Thanksgiving 2009

I love Thanksgiving!!! This year Mom, Steve, and Marilyn came down to share it with us. We got some cute snapshots.

Dave fried a turkey in the sort-of empty lot next door. How's that for Southern-style? Sadly, next year we will have to find somewhere else to fry our turkey. We are finally getting neighbors next door (sometime in 2010).

Aahhh, after the big meal...

And of course Thanksgiving would not be complete without decorating gingerbread houses. Notice Dave had to do some construction: the roof came out broken and he did a valiant job fixing it. It took a LOT of icing (and a hairdryer - who knew?).

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Hawaii - when can we go back???

October 6-13th we flew to Kauai, Hawaii and met Wade, Stacy, and the 'boy cousins' for some togetherness and beach time. We stayed at the Point at Poipu timeshares and Wade and Stacy and the boys rented a house next door. It was awesome!!!
We beached...
We saw the 'Grand Canyon of the Pacific'... We hula-ed... Dave and I helicoptered around the island... And we took lots and lots and lots of family pictures... We also had shave ice, saw sea turtles and lots of fish, explored the Sheraton Poipu, went to the local church, saw rainbows, swam in the resort pool, kayaked up river and hiked up to and swam in a waterfall, drove around the island, and thoroughly enjoyed Wade and Stacy and all the cousins playing together. This was truly one of my favorite, all-time vacations. When do we go back???!

Madison's First Dance Class

September 28th, 2009 Madison went to her first dance class (a ballet/tap combo). She was so cute in her little ballet dress. After years of watching Mackenzie go to classes, it's finally Madison's turn!

 

Schlitterbahn - Finally...

Labor Day, September 7th, 2009 After living in Austin for 5 years, we finally decided the girls were old enough to appreciate Schlitterbahn, the Number 1 ranked water park in America. Considering it's only 1 hour from our house you'd think we would have made it before now, but alas, toddlers and waterparks do not mix. It was a very fun day, but both girls were still a bit young to enjoy the big rides. Next time we'll come with another family and trade off doing things with the little ones. It was still a great trip!

 

Pictures of us before entering the massive park. No way was I taking any chances with taking pictures inside that place!

 

Mackenzie's First Day of School 2009

 

August 24th, 2009 Mackenzie ready for her first day of First Grade. So cute, so unbelievable that it's already here. She was happy and totally at ease about starting a new school year. Such an easy kid! Love her!!!

 

 

August trip to Tinkerbell Brandma's

In mid-August 2009 the girls and I took off for my mom's in Camden, Arkansas. On the way we stopped at Camille's in Dallas. She is pregnant with twins (8 months, no less) and she barely looked pregnant with 1 baby, let alone 2. We got to visit for a while then stayed in a hotel nearby. Dave was with us for the weekend but had to go back for work. So the girls and I continued on to mom's the next day.

 

 

We went to a catfish buffet an hour away where you could feed the catfish and other animals. The girls loved it. But Mackenzie especially liked feeding the fish. She wasn't sure about the ponies, goats, and donkeys. Both girls enjoyed throwing the food pellets over the railing. We even saw an albino catfish. Very unusual!

 

 

We had such a fun time, we were all sad when it was time to go back to Austin. We miss you Mom/Tinkerbell Grandma and Grandpa Steve!

Utah Weddings in July

 

Wedding Number 1 - July 11th, 2009 Meri Nielsen marries Shawn in Spanish Fork, Utah. Such a fun, beautiful event. We danced into the night and saw tons of old friends. Meri was beautiful and it was so good spending time with her and Karalee and their family. She even got a wedding day rainbow! The rain was short-lived but the rainbow was truly gorgeous.

 

The following Saturday was Molly Judd's wedding in Bountiful. So beautiful. We got to see all the Cooper families and spend time with cousins, etc. It was a beautiful, sunny day. Congratulations Molly!

 

Of course who could resist the midnight showing of the new Harry Potter movie? Not Suzanne, Adriel, Lexie, Rachel, Josh and me! It was a great rendition of book 6. I ended up seeing it 3 times before it left theaters (and that's saying something since it was almost 3 hours long!)

 

Oh how I miss my book club girls. We met at a cute pizza joint downtown and talked til we closed the place down. Me, Melissa, Noell, Jana, and Lisa Linton were there. We missed Jen Lange, Lindsay Hola, and Shannon Freedman (and Camille, of course, who lived in Texas now, like us). Such a fun night. Love you guys!!!

Royal Caribbean Cruise

 

Mom got a wild idea that we needed to get away for the Fourth of July. So she found a last minute cruise deal from Fort Lauderdale to Key West and Cozumel - and off we went. We really enjoyed the beach at Fort Lauderdale. We flew in the day before the cruise sailed and stayed 2 blocks from the beach. The water was clear and shallow enough for the girls to enjoy. Then we got on the boat and set sail for Key West.

 

Key West was HOT - and humid. Well, it was July after all. We took the trolley tour, saw the aquarium there, and visited the shipwreck museum. The girls were troopers and had fun at the huge sponge statue and with the totem pole at the restaurant we ate at.

 

Beach day at Cozumel. We did not pick the best beach (and of course, we didn't figure this out until we were headed back to the ship). Fortunately, the girls didn't mind the sludgy water or shallow sand strip. I love kids - give them a pile of sand and they're happy.

 

Family picture on the ship. The girls loved the kids club on RC and even sang a group pirate song to all the diners in the restaurant one night. It was so cute, something like: Everwhere we go, people want to know, why we're so short, so we tell them, we are the pirates... Aarrghh!