Vacation

Last weekend Mike, the girls and I headed out on a little family vacation.  We headed to Grapevine, TX and had a great time.  We left Saturday morning and came home on Tuesday.  It was about the perfect amount of time to be gone, although the girls cried when we got home because they wanted to sleep at the hotel again. 
Here are the girls loaded up and ready to go.  We were about 10 minutes into the drive when Hadley started asking, "Are we in Texas yet?".  Luckily Mary Poppins got started and she didn't ask that question too many more times.

  We stopped for lunch at a Chile's and had to take some pictures.

Most of Saturday was spent traveling and getting checked in.  Our hotel was booked full the night before so we didn't get into our room until about 6pm.  Luckily my sweet talking got us a credit on our bill :)  To kill time that afternoon we thought we would go to the Legoland Discovery Center.  Hadley was very excited when we told her where we were going.  She soon would be disappointed due to the 2.5 hour wait to get in.  We bought our tickets for Monday and assured her we would be back.  She kept saying the rest of the evening, "I am disappointed mom."  To help with the disappointment we let them ride a few rides at the mall before we headed back to see if our room was ready.  Hadley always tells us that she wants a car without a top and I think she found it.

 Once we got checked into the hotel we got settled, walked around the hotel and ate dinner.  Hadley had to do a model pose by the fountain.

  By this time we were all pretty tired and hit the hay early to prepare for a big day of swimming on Sunday.
We stayed at the Gaylord Texan Hotel.  This is the hotel Mike and I stayed at 3 years ago when we left Hadley overnight for the first time.  They just opened a new resort pool area this summer.  It was perfect for the girls.  They had a lazy river or crazy river as the girls called it.  A zero entry pool with lots of sprays to play in.  They also had a zip-line and slide that Mike and I could do.  We spent all day on Sunday at this pool with a break in the middle of the day for rest time.  While we were there they girls and I got spray on tattoos and the girls got braids and beads put in their hair.  It was a great day and both girls fell asleep on the way to dinner that night.  Here are some pictures of swimming.

 Monday we got around and headed to Legoland Discovery center.  We wanted to be there right when it opened because we knew it would get busy.  In the end we were very disppaointed in Legoland and sad that we spent so much to get in.  They highlight of Legoland was the Bob the Builder 4D movie.

 For lunch we went to the Rainforest Cafe and the girls loved it.  Jillian was a little scared of the animal noises in the beginning but got used to them.

  After lunch we did some back to school shopping and then went to the Sealife Aquarium.  By this point the girls were getting very tired and looking back we should not have planned so much for one day.  We made it through the aquarium but left at the end with Jillian in the middle of a fit.  Both girls were asleep in the car before we got the 2 miles back to our hotel.  A power nap was all the girls needed to be ready to go swimming again.  So we changed and headed to catch the bus to swim.  The swimming area was just down the road from the hotel and they have a bus going every 10 minutes.  This might have been one of the girls favorite parts of the trip.  Jillian asked to ride the bus no less than 100 times while we were there.  We swam for an hour or so and then headed back to get cleaned up for dinner.  By the time we got back from dinner we were all ready for a little movie time and bed.

 The next morning was time to pack up and go home.  The girls and I walked around the hotel to kill time while Mike waited in line to check out.

 On the way home we stopped at an outlet mall for a little more shopping.  I think I can say we all had a great trip.  The girls keep asking when daddy can take us back to another hotel. Hopefully we can talk him into some time off again soon :)

Changes

This weekend we had some change going on at our house.  We moved the girls into a room together and made Hadley's room into a playroom.  We have been talking about it for some time now.  We knew the day was coming that Hadley would need to move to a bigger bed (she was in a toddler bed) and Jillian would need to move out of her crib.  That being said Jillian never crawled out of her crib and was sleeping fine in it.  We just knew that the transition would go smoother if she saw Hadley getting a bigger bed at the same time.  We had taken them to look for bunk beds and even let them pick out their own bedding.  Luckily I was able to manipulate the choices so they somewhat matched.  We finally found the bunk beds we wanted.  We wanted some with stairs (just seemed a tiny bit more safe).  On Friday late afternoon, Mike and I started putting them together.  While we worked on putting the beds together Jillian and Hadley had fun with the boxes.

We stopped for dinner and got back to work.  The girls really wanted to sleep in their new beds that night.  We finished up and started our bedtime routine. We knew it would be rough because it was new and past normal bedtime.  We weren't planning on them not being asleep until 11pm and up the next morning at 5:55am.  Good news is that each night seems to be getting better. 
The girls have been having fun playing in their new room together and in the playroom.

It is so much fun to watch the girls play together more and more.  They love to play make believe.  I hope that they continue to love sharing a room.

Porter Peaches

Last Wednesday we made a trip to Porter, Oklahoma to get some peaches. It is about an hour drive. We started the morning with swimming lessons and then loaded up in Jill's van and headed for Porter.  Loading up in the van took a little longer than expected.  Getting 5 car seats to all fit was interesting but Jill and I got it done!
Here was my view looking into the back of the van (Hadley was with us but you can't see her).

