The Rest of Texas and Easter

Okay, after this post I will be done with April and moving on to May! We happened to be in Texas for Easter, so we got to spend some good quality family time at church, hunting for eggs and having a great Easter Dinner.


The kids actually slept in the main house with MomMom and PopPop on this trip so they woke up on Easter morning without us. We got them just a few little things that morning, mostly candy. (And we flew home the next day and Sadler ate it all, lol.)



Four generations- PopPop #2 (65), PopPop #1 (90), Phil (40), Parker (15 mos)
Parker and Mommy swinging with MeMa and PopPop. We got to enjoy a great afternoon on the porch with them while all three kids were napping. Parker woke up first and got to join us. We had great weather while in Texas! It was actually a little chilly outside at times during the day!
I really wanted this picture of him....but smiling. It wasn't happening. Every time I made him lay down like that he cried.




The older two kids hunted eggs in the morning, while Parker took his morning nap (can you tell I'm working in reverse order here. No time to move all these pictures around.)

Eating some candy from inside the eggs.






This picture is hysterical! It was the best one we could get. Needless to say, it was nap time for Parker. We went to church SUPER early that day, so we were home in time for his morning nap, which is at 9:30. Yes, we had eaten breakfast, gone to church and were home by 9:30!



The reason we picked Easter weekend to make a trip to Texas was because Phil's baseball team, the Houston Cougars, were playing. This was our family's first time to see a game.
Chase is way into baseball so he loved it! Parker was a disaster and I don't think we'll bring him next time. Luckily MomMom and PopPop came along so MomMom strolled him around in his stroller for a while.
We had a great trip to Texas and we'll be returning soon, in July, for MeMa's 90th birthday! I don't think the weather will be quite so nice then.

Texas Safari

We went to Texas for Easter and we got to enjoy the Safari there on Good Friday. Boy was it packed!

JuJu is going through a stage where she's learned fear. I remember being so sad when Chase went through this stage because I felt like a part of his innocence was gone. And I feel the same about her now too. :( My poor baby! Well, she (randomly) decided right before this trip to be afraid of BULLS! And she still is. We have spent hours at home reassuring her that bulls can't get in our house, or come through her bedroom window, etc. (We think, from talking to her about it that she had a nightmare about at a bull at the end of our driveway while she was outside riding her bike.)
...and then we go to Texas and put her on a Safari with.......these Texas Longhorns! I don't know if they are bulls or not, but in her eyes they sure were! She was already afraid of all the animals on the Safari before we got to this guy so she spent the entire trip in PopPop's lap. Luckily he was seated in the middle of the jeep so there was less chance of the animals getting to her.
I don't think that PopPop minded holding this sweet baby girl one bit!

Luckily Chase wasn't scared so he just fed and fed and fed all the animals.
I felt so bad for this Momma ostrich. I think she was laying on her eggs and these vultures were trying to get to them and eat them. How does she ever go and get any food or water??
These ostriches, however, were ruthless and at one point we had to shield ourselves from them. They were pecking all around looking for food and one bit MomMom's arm! It was a good sized bite and starting bleeding immediately and she had a huge bruise!

Look at that pouty face! (Glasses look familiar Leslie?)


And look at this guy! This is why Phil calls him jolly- it's a mixture of his constant smile and that chubby face!

Stay tuned for more of Texas!

Family Pictures

We got a chance to get some family pictures with MomMom and PopPop before they left town. We did a good job of setting up the scene for lighting, but forgot about the glare on eye glasses!

Parker didn't have any pictures of just him with his grandparents. We have pictures like this with the other two.


This one isn't the greatest of Chase, but he was sticking his tongue out in the rest, so I went with this one. :)

MomMom and PopPop's Visit

Okay, we're taking a big step back in time here, but I want to get caught up on the blog before Christmas, so here goes!



MomMom and PopPop were here the week before Thanksgiving and we got to give rocket launching a try.



Phil did this as a kid, but this was my first experience with it.

I think this was also my first attempt at using the camera at an event. I think I got some good shots.




The glare from the sun was terrible, so most of the time I had no idea what I taking a picture of.

PopPop
and
MomMom

Phil would get the rocket all ready on the launch pad, and Chase had the controller to actually launch the rocket.

The kids had a blast watching the rocket launch and then chasing it as it fell from the sky.

We learned to put some tissue in the rocket or else it will burn a hole in your parachute.


The rocket launcher himself.

Parkie had the best seat in the house!