Spring Break, Part 2

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

Everybody had stayed well for 24 hours so we thought it was safe to keep our plans to meet Johnnie and the kids in Lubbock. We all dressed in our green to keep from getting pinched.

This picture below is how to eat your lunch and ice your head at the same time. She hit her head on the corner of a drawer when she bent down to pick something up. The eye roll was just a bonus...for my sake.
We met Johnnie and the kids at Joyland Amusement Park. Johnnie's friends Stephanie and Zachery came too. I had really fretted about this trip. I can not handle rides. I get sick just watching them. I knew Luke and Rachel were both tall enough to ride all the rides, but Kate would need someone to ride with her. I was going to do my best to ride with Kate. I took Dramamine with me and prayed that I would not throw up. Well we got there and I found out Rachel was tall enough to ride the rides as the adult. You have to be 60 inches and she just met the requirement. God does answer prayers!! I was so relieved and happy to get to sit and watch my kids have so much fun!!!

Here are all the kids ready to ride some rides, except Sydney and Wade who just looked hot and bored most of the day.

The kids had smiles on their faces ALL DAY LONG!! It was such a fun day and the park was the perfect size for our kids.
Rachel, Luke, and Tenley are in the car on top of that big roller coaster.
The Wild River Log ride was the favorite ride! It not only dropped you really fast, but it got you really wet too. Kate is sitting behind Rachel but you can't see her.


Here are Zackery and Luke on the log ride. Apparently it is so much fun the workers even take rides when they can.
Johnnie riding with Miles and Kate. Miles was too small to ride most of the big rides, including the fun water rides, what a bummer, but he was just tall enough to ride this ride. Next year buddy you can ride all the rides like Tenley!!

This was a hard ride to get a good picture of, but this picture shows how much fun everybody was having.
We got in really late Thursday night. Kate threw up at 4:00am Friday morning. This was after the kids shared drinks all day at the park!! Tenley and Miles got the bug two days later. Nancy got it Sunday night and Steve got it Tuesday. Apparently this bug takes two days to incubate and lasts about twelve hours. I am so sorry everybody got sick!!

Crazy boys playing at McDonalds.
On Saturday Tenley had her fifth birthday party!! This was also a special day because we got to meet, Jessica, Chris's only cousin on his mom's side of the family again. We had not seen her since she was two. She is almost eight now. The kids thought she was great!! Luke had another little girl to pick on...she fit right in.

Tenley wanted her hair done like Kate's when her momma was getting her ready. They both were wearing purple too!!
Here is Rachel and Kate with Jessica. She is such a pretty little girl!!
Having fun on the jumper.
Here is a picture for Granny and Pop Pop. The cousins that were there, we are missing Mac and Ian, with Jessica.
We had a good Spring Break this year, except for the stomach bug. It was nice to have the kids home and to get out of our schedule for a while. We are all back in the groove now.

Spring Break, Part 1

We always try to do something fun with the kids for Spring Break. This year we were limited on our fun due to Chris's work schedule and Wade being seven months old. I was determined to do as much as we could with Wade in tow and close to home. We made a last minute decision on Saturday to head to Abilene to visit the zoo. Kate had been asking to go back to the zoo since we went to the Fort Worth Zoo in February. Both Luke and Rachel had been to the Abilene Zoo, but Kate and I had never been. We called Granny to see if she would be able to join us at the zoo. She was able to meet up with us. The kids were excited to see her...and so was I...an extra set of eyes and hands are always helpful!! The Abilene Zoo was a neat little zoo. It is small, but the perfect size for us this day! Some of the highlights were the INDOOR reptile exhibits; a family of lions including momma, daddy, and about four cubs; the bridge that goes over the giraffes; and the trash can in the raccoon exhibit.

The bridge over the giraffes gives you a whole different perspective of them. You can even buy little crackers to feed giraffes. They come right up to the bridge and take it right out of your hand. We were too late to feed them though. They only get to eat an allotted amount of crackers a day and they already had their quota. I was pretty disappointed...this was supposed to be the highlight of my trip to the zoo!

This tiger sat in his bathtub of water most of the time. He did jump out for the kids to see him at the end of the day.
I had a hard time getting good pictures because of the fencing in front of all the cages. My camera would focus on the fence and blur the animals.
Looks like Luke is going to join the lion family for dinner! I guess he did not realize he would be the main course!
After the zoo we all went to eat pizza and then stopped by Granny's house for a quick visit. It was such a fun day!! Completely unplanned but everything turned out great!

Chris ended up getting Sunday and Monday off. Chris took the Rachel, Luke, and Kate to the movies to see Rango. After the movie we all went to the park. This was Wade's first time in the swings. We actually went to the park by our old house, so this is the same swings the other kids took their first rides in. We did not plan it that way, but it was just something I thought about on our way home.




After the park we went to eat burgers at Fudruckers. Rachel spent the early morning hours of Tuesday throwing up her dinner. Chris got sick at work on Tuesday. They were both pretty sick. Rachel threw up four times!! Rachel was better by Wednesday, so we did a little shopping and got everything ready for our trip to Lubbock on Thursday.

More to come in my second installment of Spring Break 2011.

Trip to Ceta Canyon

This past Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday the kids and I took a trip to visit my sister at Ceta Canyon. Chris was working most of Spring Break, so he did not get to come with us this time. We really missed him not being there.

We did lots and lots of fishing. Rachel had set a goal of 20 fish, but she only ended up with three. The weather had been real cold the week before, so we think the fish were all staying close to the bottom of the pond. Maybe she will have better luck next time.

We also took a hike to the waterfall. This involved some rock climbing. We had to pass Kate around between me and Dena, but we managed just fine. We had so much fun climbing on the rocks, getting wet in the waterfall, and getting really filthy in the process. It was such a neat experience that the kids and I will not forget. See slide show below.

We got to stay in the cabins this time. This is my type of camping. The kids loved the bunk beds! I am just thankful there were enough top bunks to go around!

Kate liked the bunk beds too. She did not hesitate to climb to get to the top bunks.

The kids loved playing with the basketballs. Rachel can almost make a basket. It won't be too much longer until she is tall enough. Kate looks like she knows what she is doing.

We saw lots of wildlife while we were there. We saw deer, turkeys, a porcupine, a skunk, two lizards, a bunny rabbit, fish, and a cardinal. Rachel remarked, "Is this like a zoo or something?"

This is the mouth of Rachel's Big Mouth Bass she caught.

The kids got their first taste of Church Camp food too. They actually really liked it. They had chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, and green beans. They voted Dena's chicken fried steak better than mine. I am not really sure what to think about that. I have decided they are just kids. What do they know!

We had such a fun time!! Thank you Aunt Dena!!

Exploring Ceta Canyon

I was limited to the amount of pictures I could have in the photo show. It was really hard to narrow them down, but here are a few good ones. Click the little speaker on the photo show to hear the music.

Luke's Happy Dance

What would make Luke dance like that you ask?

Luke caught his first fish all by himself this past week on our trip to Ceta Canyon. More pictures coming soon from our SUPER fun Spring Break trip.