Ft. Worth

Mike had his annual AAMFT conference a couple of weeks ago and this year it was in Ft. Worth, Texas. Since he would already be driving and staying in a hotel, we decided to come along for the ride. We stayed in an Extended Stay hotel which is the only way to go with kids since it had a separate bedroom behind a door. Yeah!! Naps and bedtime were much easier. Here are the things we did while Mike was at a boring conference:

Explored the water gardens... pretty cool and some parts were kinda dangerous if you ask me.

 The best spot to be... with her feet in the water.

Rode on a miniature train... lots of fun!!!

Played at a local park.

Rode a carousel at the Parks in Arlington... and played at the playground there.

And the last night we were there, Mike was able to visit the botanical gardens with us. Very beautiful!!!

And here are the kids doing a fantastic job enduring the 10+ hours in the car

 That is yogurt by the way :)

Vacation (Utah)

Shesh, this is taking me forever to update. After our stay in Etna, the three of us, plus my sister, Jannalee PACKED ourselves like sardines into Janna's (tiny) new car and made the 12 hour journey to Utah.  The journey was mostly uneventful as the kids endured the trip pretty well. We stayed in a  hotel midway through and that ended up being the biggest nightmare of the trip. For some reason Daylin thinks that if you are in the same bed as her, it is her job to kick you relentlessly. And she has been going through this phase, I don't know... since she was born, where she doesn't listen... EVER. So that was a fun and tiring night. Here are some highlights of the trip...

American Fork has this man made pond that has an area sectioned off for swimming. Needless to say the kids had a blast. Particularly Everett. He sat in the water for over an hour just splashing around.

Grandma O made a "hot tub" for the kids. The sun was hot enough that it warmed the still water and made it quite warm for the kids.

Another major highlight was playing at the cousin's house. They have quite the setup in their backyard. The kids were entertained for more hours that I can count.

 

Daylin once again enjoying a trampoline.

 

And the playground.

 Daylin and Leigh snuck away with the cameras and took pictures of each other. Not bad, eh?

 Wagon ride

Grandma and Grandpa O

 Can you already imagine what is going to happen here?

Thank you Olsen family for letting us visit you and making such an effort to entertain us. We had a great time. 

A big thanks goes out to Aunt Rosemary for putting on a Thackeray family get together while we were there. So many cousins to see, it was awesome. (Thanks also Rosemary for taking the pictures and allowing me to steel them from facebook.) I love my family.

We also got to hang out with my siblings a bit more. We stayed the last night with my sister Jessica. It was awesome staying up late and watching a movie with 2 of my best friends. Something I never get to do anymore. Thanks sisters!

The plane trip home was great, the kids did really well for me.

One other last item of note is that I got to see an old friend. While I keep up on her blog it was fun seeing in person how her family has grown, she looks great, and her children are beautiful. While I don't often get attached to people and rarely keep contact, there are definately some people I miss being around and find myself wishing I could be her neighbor.

Vacation (Etna)

 After the family reunion at the beach, the kids and I got to go down to Etna for 10 days. Unfortunately we all got very sick, but we still had a great time. 

The first day we were there, Everett got his first shiner. He was playing in a Papasan chair and I happen to be winding up the vacuum cleaner cord right as he toppled out of the chair and onto the plug. If it had been two seconds later I would have been done winding it up and he would have missed it completely. Nice timing Everett!!

 Daylin enjoyed playing the piano and organ.

 We went strawberry and raspberry picking at a local farm. Awesome!!! Daylin loved eating the fruit right off the plants.

 We took advantage of several fun swimming opportunities. The pool at my cousin's house...

 

 

 And the stream behind my grandpa's property. Everett loves the water, while Daylin is a bit of a party pooper.

 Funny thing happened. Daylin developed a sudden and extreme fear of kittys. She has always loved animals prior to this trip, but was suddenly scared to death of the two cats my family has. She rarely braved the 15 feet from the car to the back door without being carried. And if we did get her to walk, she crept very slowly looking around every corner for the cats. If she saw one, she screamed and ran for the nearest person, clawing her way up into their arms. This picture was taken one of the last days when we finally convinced her that the cats weren't going to attack her.

 We found every playground within a 26 mile radius. :)

 And Daylin discovered the joys of a Trampoline.

 Thanks Mom and Dad (and Janna and Jace) for letting us invade. We had a great time.