Sister Blue

Spring Break 2010, Part II

Next stop, Corpus Christi!  We decided to go ahead and stop at the Texas State Aquarium before checking into our hotel on the island.  It was fun and we saw some pretty cool stuff, however, all in all we weren't that impressed.  I am not sure what we had in mind but this wasn't it.

 

The kids standing under the entry arch that had a water fall over it:

Pretty cool seeing a shark swimming amongst the fish and not eating them!

 

A view of Corpus Christi Bay from outside the Aquarium:

This turtle seemed to be making sure we saw the warning sign!

 

The USS Lexington. We meant to go tour it but ran out of time:

 

We thought our hotel was on Mustang Island but kept seeing Padre Island signs....turns out we were staying on Padre Island!  Thankfully we were on the North end and there wasn't a whole lot of partying going on!

This is one of my favorite photos from the whole trip:

 

 

Sara thought Tanner was so cool when he wrote his name in the sand!  She wanted to try it, too!

 

Our hotel on the beach:

 

Another one of my favorites:

 

 

 

 

The weather pretty much sucked when we were on the coast.  We did have a few hours of fun before a thunderstorm came in and then a cold front came right behind it.  We decided to start home that afternoon and the temperature never rose above 45 degrees all the way to Abilene.  They were getting snow in the DFW area that day.  The entire state was unseasonably cold when we chose to go to the beach.....bad luck for us, but we still have many fun memories!

***The song playing is the on the Zac Brown Band cd that we gave Marcus for Valentine's Day.  When we were driving from Corpus to our hotel on the beach we played this song, loud!  Sara never said a word....two or three days after we were home, Sara and I were driving to school and she said "Mom, play that beach song...you know 'I got my toes in the water, grass in the sand'!"  I have never laughed so hard in my life!  Needless to say that is how we will be singing it from now on!

Spring Break 2010, Part I

First stop, San Antonio!  We had a great trip down & all Sara could talk about was the beach.  She has been talking about the beach since she has been talking!  We knew that Sea World would be far more fun for her but could not have convinced her of that!

Tanner was such a good sport with things like this for Sara:

The first show we saw was called Azul...it is a new show with dolphins & had a Cirque du Soleil feel to it:

     

This guy was pretty funny...he came out before the show and played around with the crowd, getting the first few rows of people pretty darn wet!  He turned out to be one of the trainers and spent the rest of the show in the water with the dolphins....we wanted to see this show again but ended up missing it.

 

Kelsey & her family happened to be going the same day we did so we hung out with them a lot of the day!  Sara was thrilled about that....remember she thinks this is her friend Kelsey, not Tanner's!

 

The next show we saw was 'Believe', Shamu's show.....it was pretty plain and simple.  Scaled way back from what I remember having seen before, I suspect in light of the events @ the Orlando Sea World just days before.  The trainers did not get in the water with the killer whales but instead commanded them from the safety of the sidelines so to speak.

 

 

A baby Shamu, swimming along side his mother....I think they said he was born in January:

 

 

 

Big Bird just happened to be having a beach party at Sea World this week:

 

 

 

This show was called 'The Cannery Row Caper'.....the guy, the girl and the sea lion were trying to figure out who was stealing all of the fish....

 

This little otter turned out to be the caper:

 

and this huge Walrus ate them all!  {See the fish bones hanging inside the shed? Ha!} She asked him how he was going to lose the weight he gained from eating all of those fish & the dang walrus started doing sit-ups!  It was so funny!

 

Sara with Kelsey's sister, Sarah!  The line for this little roller coaster was about an hour long so she only got to ride it once.  {The ride lasted about 60 seconds.}

 

 

Sara & Sarah:

 

Watching the dolphins in the feeding pool:

 

 

The Penguin Exhibit:

 

 

We were thinking of little Ryan while in here!

 

I still cannot believe I let my little Sara go on this raft ride....my family knows exactly why I say that!  {Six Flags near death experience.}  Notice I was no where near the ride!  Tanner was just too tired to wait in line, this was the end of our day the line was a little over an hour long.

 

 

Our Family, Sea World San Antonio, March 2010:

Chloe Bella Kate

Sara & I went to play with and pick out our new little Chloe last Thursday...

She is pictured above with her little sister. {Chloe is the one on the left.}

 

She is so sweet and we can't wait to bring her home!

 

Her parents, refusing to take their eyes off of Sara and look at me!

 

This is the mom, she weighs 6 pounds and is very active!

 

and this is the dad, he weighs 5 pounds and is more laid back!

Happy Valentines Day!

A couple of photos from our family gift exchange:

 

Sara finally got the Pinocchio dvd:

Tanner finally got some '3 star' ping pong balls:

 

Mommy-O got a new book to read, the sequel to "Eat, Pray, Love":

 

And then there is Daddy-O.  Poor Daddy-O got the same thing that he got last year, literally.  You see last year for Valentines Day we got him the Zac Brown Band cd.  And he returned it.  This year he said, "If you need an idea for me for Valentines Day, I think I would like to have that Zac Brown Band cd!"  So we got him it and the Lady Antebellum cd!  {He better not return them!}

  

Daddy-O got his girls each a rose!

 

 

Mommy-O trying to show Sara the face she was making when she smelled the flowers!

 

Winter Fun :)

Daddy finally got to take Sara out to build a snowman and play in the snow yesterday!  She waited VERY patiently for him to get home from work and when he did come in, she couldn't wait another second! Mom couldn't resist taking a ton of pictures as this will likely be our only 'snow' play day for another 10-12 months.  Here are a couple from inside, getting dressed to go out:

      

Dad had to do a little more shoveling in order to get Tanner's car out....

