Arkansas

Last weekend Danny and I took off work to drive up to Bismarck, Arkansas and meet my dad and Cheryl with the mules. We started our trip early Thursday morning and finally got there that afternoon. It was beautiful when we left Dallas, then once we hit the Arkansas state line the clouds rolled in and it rained on us until we drove into the drive way of the Bar Fifty Ranch.

We worked hard to get the mules in their pen, trailor unhooked, dad's camper and our tent set up. Very soon afterwards the boys were on a hunt for wood to make a fire.

As you can see below Dad and Danny's team work had us warming up to withstand the chilly temperature.



Dad and Cheryl got the steaks and green beans prepared for the fire. MMMMMMmmmmmm...... we all had full bellies afterwards!



The next morning we were up early. The tent was chilly over night... and we found out we had small leak in our blow up mattress. Over the next few nights we were up to blow it up every few hours.

Andy was excited to have some morning breakfast of oats!

We were finally off riding down the trails before noon! Follow the leader........ Dad on Buster, Cheryl on Kate, Danny on Lilly, and April on Andy!

We took a little break to make sure we were on the right trail and caught a great picture with everyone smiling and ears forward!

We all had sore bums after a couple of hours riding.

After a little snack on Dr. Pepper and peanuts near a stream we all layed down for a bit. Dad took a little nap... and even snoored a little.

After the nap we were back on the trail. Doesn't Danny look like such a cowboy! heheheheheee..



I caught a great shot of everyone as they were about to cross one of the many streams. It was my favorite part! Danny was busy every stream trying to find some fish.

That afternoon we were back at the camp. Everyone had specific tasks. I took Andy and Lilly to the watering bucket where they took their turn for a cold drink like nice mules!

Dad was busy cutting up meat for our kabobs that night.

And Cheryl was on poop duty. She was the greatest pooper scooper ever... although by the next day she turned that duty over to Danny!

This was a hilarious shot of Cheryl shaving dad's neck by the fire. We were all about to head down to the wash rooms to clean up but Dad forgot his razor. He needed a good neck shave so Cheryl was very willing to help! I'm sure the mules didn't mind her using their water bucket to clean off the razor!

The next morning we were up cooking bacon, eggs, and coffee on the fire!

Saturday we got to go to Oaklawn in Hot Springs for the horse races. Danny and I won 4 of 9 races and were happy campers!

We walked down "Bathhouse Row" to read about the history of Hot Springs. Here's a shot of the boys at the Fordyce Bathhouse.

We took a walk up behind the springs to take a few pictures of ourselves.

The water was steaming hot coming out of the ground.

One last shot of Danny and I overlooking Bathhouse Row!

High School Musical

I'm not sure about other kids.... but Izzy LOVES High School Musical. I think she has 1, 2, and 3 on dvd at both her houses. Her eyes just light up when you talk about it.

So we thought it might be fun to take her to Bass Performance Hall where they put on the musical show of High School Musical.... the Musical. It was a great performance although Izzy didn't quite understand why the same characters that are in the movie weren't on stage. She popped up a few times when the start of a new song came on to say "I remember this one"!

A short trip to Houston

Okay.... so I've gotten a little behind on my posts.

Back in early March Danny and I took a trip to Houston for my college roommates 30th birthday. Danny had never been down there outside of just work purposes so we did a little research to fit in a few things to see.

The first night we got there we decided to go to downtown Houston for dinner. While we were walking around we ran into a wine bar named La Carafe that I had read about. It is noted as the oldest bar in Houston and rumor has it Sam Houston actually slept in the doorway once. Danny and I shared a nice glass of wine there and then headed on to dinner.



The next day we made a trip down to Johnson Space Center. We went on a little motor vehicle to see their training facility. Danny was really happy to see the famous "Canada Arm"!

The most interesting part to us was going into "Blast Off Theater" to listen to a Mission Briefing Officers provide live updates on current space flights and astronaut training activities. We even got to see live video feed from the JSC's Mission Control room where they are always in contact with the astronauts orbiting on board the International Space Station.



The Space Center was filled with lots of things for the kids to see and do. Danny tried out the Mars scale where he weights 77.2 lbs! You can see his reflection in the mirror.... can you tell the "Wedding Diet" is working well!!!!!



Later that night we went to join up with Michelle for her 30th Birthday Bash. She had it at a great little place where we had a great view of downtown Houston. Here's a picture of me, Michelle, and Nathalie.



Here's Danny and I at another little wine bar.



Sunday, before we left for Dallas Danny and I headed over to the Aquarium. The whole thing was pretty small.... but ever exhibit was AWESOME!

