Archive for the 'Spring Break' Category

26
Mar
14

Spring Break-beach time!

The last day of our vacation we went to my grandpa’s house to swim for a bit before heading to Huntington Beach!  I love how we hit the snow earlier in the week and the beach later!  Gotta love southern CA!

First swim of the year!

I grew up swimming in this pool, so I love watching my kids swim in it! That diving platform felt SO HIGH to me when I was little!

It was cold water, but the kids didn’t care!

The kids LOVE the beach! We could spend all day here easily!

chasing the surf

a boy and his sand pile

Ella drawing in the sand




We had SUCH a great vacation, and can’t wait to go back to California!

26
Mar
14

Spring Break-tubing!

The next day after skiing we went tubing at a place called Alpine Slide.  We wanted to give the kids as much chance as possible to play in the snow since they don’t get to see a lot of it in Texas!







After tubing, we went to the Big Bear Discovery Center!






We went for a little hike!

21
Mar
14

Spring Break-Big Bear!

After Disneyland, we drove 2 hours to Big Bear to stay at my cousin’s cabin which has been in the family for almost 40 years!  My parents honeymooned there!  We stayed there 2 nights and spent time exploring, skiing  and tubing!  There was no snow around, but enough on the slopes to go skiing!  (Big Bear makes their own snow a lot of the time.)  Here are pictures from day 1 of exploring!

Asher climbing on the rocks around the cabin. I used to love playing on these rocks as a kid!

The kids were playing “Indian HGTV” and Rilyn was the realtor showing them around to different rock houses. This was Asher’s “house” and you can see he is sleeping in his bed. 🙂

Can you see Rilyn on top of the rock?

Peek a boo Ella!

We made s’mores that night in the fireplace! So fun!


mmmmmmmmmmmm

20
Mar
14

Rodeo Austin 2014!

I grew up going to the fair every summer, and I just LOVE taking my kids to the fair every spring break when it comes to town!  Maybe next year, we will bring the kids to the rodeo too!  🙂  I love taking pictures at the carnvial, maybe it’s all the colors, or maybe it’s their faces when on the rides!  We had a great time at the fair this year, with nice weather and no crowds!  We went on almost all the rides!

Look at Asher running into the fairgrounds!

Ella learning how to milk a cow!  Not too invested though-lol

Asher and his cousin with their dream truck!

Rilyn at the petting zoo with baby goats!

This rodeo mascot loved to dance with the girls!

Pig races were a hit as usual!

Lunch break before we hit all the carnival rides!

Can you find Asher on the bridge?

Potato sack slide!

Asher wasn’t feeling well right after lunch so he didn’t enjoy it this time around!

Rilyn loves her spinning rides!

Did I mention she LOVES spinning rides? She went on this 3 times by herself!

Favorite part of the fun house? The end spinning wheel of course!

Asher’s favorite ride-Genesis!

James was cracking up here because Asher was telling him one of his body parts “feels funny” when the ride goes around and around! LOL

“it tickles me!” LOL

Ella taking flight

Had to have a cotton candy snack break!

sticky fingers…

Dragon Swing!

Time to go home! What a great day!

18
Mar
13

more carnival fun!

Time for bumper cars!  Rilyn seems like she might develop road rage when she becomes a driver!  Watch out!

look out!
oops!  You bumped me!

Rilyn started going on the rides all by herself because me and James had enough spinning. She loved the enclosed space ship where you spin around so fast that you stick to the wall!

Rilyn exits, very proud of “big-girlness”

Dragon swing time!

me and the kiddos

Ella wanted to barf the whole time, can you see her hand over her mouth?

Check out Ella’s eye…sheer terror…get me off!

Rilyn sat across from us, much higher up, so she could experience more of a thrill!

This was the one ride that Rilyn did not like afterward. Probably because her stomach was DONE being dropped and spun all day!

And to finish off our busy day…COTTON CANDY!!!

As our kids get older, it is so fun to watch them experience the fair! We almost hit up every ride too! Until next March, Austin Rodeo!!

17
Mar
13

Carnival fun!

My kids’ favorite thing at the carnival is the fun houses!  I grew up going to the Orange County fair, and I loved the fun houses too, so it brings a big smile to my face to see them enjoying the mirror houses and moving floors so much!
James made a really neat video of our day. You can see it here!

and they’re off running!
mirror maze!

Asher and Rilyn love fast rides! They would go on all of them together and it was really cute to watch. After each fast ride, Asher would get off and say, “I almost threw up!” and then laugh like it was the best feeling in the world! 🙂

I love his “Bluesteel” Zoolander face on this ride!

 

More rides with daddy! (Why do they have to airbrush seductive women on the rides?!)

More fun houses!

superman ride!
Love Asher’s face in this!
me and Rilyn!

After seeing this picture, I realize just how dangerous ferris wheels can be! Do you see Asher’s head hanging over the cart?!?

16
Mar
13

around and down!

After the pig races, we stopped at the kiddie ferris wheel and super slide!

Do you see Ella?

I love Ella’s face in this one!

Asher looks like he might lose his breakfast!

Next up-“tractor rides”!

All this fun, and we hadn’t even walked over to the carnival side of the rodeo! Carnival, here we come!!

