Ride 'Em Cowgirl

Giving new meaning to the term "cowgirl"...


Red Bull anyone?
This is a Darth Vadar Cow
These pictures are from an outdoor mall in the town of Soutlake, TX. Local artists had lent their hands to cows (of course, we're in Texas), and we thought it looked like a good opportunity for some pictures.
Addie was excitedly beating this cow on the head because he was wearing a hat. Note to anyone wanting to give her a ride on their shoulders: you might not want to wear a hat.

A parting question: If you almost "have a cow", but don't really go all the way with it, does that mean you had a calf?

At the Gardens

The rehearsal gave us lots of opportunities for pictures of Addie!
Here we are dancing

New Discovery

While at the Botanical Gardens for rehearsal, Addie saw something for the first time- a butterfly!
She tried to catch him several times, and finally gave up and just watched him intently.

Can you tell we had fun?

More Wedding Pictures

Just a few more!
Another shot of the Botanical Gardens

Here are Loyal & Kathy Kropf- the wonderful people who made this whole trip happen for us! THANK YOU Kropfs!!!!!!
A re-enactment: This is the spot at the Botanical Gardens where Jonathan proposed to Kara. Isn't that ROMANTIC?!?!?!?

Wedding Pictures

I know a lot of you want to see the pictures Greg took at the wedding. I won't post a lot of them, but here are some of our favorites. This is the Gazeebo where Jonathon & Kara were married, at the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens. What a lovely spot it was!
Kara's sister
Bride & Groom
Ceremony

Hosts with the Mosts

Here are our dear friends, the Lindskogs, who hosted us while in Texas. They were so amazingly hospitable to us! Providing a great toddler-friendly house, yummy food (the BEST pancakes ever), and a hundred other things that made our trip as good as it was. We were able to use their pack n play, feeding seat, and stroller while in Texas which meant a lot less baggage to schlep through the airport! THANK YOU Mark & Miracle!!!
This is their lovely home.
Thier street (as we were getting ready to leave early Monday morning)
Here is a shot of Miracle with their daughter, Marie (next to her) and new foster daughter, Marylea.

Roomate Reunion

While in Texas, we got to visit Niki's college roomate, Heidi Sears, and her great family! Here is Heidi & Eric with their boys Ian, Micah & Ethan.
This is their cute house, We loved that almost all the homes out there are brick! They are beautiful!
Here we are tracking the THUNDER STORM on TV while we had dinner. We had rain every day that we were in Texas, but it was fun. This thunder storm in particular was fun since we watched it coming and had it downpour on us! There were big claps of thunder that delighted us! Niki taught Addie to clap with happiness when she heard thunder.
Addie got to dress Texas style since she wet through her outfit. I, of course, had put her in the cutest outfit she has since we were going to see the Sears', then we arrived with her wet right through it. Heidi's boys lent us a t-shirt and overalls so Addie looked like a local.




And what a great time we had with the Sears family! Heidi's brother Steve was Greg's roomate in college and he and his wife joined us for dinner too. (What are the odds that Greg and I would both room with Steve & Heidi? We think it is quite funny). Not only that, but Heidi's sweet parents from California were also out visiting and we got to spend time with them too! We all laughed a lot and had a great time catching up.

Most Startling

This may have been the most startling sight we saw while in Texas.

150's!!!!

It was worthy of a picture.

First Impressions

Here we are at the airport, getting into the rental car. Addie did GREAT on the flight and the day went very smoothly. Most excitingly, we got a free upgrade on the car and it was bigger than ours at home!
Wildflowers grow on the side of the road here!!! They were beautiful- the picture doesn't do them justice. I'm told that at other times of the year the blue bonnets are thick all around the roads near the airport. Notice the water towers- new to us. One for each town. They were helpful in figuring out where we were.

The Texas flag- always flown with the American flag. They are all over the place.

The Great State of Texas

They say a picture is worth a thousand words...




We're back home safe and sound and I will attempt to blog all the adventures we had deep in the heart of Texas. It may take a few days, so be patient with me.

Fast Update

We made it safe and sound to Texas! Our first impressions are that it is green, has pretty trees, wildflowers grow by the side of the road, and we look forward to seeing more. Greg went to the local urgent care tonight to find out that he has a double ear infection (like daughter like father). We know something is "up" with Addie too, who was out of sorts before we even left home, but we don't know what. We may need to take her in to the doctor too! Our friends, the Lindskogs, have made us feel so welcomed and have the PERFECT house for a visiting toddler. We are off for a night of sleep- hopefully a good one!

A Big Exciting Trip... to the mall

While my parents were here, we spent some time at the most exciting of all locations...

the mall.

Here is Addie with her Grammi.
We enjoyed the local cuisine- hotdogs wrapped in pretzel and Orange Julius.
Don't be scared. It's not real. It's just one of the animals on the carousel.
If you look closely you can see Addie saying "Poppi, are you sure you're allowed to supervise me all by yourself?"