Wedding Bells are Ringing!

July 2012

 

Now that everyone had made it safely to Dallas, it was time to start on the next leg of our journey.  Early one morning, we headed north in two packed cars, all the way to Manhattan, Kansas for my Aunt Karen's wedding.  Our Kansas family hadn't gotten to meet Olivia yet, so we were also excited for everyone to meet our little girl.  When we arrived in Kansas, Great Grandma Dot and Olivia immediately became great friends:

While we weren't taking part in the wedding festivities, we found plenty of things to keep us busy.  We went to the park, walked around and played in the splash park:

It was so great to get the chance to hang out with my 2 beautiful cousins.  We definitely don't get to spend enough time together!

The boys enjoyed a morning at a really cool local swimming pool with slides and a lazy river:

The night before the big day, we all went to Aunt Karen and Wyatt's house for some pizza and great company.  I love this photo that Whitney took of my family:

The next day was July 14th, my Grandpa Dale's birthday and the perfect day for a wedding.  I know he would have been so proud and happy to see everyone together.  I'm so thankful that he got the chance to meet Tommy, and I still think about how much he would have loved cuddling Jack and Olivia, singing them "shoo fly" or cooking them some mini pancakes on Sunday morning.  We miss you Grandpa Dale.

But I digress.  As it should be, this July 14th was a happy day.  As usual, Olivia celebrated by taking a nap and looking adorable:

I love this picture of Mommy and Miss Olivia:

And this one of my cheesy guy in his wedding day attire:

And a picture of the cousins.  We tried to get Olivia in a photo with the three boys, but she was having none of it.

She much preferred to be photographed on her own, laying comfortably in Daddy's lap.

Of course, we did a few posed shots before the wedding.  Here's one of my family.  We missed you Ian!

And one of the sisters and kiddos:

Another one of my favorites - Grandma Dot and her lovely granddaughters:

Finally, it was time for the wedding to begin.  Courtney and Whitney walked their mom down the aisle.  Yes, those are KU colors they are wearing, but don't mention it around Aunt Karen or Courtney!

I really loved the ceremony.  Aunt Karen and Wyatt were so happy:

It was a fun ceremony, with lots of laughing:

But most importantly, they got married!

The reception after the wedding was in their backyard, very comfortable and relaxed, complete with some yummy local barbeque for dinner 

I love the look Jack gets on his face when he's thinking deeply about something.  I guess on this day he was in a very contemplative mood.

Of course, he also had time for some fun and some more cheesy smiles before the night was over: 

Congrats to Aunt Karen and Wyatt and thanks so much for sharing your special day with us!

Fun With Grandma and Grandpa

July 2012

 

A few days before it was time for us all to make the long trek to Kansas, Grandma and Grandpa drove up from Boerne for a few days of fun in Dallas.  They were only here for a couple of days, but we tried to cram a lot of fun into those couple days.  First, we all took a trip to the Dallas World Aquarium in downtown Dallas - a great way to avoid the summer Dallas heat.

It isn't exactly what you would think of when you think of an aquarium.  There are definitely areas where you can see fish and alligators and manatees and sharks, including a really cool tunnel under the water where the sharks, stingrays and fish swim all around you, but the building houses a several story high tropical rain forest complete with monkeys, leopards, bats, tropical birds and all kinds of other flora and fauna.  Jack and Ben enjoyed being carried throughout most of the day:

Grandpa and Jack, as usual, were buddies:

And Olivia did what you do best at 2 months old - I'm always amazed at babies' ability to sleep anywhere!

We also spent more time at the pool.  With someone else to get in the water, this time was a lot less stressful for me and, as you can see, Grandpa was immensely more popular than Mommy/Aunt Audra :)

Here are Grandpa and his boys.  I can tell you from experience, this is not a light load!

Grandma did not always join in on the pool time, but she found plenty of other ways to get in her grandkid time.  One of her favorites (and theirs, too) is story time.  I know from many years of stories that Grandma is a great story reader - she even has the attention of all three boys here!

Stay tuned for our adventures in Kansas!

Food Trucks, Dinosaurs, and More!

July 2012

 

 In my last post, I talked about all kinds of fun things we did when Katy, Evan and Ben were visiting.  On one particular day, we took so many good pictures that I decided it needed its own post.  On Saturday, when Tommy wasn't working and we had a third set of hands, we got brave enough to pack everyone in one car and head over to Fort Worth for the day. 

