Camping in the Big Bend

One of the awesome things about living in Alpine Texas is that it puts us about as close to the Big Bend National Park as you can get. Joe and I have really fallen in love with this park in the year and a half that we have been in Alpine. We go down about once a month to camp and go fishing (well, Joe fishes and the kids and I play in the sand/mud and go rock hunting). We bought a "new" tent at a yard sale last summer and the kids absolutely love to help us set it up and run in and out of it throughout the afternoon. Joe gets a little grumpy about having toddlers running off with his tent poles or stakes but the kids really do get a thrill out of seeing the massive thing come together.

Donations accepted.

McKay picking up leaves.

This last weekend we did a little more research and decided that we could take Jadyn and McKay on a couple of short hikes. We have been wary of hiking with the kids in the past because we were afraid that they would get bored riding in the backpacks , or that we would get tired of carrying them. As it turns out, both Jadyn and McKay love getting carted around on our backs, though Jadyn was a surprisingly good independent hiker! She hiked almost a whole mile all on her own power! Being right across from Mexico meant that we got to see a lot of "illegal" Mexican merchandise placed strategically among the rocks with plastic "donation" containers. Jade thought the little wire and bead work animals were soooo cool. She wanted one so bad but we thought it would probably be a bad thing to get arrested over an illegitimate souvenir.

Left corner:Boats. Right corner: Victor.

In line with this aspect of the park, we also got to meet "The singing Mexican named Victor," who is a Mexican man who crosses the river at a very narrow spot and sings Mexican ballads to the tourists while standing behind his own plastic donation container. He really had a great voice, and seeing him made our hike that much more fun.

Beyond setting up the tent and going hiking, we also went fishing of course. Joe went a few times on his own and then met up with the kids and I to take Jadyn fishing a couple of times. Jadyn caught a turtle! I wish I had been there to take a picture but sadly I was on McKay-nap-duty at the time. Jadyn told me all about it though, she thought it was pretty awesome.

The kids helping Joe fish.

Returning from fishing.

Boquias Canyon!

We all got a little sunburned this trip, but it was worth it for all of the fun memories! We can't wait to go back soon!

McKay's First Birthday!

Happy Birthday McKay! We love you!

McKay is one years old. Here is a little of what he is up to:

Words: McKay can say "mama," "dada," "aba" (ball), "choo-choo," "all-da" (all done), "hi," and "hi-da" (hi there).

He has figured out how to use the stool...which he uses to get up on the kitchen chairs, and then up on the kitchen table. (yikes!)

He loves to pull his big sisters hair. And give her hugs and kisses.

He is learning how to use a spoon, and is pretty darn good at it.

He absolutely LOVES music. He loves to dance to music, and make his own music on his toy piano. We made him a piano birthday cake and he got really excited over it.

Visit to Ft. Worth and Dallas!

So the grant that is paying for Joseph's assistantship here at Sul Ross also pays for him to attend one conference every school year. Last year, in lieu of buying him a plane ticket to attend a wildlife conference in Nebraska City, we decided to turn it into a family vacation and rented a car so that we could all go with him. It was an awesome trip and we have been looking forward to our next "free" vacation ever since. This year we decided to head east to the Ft. Worth and Dallas areas. We left Wednesday afternoon  after I got off work and headed to our cousin Natalie's house in Dallas. It was so great seeing the Pelfrey's! Natalie and I took all of our kiddo's to a little park near her house and fed the ducks. Jadyn could not get enough of throwing out the bread and watching the duckies respond to her calling "here duckies! Come eat your food duckies!"

Note: Since we have been back, Jadyn has taken to "feeding" the cars as we walk along in our stroller. She leans way out and sprinkles bits of her granola bar calling "here cars! Come eat your food cars!"

Back to our vacation story: Joe commuted back and forth from his conference Thursday and Friday...a commute that we thought would be 30 minutes and which actually turned out to be an hour...poor Joe. He was pretty wiped out after trying to negotiate Dallas traffic all weekend. Thursday night the Pelfrey's took us out to a fun little icecream place that made fabulous icecream cookie sandwhiches. yum! Friday morning the kids and I moved up to Garland to stay with our friends the Hofferts for the rest of the weekend. Carolyn and Mike have been our friends since our first year at BYU. Carolyn and I were freshman roommates and She and Mike worked with Joe for a semester. We got married the same summer and Carolyn and I were pregnant at the same time with both of our babies. It was so fun to see them again! Our kids got along as well as four toddlers can while learning to share.