15
Mar
13

petting zoo peril

We went to Rodeo Austin on Tuesday and like always, we start our day off at the Kidstown petting zoo!  Ella never has a problem with the animals.  Rilyn, because she is 8 1/2, tries to put on a brave face, but inside she is scared to death, and Asher still doesn’t care about showing the world how much he dislikes animals (of any kind.)

our traditional trash can picture (because I need to see the Rodeo logo!)

There was a kangaroo at the petting zoo this year with a baby in it’s pouch!

Cousin Caden and Asher planning out their day!

the map!

The dreaded petting zoo…

to be fair, that sheep is extremely large

Here is Rilyn’s experience…poor girl.

I am brave.  Deers are nice.

Attack of the deers!!

help!!

“Mom, they’re eating my clothes!!”

Unable to hide her disdain for the petting zoo.

I’m outta here!

Ella, our animal lover!

Next up, we walked over to the pig races!

They have different races, and one race all the pigs were dressed in college attire.

Of course, the A&M pig was winning, and Rilyn was a little excited! 🙂

17
Mar
12

Rodeo Austin aka “lots of fun houses!”

We ventured out to the Austin rodeo on Friday for our last official day of Spring Break!  I made Asher wear his sisters’ boots because they technically are “unisex”, and he can finally fit in them, (I bought them almost 4 years ago), and I thought it was cute that all of my kids have now worn the same article of clothing!  No matter that he only wore them for about 2 of the 5 hours we were there, I got a picture of him wearing them, and that is that. 🙂

I make this fence look good!  😉

We headed into the petting zoo first, and like I thought, my dear son who is deathly afraid of dogs, did NOT like the idea of going into a giant cage with gnawing goats and deer. (Even Rilyn is still unsure of how she feels, but hides it a lot better!)  Here is Asher hanging on daddy for dear life…

hold me daddy!

Ella-same old Ella, she tells the animals who she will feed, and who she will not feed!

“I will NOT give you any food, you are rude!”

Finally, we headed to the carnival side of the rodeo, which is really the only reason we go each year. I grew up going to the Orange County fair every summer and have fond memories of all the fun houses and crazy rides. It is neat to see it through my kid’s eyes now.

Fun House #1:

Fun House #2:

the floor was so hard to walk on throughout this one!
I love how James swooped Asher up before falling into my camera out of the spinning exit!

Fun House #3:

I loved the mirror maze when I was a kid!
I could audibly hear Ella’s head thumping against the mirrors as she smashed into them!
Can you see Asher sliding down the yellow slide?

Fun House #4:

Ella sliding down!

Ella was finally tall enough to ride the swings this year. I rode with them, and James used his iphone to take pictures from the ground. We cover all angles in this family! 😉

wheeeeeeeeeeeee

This is how I must always look everywhere I go with my kids…camera in front of my face! Can you see me between the girls?

We tried a “haunted house”! (It was SO LAME!!)

but the kids were still scared!

The girls had to do the potato sack slide!  (One of my favorites when I was a kid too!)

Ella is screaming of course!

Asher’s favorite ride was the ferris wheel!

momma’s boy!

Ella’s favorite thing was the cotton candy, I’m sure!

treat time!

But then daddy took her on some fast rides and she had to keep her mouth closed “in case the throw up would come out!”

love how Rilyn and Ella have such opposite expressions!
about to fly!
Rilyn loves fast, spinning rides!

The chaos of the day was all worth it for James when he got this:

mmmmmm

Last stop was the pig races which is pretty cheesy, (Brad PIG vs. Kevin BACON vs. Justin BeiBOAR), but the kids love it.

these pigs are racing for an oreo as their “prize”

And after 5 hours at the rodeo, Asher was ready to go. Not even a picture with the Rodeo pig would cheer him up! Can you tell?

22
Mar
09

spring BREAK

And by ‘break’ I mean James and I got to take a 2 day ‘getaway’ to the Hyatt Lost Pines resort and spa in Bastrop, TX. We were so blessed to have James’ parents take the girls for a week and my parents take Asher for a couple of days!  I know the kids had more fun than we did.  Don’t get me wrong, it was wonderful to have some R&R, just the two of us, but let’s just say our hotel didn’t live up to expectations.  (For starters, we walked into a dirty hotel room….eeewww!  Nothing like seeing someone else’s wet towels and sheets on the floor when you walk in!)  The list goes on from there(we actually moved hotel rooms twice)…BUT we did have a wonderful time golfing together(my first time to golf 18 holes!) and I would like to try golfing again (there is just that little thing called childcare!)  And we had a ‘duet massage’ that was nice in the resort’s spa.

From March 2009
From March 2009

The girls had such a blast going on their first train ride to Oklahoma City with their Oma and Papaw Bear. In ‘Bricktown’ they were busy visiting all the tourist attractions.

Can’t go on a train without conductor hats!              From March 2009
Bottoms Up!  on the train                   From March 2009
What was in that bottle Ella??                           From March 2009
totally Ella          From March 2009
again…totally Ella          From March 2009
Strike a pose                                                         From March 2009
Crystal Bridge Tropical Conservatory    From March 2009
From March 2009
From March 2009



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