Easter at Lost Maples

Camping for Easter weekend has become quite the tradition for us! This year was another great one. Holly and Benton had gone to Lost Maples the year before, and they invited us this year. It was such a beautiful area! I don't know if we have ever had that amazing of a view in any state park in Texas. The cliffs along the back of the camping area were so pretty! We had a great time fishing, hiking, and exploring the area. The kids biked around and played on walkie-talkies. They also spent quite a bit of time trying to build their own fire. They were brave enough to swim a little bit in the creek which was freezing, so it didn't last very long. It was truly the most beautiful egg hunt that we had ever had. There was such much open space in the camping areas, and the girls had a great time searching for all the eggs. I hope we get to go back soon!

Kacy's 3rd Grade Field Trip

Kacy went to the Natural Science and History Museum for their field trip. I was happy to go, especially since it was going to be air-conditioned! I had a group of about seven of Kacy's friends, including her little best friend. It was a great group of kids, and they were really good listeners. We just walked around and saw all the exhibit. They were freaked out by the mummies, and they all loved the dinosaurs. It was a quick little trip because it takes so long to get there, and they have to leave by 1pm. I love being able to see help and a be a small part of her school life. 

Spring Pics

I am too cheap to ever pay for school pictures, but this year I remembered to snap some of the proofs. I know it's kinda stealing, but whatever :) They always crack me up with the weird backgrounds. And Kacy's shorts are a little short! Oops!

Fit Girls 5K

This year's Fit Girls 5K was much better weather than last year's! Last year was literally 25 degrees and absolutely freezing! This year was a nice Spring day. Adilyn had decided that she was going to run with some of her friends. so I had it in my mind that I was going to run it alone and see what kind of time I could get. As Adilyn met up with her friends, one of her the friend's mom was there. She asked me if she could run with me. She said that she wasn't a great runner, but I figured it might as well have a buddy. I was just a little bugged because I had a podcast all ready to go to listen to, but I thought it would be better if I was social. It's not usually my go to, but it ended up just fine! She was really nice, and it made the 3 miles go by very quickly. We passed up the girls, which we thought was pretty funny! They finished about 10 minutes after us. After the run, they had a bunch of different booths set up for all kinds of things. Adilyn and her friends went around getting every free thing they possibly could :) It was a fun day, and it was especially great to not be freezing to death!

Brooke's Kindergarten Field Trip

Cory and I both got to go to the Oil Ranch with Brooke and her class. I was so glad that he came with me because I had 8 little kinders in my group. They were a little hard to keep up with, so I was glad to have another set of eyes helping me! It was a little hot outside, but everyone still had a great time. Brooke had been to the Oil Ranch before, but had never milked the cow before. She finally did it this year. She also loved the big air balloon jumpy thing and the pony ride. I loved seeing her with her friends from class.

Spring Break 2018

As usual, we couldn't make up our mind about what we wanted to do for Spring Break, so we decided to go camping in North Texas with the kids for the first part of the week. Then, for the second part of the week we would do a "staycation" in Lewisville alone. The weather was pretty good the whole time. The Griffins came over to visit for a couple hours one day, and the kids had a lot of fun together as usual. We drove in to Fort Worth on Wednesday and dropped the kids off at my mom's house. After that, it was definitely weird to camp with no kids! We did have a fun time in Grapevine visiting all the wineries, and then we went out to a little town with a distillery. It was pretty much an alcohol tour through North Texas :) We went out to dinner and just had some good alone time. I still wish we would have done something a little more exciting, but maybe next year!

St. Patrick's Day Parade

Brooke's dance class made a float for the St. Patrick's Day parade, and they invited all the kids to ride on it. I didn't know if Brooke would want to go without me, but she said that she did. We had no idea what we were getting into! Adilyn was finishing up her swim meet, so it was just Kacy and I. We went to drop her off, and the ladies didn't even have the float decorated. I felt bad for them, so we stayed and helped a little. After they were almost ready, Kacy and I headed down to where the parade would finish. We waited and waited and waited and waited...seriously, we didn't see the start of the parade for almost 2 hours. Thank goodness the weather was okay, and we had each other and my phone to entertain ourselves. Once the parade started, Brooke was still quite a ways toward the end. It was a decent parade with lots of people throwing necklaces and candy. Brooke was so proud when she came by on her little float. She said it felt like a million years that she was on that float! Believe me, it felt like that while we were waiting also! I admit that I was a little jealous. I have never ridden in a parade before, and my 5 year old got to!

My "little" Adilyn...

Somebody asked me the other day how tall Adilyn was, and I said, "Yeah, she is getting pretty tall." That day she came home from school, and I realized how close she is getting to my height! Dang, I she is going to pass me up soon :(

Kacy's Short Course Champs

Kacy had an awesome champs meet to end the short course season. It was her last "8 & under" meet, so now she is up with the big kids forever! She got to do a couple 25 yard races, and she was in two relays. She was really excited about the relays! Here is how she finished in her races for the meet:
2nd - 25 back
5th - 50 back
6th - 25 free
8th - 100 free
We were especially proud of her 100 yard freestyle time where she dropped 6 seconds. The longer races have always been a struggle for her, so I am so happy that she is gaining some endurance!
Great job, girl!

17th Anniversary!

17 years! This life we have is pretty awesome, if I do say so myself :) I am so glad that we have each other to celebrate the ups and to make it through the downs. No marriage is perfect, but I think ours is pretty great. We have a lot of different stages of life ahead of us, but I know that we will always be there to figure it all out together.

TAGs for Adilyn!

Adilyn has had a rough time getting certain qualifying times. She seems to be right there, but she misses it within .5 seconds or so. Most of the time it's not too big of a deal, but this particular one stung a bit. We were at a meet, and she had an amazing 50 backstroke, like crazy fast and surprised everyone! Once her official time was posted we realized that it was crazy close to a TAGs time. TAGs is the championship meet for all of Texas, and only like the top 10% of swimmers in the entire state make it. Honestly, I never thought she would have even gotten close. Her coach told us that she could try one more time in a "time trial" type race at the end of the meet to see if she could get it. It was so stressful! We had to time for her, and she was so nervous. We were so nervous, and I was so hoping that she could shave off those few tenths of seconds to get her qualified. She had a great race, but unfortunately still didn't quite make it. She was disappointed, of course, but also very proud that she even got that close.
A couple days later I was looking at our account, and I realized that it said that she was going to be in the medley relay for TAGs. Nobody had said a word to us about it, but apparently, they wanted to take her to fill the B relay for backstroke. She was so excited, she could hardly stand it! It wasn't quite the way she wanted to get there, but at least she got there. She had a decent race, and their relay ended up 10th overall and they were the number one B relay. She was so excited to be there, and I hope it's not her last time to go!