Texas Part 2

The next day we headed to Big Bend National Park.



There were so many kinds of cacti.  We were "lucky" to see so many flowering since it is spring time and there had been rain recently.



















We had a picnic lunch in the park.



This warning sign about the javelina (wild pigs) was on the picnic table.



We drove down to "the bend" where the Rio Grande bends to make the Texan border.  Right across the river is Mexico.

Here are some Mexicans across the river.



Then 3 of them started wading across the river in their jeans.  Not sure what they were doing.  My dad did talk to them, but not about anything of consequence.



We hiked down the cliff to see the Rio Grande close up.  We didn't touch it because it was dirty and muddy along the bank.

The Mexicans heading back to Mexico.



A close up of the Mexican group. (I'm sure there was NO reason that there were pack horses and a rider heading up river with "goods" to who knows where.)



Cliffs on the Mexico side of the Rio Grande.



Here's a little Mexican town in the distance.  It's called Boquillas del Carmen, and they just got electricity for the first time a few weeks ago.



Emily, Tyler and Megan with the Rio Grande and Mexico in the background.

Texas Part 1

We were able to go visit my parents in Texas on their mission over spring break.  We all took carry-ons to avoid the $25/bag fee.  Good thing the kids are big enough now to pull their own bags.



There was no direct flight so we had a layover in Denver.  Here the kids are eating lunch--peanut butter sandwiches we brought.



It was SO great to see my parents.  They were waiting for us at the airport and had collected our car seats before we had even made it down to the baggage claim area.

Enjoying all the room in the rental Suburban.



Dinner at McDonald's before heading to the town where my parents are serving--Ft. Stockton.



My parents organized an Easter egg hunt for the kids at the church that night.  Emily, Megan and Tyler LOVED searching for the eggs...all just for them.



The next day we all loaded into the Suburban and headed to New Mexico.  We went to the Carlsbad Caverns National Park.



A cactus plant.



And another



Tyler as an explorer.



Megan



Emily



This is a representation of the caverns.  That little white building is the visitor center and the tube represents the elevator that takes you 750 ft. underground into the HUGE caverns.



Emily, Megan and Tyler before we went down in the elevator.  This is the only formation they allow you to touch.



There were so many formations to see and "ooh and aah" over.  These pictures just don't do them justice.













These were hanging down from the ceiling.



Tyler



Megan, Emily and Tyler



On the way back to Texas we stopped and ate at Bush's Chicken.  We got chicken fingers and they gave us their "signature gravy" to dip them in.  It was yummy.  (My mom pointed out that the paper towel in the middle of the table to use as napkins is a "Texas thing."







The kids loved trying out the pool at the hotel. (Emily, Tyler and Megan.)

March

Although March isn't technically done, I thought I'd "catch up" early.  Here are some things we've been up to.

Playing cards.  We got up the card table because the tiny little blue play table is too small, but our dining room table is too big and this one is just right. (Emily, Megan and Tyler)



The kids at preschool take turns (about every other month) taking the treat bucket.  (Don't you love preschool fashion sense?)

Emily



Megan



Playing on the devices



A "trip" to the park on a beautifully warm day.

Emily



Tyler



Megan



"P night" at Young Womens one night:  pizza and pedicures while discussing "P" things like prayer, peer pressure, etc. all while wearing pajamas.

 

The kids enjoy drawing, especially Tyler and Megan.  I kinda feel bad about not keeping all of their creations, but I've decided taking pictures of their artwork works too.

Tyler's



Megan's

 

The kids have also been in to finding "how to draw_____" (cats, dragons, etc.) directions on the internet.  They don't quite have the spatial coordination down, so then they ask me to draw them.  I am NOT an artist, but apparently I can kinda look at an easy drawing and duplicate it.  Here are a bunch of cats (and a blue mouse) the girls wanted me to draw.  (They did all of the coloring themselves...obviously...well, at least I hope it's obvious.)


 
The girls trying on the flowers the Rocketeers girls will wear for a couple songs for the school choir concert.

Emily



Megan



 The girls went to a princess birthday party.  Emily went as Anna and Megan was Rapunzel.  They even wore their "glass slippers" for a few minutes until their feet were killing them.