While we were their we celebrated McKay's first birthday, and the next morning packed up and headed to the zoo to meet up with some friends of mine who moved to the Dallas area from Alpine.We haven't seen them since before last summer so it was so good to get together and catch up on all of the changes from this last year! Saturday evening we went out to eat at the Golden Correll and Sunday after church we went over to Carolyn's parents house and celebrated her little brother's birthday.

Monday morning Joe and I did some last minute shopping and went to check out the Bass Pro shop. It was so fun! the store is HUGE and the staff were all really friendly. We spent half an hour chatting with an associate at the gun counter about the pros and cons of the different gun brands and hearing him hint about how many women are "packing" now a days. ahaha, I told Joe that I am not ready for that yet....who knows if I ever will be!

We made it home late Monday night after a loooooong drive that included a stellar trip to the Walmart in Albaline (everything was on sale!) and an extended visit to the Burger King in Odessa (The kids had a blast chasing each other around the tables).

My sweet valentine...

Years and years ago...ok so maybe like 5 years ago, I mentioned to my sweet hubby that I absolutely love the fragrance "Sex on the Beach." A friend of mine swore by it and got me hooked, but since it is a bit pricey I have never owned any.

Early yesterday morning I was standing in the kitchen trying to dig up some children's Tylenol while my poor baby boy clung to my legs and bawled about the new teeth he is getting. I got up four times with him the night before and so my patience was already a little thin. Jadyn woke up coughing and stumbled into the kitchen crying about her throat hurting and her tummy needing food. I was so tired. Needless to say, I was not looking forward to my day.

Enter Hubby. With a small neatly wrapped package that he handed to Jadyn and whispered to her to go give it to her mama. Jadyn loves presents, even when they are not her own, and so she stopped crying immediately and walked over to give the package to me. Joe scooped up a now happy McKay, who was very excited to see his daddy and I got to sit down and open my very thoughtful valentine preset: A lovely bottle of perfume. Of course, I had to smile and ask him if it was supposed to be an invitation...

At lunch, Joe came home with a rose for Mama and we all went out to eat at the Chinese Buffet. Joe had to get to class afterwards so the kids and I headed over to the library to try (and fail, :( ) to print our valentine present for Daddy. I have been working on our family history for months now, and wanted to print it and give it to him in a binder. The program I wrote it in wouldn't work at the library, so I ended up just showing it to him on our computer at home. I will print it later this year and give it to him then.

After his class, Joe gave the kids valentine presents with a sweet little handmade valentine. He picked them each out a dinosaur and taped a lollipop to it. Jadyn and McKay were so thrilled by them! I didn't know anything about them, and was frankly pretty impressed by this great show of daddy affection. He is one smooth fellow, and we love him for it.

We finished the day by picking up an angel food cake and topping it with strawberries and whipped cream. I love that we have such a wonderful holiday that encourages us to show our loved ones how much we care.

Sunshine, daisy's butter mellow...

We have had some beautiful sun-shinny days here in alpine since we got back in January. If you know me at all, then you know how much I love/need to get out with my kids in the stroller. I load them up with snacks/sippy cups, toys, books, and blankets, grab my ipod so I can listen to a book and we head out to visit the park, or the thrift store, or the library. Sometimes we stop at the grocery store to grab a few things or the toy store to dream about owning the battery operated kitties (Jadyn). Sometimes we walk to the house with the horse tethered in the front yard. Or visit the Big Bend Museum to see the train. Does it sound like fun? we think so. The alternative is to stay home and drive each other nuts.

 

A few weeks ago we discovered a love for a little park on the other side of the tracks. It is usually deserted and has sparked in Jadyn a great love for dolphins. (it has some blue whales on springs that she loves to ride. She insists that they are dolphins). This park also has the old playground equipment that we all grew up on. You know, the kind that would never meet today's safety standards? Huge jungle gyms and rickety towers. 

Jadyn loves to walk up on the wing of a mock airplane. It puts her about 3 feet above my head, so she stands there saying "I'm taller mama! I'm taller!!" and I hover beneath her saying "Be careful Jadyn! be sooooo careful!! Go slow!!"  I have no idea at what point you stop hovering around your kids at the playground, but I don't see myself stopping anytime soon. 

 McKay hiding while eating dirt.

Swinging together!

McKay climbing on the car.

Jadyn politely suggesting that McKay drive on his own wheel.

Hanging out together.

McKay digging in the sand box.

