Creme Festival

This year we took Izzy to her school festival on Thursday night at Creme de la Creme. Creme puts one on every year for the kids to come through the hallways after school dressed up in their costumes to pick out candy from all their teachers. Their teachers even got dressed up for the occassion.

When we got to the art room they had face painting for the kids. Izzy immediately found a few little girls from her class. They were all dressed up as some sort of princess!

Izzy got a pumpkin painted on her face.

When we went by Izzy's classroom she showed us her picture frame. The kids were asked to draw their costume. Izzy drew a butterfly because that's what she will be at her mom's on Halloween.

We found more of her classmates down by the dance room. We finally shuffled them in close enough to get a picture.

On our way out we got a picture with Ms Elaine and Ms. Lindsey. They both help teach the t-k class at Creme.

Stars Game

Friday night dad and Cheryl came into town to stay with us for the weekend. We got tickets for the 4 of us to go to the Star's versus Florida game on Friday night. It was dad and Cheryl's first game so it was very intresting for them. The Stars played so hard too... but once the game went into overtime and they had a shoot out.... they lost 6-5.

We took them up to the Platinum level for the 3rd period to watch it from a different perspective and take them out to see AT&T Plaza.

We love having them come see us. It always means were going to eat really well!

Boo in the Zoo & Trophy Club Festival

This year we missed out on going Trick or Treating on Halloween with Izzy because she spent that night with her mom. So, last weekend we went all out to make sure we got in our Halloween parties with her.

Saturday night we made our 2nd annual trip to Boo in the Zoo with Izzy. It's a week long event that the Ft Worth Zoo puts on every year starting at 5:30 in the evening. They invite guests to dress up in their costume and bring along their candy baskets to go trick or treating along the happy trail. They section off parts of the zoo and set up "Treat Stations" for kids to exchange their purchased tickets for a handful of candy. (Every purchased tickets into the park gets 6 coupons to get candy from a Treat Station) They also have carnival games, professional pumpkin carvings, a Monster Bash show, and tons of animals to walk around and visit.

We took Izzy last year not knowing that the festivities would have such an impact on her. She's talked about it ever since and was thrilled when we told her we were going again this year.

Our first trip to the costume store Izzy found just what she wanted to be.... Thumbelina. I still have no clue who she is or what she plays in.... but, Izzy was cute all the same. Izzy told me I was going to have to fix her hair just the same as Thumbelina. I knew this would be tough.... I am NO hair stylist. Regardless..... I put Izzy on my "hair dressing chair" and away we went. We used lots of hair spray and bobbi pins.... and eventually I had Izzy's approval that it was just like Thumbelina's!

All decked out at the zoo....

Treat Station #1....

Daddy and Izzy checking out the muskrats.

Sunday afternoon we headed over to Trophy Club for a fall festival at the club. It was good to see so many people turn out for the event. The first thing we did was jump on the trailor for a hay ride.

As it got a little darker outside they started having their contests. Izzy got in the one for "cutest costume". We didn't win... but the judges were commenting on her perfect her shoes matched her costume.

Next we made our way over to face painting. Little did we know it was Izzy's first time.... and she was so excited about it. She wanted to be a "kitty". The lady did a great job with her!

The night quickly came to an end when we saw lightening coming from the distance. We finished up painting our pumpkin and ran to the car just in time.

Yeaaaa Pixies!

Saturday morning we got up for a chilly soccer game against the All Stars. Up till then we had played 2 games. Both of which we hadn't scored any points.... and the other team had scored plenty. Never the less.... the Pixies walked in with their heads high and played a phenomenal game.

Peyton, Kayley, and Izzy stand in line for warm ups that include dribbling to the goal.

Game time..... finally.... Mary Kate scores a goal to make it 1-0 Pixies. The crowd went wild as the Pixie parents were all thrilled!

Next..... Izzy scores a goal! 2-0 Pixies!!!!!

Eventually, Sammi scored a goal and then Emily scored 2 more goals! We won our first game 5-2 against the All Stars. It was fun to watch how much the girls have learned and improved just over a couple of months. You could see things coming together and things clicking with each move they made.

