A fall-like weekend - for real

Somehow, we ended up with a weekend in July in Texas where it was not only bearable, but ENJOYABLE to be outdoors. So on Friday, I got to spend time with my cousin (oh - and our kids got to play, play, play). Her babies are so dang cute!

Saturday was action-packed! First thing on the agenda, counting all the money in the change jar. I remember doing this with my dad. It was a chance to use child labor and also teach the child about money.

After naps, we headed out to Riley's birthday party. The only pics I have are of my kiddos playing on the slide. When the invitation said to bring swimsuits for the slide, we were thinking a traditional slip and side. Silly us.

We left there and headed to The Lot in Lakewood. After a "text party" of Friday, me and my girlfriends arranged for this little get together. We were there for 3 hours and the kids were pretty good, had plenty to do/play... and we had full bellies, a few cocktails, and lots of laughs.

So far today has involved groceries, cooking, laundry, and a little bit of pool time (highs will be in the mid-90s today instead of 80 like the past 2 days).

Miles and miles

My car hit 77,777.7 miles just I was pulling up to the house today.

Obviously I thought it was pretty cool.

Car wash

The kids just LOVE rolling through the car wash. I go through with the sun shade open so they can watch.

Staycation

Since we had an extra day off, we decided to make Monday a "staycation."

We started off the day at a park, but came back home for a wardrobe change after Abby crapped her pants. (After several weeks of not doing that - wth?!)After that we headed to the Ark for the kids to play. Pro tip: The bigger kids take a blanket to sit on and slide even faster!

After that we headed over to The Lot. The kids played some, but the sand was hot and I didn't know it was a "bring your own toys to the sand" place. After naps, Clara, Nathaniel and Baby Samuel came over. The plan was to swim, but a random July storm deterred us. Instead, Derek and Matt headed out to the Rangers/Astro game and we moved the party. The kids played and watched a little bit of The Incredibles. All in all, a great staycation day.

Tuesday I was STILL off from work, so I grocery shopped, made some mango salsa, grilled for the first time ever, did some laundry, and took a meal over to Cat in exchange for some newborn cuddles.

Family Vacation 2014

For the past several years, my parents make sure we go on a family vacation as our Christmas gift.

2006 - South Padre Island
2007 - Yellowstone
2008 - San Antonio
2009 - Staycation at Great Wolf Lodge
2012 - San Francisco/San Luis Obispbo for Jaime's wedding
2013 - Destin, FL (over-blogged about here, here, here, and here)
2014 - Ruidoso, NM

Why Ruidoso? It's driving distance and 20 degrees cooler than Texas in July!

On Tuesday July 1, I worked in the morning, then we headed for Amarillo. The kids were great and we didn't even break out the Kindle on the 5.5 hour drive. We met my folks at the Big Texan to watch the USA v. Belgium soccer match. There was plenty of room for the kids to play, which they LOVED. The Big Texas was just in the news recently when a 34 year-old mom of 4 ate their famous 72-oz steak dinner in less than 5 minutes (you are given 1 hour and if you finish, it's free)... then for dessert she finished off a second helping in another 5 minutes.

The next day, we made a pit-stop at Cadillac Ranch. It was drizzling and chilly.

We got to Roswell and drove by the house that Derek grew up in (he moved to TX right before his 4th birthday).

Then it was off to Martin's Capitol Cafe for some green chile stew. On our way out of town, we drove by what once was Derek's great grandmother's house.

From there we headed to Ruidoso. The whole family was there by about 3pm. Uncle Steve and Derek lead the kids into the woods to follow some deer.

After dinner at a pizza joint, the kids went to bed. Then Derek and I went to the casino with my siblings. Abby fell in love with Jacob and kept giving him kisses.

On Thursday, we headed to Ski Apache. We rode the gondola up and took the short hike up to the peak. Well - the hike was short for everyone except Abby. She wanted to be carried up the mountain - but only by mama.

Friday was the 4th of July. We went for a hike in Lincoln National Park (again - Abby's legs were barely working).


We ended the evening on the balcony telling stories with some beverages.

Then we went to what we thought was a neat cave (Fox Cave), but instead it was really lame so we took lots of cheesy photos instead.


On Saturday, our crew headed out to Carlsbad Caverns. It was about 3 hours to get there, 3 hours in the caves, then 3 hours back.

On the way back, Grant threw us for a loop by having a nosebleed in the middle of a nap. Seriously - it came out of nowhere. We ate in Roswell and the kids got to play at the UFO Festival. The restaurant was aptly named. Yes - we got a T-shirt.

That evening we went with the whole crew to the Flying J Ranch. It was a really fun evening.






On Sunday, we checked the weather and rain was in the forecast all day. We decided to head back to Dallas a day early, then we could have a staycation day on Monday. We got back around 8 pm, and Emily came over to watch the kiddos. Although the kids did AWESOME on the car ride (as opposed to the ride home from Destin last year, which was pure torture), we were in need of some adult time and a margarita!