 We stopped at McDonalds for some lunch.  The kiddos really weren't in a picture taking mood.

 After lunch we headed to the Peach Barn to get our peaches.  We didn't go to pick them just buy them from the store and have some homemade peach ice cream.  It was delicious!  We had to take pictures of the kids being the cowboy.

 Yummy ice cream.

 We wanted a group picture in front of the peaches, this is the best we could do.

We brought home a good amount of peaches and Jill taught me how to make peach jam.  It is delicious and I am going to try to make some more on my own this weekend.  I may also try to make strawberry jam.
This was a fun little road trip.  We thought for sure the kids would nap at least part of the trip.  Caroline was the only one that slept.  The kids did great in the car so we might have to plan another road trip soon.

4th of July and more

It is still the 4th of July so Happy 4th to all.  I had intended on getting a post up earlier in the day but the day got away from me.  We have had a great weekend and this post should fill you in on all that we did.
Friday night we went out to dinner at Red Robin and then did a little bunk bed shopping.  We are planning on moving the girls into one room eventually and wanted to start getting ideas on beds.  We haven't found what we want yet.  After the girls ran all over the furniture store (actually they were very well behaved) we went out for frozen yogurt.  This is one of our favorite things to do in the summer.

Saturday started early for me.  I wanted to beat the heat and get a good run in.  When I got home Mike went out to shoot his handgun while the girls and I ran errands.  After lunch we put the girls down to rest and nap and I headed over to Jill's for a lesson on making peach jam.  We had gone to Porter earlier in the week to get peaches (post coming soon).  We made a batch of peach jam and it is delicious.  Thanks Jill for teaching me!  After our jam was made we all headed to the pool.  We are members of the pool in Philip and Jill's neighborhood so Mike and the girls met me there.  We enjoyed some pool time. Both girls are improving with their swimming.  After swimming it was time to go home for a quick dinner and bedtime.
Sunday started with church.  The girls were very excited to head to church in their red, white and blue.  We even got Daddy in on dressing patriotically.

We spent Sunday afternoon taking it easy and preparing for a late night of watching fireworks.  Mike and the girls doing some work.

 Jenks did their fireworks show on the 3rd this year.  The aquarium stayed open late so that you could set your chairs and blankets out on their back lawn and walk around inside while you waited for the show to begin.  This was a great idea because it was still pretty warm in the evening.  We met Philip, Jill and the kids there (we all joked that this weekend was full of Kirk/Maud time).  The kids had a blast doing a scavenger hunt that was set up throughout the aquarium.  When we finished that it was just getting dark and we headed out to wait for the fireworks.  It started to sprinkle while we were waiting and cooled down to the perfect temperature.
Since I missed getting a picture with the girls before church we did it before we left for the fireworks.

 Family picture and yes Mike has food in his mouth.

 Our model striking a pose.

 Philip, Harry and Peter

 Jill and Caroline. I love Caroline's outfit, Jill made it.  Maybe that should be the next thing I have her teach me :)

 Jillian checking out the planes during the fly by.

 Mike and Hadley watching the fireworks.  I have to admit this is the first year we have let the girls stay up for the fireworks.  We have always been in a lack of sleep mode and never wanted to mess with their schedules.  This year they are finally at a point that they actually sleep and we can stay up later now and then.  It was well worth it because they both loved the fireworks.

We got home around 11pm and got the girls right to bed.  We had to wake them up early this morning to get to the Firecracker 1K Fun Run.  After our family 5K in May Hadley has been asking to do a race with me.  I decided we should do a Fun Run as a family and what a fun way to celebrate the 4th of July.  To round out our Maud/Kirk weekend the Mauds joined us for the Fun Run.  Peter and Hadley had been talking about who was going to win throughout the week.  I was a little worried it the race might end in tears but it did not.  Peter was the winner in our group but everyone did great.  Hadley ran almost all of the 1K we had to slow down a few times.  At one point I was starting to get a few steps in front of her and she pushed my leg back.  She did not want me to beat her.  If anyone would start to get next to her she would get a very determined look on her face and start to run faster.  I can see she might be a little competitive.  Mike pushed Jillian in the stroller for most of the race but let her out in the end to run across the finish line while we cheered her on.  We all had a great time and ended the morning with brunch.

 Can you tell that Jillian is a little fond of Harry?

 Hadley refused to have her picture with the group and Peter was too fast for me.  But Harry, Caroline and Jillian look cute before the race.

 My girls after the race.

After brunch we came home to relax.  The girls watched a little Mary Poppins while Mike and I tried to keep our eyes open.  When the girls got up from nap we headed outside for some sidewalk painting.  That lasted all of 5 minutes before they were complaining of the heat and even a popsicle bribe wouldn't keep them outside.

 Mike didn't get to go in the cool with us, he had to stay out and mow.