I captured a few extra shots during the game.... Izzy was all about sucking on her thumb during the game. I caught her 4-5 times. I don't think I've ever seen her do this in the few years I've known her. It was so funny!

And one more action shot. Izzy was out in front of them all....

Izzy's Birthday Weekend - Pumpkin Patch

Sunday we took Izzy to the pumpkin patch in Grapevine. This is becoming a yearly tradition of ours as they have pumpkins set up everywhere for posing pictures and a huge corn maze to find your way through. We drive by the location everyday to and from work so for the last few months we've seen the corn slowly rise to it's current hieght.


Izzy had been telling us all weekend she was going to lead us the entire way through the maze.





She missed a few turns and lead us to dead ends!





She even took a turn about half way through that Danny and I just knew would take us back to the start.... little did we know she had the end in site!


After the maze we walked around to take some cute posing shots! It's amazing how photogenic this child is.

They had tractors for the kids to drive around inside a hay bail barrier. We're pretty sure this may be her last year for this part as she's growing too tall to fit under the scare crow's maximum height requirement.

Note what the scare crow has in his hand! hehehehe.....

They even had a small pet farm with goats, pot belly pigs, and a huge rabbit.

Izzy's Birthday Weekend - State Fair & Birthday Cake

Saturday we went to the fair with Izzy. Our first trip was into the animal petting and feeding barn.

Izzy has always been very excited about the ferris wheel. We figured we better get on it before the crowd got too big. The line was pretty long when we got there.... but went very fast.

Up until now we could only ride the "kid's" rides as Izzy was under the 42" minimum height. As of this weekend.... we are offically 42" tall and can ride a a whole new set of rides.

We started off with bumper cars.....

Danny said on the first "BUMP" she almost bit the handle bar.

The next ride spinned around and around super fast. Izzy was giggling the entire way around.

Last year Izzy and I had to slide down the slide on the same blanket... this year she got her own. When she reached the bottom she jumped up and threw one fist in the air saying "Yeah!!!!"

Saturday night we had Izzy's birthday party. She decided she only wanted to open 2 of her presents since it wasn't her actual birthday yet. Here is Cheryl and Izzy with Molly while we were waiting for dinner.

Time for cake.... Izzy decided that she wanted to make her cake this year and not get the store bought. She picked out chocolate cake with strawberry and blue icing.

Present time......

Izzy's Birthday Weekend - Jack-O Time!

We celebrated Izzy's birthday all weekend with my dad and Cheryl. I picked up Izzy from school on Friday afternoon and surprised her with a few fake pumpkins to carve. She had never done it so was very enthusiastic about it... although she didn't understand what was going on until we put the candle in it at the very end.

I also picked up a book that had pumpkin carving templates in it. She went through the book and found the picture's for us to trace and then carve out.

I was in charge of cutting... luckily I only cut my thumb once with a small prick!

Here is our first pumpkin with the lights on....

And with the light out......

Cancun

Danny and I finally got away for a belated honeymoon the first weekend of October. We originally had our flight set to leave at 7:15 on Thursday night but we were able to fly standby for the 12:30 and luckily made it on. We even got upgraded to First Class! Woo hoo! A few free drinks on the way down there... along with a healthy salad for lunch and we were feeling great by the time we landed in the sunny south!


I forgot the SD card in my camera so we couldn't take any pictures the first day we were there. Once we got to our hotel we put on our swim suits and headed to the beach for a little sun. They had the yellow flags out so we didn't venture out into the water too far. It felt great though.... just perfect. We headed in when the sun went down behind the hotel and got cleaned up to head down the road for dinner and fun.


Our hotel was at the very South end of the Cancun strip so we took a bus to the other end. It was pretty nice as it only cost 50 cents each, no a/c, but the weather was cool enough it didn't matter. We stopped in at Senor Frogs first.... we figured we had to do the tourist thing one night. There weren't too many people there so we got a great seat right on the lagoon. Next we walked down to Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville Restaurant. It was booming... lots of people old and young. They had a DJ that was pulling guests from their seats on stage so they could be apart of the action. We sat there for a couple of hours enjoying the entertainment. Our last stop was at Pat O'briens. The crowd was small.... but the wait staff was pretty funny.


