Save a Horse

I had the opportunity to take my family up into the hill country of Texas to visit the home of my Wood Badge Troop Guide.

We got to meet some of his horses...one of which really took to Aidan & Robyn. The kids were able to take in some very light horseback riding. Robyn absolutely squealed with delight when she was around the horses.Be sure to ask Hunter all about it...he had the most adventure of all (and I'm not saying that it was all that grand of an adventure for him). We learned a lot about horses!

For lunch we feasted on smoked Brisket that we "helped" cook in the backyard: mmmmm, yum.....
Robyn was fascinated with their garden that was growing right out front...lots of nice green bell peppers to pick. And eat. She would eat them like an apple. We've always had peppers in our garden but she's never picked and eaten them like this! I guess the peppers here were much more tasty!

It was a new experience for us and our first time to really travel into this part of Texas. Country life really is inviting...if you're into that kind of thing!

When the bow breaks

It started about a week ago when we converted Robyn's crib into a toddler bed. Not a day later the mattress frame completely gave way...broke in four places. Luckily it sat only about two inches off the floor so no one was injured in the event.

This crib has served us well for all three of our children and for the babes and tots who used it before us (we bought it at a garage sale 10 years ago). I just got done taking the whole thing apart this afternoon...hence the post.

For now, Robyn just sleeps on her mattress that sits on the floor. If anyone has a toddler bed that needs a new home, I'm interested!

Was it Halloween?

Our minds have been on other things this past week so Halloween just kind of took a backseat. The boys had their "character book" parade at school...a great excuse for kiddos to wear their costumes--and probably the only reason why we even had costumes this year. We ended the evening with a trip to Lake Houston Park for a chance to enjoy the outdoors in costume.

Aidan dressed as "Hiccup" (from How to Train A Dragon)This costume was pretty much made from scratch fabric (but I did recycle some pants and a big shirt). Funny thing is, we've never seen the movie but Aidan LOVES the books!

Hunter is Draco Malfoy. Kept getting confused for Harry Potter. You could really tell who knew their Harry Potter characters and who didn't!

Robyn was our little Thing 1. Couldn't get her to stay still long enough for me to get a really good photo. Everyone kept asking where Thing 2 was. Umm, one is enough for me!

Saturday morning we headed down to the:on the Galveston Bay to celebrate Hunter's 8th birthday. It's kind of a cross between a carnival and an amusement park. This was Hunter and Aidan's first time riding any sort of roller coaster. Don't think Jaren and I have ridden one since our high school days. We quickly realized that we don't enjoy them the same now that we're much older.
Aidan and I became rather fond of Pharoah's Fury. We're in the fourth row!

The spinning teacup on the double-decker Carousel was also a hit!

If you ever want to venture down there I have one thing to say: go early!! Notice there are no crowds here yet in this photo! This was by far Hunter's favorite ride (The Bouncing Boardwalk). Sadly, it was shut down half way through the evening.

They had a really small Aquarium (and I mean REALLY SMALL) where you could touch and feed Stingrays. However, it took a long time to get my boys convinced that they would not lose their hand along with the fish they were feeding them! The Stingrays would literally "jump" at you!
We finished our weekend with Hunter's baptism (whom he shared with his cousin) and a birthday party afterwards. Course, it was at this point that my camera battery died...so no flash...