The little cutie.

Here we are, the whole halloween clan. Sonny and Cher, a scary Vampire, Captain America, and a mad scientist.  We sure are a good looking crew! Happy Halloween!