Texas

My mom had her 50th class reunion in San Antonio, Texas this year. She decided to drive down because she doesn't care for flying. As I have a really good friend who lives near Houston, when invited to go with her, I said yes. It was a long drive down and back, but a ton of fun while I was in Texas, and a good opportunity to spend some time with my mom, just visiting and chatting. And, of course, being me, I got plenty of sleep in the car! Traveling down, we went through Wyoming, part of Nebraska, part of Colorado, Kansas, a bit of Oklahoma, and then into Texas


Yes, that is snow! It was so, so cold in Wyoming!! There were huge patches of snow on the ground, and we actually outran a snowstorm that came in the second day of our trip. Yes, in May.



My mom had her 50th class reunion in San Antonio, Texas


The road was never ending! But the scenery was very pretty.

Unfortunately, I had to work on the trip. I was able to write reports in the car.

We got hit with a horrible rain and thunderstorm while we were driving through Texas. It only lasted about a half hour & the rainbow after was beautiful and made me think of a dear friend.


Once we got to Texas, I dropped mom in San Antonio, and then I went on to Houston to spend the weekend with my awesome friend, Erin! On Friday, we went to Galveston and went to what's called the Moody Gardens, which is very cool. They have a tropical rain forest with beautiful flowers and trees, very cool birds, and the cutest turtles. They also have an aquarium that was cool. And then we went to the beach, which I was so, so excited about! It was wonderful to get dig my toes in the sand and roll my capris up above my knees and let the water wash over my legs.















After a fabulous few days with Erin, I went back to San Antonio to pick up mom. We went on a riverboat ride, which was gorgeous, before starting home.



The river is on two levels, so there is a lock system, which was really cool! They steered us into this bay and the doors closed behind us. They they filled the bay with water and lifted up the boat so we were on the level with the other doors, which then opened and we continued on the upper level of the river. Coming back, they did the opposite, letting the water out of the bay so we could lower to the lower level.








Then started the long trip home. Coming home, we went through western Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah, before finally and wonderfully arriving home! It was a wonderful trip, with a lot of memories made, but as always, it was wonderful to be home.

MIA

I know, I know I have been MIA!!! But for a very good reason. I have been traveling and on vacation, enjoying the great state of Texas!!



I will be home tomorrow afternoon & will catch up the blog on my trip, of course with the many, many pictures I have taken!!

Oh how I've missed you

These are very popular at my house. Josh & his friends love my chocolate chip cookies & I usually have them around the house, because they're such an easy treat to have around for them. But they're much easier to make when I have a cookie scoop. Mine broke last year. Without the cookie scoop, I have to use spoons and usually end up with cookie dough all over my fingers. Finally last week, I caved & bought a new cookie scoop. I had forgotten how much easier it was to make cookies with the scoop & how much faster! And how pretty the cookies look when they're all the same size & look so pretty!! Now I remember that I can never go without it!!!

MORP

I know I'm a little slow, but a couple of weeks ago, Josh had MORP. I miss being home for these dates!  Thanks mom for the pic of Josh & his date, Mandy.  Then I lifted pictures of the whole group off Facebook! Josh said that they had a really great time--a fun group to go out with & a great dance!

Happy Easter

So I'm a little slow, but Sunday was Easter. It was Conference weekend, and it was a great family weekend. James came home for Easter and brought the lovely young lady that he is dating. It was fun to have James home and to spend some time getting to know Cass better. She's a sweet young lady who has been a really good influence on James. We decided to have a big Easter dinner this year and invited Angie's family & Hannah's family over for dinner. It was so fun to have the house full of family and friends on Easter. We had an Easter egg hunt for Angie's young kids. Not surprisingly, the teenagers got in on the hunt and I'm pretty sure that they got almost as many eggs as the young kids did! Dinner was delicious, mostly thanks to Angie's culinary skills and Hannah's amazing cake! It was a truly wonderful day spent with those I love the most!!



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I couldn't believe how long the table was! And the centerpieces were so fun to play with and make...they were the product of the trip to the Candy store on Friday that was so very much fun.





After dinner was time to play! Hide 'n seek, soccer, and basically just enjoying the last few minutes of sun and warmth to wrap up a really terrific day! I hope everyone was able to have a wonderful Easter and spend time with your family and loved ones.

Spring Break Fun

Josh is on Spring Break right now. Yesterday, I took he & Emmett to Idaho Falls. I dropped them at James' apartment & they hung out with him while I did some actual work, in the form of three inspections. We all met up for lunch, and then the boys went to see Percy Jackson & The Lightening Thief. Not having any interest at all in that movie, I took myself to see The Last Song. I have to say, I loved it. It is a movie I will be watching again & probably buying on DVD. It was a sweet love story, a father/daughter story that I found extremely personally touching, and really, could he be any more adorable????

Emmett's a goof



So after the movie, we went to this candy story called Sarah's Candy Cottage. The store is entirely devoted to candy. I hadn't been there in awhile & I knew that neither Josh or Emmett had ever been there. We walked in the door and there were shelves of candy EVERYWHERE. Josh & Emm's eyes got wide and they got these huge smiles on their faces! They were so cute picking out their candy choices and charming samples of just about everything from the lady who was helping us. The size of these lollipops made me laugh!


And since I had some grocery shopping to do, we ended our day at Wal-Mart. I swear, walking through the door turns Josh & Emm 5 again. But they make me laugh so hard. They head straight to the toy department. After playing a little bit of baseball with the bouncy balls, they found a couple of little kids who were willing to play with them. I think it's fair to say that Josh & Emm lost & the little kids won.







This was the two of them in the car on the way home. How do they always end up asleep at the end of a trip?