 

 

 

My Little Blog Hog!

{stole that from Karen Russell's blog, she has one too!}

 

Getting Daddy with a snowball while he is down!

 

   

Mom made snow ice cream for a little treat....Marcus says this is a total Southern thing....

{Snow, milk, vanilla and sugar to taste!}

 

Dad thought he needed to add chocolate syrup...

 

 

Sara with Frosty after we added his arms:

    

Tanner has some AWESOME friends :)

On Tuesdays and Fridays (game days!) Jacob and Jonny come over to play ping pong with Tanner.  Every single time they come in, Sara follows them right into the basement and stays down there pretty much the entire time, unless she gets bored....they never tell her to leave.  I have thought a hundred times how patient Tanner is with his 13 year younger sister and I just can't believe how his friends are with her.  A week or so ago, Sara had been setting up my birthday party {glad I don't really have birthdays as often as she throws me a party!} for at least an hour when the boys came in.  As usual, she followed them into the basement.  In a few minutes I heard her saying "This way, follow me!"  Of course I followed too!  This is what I found:

 

These guys are simply AMAZING!  They are all Seniors and are so patient and good with Sara. A couple of weeks ago Sara told us that Jacob was her boyfriend! A few days after that, we ran into Jonny and his girlfriend out eating....after we left, I said "Jonny's girlfriend sure is pretty!"  To this Sara frowned.  I asked her what was wrong.  She said "I am Jonny's girlfriend!" Oh heaven help us!

2009

Since I don't mail out a letter each year with our Christmas cards, I decided this year to do a recap in photos here on the old blog....here goes!

JANUARY

 

We rented scaffolding and remodeled our living room.  You can see more here.

 FEBRUARY

 

Sara fell into the fireplace and knocked one tooth out and her 4 bottom front teeth loose. I didn't post too much of the story at that time but there are a couple of other photos here.

MARCH

Track season! You can see a few more track photos here.

APRIL

 

Tanner turned 17!  There are a few more birthday photos in this post. 

MAY

 

Marcus turns the big 4-0! Here are some other photos from his birthday!

JUNE

 

Sara turned 4 {and has Hopper in her hands in this photo!}  You can see more about Hopper here and can see more birthday party pictures here!

JULY

 

We traveled to North Dakota and had a lot of fun with family! More photos from this trip can be seen here.

AUGUST

 

Sara had her first trip to Wonderland!  There are a few more fun photos here.

SEPTEMBER

 

Sara got her ears pierced!  There are a couple more photos here.

I did Tanner's Senior pictures myself....3 different days and over 1000 shots.  He wasn't happy.  You can see a few more of them here and here and here. 

OCTOBER

 

Sara was Dorothy for Halloween....there are a few more photos of Dorothy here.

 

Wow....marching season!  It kept us busy for a few weeks! It was such a whirlwind and ended in such a disappointment that I never really posted much about it.....I am still sad.

NOVEMBER

 

We traveled to South Dakota for Grandpa Barnes' funeral. There are a few more photos from our trip here.

DECEMBER

 

Basketball season is here!  We have a fun filled couple of months ahead of us with basketball!  We can't wait!

Christmas 2009

Time flies!  I can't believe that I haven't posted any photos from the Christmas season!  Here are some of the highlights in photos...

Us just before the company christmas party:

 

Each year I have Sara tell me what to write on this little board...this year she decided Tanner needed a monkey!

 

drinking hot chocolate {her new favorite thing} just before starting our gingerbread house train, keeping with the spirit of the Polar Express!

 

 
 

what an awesome tradition we have going with the gingerbread house/train!  Sara really enjoys this and so do we!  This year she showed that she cared a little more about how it turned out!

 

Christmas Eve @ Nanny & Granddad's, patiently waiting on Santa:

 

 

 

too bad my focus was horrible on all of the pictures with Santa :(

 

Our Class of 2010 with Santa:

{Tanner, Reece & Jason are all graduating this year.....3 different schools on the same day and time!)

 

All of the grandkids with Santa!  and Bradley being a dork and holding Santa's hat in the air! :)

 

Christmas Day, Sara playing with the bendaroos that came in her stocking:

 

and as always, I was too busy or distracted or lazy and didn't take all of the photos that I wanted to.  Opening presents is always VERY chaotic and I feel like I have to be helping Sara instead of taking photos.  Hopefully next year will be a little better!  Happy New Year to everyone!

The Polar Express :)

What a great night!  We had so much fun on our train ride to the North Pole!  I really enjoyed the company, too! {An old friend from High School that I never get to see.....thanks Amber!}

Here are some fun pictures from our ride:

 

Ryleigh & Sara:

 

All four of us, nestled into our booth!  We had GREAT tickets/seats:

 

 

 

 

Arriving @ the North Pole:

 

 

Hanging of the Greens, 2009

Our church Christmas program was Sunday evening....Sara was an Angel and Tanner read scripture and sang a song.  He did a GREAT job!  So many people have been saying "I didn't know Tanner could sing!" {He gets it from me! NOT!} They don't come over often enough, he sings all the time!

 

 

 

 

 

Our Family:

 

Remember Kelsey, the one that is Tanner's friend but Sara thinks she is her friend?  As soon as Santa came in she started begging her to sit on his lap with her!  Worked great for me, this way I was able to take a picture!  Thanks Kelsey!

 

After Sara opened her present {a box of Legos} she said, "This is not what I wanted!"  I think the entire crowd heard her..... she is one track minded and only wants Santa to bring her an American Girl doll.  She didn't realize that this wasn't the only time she might see Santa.  After I reminded her that it isn't even Christmas yet, she was so happy to have the new Legos.  Kids are funny!

 

Tanner & Rachel: