Beach Season

Well the first Saturday in March we headed to Galveston to start beach season.  It is so nice to be so close to a beach.  We went to a stake picnic in the morning and then headed to the beach later that day. 

We had a lot of fun, it was not hot, but warm enough to have fun.

So notice the black eye on Julia's forehead.  We went to a picnic that had face painting and my 7 year old GIRL, chose a black eye and lightning bolts on her cheeks.  Why??  I have no idea, all her friends that she was with had cute flowers and butterflies!  What a funny girl!

Each child likes the beach for different reasons.  Ryan's reason-to find things.  He will dig and walk anywhere, if there is a chance to find a shell or animal!

Sawyer's reason-eventhough he like the water, he loves the sand.  He will dig and build for hours!!!!

Julia-well she just loves to be involved.  If someone is playing in the water, she loves to jump the waves.  If someone is on the beach, she will build with them, she just like companionship!!

Sawyer and Julia dug a big hole and buried themselves.

I LOVE THE BEACH!!!  It is so peaceful, the kids love it so much, the water is so pretty!

I LOVE THE BEACH!!

Puppet show!

I took Sawyer and his friend, Caleb, to the children's museum one day.  The both had a lot of fun as always.  The cutest part was that they put on a puppet show.  They just walk behind the curtain, picked up a puppet and started telling a story.  It was so good, that you would have thought thay had been practicing it for hours. 

Kids are so creative and CUTE!!

It does snow in Houston-barely!

If you look real closely and concentrate a lot, you will see the flurry of flakes coming down.  This is the 2nd time that this happens this winter in Houston. Rumor is that is only snows once every 10 years in Houston, well.....this is twice in 1 year.  I am not sure if you really call it snow, since it never made it to the ground, but nonetheless there were flakes in the air.

Brazos Bend-ALLIGATORS!!!

One Saturday we took a little trip down to Brazos Bend State Park.  It is home to many alligators.   When we first got there we went to the nature center and saw some baby alligators, that all the kids were lucky enough to touch.  While we were there we asked where the best place to see an alligator would be, we were told that we would only see the baby alligators that we just saw.  We decided to take a walk around the lake anyhow. 

Well we saw one right when we got on the trail around the lake!  We were so excited, and that excitement lasted the whole walk, we saw around 50 alligators that day. 

All of the alligators were on islands in the middle of the lake, so it was safe.  You can see how close we were from this picture.  We did have some friends that went recently and they were so close to the alligators that the dad of the group grabbed a tail of one of the alligators.  I am glad that they were farther away when we went!

It was a gorgeous day for a nice family walk!

A nice family picture and proof that I was there, there are pictures to enjoy!  Truth be told, Dennis does take pictures of me, but more often then not, I am not in love with those pictures and since I am the blog poster, I get to pick the pictures!!!

Maybe we will go back soon and get closer to the alligators!!

date night

This year we decided as a family to take one child out each week on a date.  Dennis and I rotate week by week and the kids rotate.  This gives each kid an one on one date with one of their parents once every three weeks.  It has been really good and the kids love to think about what they are going to do on their dates.  This particulae time, Dennis and Ryan test drove a mustang for their date. 

February fun time!

My Christmas present from Dennis this year was

one fun event a month for the whole 2010 year.  In January we went to the opera, not our favotire thing.  Glad we did it, but we do not ever have to go back.  In February we went to a Jazz game.  We went as a family and another family came with us.  The Jazz, my fave team, were playing the Rockets in Houston.   It was a fun game.

The stadium the Rockets play in is pretty small, so even the "cheap" seats are not the bad. 

Sawyer was super excited.  He really likes watching sporting events.  He probably watched more of the game then the other kids, whether it was interest, or the other friends of Ryan and Julia that were there, who knows. 

I love watching the Jazz and I am glad me family can enjoy this with me!!

The best part, the Jazz won!!!!

Cancun

Dennis and I took a quick trip to Cancun.  Dennis's parents flew out to Houston to stay with our kids so we could spend some time together, kid-less.  Thank you Lynn and Brenda.  This was out 10 year anniversary trip!!  Wow can you belive that we have been married for 10 years!!  Our anniversary is not until March, but this is when it worked out for us and Dennis's parents.  We flew out early Friday morning, well that was the plan, but with the snow in Dallas, our lay over, our flight was cancelled, so we did not get to Cancun until late that night. So we started our trip minus one day! 

We spent the first day walking on the beach.  It was unseasonably cool, so not a lot of water time.  It was perfect weather to walk around the beautiful carribbean.  We browsed the shops and rested and enjoyed the sun. 

We enjoyed the all-inclusiveness of the resort.  Eating yummy food, but we have decided that we enjoy mexican food more in the US then we do in Mexico.  I like to go on vacation when you get to dress up each night for dinner. 

One day we enjoyed a day touring Talum, a Mayan ruin.  It was amazing and we loved listening to the stories that our tour guide told and the similarities we find in the Book of Mormon. 

It was BEAUTIFUL!!  The water was so blue and the vegetation was so green.  So pretty!  There were iguanas everywhere! 

Dennis really enjoyed this tour.  I decided that if we throw history into all our trips Dennis will be SUPER happy.  All I need is the sun and the beach!! 

We enjoy the cultural and shops around Talum.  Here we are posed with some fun warriors!  This was the sunniest day the whole trip.  It was so nice. 

Our last day was a short day, since we had to catch out plane home.  We took a Kayak out of the ocean.  Dennis spent a little more time out there while I spent more time laying in the sun!! 

All in all it was a great trip!  We love spending time together without the kids, but I will admit that we are always commenting on  how much the kids would enjoy what we are doing!!