The other day we popped a tire and had to park and lock the stroller. Usually we just wait for Daddy to come and rescue us but he was in class, so we had to hand out for while before he could come. Conveniently, we were only a block away from the McDonald play place. Jadyn loves to crawl around in the tubes but only if there are no big kids around. On the few occasions that the place has been stormed by screaming children and Jadyn was up in the top, I had to crawl up there to retrieve my own screaming child. Haha poor little girl. She likes to tell me "4 more minutes mama! say four more minutes!" whenever she wants to keep doing her own thing. Often while holding up only two fingers. I am loving all of the little ways that she is beginning to show her independence!  

Back to Blogging...

I haven't updated the blog in awhile, so here are a few highlights from the past few weeks to catch ya'll up.

1. We flew up to Utah on December 14th and got to spend FOUR weeks visiting all of our family in Utah and Idaho. We are seriously going to miss these long school breaks when Joe graduates! While visiting, we got to go to a close friends wedding (Congrats Michelle and Jason!), and meet a future sister-in-law (So excited for Dan and Clair!). There was lots of fishing (Joe), shopping (Me), and eating (everybody). We had Christmas a few days early with the Eagar family and then spent the 25th with the Christensens. While there we discovered a great love for the game "bananagrams." We also made some seriously awesome resolutions for 2012: Eat right. Exercise more. Read the scriptures. (I know, so original, right?)
2. We got a new car! My parents upgraded and very graciously bequeathed their old car to us. We feel so blessed/loved to have this new, much bigger, car. Our old car (the "white eagle") has been good to us, but is just too small for our family of four.

3. Joe had a birthday! In light of new resolutions, I made him a sugar free jello "cake" shaped like a fish. I put raspberries in it to look like scales.
He thought it was pretty funny. His birthday was on a Sunday and we had committed to taking the youth in our Branch to a youth fireside in Monahans (2 hrs away), so we had a party for Joe on Monday instead. Unfortunately for the diet, Another fish cake was made and consumed...this time of the confetti breed.
4. We have begun potty training in earnest now. I finally gave in and decided to buy Jadyn a toddler potty. Up until now I was hoping to just use one of those kid potty seats that goes on the big potty. I let Jadyn pick out her own chair on amazon.com. As soon as she saw the "froggy potty" she started shreiking with delight, squealing "the froggy potty!! the froggy potty!! I need it!! I need to POOP in it!!!" Well, that sealed the deal for me. I bought it and we both waited anxiously for it to come in the mail. Jadyn absolutely LOVES to get packages (who doesn't?) and so she was pretty excited when Joe brought in the huge box from amazon and we opened it together. The potty arrived last Tuesday and Jadyn has been AMAZING!! She has only had a few accidents this whole week, which is a huge improvement from our last potty training adventures. Yea Jadyn!!

Thanksgiving!

This year we was the first Thanksgiving that we did not spend with our family. Since we are headed up to Utah and Idaho next week Joe and I decided that we would do better to save our money  (and wear and tear on our car) and just stay here in Alpine for Thanksgiving. We were invited to spend the day with some of our friends from church and it was truly a wonderful holiday! We really enjoyed it. Joe dropped the kids and I off at the R.'s house at 9:00am and then drove over to the park to play some turkey ball with the men and young men from our church. He really impressed those fellows with his football prowess, they were talking about getting creamed by Bro. Christensen the whole rest of the day, haha. Way to go honey!

The kids and I visited with our friends and then helped get everything set up so that we could enjoy Thanksgiving dinner at 12:00. I baked two pies for the occasion, a pecan pie for joe and a chocolate cherry cake/pie (so delish!). I received the Lion House cookbook from my brother-in-law Jonathan last year for Christmas and it really has the BEST pie recipes! Including an Awesome recipe for pie crust. I absolutely LOVE this book! and Thanksgiving was a perfect opportunity to bust it out and pour over all of the drool worthy recipes. 

There were about 20 people who shared in Thanksgiving dinner and so it was a noisy, cheery affair. My kids even behaved themselves and didn't spill too much. haha. After dinner we sprawled out on their couches and had naps and then set up a game of Rook with the adults. It was a really great day!

The next morning we packed up Jadyn and McKay and drove the two hours south to the Big Bend National Park. The R.'s came with us and we got adjourning campsites and had a blast "hiking" to the hot springs and playing/fishing in the river and then enjoying hot chocolate, and the games sardines and B.S. Jadyn had such a good time playing with the other kids and running in and out of our tent. She was pretty bummed when we had to take it down the next morning. What a fun couple of days!