The next day we woke up and headed down to the concierge to ask about fun things to do in the area. We both wanted to go snorkeling somewhere... but wasn't sure what would be recommended. The concierge told us there were really 2 main places to go. One included driving your own 2 seater boat that was in Cancun and the other was a 25 minute bus ride down to Puerto Morales. We decided to go to Puerto Morales as they had an opening at 11:30 and up till then we were the only 2 that would be on the trip.


Since I forgot my camera card we had to run into town to pick up another as well as an under water camera. We barely made it back in time to catch our bus.


The trip down was shorter than we thought and we were a little skeptical driving up as it wasn't the nicest area. But once we got our equipment (goggles, flippers, life jacket and breathing tube) we were headed toward the small 10 seater boat. This was my first trip snorkeling so I was a little scared at first. Once I got in the water it all came natural. We were right on a coral reef and there was tons of fish all around us. Our guide, Gabriel let us go where we wanted but kept good tabs on us. He would also wave us over to see some really cool fish when he spotted them. The coolest fish.... a nurse SHARK. Gabriel waved us over and said "there is a shark down below this coral. She's sleeping and if you'd like you can take off your life vest, take a deep breath and I'll show you where she is." Danny was all for it... but I was a little hesitant. He headed down with Gabriel and came back up about 30 seconds later. He was so ecstatic about it. Then Danny helped me out of my life vest and I headed down with Gabriel so he could show me where the shark was. I had to grab onto a piece of coral that was sticking up so I could pull myself down to peep through the little hole where the shark was. Sure enough.... you could see her huge eyes as she rested on the ocean floor. It was such a rush of adrenaline.


Our first session lasted about 45 minutes. I didn't get too many under water pictures that were clear enough to post... but caught this one of a tiger fish.





When we finished on the first coral reef area we drove the boat about 200 yards to another coral reef. I didn't think things would look much different but it was amazing the different colors of the coral that we saw. We stayed in the water about 30 minutes that session. Just as we were heading back to the boat we spotted 2 barracuda's. They were on the prowl for something to eat.


Here's Danny and I in our gear!





After our snorkeling session we ate lunch at the little restaurant just up the beach. The waiters were awesome.... and our bus driver even let us bring a much needed beer for the drive home.




That night we went out to dinner at Lorenzillo's. It was the best seafood I ever had. We started out with a great bottle of wine named Crios.

We took a walk after dinner and passed this NHL sign.... we thought it was hilarious that they showed hockey in Cancun.

We decided to pick up a case of beer for the fridge on the way home. We didn't feel like sitting in a bar anywhere as we were there for the beach. When we got to the hotel we put on comfy clothes and headed down to the beach. The moon was almost full so it was super bright. The waves were crashing onto shore.... just too nice!

Our late night stroll down the beach left Danny wet!

Saturday morning we were back on the bus headed down to the market for shopping!

That night we found another restaurant for dinner. We walked down the street from our hotel to JC Capitan's restaurant. It was small and quaint and built right on the lagoon.

Danny and I sat down and started looking out over the edge of the dock. The waiter asked us if we saw the crocodile. We were both like what???? So he showed us where the croc usually sat. Sure enough... there he was.... like 15 feet long!

Sunday morning we got up for breakfast at the hotel.... here was our view!

Since it was our last day we decided to take a walk down the beach towards the tip. We found these tortuga (sea turtle) shells on our way.

We also saw about of skinny pencil fish (our own name we gave them) while we were walking down the beach. They had a bunch of minnows cornered. If you look really close you will see the minnows at the bottom of the picture and some stick looking fish in the middle.

We spotted a huge iguana too. His buddy was up under the rocks behind him too.

Another cute pic of us on the bus.

Our last night we walked down the beach for our nightly stroll. We had found a tortuga preservation area earlier in the day. They had a fence around it to protect the eggs from predators. You could see little foot prints in the sand all the way around the exterior from where the babies had tried to get out. We flashed our camera a few times to see if there were any turtles around but our only action was a patrolman on duty. He stepped over the fence and opened up one of the little turtle holes to find a few babies that had hatched.

He handed the first little guy to Danny... isn't he precious.

Next I got to hold him..... it was by far the highlight of our trip!