Monday, May 31, 2010

Memorial Day

Friday Austin and I headed out for our 1st stop for Memorial Day weekend.  We started off in Georgetown and then woke up on Saturday and headed to Barksdale, TX.  WEST Texas!  Far FAR away from H-town!  After 3 days and 14 hours in the car we are back home but we had a great weekend with the Townsend and Chamber families.  

Austin and I making a pit stop in Hondo and pointing to our beginning & end destinations.  If you're going on a long road trip, I'd advise you to not look at a map.  It will just make you realize just how far you have to go!  

Hey, if anyone is looking for God's House, apparently it's in Uvalde, TX.  And Caroline Jones, Realtor, is selling it to the highest bidder.  I just thought it was a funny sign as we were passing through the little town.  It was right before the "Guns & Liquor" store.  I mean, if that's not the best combination for a store, then what is?!  ;)

Right before passing up Anna Nicole Smith's hubby J. Howard Marshall's ranch, we saw some giraffe and kangaroos which I just thought was totally random!  The Marshall Ranch is just a few minutes down from the Chamber's ranch, where we were spending the weekend, I meant to get a picture of it but I forgot.  Oops.

Finally there!  The Chambers ranch

Such a beautiful house

Not too bad of a view either from the back of the house!

Looking over the cliff from the house

Cindy caught the 1st fish!  Not the biggest guy but she caught more as the weekend went on.  :)

Meet Anna Belle!  She's a wild white tail deer but she comes up to a few of the houses for food.  We were feeding her chips straight from our hands and then she got thirsty and went down to the river.  It was so cool!  She just comes up, gets her snack and then runs back out in the wild with all her little friends.  They stand at a distance and just look at her like she's crazy.

Sunday morning we went on a hike up the hill.  It was a long hike but the view was so pretty once we got to the top.

Anyone know what kind of frog this is??  He wanted to say hi during our hike.

The view of the Chamber's ranch from the top of the hill

The Townsend's with the house waaaay down behind us

I didn't notice this until right now but it's funny that they all are standing the exact same way looking over the edge of the cliff.   Duke and Phantom joined us on the entire hike, I promise you that Brody would NOT have made that hike!

Austin & I hanging out on the edge.  Yikes!

This is what it looked like going back down from our hike.  Not the easiest thing to do...

Mark & Prissy hanging out in the river

That boat that you just saw them in is now covered with all this yucky stuff that they cleaned out of the river!  They were busy!

Our swimming hole.  It was so nice and relaxing

Jackie recovering the chair that he basically just threw in the river on accident.  Oops!  It was pretty funny.  :)

Phantom hanging out in the wild flowers

Pretty view by the swimming/fishing hole

Rachel standing behind the HUGE ant bed!

Beautiful sunset from the house

Rach and I hanging out ready to start playing games.  We take games seriously!  ;)

Jackie & Mark hanging out

Not too shabby for our transportation on the ranch!  This Kubota had air conditioning, CD player & windows.  Rach and I had some fun in this thing  :)

Austin took off for a few hours Sunday night to hunt.  He was pretty pumped with the results as you can see here.  I told him that our cooler will never be used again until he soaks it in straight bleach and water!  Ick!

Thank you so much Jackie & Prissy for a great weekend!  We had a blast and now Austin has a trophy to prove it!  I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day!




Monday, May 24, 2010

Leah's 1st Swim!

Sunday afternoon we all went to my parents house to see Leah's 1st time in the pool. She LOVED it!! We were all laughing about how it probably was the best day of her little life so far. :)

Leah's reaction when we told her she was going to get to swim!

So excited!

Leah & Tracy hanging out.  I smudged my camera lens and didn't realize it until later so most of my pics look foggy.  Oops.

Happy little fish!

So much fun!


I don't know who had more fun, Leah enjoying the pool or all of us watching her in it

Sleepy girl after her big pool adventure


I predict lots of pool days for Miss Leah this summer!






Friday, May 21, 2010

Wisconsin Trip

Last Friday my parents, Tracy, Leah and I headed up to Wisconsin for our cousin, Rebecca's graduation from The University of Wisconsin - Madison.  It was so much fun and so good to see the family!
Most of my pics are of Leah since she and Tracy were my roomies and car mates for the weekend.  And she's just cute!  :)

Leah enjoying her 1st time in the Continental Club at the airport!  Pops hooked us up!

What are you doing crazy girl?!

Sleeping baby = peaceful plane ride  :)  Leah was SO good on both plane rides!

Pretty girl ready to land in Wisconsin!

I got my wings!!

Aunt Vicky got Leah her 1st cell phone and she L-O-V-E-D it!!

Making late night phone calls!  Leah thought that Wisconsin meant "late night party time!"  The girl was keeping Tracy and I up LATE wanting to just play and play!

Entertaining at the Hilton Garden Inn

Ok, this college campus is AMAZING!  It's so different than other campuses I've been to, it's right in the center of downtown Madison.  Here is the Terrace, the student union on campus.  

Check out all the beer steins!  I don't know about yall, but my college didn't serve beer at the student union.

The whole student union area was so Harry Potter-ish, it was really cool.  

There was so much detail everywhere you looked.  Each light was surrounded by paintings on the walls.

Even the pillars have "W" on them for Wisconsin.

This just cracked me up.  Leah needed a diaper change and of course on a college campus there aren't bathrooms with changing stations so she got changed right there on the grass next to this castle-like building.

When I saw this menu on the wall I got a good laugh!  I guess since we live in Texas I forget that not everyone knows what a Taqueria is.  Apparently in Wisconsin, they needed an explanation!  This sign was hanging in the union.

There are these HUGE chairs all around the Terrace and people were standing in lines to take their picture on a chair.  I asked the gift shop guy what they are there for and his explanation was "I don't know, people are just obsessed with them for some reason".  Well, ok then.  So, Leah got her picture on the "chair that people are obsessed with"!

This is their view from campus!  Not too bad!

Uncle Tom and Leah hanging out in the Terrace

Only on a college campus will you see a guy climbing the sail post when the only place to fall is on the sail boat or on the pier.  Super smart guy right there...

Mom and Aunt Janet hanging out in the hotel lobby

Me, Emily and Allison

Autrey brothers

Our cousin Allison, me, Tracy and sleepy Leah at Samba.

The Autrey cousins

Aunt Vicky, Leah, Uncle Tom & Rebecca

Me & Tracy, this picture makes me laugh because she kind of looks like just a head since it's so dark in the room and she's wearing a black turtle neck.  Ha!

Rebecca's yummy graduation cake

You can't go to Wisconsin and not see a bunch of weirdly shaped cheese!

Leah calling her Daddy on the way home from Wisconsin!

We had a great time and were so happy to be able to go and see everyone!  Congrats Rebecca!!!


Lilypie Second Birthday tickers