Snow....Oops, I mean, SAND angels.

We recently took our yearly trip to Arizona to visit my grandparents. We have always tried to stop and see things along the way to break up the trip and make it a little more fun for the kids. This year, we decided to stop and see the White Sands National Monument in New Mexico. I hadn't been there since I was a kid and Kevin had never seen it so we decided to take the kids for their first time. I did have to convince Kevin it was worth seeing though, he thought we would just be staring at a bunch of white sand out in the desert, which wasn't much different than the brown sand we were already looking at as we drove. But he admitted once we got there that it was really a cool place to see. If it weren't for the fact the kids are dressed in t-shirts, this could easily be mistaken for a ski trip.

Kids at White Sands , November 12, 2009

Making "snow" angels in the sand, for kids from Texas this is pretty cool! You don't even need a coat!

The kids would slide down the dunes on their bellies! You can actually buy sleds at the park entrance but we didn't since we only had about an hour to spend there, next time though!

The dunes go for miles before ending at the foot of the far of mountains.

These dunes really are huge!

Sand and sky. The sky was overcast that day which gave it a pretty gray-blue color. I can't decide if the dunes look like snow or more like a distant undiscovered planet. Either way, if you're driving through New Mexico, make sure you swing by and see this, it really is amazing.

Thanksgiving 2009

Not much to write about, we had the normal dinner at our place and the family came over. Kevins birthday actually fell on Thanksgiving this year, so we had a chocolate cake along side the pumpkin and apple pies. Instead of writing out what we are thankful for this year, I will just leave you with these pictures, which I think illustrate perfectly what we are most thankful for....

Family Pictures

We had some family pictures made a few weeks ago by our friend, the talented Erin Brown. Here is a sneak peek :)

Trying to get both kids to look at the camera and smile was quite a challege but in the end we captured some good moments. Can't wait to see the rest and order our Christmas cards!

Halloween 2009

Sabrina and Aidan in their costumes. Sabrina chose Snow White and Aidan wanted to be Batman, not just any Batman mind you , but a BLUE batman. Had to scour the internet looking for this costume but I found it and he was THRILLED!

Look at my big muscles!

Sabrina likes to pose. She doesn't like to be the center of attention at ALL! lol!

The pumpkin we carved today!

Long time since last post

I swear I am going to update this post more often. Of course I have said that before...... there have been a few things that I meant to blog about, like Sabrinas first day at MDO and our trip to Cancun but just haven't had the time. So until then here are some new pics of the kids that we took at the pumpkin patch in the Arboretum this weekend. Enjoy!

Margarita! Happy birthday Christy!

View from our room

This is in our room!

Greeted with a drink at check in :)

First dentist visit!

So I have been wanting to post this since last week but we have had some trouble with our computer lately and this delayed me getting the pictures up. So here it finally is...

On Aug. 6th the kids both had their first dentist visit. I know, I know, Sabrina probably should have gone before now since shes 3 1/3, but time seems to get away sometimes. We went to Dr. Pearson, a pediatric dentist here in town. His office was decorated so kid friendly, video games, toys, books, and they also had this cute sign welcoming all the new patients that day.

Both kids had their teeth cleaned by the hygienist and checked by the dentist and they LOVED the whole thing.

They both got a clean bill of tooth health from the doctor as well as lots of praise for being such good patients. Sabrina didn't want to get out of the chair and both of them hopped right up for their turns! There was a four year old girl there at the same time who was not as thrilled to be there but the staff was caring and warm and found a way to take care of her all the same. I have to say is that this doctor and his staff were all amazing and I look forward to them taking care of my kids chompers!

Super Girl on steroids

Learning shapes and colors!

Art is fun!

Sea World!

I have been meaning to post this for over a week now so here goes. Kevin and I decided to take advantage of his three day weekend and head to San Antonio over the 4th of July weekend. We left on Thursday about 3:00pm and after dropping the dog off at my moms house and stopping to eat dinner in Austin, we arrived at about 10:00pm at our hotel. We immediately got the kids ready for bed and tried to get them to sleep, but that was hard since they were so excited and in a new place. I think we all finally fell asleep around 1:00am. Blah! We got up around 8:00 the next morning and went to Sea World! The first thing we did was rent a cart for the kids and slather on the sunscreen. It was hot, I think it hit 104 that day. We stayed 12 hours at the park! Yes, we are crazy. Yes, there were tantrums and break-downs, even a few by the children. Overall it was fun and here are a few pics from the day.

The next day, July 4th, we went and ate in town and then decide to head to New Braunfels to go to Schlitterbahn. After 3:00pm it's half price admission and the kids were free anyway so we decided that even if the kids got cranky it was worth the try. The kids could ride all the tube rides, so that's what we did. Sabrina was not thrilled at first but ended up loving it, Aidan only cried once when he got separated from me for a few minutes. Even on the large rapids they had a good time. In between rides we let them play in several of the numerous kids areas and they had a blast.

That evening as everyone else was watching fireworks, we took the opportunity to eat at a local German restaurant. Nothing like celebrating our freedom than by eating the fare of another country, especially one we went to war with before. But it was good, and we were in New Braunfels. We came back home on Sunday and it took twice as long thanks to the holiday traffic. The kids were restless and antagonizing each other, just the first of many family vacations to come! All in all it was a great trip and I can't wait to do something like this again next summer!