Below Danny is brushing his thumb against a star fishes belly.



The White Tiger exhibit was amazing! There were 2 of them.... 1 pacing up and down the wall in front of us and the other was sleeping in his bed.



Once we went through the exhibits we decided to head outside and enjoy the beautiful day on the ferris wheel ride. We ran into the tiger again on our way!



Here's a shot of me in the ferris wheel overlooking Houston. It was really neat.

Strike!!!!!!!

No, No, No! Even though I don't have the best taste in clothing... I wouldn't pick these shoe's for Izzy to wear! They are BOWLING shoes! And they worked great for Izzy's first time!



I can't remember which frame it was now.... but I think it was her 3rd time up and she got a strike! And as you can see below she rejoiced very heavily! She was dancing and shaking her booty....

The next time she was very close.... only had 1 pin left. She was hilarious though.... stomping all the way back cause she missed it! She's so competitive.... just like her father!

Danny had to help her quite a few times.... they rolled the balls looking forward and backwards. I'm spareing all of you guys the picture of their bums. (it was so cute). These last two were precious... instead of turning around to watch the ball roll VERY slowly all the way down, they stayed in the "hut hut" position until it knocked down a few pins!

Valentine's Weekend....

I love Valentine's Day... but usually I wait till the last second to get everything together. This time Izzy helped me get things together for a special gift for her daddy. We went to Hobby Lobby or the "Art Store" as Izzy calls it. She loves getting tic tac's there! Anyways, we found these wood picture frames and decided we'd create a little message for daddy on it. She found little wooden letters and picked them out all herself. All I did was say the letter and she found them all. Once we got home she colored each of them a different color and then we glued them to the front of the frame. She determined that her favorite picture of her and daddy to include in the frame was the one from the park. She was so excited to give it to him and could barely wait the 4 days until Valentine's Day.

Needless to say daddy was very HAPPY!



Later Valentine's day night after Izzy's bath we got on the couch for our normal routine. Molly, as young and crazy as she can be.... has now figured out that once Izzy get's out of the shower or bath, it's quiet time for everyone. She loves to crawl up on the couch for cuddling with and kissing Izzy.... and as you can see Izzy enjoys every bit of it. Molly is her "sweet baby".



Soooo cute.....



Sunday we decided to play with a new Valentine's gift that Izzy got.... Magic Noodles. I had no idea but apparently she plays with them at school. We had pure entertainment for 2 hours. This was the cheapest fun in quite a while!

We decided she needed a new flower crown.... and she wore it so well!

Rodeo Time

I love every January because it brings along the annual Stock Show and Rodeo at Ft Worth. We had an early morning getting everyone ready and out the door so that we could make it to the 10 AM rodeo bright and early.

Before we got to the rodeo we stopped at the petting zoo. Before we even got inside there were 2 little goats jumping at each other and fighting like crazy. The black goat was half the size of the white one in the picture below... but he had NO fear. He even had other goats picking on the white one!



They gave us ice cream cones full of food to give to the animals... there were chickens, goats, bunnies, rabbits, a cow, kangaroo, and emu's. Izzy was a little hesitant to feed them from her hands and instead left that up to Danny and I.



This little baby goat thought he was a rabbit. He stayed cuddled up to them the whole time we were there.



Once our time was up at the petting zoo we headed over to the rodeo. They had already started so we got there for the grand entry. Izzy's favorite was the rodeo clown on the little pony.




Our favorite part was the wagon racing. Izzy and I picked our favorite wagon for all 3 races... but we only won 1 race... go BLUE! These guys came from Alberta and Saskatchewan.

After the rodeo we headed over to the show bars to see all the animals. Izzy fell in love with a lot of rabbits.... this particular one was huge... and had a cool toy in his cage. We had to watch the signs on each cage as a lot of the rabbits would bite.

When we went into the horse barn we found our blue wagon... woohoo!

Finally... we found the midway and all the rides. Our first was on the feris wheel. Danny was brave even though he deathly scared of heights and went for "NO hands"!

While we were on the feris wheel we looked over and saw a giant slide. Izzy and I had to ride together as she's still a little short to go alone... we had a blast going all the way down. See us in the purple lane WAY up there!

A midway shot....

Another midway shot....

And finally at the bottom....

Danny and Izzy tried their luck at this moving staircase... I was dying laughing at them... finally the carney turned down the speed for them.

We found a worm ride that went really slow, then fast, then up and down... pretty fun. And even better because no one else was coming up to ride it so the carney let us go around 4 times!!!!!!!!!!!

Our last ride was this big circular tube that went round a round... hard to walk on it.