Texas Ski Ranch with Travis and Britt

On Wednesday morning, we left the 4 older kids with a sitter, and went up to the Texas Ski Ranch, which is just past New Braunfels.  Matt and Travis had gone before together, and Travis is a HUGE wakeboarder, so we HAD to go!  It was really windy, and really cloudy, so Brittany, the babies and I only stayed around for about an hour to get a few pics...then we headed up to the outlets!! YAY!  The boys seemed to have a great time, but were pretty sore afterwards! 

Travis

Travis

Matt

Matt

Riverwalk/Alamo with the Clarkes

Wednesday night, we ventured down to the Riverwalk and the Alamo.  We parked at Christus, and took the trolley!  The kids loved doing this!  How could you not?! The trolley is the best way to get around downtown!  It was soooo hot, though, so excuse the hot, sweaty looking people in the pictures!  

Temple with the Clarkes

On Tuesday night, we went to our favorite restaurant, BJ's, for dinner.  It has yummy deepdish pizza, homemade draft rootbeer, and pizzookies!  What more could you want?!  After dinner, we ventured over to the Temple to walk around the grounds, and so the Clarke's could see it again.  They were here for the open house, so at least they got to go through it once!  Bummer, we didn't get a chance to do a session together while they were here.  I love temple sessions with friends! Anyway, the kids were a little....wild....to say the least! You should've seen us trying to use nice, reverent voices outside the temple as the kids were yelling and running around like crazies! HA! 

Sea World with the Clarkes!

On Monday and Thursday, we went to Sea World!  Of course, we swam, saw some animals, rode some waterpark rides, and thought we were going to die of the heat! It was soooo hot!  The kids had so much fun...they actually got to swim in the deep end and ride the waterslides! *when I take them, obviously, I can't take them to do all that fun stuff b/c of Lexie* 

Lexie and I snappin a pic while the kids were seeing the penguins!

Cute girlies

This was Brian's first attempt down the slide with Matt....yes, his ENTIRE head is UNDER water--how he didn't inhale it and drown I will never know! I was scared to death!

Lexie enjoying the water!

A much better slide the second time around!

At the Shamu show

My girlys

Sydnee and Ethan waiting for their turn on the water slide

Travis with the older kids in the deep end

Brittany and Travis with 5 of the 6 kids! That's a lot of kids!

A visit from the Clarke's!

Soooo....our wonderful friends from Georgia, the Clarkes, surprised us with a visit last week! We were sooo excited and had sooo much fun with them all week.  The kids got along great--no fights between friends!  I loved that!  The kids are pretty much the same ages too- Kaylin is 5 months older than Brian and Ethan is 4 months older than Sydnee.  Usually the girls paired off to do something girly, and the boys paired off to play cars/trains/trucks!  It worked out beautifully!  We, of course, stayed up late everynight, talking and catching up with Brittany and Travis.  Our week was filled with pool time, Sea World a couple of times, Texas Ski Ranch (and outlets!), the Riverwalk/Alamo, the Temple, and just plain fun together.  We love them so much, and were so sad to see them go!  Here's to our next reunion...sooner rather than later!  

ps- there will be a post for each of our fun activities! So BE AWARE of picture overload! 

Brittany and I before church--I just love this girl!  We are sooo much alike--I like to think that we are twins with different hair color! HA! 

Storytime

Brian's room-AKA the playroom-the kids loved to go in there and play!

The girls- Sydnee and Makaylin

The boys--Ethan and Brian

Sweet babies--Mika, 14 months, and Lexie, 5 months.  

The families before church

7 years, 3 kids, 2 degrees and still going strong!

7 years of marriage!! WOW! Seriously, I cannot believe that July 25,2002 was 7 years ago! How fast time flies when you're with the ones you love! No, it hasn't been easy, and, no, I'm not expecting it to get easier as time goes on....but I can say that I'm enjoying the journey! I love Matt so much, and I'm so glad we get to be an eternal family! He does so much for me and our kids!  So I was looking back at old pictures and decided it would be fun to post some oldies!  The first is our wedding announcement--there was a vellum layer over the picture, and it was tied with a ribbon at the top! Look how young we both look!  (what a toll a bunch of school and 3 kids will take!) The next 2 are from our wedding album, and the rest are the subsequent years of our married life! Notice how there isn't one from 2003???  I was pregnant with Brian at the time, and for some reason, I don't have hardly any pictures!  Weird....anyway...enjoy our journey!  (and my different hairstyles! he he)

July 2004-with Matt's grandparents  (Brian was 7 months old)

July 2005- Our new family of 4! 

July 2006

July 2007

July 2008

At the temple this year for my cousin's wedding!  How fun it is to go back with the one you love, and remember why you are in this, and how much you love each other!