Dallas Vacation Day 3: Game Night!

Saturday was set aside for game night with friends and family. I always love these nights!!!

Mom and Brylee took advantage of the morning and made cookies.
































































Even Cary got in on the decorating:





















And then some tube time:



























Dinner was...what else? but hot dogs! And dessert was an ice cream bar, complete with bananas, brownies, whipped cream and cherries!


















Brylee had a lot of fun that day, playing with her cousin Austin and then getting into sprinkler fun with her friend Evan!






















































They even make beautiful music together!









Yet again I was too busy hanging out with my friends to be able to get into a game, but I loved to see that so many others were able to play Apples To Apples and also Sort It Out.





















The interesting part is that this is not the best part of the night!

On the way home, my grandmother accidentally hit a curb on the road and messed up her tire. Fortunately it happened just about 2 miles away, so my uncle Mike and dad went out to 'save' her, which meant that my aunt Amy, cousin, Spencer, and Granny were coming back to hang out a little longer!

Project 52: 31/52 Nature

The biggest struggle with this particular post was, "Which picture do I choose?"

In this new home, we are surrounded by nature in so many forms. Lakes, forests, mountains. Fresh vegetables, fruit, eggs, and milk found at homes and fields where you can go pick as much as you want (and taste test along the way--the fruit part anyway).

So I picked 3 of my 'favorite' nature pictures to talk about this week's Project 52.

This is the picture I had taken that I kept in mind for a couple of weeks as 'The One'. Just outside our movie theater is an awesome bridge surrounded by this. And below some trails through the greenery. The worst part about it was the mosquitoes. Our lovely evening stroll was ruined by them.
This one is of the waves rolling in while we spent a little time on the ocean beach today (more on that later).And this picture of the blackberries was taken this evening after we discovered a neighbor picking them in our 'backyard' (a shared field for our condos and even some wild critters, a.k.a., foxes, deer, chipmunks and sometimes even a moose sighting)

Project 52: 30/52 Macro

One week after it was due, and I finally have a picture...that looks slightly blurry, and may or may not have accomplished the goal.

Dallas Vacation: Day 2: The Whale Rider

Friday morning began a 3 day weekend for mom, and was quite busy for everyone except Poppy, who got to have a relaxing day at work...but we shared the best part of the day with him!

The morning started out with some window decorating:




































Kazoo playing:












Dad met us for a last minute lunch at Logan's (after my grandparents had to cancel due to not feeling well--we missed you Granny and Grandpa!)
And then Cary, Mom, Brylee and I headed off to the mall for some shopping! (I will spare you the pictures on this one, but trust me, there was a lot of purchasing...)

After the big shopping spree, we went home where Brylee and her T relaxed for a bit while Cary and I ran to Grapevine Mills with the mission to find some cool shoes for Cary. It was a big challenge, too, to fin what he would like and what would fit with his wardrobe. But we finally got something good, and then back to my parents' house (with more purchased for me as well--yay!).

The evening fun? Going to the city pool and cooling off (and soaking my now blistered tootsies!).
Brylee was very scared of the water at first, trying to leave the water as fast as she could, and then clung to her Poppy. After a few minutes of playing with the fountains, we ventured over to the 1/2 foot kiddie pool where T and Poppy walked her in circles and swung her over the fountains. They did this for about 45 minutes, her excited and screeching happily each time. Eventually they even made it to the center to play with the whale!














































































































































Towards the end of the evening (and the close of the water park), T and Poppy took her over to the water slide, where she went down...over and over again. She did great and was very comfortable with the water when the whistles blew for the final time that evening.





















After a busy fun time at the water park, it was time to head to dinner at Firehouse Subs!




























And now they tiny tot is juggling her way to stay out of bed...while Cary and I run out to meet Uncle Bill to see Harry Potter 7.2 in 3D!












*While waiting for the movie to start, Bill got a bag of popcorn, which was about 1/2 full with salt. He offered us bites of it, to which Cary responded: If I wanted some, I would have bought some. It became the 'running joke' for the entire night. Boys.

**While walking back to the car at midnight, Cary and I saw a jeep that needed jumper cables. I thought mom might have some in her car, so we went to retrieve them, but found nothing. However, I called Bill to see if he had some, but he said that he was getting pulled over by the police at that moment. Wanting to get him off the phone immediately, I forgot to tell him that they cables were not for us. As we left the mall, we saw him chatting with the cop. A couple of minutes later, he called back, to where I told him the cables were not for us. Apparently, he convinced the police officer to go back to help 'us', but when they got there, they did not see the jeep, and were able to leave and Bill go home.

Dallas Vacation: Day 1

This is what we woke up to:









She loved to play her guitar and then stop and have everyone clap at her. I didn't join in because it was early morning, and I'm not a morning person. But she looked at me and directed her clap to me as if she were saying, "Clap at me mommy!"

Breakfast at Chick-fil-A:





















And then we drove to Sulphur Springs to spend the day with Cary's brother and his family. Somehow, in all of this mess, I cannot find pictures of Brylee with her Aunt Faith. :o(









However, we had a major breakthrough in the Uncle Brad department. Midway through the day, they were best buds, laughing and giggling (and in Brylee's case, screeching).









A little geocaching:












A visit to Mema's, where there was more laughing and screeching:




































Brylee wasn't the most comfortable around Mema, but we managed to get this quick picture:









And then off to visit the Dairy Museum, where Brylee was out cold...even through our ice cream treat...


















We left Sulphur Springs around 4:30 to drive home to have time to visit with my Aunt Deb and through a lot of change of plans, Brylee ended up getting some time running through a sprinkler in the warm Texas evening (I would say hot, but after the 90+ degrees in Maine without a/c in most buildings, this was actually nice...well, for the evening)



















What a busy fun day! It was great to see Brad, Faith, Helen, Mema, and Deb. 5 blessings to count in my life!

Dallas Vacation: Beginning Of The Week

The start of our vacation began with 2 nights of Vacation Bible School, where I was a Crew Leader, a.k.a., leading the children from activity to activity. It was a wonderful time, and Brylee and Cary joined us for the opening music time the first night. By the end of night two, I was actually sad that I wouldn't be present for anymore nights. The girls in my group were so sweet, and so good. I hope I get to see them again!



















But Wednesday at 2:00, we were on to another adventure equipped with headphones:












(Brylee hoorayed to the "If You're Happy And You Know It" song on a really quiet bus. It cracked us up!)

We watched for our airplane:












We monkeyed around:












And when the plane was delayed several minutes, we made our own entertainment with the security bins:










Luckily, she fell asleep on the plane, and I was even able to catch a little sleep of my own. Once we landed at 11:15, we walked to baggage claim where we saw T and Poppy. When Brylee saw them, she shouted "T!", but Cary decided to walk past them, as a tease to her...but she got upset! She was very shocked to see them in person, and by the time we went to bed at 1:00 a.m., she was incredibly happy to see them and be able to touch them again.