Cousin Tommy's Birthday

This past weekend we decided to head up to McKinney to attend James' cousin Tommy's third birthday. It has been WAY too long since we've seen Mike's brother and sister-in-law and little Tommy. They had the party at "My Gym" which is like "Little Gym" and the kids had a wonderful time. The party was construction themed...hence the yellow hardhat that James would never take off.

My little guy before the party started (that's Uncle Tom & Cousin Tommy in the background)

James and Tommy in the little ball pit

James enjoying the trampoline (he loves these things...that's why we're having his birthday party at an indoor trampoline park)

Daddy rolling James around in the tube

He loved the ball pit too

Tommy on the zip line

James on the zip line

James riding the little airplane on the zip line (he barely fit!)

just hanging out

James & Tommy digging into some cake



The Beadle Brothers being goofballs

Corn Maze & Pumpkin Patch

Well it's that time of year again...pumkins, corn maze & hay rides! We headed out to Hondo again this year with our good friends the Hutchisons. It was a beautiful day (much cooler than last year) with just the right amount of cloud cover to keep the sun from beating down on us. As always, we had a wonderful time and look forward to going back next year.

The first thing they did was head for the giant tube slides

Next it was on to the jumping pillow. Even the Daddies couldn't resist this activity.

Logan and James

Silly boys

about to lead us through the corn maze

our fearless leaders

ofcourse they got tired before we finished the maze and had to ride on the Daddies shoulders

James shooting the corn and aiming for the targets (he got really close!)

A new swing ride they havve

James about to take a ride on the barrel train

On the hay ride to retrieve our pumpkins

Searching for the best pumpkins

The kiddos with their pumkins

Joe For Judge: Plaza Club Fundraiser

With all that has been going on in my life lately, I thought it would be a good idea to keep myself as busy as possible in order to keep my mind off of things. So I thought I would take on the role of Campaign Manager for my brother's judicial campaign. He is running for Judge in the 407th district of San Antonio against the incumbent, Karen Pozza, who has been a judge in that court for 12 years! I had no idea what I was getting myself into. It is definitely a lot more work that I anticipated...that may be because my brother waited a little late to begin campaigning, but that's neither here nor there. I assumed since I worked at a marketing firm before that this would be something I could easily transition into. I may have underestimated what goes into running a political campaign. Luckily Joey and I have some great friends that have stepped up to help. We are busily working to get his name out there as much as possible. Phone banking, block walking, social networking and fundraising have taken over my simple life. We recently held a fundraiser at the Plaza Club in order to raise some money for Joe's campaign. While we didn't make nearly as much as we wanted, it was a great event to bring some of Joe's biggest supporters out.

Joe with one of his supporters, Rene Diaz

More of Joe's supporters, including our phone bank captain, Blakely Mohr

Joe with his wife Melissa and baby Louisa

My brother and I

the party

Our lovely volunteers Margaret, Elaine & Reba with a little help from James

Joey, Melissa and my parents

On the hunt...for Dinosaurs!

I've been meaning to do a post about this, but have been a bit preoccupied helping run my brother's judicial campaign (more on that later in another post!). Anyway, a couple of weeks ago we went to the botanical gardens for an event they are holding now through December. It's called the Dinosaur Stampede in which they have placed 11 different exhibits of dinosaurs and prehistoric animals throughout the grounds. Here's a look at the brochure:

 

Because of James' love of dinosaurs, I knew this outing would be an instant hit...and of course it was. James had such a blast running all over the botanical gardens searching for the "next" dinosaur. The brochure had a nice map of the grounds with each dinosaur numbered and placed where they could be found. There is no doubt in my mind that James would have been an explorer in another life. The thrill he gets from studying the map and determining where to head to next is so much fun to experience. We definitely will be returning sometime soon so James can find the dinosaurs all over again, which he wanted to do immediately after we found the last one. But after two hours of walking all over the botanical gardens, Mommy and Daddy were not quite up for doing it again, so there will be a return trip in the near future. If you're in SA or even close by, I would definitely recommend taking your kids to this! Here are some photos from the day:

 

James, ready to explore

James & I in front of the Allosaurus

Mike and James next to the Dimetrodon

James and Daddy checking out the map

Bambiraptor (that's right they are named after the baby dear in the Disney movie :-))

James & Daddy reading about the Quetzalcoatlus

Mike and James under the waterfall in the tropical oasis

checking out the Parasaurolophus

The Camarasaurus

feeding the ducks

Mommy and James taking a rest

Awwww

James and the Hypsibema

James, Daddy and Allosaurus



St. Thomas Trip

A couple of weeks ago Mike and I went to St. Thomas for a much needed vacation. With everything that has been going on we decided it would be a good idea to get away for a while and as Mike put it, "hit the reset button". It has been years since just the two of us have taken a vacation sans children so we were looking forward to this. Although the only reason we were taking the vacation was because of the horrible tragedy we had just been through, it was definitely needed. After a rough travel day, we arrived in lovely St.Thomas. They had canceled our first flight due to airplane maintenance issues so we had to switch airlines, which meant we lost the first class tickets to Dallas and Miami that we had paid for. With all the traveling Mike has to do for work, he has determined he will always fly first class when possible. Needless to say, he as not very happy that we had paid for first class and had to sit with the "chattle" as he calls it. Regardless of that, we had a beautiful time once we got there. We stayed at the Sugar Bay Resort and Spa, which is the only all-inclusive resort on the island. I absolutely loved St.Thomas and would definitely go back someday. While on the trip we enjoyed a couples massage, went sailing and snorkeling, and went parasailing. I was a little scared to go parasailing, but it was really fun and actually kind of relaxing. Here are some photos from our trip:

View of the bay from our room

The huge flight of stairs you had to take to get down to the pool...not so great after drinking all day

View of the resorts private beach

View of the resort from our balcony

Pool bar!

One of our iguana friends chilling at the pool with us

on the sailboat about to go sailing and snorkeling

Mike snorkeling (we saw sea turtles, sting ray, jelly fish and tons of other pretty fishys)

chilling on the boat

view of our sailboat from the beach on St. John's Island

Honeymooners beach on St. Johns

Honeymooners beach on St. Johns

Another iguana friend hanging on the beach

Mike and I before we went parasailing

I may have been freaking out a little at this point

Mike and I at Mountain Top (the highest point on St. Thomas)

View of Magens Bay from Mountain Top

Mike & I

Our new friends Brittany & Matt with us in the lobby of our hotel