Old MacDonald's Farm

The weather was gorgeous today, so we took advantage and spent a family day at Old MacDonald's Farm.  It was perfect: no crowd, all activities are included in the cost of admission, entire farm and all water is completely fenced off (aka: Deacon-proof), multiple playgrounds, and lots of friendly animals to pet and feed!

 

 



 

Bennett spent the day practicing standing!

 Rabbits:

 Goats:

 Sheep:

Deacon did amazing!!  He would walk up and pet the animals without us prompting him and even helped to feed them!

 Pigs:

 He doesn't look excited here, but he really loved riding the horse.

 Carson loved it too, and was especially thrilled that his horse stopped to poop! hehe

 The hay was Bennett's favorite!

Family Reunion 2012: Grapevine, TX

Our family holds a reunion on Father's Day weekend every other year. At our last reunion in Austin, I volunteered to be the next reunion's president and we voted on having it in Grapevine, TX. I found an awesome deal at Hyatt Place for $99/night plus a free conference room all weekend. The rooms were huge, the staff was fantastic, and the free breakfast was yummy!





The kids had lots of fun in the swimming pool.

My Aunt Linda didn't get to see her grandkids for Easter, so brought the egg hunt to the reunion. She brought a trash bag full of 600 plastic eggs containing quarters and candy.
The kids had fun and made out like bandits!! (Notice the boys new haircuts...Carson brought home a present from his summer camp: LICE, forcing us to shave their adorable heads!)



To raise money for the following reunions our family brings items for an auction. Tickets are sold for $1 each and are placed into cups, where winners are drawn.
I was too busy selling tickets to notice which items Carson was trying to win and was surprised when his number was called for this:
Carson thought we could serve dinner on it...

Speaking of food, our hotel was across the street from an outlet mall and the boys favorite place, Rainforest Cafe!
They even had someone going around making balloon animals.
Saturday evening we drove over to Great Wolf Lodge for a magical evening! The hotel sells magic wands that you use for a scavenger hunt. You wave the wand in front of objects throughout the hotel that send you on a mission.

The hotel was pretty packed and was on multiple floors. Deacon and I rode the elevator up and down with everyone a few times, but decided it was easier to stay on one of the less crowded levels.
After everyone was worn out we headed back to the hotel to relax. The next morning it was time to go home. I wish we would have had more time in Grapevine; the town was really nice with so much stuff to do. We definitely plan to go back sometime in the future to do more exploring!

Next reunion: San Marcos, TX. Guess who volunteered to be president again!?!

New Year's Weekend Getaway

Have I mentioned that we have an amazing family? Brian surprised me with babysitters (my parents) so that we could have a weekend away with just the two of us. I really think this is was our first trip alone since our honeymoon almost 7 years ago, and it was fabulous!!

We wanted to choose a place within a few hours of our house. My wonderful Aunt Claudia lives in California, but also has a condo in Austin. She offered to let us stay there, and even better she and her family came in town too! She is the best host and her condo is gorgeous, here is the view from her balcony:
We arrived in Austin late Thursday night, so that we could wake up early on Friday and have the whole day. We had breakfast in Austin and then drove to San Antonio. We knew that we wanted to stay until night so that we could see the lights on the Riverwalk, so we had lots of time to kill. We started by watching a movie at the Riverwalk Mall and then went sight-seeing.

Shopping:
We toured the Wax Museum too:


Pretty soon, it was time for dinner! This was the time we were most excited to be child-free (the rest of the trip we spent saying "Carson would love that..." and "Deacon would have so much fun there..."). No stroller-carrying over the bridges, no temper-tantrums blocking the walkway, and best off all, no taking turns on eating our meal while the other walks around with a kid. It was fantastic!

It was packed, but we walked right up to the first Mexican restaurant we came to and snagged a great patio table with a view to people watch and see the decorations. They also had virgin margaritas!!

After dinner we waited in line about an hour for the boat tour. (Again, so thrilled to be having grown-up time!) We lucked out and got put on a boat with the most hilarious tour guide.

We ended the night at Howl at the Moon, a dueling piano bar, where we sang along for about an hour and then headed back to the condo to visit with my family.
I don't know how I didn't get ANY pictures of my family! We ate lunch with them on Saturday and even drug the boys with us to Sam Moon! As you can see, Brian had a blast:
New Year's Eve evening we got dressed up and went to dinner at my very favorite restaurant: Melting Pot. (Another blog on our dinner is coming up)
We were back at the condo before midnight, and had time to count down the new year with my aunt and uncle.

On our way home the next day, we all had brunch at another relatives house with all the dishes you need for a successful new year: black eyed peas, cabbage, ham, and cornbread.

We had the best time, but it was wonderful to come home to our house and smoochie on our sweet boys!