4/3/2010Despite the fact that it's been 8 months since our last blog entry, we are still alive and kicking. Now that I've managed to get the posting working again, we hope to catch up and get back to filling you in on all the gory details about our adventures soon! 8/30/2009
The big summer vacation in 2009 was a trip to Walt Disney World in Orlando. Kristie's parents were brave enough (or crazy enough?) to take us and her brother's family, for a total of 11 people for a week with the mouse. It was absolutely amazing, and everyone had a great time, despite how grueling it was to get up early, walk all day, and go to bed late every day! All of the kids held up great, though, and we'd do it again in a heartbeat.
The first step was as much an adventure as everything else, as we attempted to get all of us to the airport and on different airlines at slightly different times with all of the luggage (and avoid hundreds of dollars of baggage fees!). It was the first time any of the kids had been on an airplane (not counting a trip to Chicago Andy was too young to remember), so even the trip out there counted as part of the vacation.
Our hotel was nice (it had a huge pool!); the only knock on it was that our building was in the very back, which only added to the miles we had to walk every day J
 
In case you're not up on your Disney park logistics, there are actually several different theme parks: The Magic Kingdom (the original one), Epcot, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom (plus some water parks that we didn't visit). We spent time at all 4 of them, with Hollywood Studios winning the prize for the overall favorite – it has Star Wars AND the Toy Story ride/game… how do you compete with all that?
 
 
At Animal Kingdom, almost all the kids rode the Yeti ride, which is an insane roller coaster that goes up a mountain, gets to a certain point where the track is broken and suspended in mid-air, then you get plunged backwards into the pitch black cave for the rest of the ride. It's certainly one of the most intense roller coasters there, and was Andy's favorite! Abby was heartbroken that she wasn't tall enough.
 
Another big hit on the trip were the character meals – we had breakfast with the Princesses and dinner with Chef Mickey and crew:
 
 
And of course we enjoyed the staples of WDW, the Magic Kingdom and Epcot!
 
 
 
  
4/13/2009 Over the last few days of Spring Break we went camping at Ray Roberts Lake. We went with a couple of other families from church and we all had a great time. The weather was beautiful, and there was fishing, hot dogs, and smores. I don't believe any fish were actually caught, but it was fun nonetheless. 2/16/2009 Before it gets too much later in the year, I wanted to post our 2008 Year in Review video. It's about 7 1/2 minutes long, and shows what we were up to last year. Be sure to check it out before the YouTube copyright nazis mute the soundtrack! Enjoy! 12/30/2008Although Texas Stadium has seen it's last NFL game, and the season may be over for the Cowboys - and in a rather unspectacular (actually embarrassing, to be honest) fashion, no less - they're still giving tours for a little while, so we made this our second stop on our day-long outing with the kids. It was even more exciting than we could have hoped, and (you guessed it) we took lots of picture to commemorate the occasion. 
Some fun facts for you: - Completed in 1972 at a cost of $35M (Tony Romo's current contract is for $66M)
- Seats 69,000 fans (up from 35,000 at the Cotton Bowl)
- Suites cost $50K (purchased as a bond from the City of Irving) at launch
- The new stadium has cost $1.1B so far, and will seat 120,000 people
- Suites there will cost around $3M
Okay, enough with the chit-chat...     
10/21/2008Since our last camping trip was such a big hit, we decided it was time to spend another couple of nights in a tent out in the wilderness over the Columbus Day long weekend. This time, the "wilderness" was the Rusk State Park (now part of the Texas State Railroad), where we could camp and ride an old steam train between Rusk and Palestine (the other park in this RR system). Kristie's parents and their other two youngest grandkids came along for one night, too, so the kids were thrilled (and so were we!). It was apparently pretty hard work playing this much. The next day it was time for our train ride. It was fun, though apparently the highlight for the kids was the gift shop at each end. We actually drove to Palestine (it's only 25 miles), rode the train back to Rusk where we ate at our campsite, then rode it back and drove back to camp. We're already planning our next camping trip to the state park a mile or so away with some families from our church. 8/22/2008As many of you know, Steve took the kids to his family's place in Woodward, Oklahoma for the 4th of July. I got to stay home all by myself for four whole days. It was awesome! I got a lot of stuff done around the house, watched a ton of movies, and slept and ate. That's about it. Steve was kind enough to take the camera with him and take some pictures. (Not as many as I would have, but that's okay.) Fishing at the pond. 
The other big thing there is the fireworks. Firecrackers and the like during the day, and then the big stuff at night. I love this picture. It's hard to imagine a little chicken could cause so much reaction from these kids. It's like it's bothering them all in a different way. 
This one cracks me up, too. 
7/30/2008The kids are at the grandparents this week going to VBS at their church. It's been awfully quiet around here, so not much new. I have finally gotten around to working on pictures, and I noticed something we left off the blog. About 6 weeks ago we went to the Denton Air Show. Andy really loves airplanes so whenever we hear of an air show we try to make it. The kids had a blast, and so did Steve and I (despite the horrible sunburn on the tops of his knees and my nose!). Andy with a helicopter pilot- 
Okay, I don't know what kind of plane this is, but my kids look really cute in front of it- 
In a C-130- 
In the cockpit of the C-130- 
Both the kids- An A-10- 
Abby and I took a little detour after the port-o-potty and took some more pictures- 
I have no clue what this one is either- 
I do know this one. It's an F-18- 
Later that day we went to a classic car show at Frisco Square. I may post pictures of that later. 4/30/2008On second thought, go ahead. After 6 years of living with someone else's driveway in our backyard (sort of - it was on the other side of the original fence) and giving up about 400 square feet of our play space for the kids, we finally got to reclaim it this spring after the city bought the land, razed the vacant house, and tore up the driveway. BEFORE: 
While we were at it, we had them extend the fence to enclose the driveway, since we have a large turnaround that further cut into the yard. We couldn't be happier with the fence (thanks Bill Johnson!) and with our new back yard. The kids have tons of room to run, ride and play, our garage is more secure, the folks walking by can't see straight into the house (thanks to the slant of the yard and the old 6' fence) and it'll take a direct hit from a tornado to knock the fence down. AFTER: 
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