 

Our first stop was the Fort Worth food truck park: 

It was a really cute little area with some big trees that provided a little shade on an otherwise sweltering day.  It even had a little permanent structure that sold beer, so Tommy was a happy guy. :)

Of course, we all went straight to the least healthy, but most delicious truck there, the grilled cheese truck:

Tommy got the half-healthy caprese grilled cheese and the boys had regular grilled cheese sandwiches.  Katy and I, on the other hand, went all the way and got the grilled cheese with barbequed pulled pork and macaroni and cheese - probably a hear attack on a plate, but delicious nonetheless! 

Cute photo of the three of us while Livi slept in her carseat: 

And she finally work up.  Sweet girl - I love how big her eyes are! 

After lunch, we headed to the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History.  The temporary exhibit was "Grossology," all about the gross goings-on in the human body - we figured it would be perfect for a group of little boys.  The got to slide through intestine slides and press buttons to make all kinds of bodily funtion noises - it was little boy heaven!

In addition to the temporary exhibit, there are always tons of fun things to do and see around the museum.  Here's Jack in the Texas cattle herding exhibit trying his hand at a little cattle roping:

All of the boys had to try their hands at hula-hooping:

And sit in a dinosaur paw print:

There was even an outdoor dinosaur dig area:

The boys spent a little time in the children's museum area.  I love this one of our three guys in front of the tubes of bubbly water.  Pressing the buttons made the bubbles flow faster and more frequently.

Jack and Ben also had fun building wooden tracks and racing cars on them.  We had to pull them away from this area when it was time to leave.

And Olivia did what she does best at this age - sleep the day away!  She's not quite big enough for her umbrella stroller yet, but really likes to face forward and watch the world when she's awake, so we rolled up a couple of blankets and propped her up.

Such a fun day! 

Olivia Meets Aunt Katy and the Carolina Cousins

July 2012

The month of July began and I was about halfway through my maternity leave. I was so fortunate that my little sis took the time and braved a flight halfway across the country with two toddler boys to meet her new niece and give her sister some very welcome company.

After a very eventful plain flight, involving a motion sick 4-year-old, among other adventures, they the Davis crew minus Ian made it safely to Dallas and we somehow managed to cram 2 adults, 4 carseats and lots of luggage in the MDX and headed home. The cousins, especially Evan, immediately fell in love with their little girl cousin and couldn't get enough of cuddling her and trying to make her smile. I think Aunt Katy was pretty smitten also!

We had lots of adventures while they were in town, including several trips to the neighborhood pool - we had quite the crew in the little red wagon, plus the stroller.

Unfortunately, Katy had stitches and wasn't able to get in the water, which left Aunt Audra chasing after three shaky swimming little toddlers when no one else could join us. We're all still here, so everything went well. We were lucky we had enough pool noodles for each boy because those were the instant favorite.

Of course, Olivia wasn't quite up to swimming yet, but she tool some great naps in her strawberry swimsuit in the shade while the boys played!

We also tried out a new hand-dipped ice cream bar store that had just opened up near the house. You picked your own ice cream type and toppings and they dipped the bars while you wait. Not exactly a tidy toddler snack, but they were delicious.

We had to get a picture of Katy and Olivia in her "I love my Auntie" shirt from her Aunt Brandi:

As we all know, July in Texas borders on unbearably hot, so we had to find activities that were either indoors, or involved water. One day while they were visiting, we packed up and headed to the splash park:

By the time we got out of the house, it was late morning and already really hot. Katy and I spent much of our time there trying to keep Miss Olivia cool and shaded, despite the lack of shady areas:

Since everyone would soon be headed to Aunt Karen's wedding in Kansas, we had to make sure all the boys had suitable attire. A trip to the mall with three excited little boys and a newborn is definitely not the most relaxing trip, but somehow we managed to find shirts and shoes for everyone - and even got some Chick-Fil-A for munch and a charm for each of the boys Crocs. Aren't they a motley crew?

While we both love our kids dearly, sometimes it is nice to have some sister time to be together, just the two of us and catch up. We don't get to do this nearly often enough! On one of their last nights in town, my amazing husband agreed to watch the kids so Katy and I could head to a nearby wine bar for some dinner, drinks and great conversation on the patio. Love you, Katy!

Of course, I took a picture of the wine and, of course it was a flight of Sauvingnon Blanc. Anyone who knows me would expect nothing else!

While they were in town, I celebrated my 34th birthday. The boys helped Aunt Katy decorate a delicious cake:

And everyone sang a beautiful version of Happy Birthday. It was wonderful having Katy and her kiddos there to celebrate and I absolutely adore the locket that they gave me for my birthday.

Stay tuned for more adventures!