Luck 'O the Irish to You

Road Trippin' to Fredericksburg

Road Trip!  Mike took Friday off for Spring Break and we hit the road for Fredericksburg.  We spent the afternoon exploring all the quaint little shops, sampling all the goodies for sale, and deciding on ice cream and pastries for lunch. Yum!  We toured the botanical gardens and the WW11 memorial.  Then, we let the kids play at the Market Square park in the center of town where there is a water wheel built by Mormon pioneers and several monuments remembering our pioneer heritage. 

It was so nice to take a day to be together having fun with our family and not running to sports or dance like most weekends.  We ended the day meeting up with the MBJ's (Manwarings, Barlows and Jensons) for dinner at Longhorn, one of our all time favorite greasy good hamburger joints where the kids can play outside and we can sit and talk.  It was a good day.

Ice Cream for lunch!

National Museum of the Pacific War

We had to make a stop at this amazing candy

shop with every candy imaginable, including

chocolate covered pickles, jalapenos, and ants!

After careful deliberation, we decided on fresh

saltwater taffy and 6 different flavors of homemade

fudge.

On the way home, we drove through Comfort and came across

this billboard.  Only in the south!  (well . . . and maybe in Utah. : )

Salado Creek for Spring Break!



One of my favorite days during our Spring Break was the day we packed up a picnic lunch, grabbed our bikes, scooters, and the stroller and headed out on a 4 mile walk round trip to Hardberger Park walking along the Salado Creek Greenway.  It was perfect weather for our walk, and everything was in bloom.  We walked past fields of gold wildflowers with butterflies flitting throughout.  There was a little water in the creek that we stopped to play in to catch our breath, and then we continued on our hike to the park for lunch.







We were so happy when we finally made it to the park for lunch!

We don't make it to this park very often, so we had fun exploring

all the playscapes.  The kids played and played, we got a good

break, and then we headed back along the path for home. 



It was a good day!  Luke played so hard he wiped

himself right out for the walk home.

Texas Bluebonnets

I love Springtime!  And one of the things I love the most living in Texas in the Springtime is the Bluebonnets.  They were breathtaking this Spring, growing in fields of blue everywhere.  We were finally blessed with rain, resulting in wildflowers alongside the roads and on the hillsides. 

On our way home from SeaWorld, I decided that we needed to take some pictures in the bluebonnets.  I always want to get them done, but the kids will never sit still long enough to capture the moment.  These were the best we could do, with it being so bright outside right then, and with the baby screaming his head off intermittently.   

Spring Break at SeaWorld

We kicked off Spring Break with our best buds at SeaWorld.  Going the first of the week on a day forested for rain, we beat most of the crowds and hit the rides, watched the Shamu Show, and visited the Penguins.  Luke and Jack were mesmerized by all the cute penguins and are finally old enough to be amazed by the giant killer whales jumping and splashing all the people crazy enough to sit in the splash zone (our kids included!)  

The big kids talked Lindsey into the water ride, and you can see

how happy she was with the end result of that adventure. : )  We

finished the fun day off at Taco Cabana for lunch.  Can't get much

better than that.

Here comes Trouble . . .

And that is Trouble with a capital T!  I don't remember my other kids climbing up on the kitchen table and playing there just like it was a perfectly normal place to stack mom's shiny red apples on her pretty candles.  Why wouldn't you want to do that??

Or play hide and seek in the pantry, climbing

up on the canned corn, stacked up on the bottled

water, mind you.

And don't forget to blow kisses and fish faces all over mommy's clean windows.  It makes the big kids giggle and mommy put her hands on her hips and shake her head.  What's there not to love about that??!

Daddy's Little Helper

Luke loves his dad!  Pretty much anything Mike does, Luke thinks is awesome.  His favorite word is DaaaadDY! Whereever you find Mike, Luke is not far behind. 

Green Eggs and Ham

Luke and I got to have breakfast, Dr. Seuss Style, with Savannah to celebrate Dr. Seuss's birthday.  It was a morning of all things Dr. Seuss.  Savannah got to read to us her favorite Dr. Seuss book, share some facts in the Hat, and show us her drawings of the cat in the hat and her Green Egg's and Ham cover-art. 



Savannah--thanks for letting Luke and me share our morning with you!

YUM!

This kid loves to eat!  And of course it has to be "all by myself!"  So sometimes it gets a little bit messy. 

Alternating methods between using the spoon and just shoveling

it in.  But when that's not fast enough . . .

 . . . just lick the bowl clean!