 

We didn't do anything too crazy for St. Patrick's Day, just green milk and green donuts for breakfast and green milk and green mashed potatoes to go with ribs for dinner.  (Just a funny story.  I had the bowl of mashed potatoes sitting on the counter.  All of the sudden it disappeared and I couldn't find it ANYWHERE! The next morning I went to get something out of the freezer and lo and behold, there was the bowl of mashed potatoes.  Darrell had though it was ice cream and put the bowl in the fridge so it wouldn't melt.)





We celebrated our 10 year anniversary this month!  Since Darrell's birthday is 2 days after our anniversary, we decided to celebrate the weekend before by getting a babysitter so Darrell and I could go to the Melting Pot to eat.



The Melting Pot is a fondue restaurant.  It was a lot of fun to eat there and everything was SO yummy.  We ordered the 4-course meal.

The first course was a cheese fondue.  The waitress mixed our cheese fondue for us at the table (there's a warming "plate" at each table) and then we used our skewers to eat tortilla chips, bread, apples and veggies.



The second course was a salad (no pictures.)  For the third course we chose their "classic" meat selection--shrimp, beef tips, chicken, steak and pork.  We choose a vegetable broth and then cooked the veggies (potatoes, broccoli and mushrooms), as well as our meat in it. 



The last course was a chocolate fondue (we went with a s'mores combination) with fruit and bite-size desserts. YUMMY!

 

Since we were celebrating our anniversary, they gave us each a chocolate covered strawberry.



On the day of our anniversary, we went to the temple to do sealings and then went to Applebee's for appetizers and dessert.  The chocolate chip cookie sundae was huge (and yummy!)





As is tradition, I tried on my wedding dress that evening.  (Not recommended after eating appetizers and that HUGE sundae)  The girls especially loved it and thought I looked like a princess.



Me, Megan, Emily and Tyler



Trying on my tiara

Megan



Emily



Tyler



It doesn't seem possible that 10 years have come and gone.  We have been so blessed!  (An interesting side-note about the pictures in this collage.  These were taken by our photographer's "shadow photographer."  These candid pictures were some of my favorites, but all that we got was a no-read CD with the pictures on it, so I had to print the pictures and then scan them to get them on the computer.  Fast forward 9 1/2 years--last August I got an e-mail from Tyler's principal explaining that when he was a teacher he had a side business of photography and would shadow professional photographers.  Last August he was going through his photos to find pictures of him and his wife for their anniversary when he clicked on a "wedding" folder.  It turns out they were OUR wedding photos and he sent me the file. What a small world! And we even spied him a few times in our wedding video as we watched it this year.)



I had to take a picture of Tyler's calendar.  He likes to put a circle on each day as it comes.  Here is where he's been anticipating "Dabby's" birthday.  So cute!



On Darrell's birthday we went and saw Cinderella at the theater.  It was so good. (Megan, Emily, Tyler...and Cinderella)



We had pizza and birthday cake for dinner.



The kids were so excited to have Darrell open their presents (goodies from the dollar store.)



Megan, Tyler, Darrell and Emily  (Love all of them so much!)



Megan has been begging for months to get out and fly her kite.  We had a nice windy day and actually got it up in the air!  Then Emily took a turn and the wind whipped it around and crashed it to the ground where it popped (it has a blow-up element to it).

 

Playing dress up with last year's dance costumes. (Emily)



The English/Spanish story time came to an end this month.  Here the girls are enjoying the same book being read in English and then in Spanish.



We went to the mall to see the Lego display.  The exhibits were so awesome.  (For some reason the kids thought they had to salute when I took there pictures.)

The U.S. capital building



The Statue of Liberty



The White House



I went on a preschool field trip to the fire station with the girls.

Emily listening about fire safety



Megan practicing "Stop, drop and roll"



The fabulous Miss Katie and Principal Dan with 3 classes of preschool kids.



Megan



Emily



Emily and Megan



Ice cream cones at Arctic Circle after the field trip



This year's cute new Beehives at New Beginnings.  We went with the theme of "embarking" so these cute girls are in the crow's nest of the "cruise ship."



We took advantage of a free hour of jumping at "Jump on It" with our "Pass of All Passes" passes.  The kids LOVED it. (Sorry about the blurry pictures from my cell phone.)

Emily, Darrell and Megan



Tyler



The foam pit (Emily, Megan and Tyler)



Since Easter falls on General Conference next week, the girls wore their Easter dresses today.  (They're the same ones as last year--there's an advantage to having the dresses be big last year.  But was IS new is their shoes.  Emily got some sparkly silver Elsa and Anna shoes and Megan got some black and white polka dot Minnie Mouse shoes.)