Superbowl Kick-off – Tim McGraw concert

Ryan’s company is sponsoring the upcoming Superbowl that will be at the Cowboy’s Stadium. I am glad that they decided to do this because as a result they got complimentary tickets to the superbowl kick-off that not only included hearing from many Cowboy greats (including Emmitt Smith) but also (and infinitely more exciting to me) a Tim McGraw concert. Loved it! He is definitely one of my favorites.

Labor Day 2010

We decided to spend Labor Day morning hiking. We went to the Fort Worth Nature Center and Reserve – it was our first time to go. It’s a gem, one of one two places we have found in this area that actually has elevation change so trails are more than just a leisurely stroll. It was a little bit on the warm side, but not too bad. Ryan’s sister Heather, and my friend Hannah also came with us. I highly recommend going there.

Earl Family Reunion 2010

Almost every year my family has a reunion up at our cabin. Last year we didn’t get to go, but thanks to my brother-in-law and sister for their generosity and Southwest vouchers, we went this year.

I love being at the cabin – I love mountains, I love escaping the heat, I love how pretty it is there and the smells, and I love all the memories that being there brings back and the new memories I get to make each time I am there.

My grandpa built our cabin I don’t know how long ago – but it’s been a long time. At the time everyone on the mountain thought he was crazy for building such a big cabin – 2600 square feet. He told them he was building it for his grandkids. Well, our family has gotten a lot bigger and so we have more cabins now. My sister and her husband built a super big cabin two doors down from the one my grandpa built. Between the two cabins we can fit my gigantic family, and it is fantastic. Ryan and I actually stayed at my sister’s cabin, but we still spent a good amount of time at my family’s cabin. I loved it!

We were there for about a week – there was a lot of hiking, crafts, eating and cooking, games, oh, and stomach flu (not the best part – luckily for me I never got it).

Our brother-in-law Christopher is always thinking up activities for us to do. This summer we made tie-died shirts of a sort. We twisted them up and then sprayed them with spray paint. Pretty fun.

Ryan and I wanted to go on some hikes we'd never done before. We did some research and found this one along the rim of Cedar Breaks. Most of my family went along with us and we had a great time - again I was in awe that my family has a cabin in such a beautiful place.

Some of my cute family after our hike.

On a Sunday afternoon we convinced our brother-in-law Cam, two dogs (they didn't really need convincing) and several of our nephews to go with us to the Spring. Although we have gone to the Spring more times than I can remember, it is still one of my favorites - so peaceful and beautiful there.

Although I must have been here before, I have no memory of coming here and it was definitely a first for Ryan. This is Cascade Falls and the views were incredible. I see places like this and I can't help but be filled with gratitude for a Heavenly Father who loves us so much to have created such a gorgeous and diverse world!

Aspen Mirror Lake - very close to Cascade Falls. Christopher told his son Zander that if he swam across the lake he would pay him $20. I don't know if he would have done it but then Ryan told him he would also pay him $20 to do it. What teenager could pass up $40. It took him quite a while to actually get up to swimming across, but eventually he did, and we had to pay up.

And my sister Missy took some pictures for us to put on our adoption profile, since most of our pictures are of us on a trip somewhere. If we happen to get a picture of us together it is generally because we have asked some random passerby to snap one really quick. Anyway, I had a really good time.

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These were some of our favorites that my sister took. Which one is your favorite?

After leaving the cabin we had about half a day in Las Vegas before Ryan had to get back to work. One of my best-friends, Steve, works for Wynn Hotels and got us comp. tickets to La Reve. I had never seen it so we were pretty excited. We went to dinner and the show with my sister Emily and her husband Mark. It was fantastic! These acrobats do the most amazing things – things that don’t even seem possible. The ways they can bend their bodies and balance while being suspended by just a ring in the air is beyond me, and then they could dive into the water from 100 feet in the air – it was crazy.

After Ryan left I mostly spent time with my friends. I have two best-friends that I have known all my life, Wendi and Wendy. Wendi still lives in Las Vegas – I almost always get to see her when I am home. We got to spend several hours together one evening – we went to dinner, to this outdoor concert, and then just hung out. It was great. I love friends that you can always feel completely comfortable being yourself around because they know you so well that nothing you do will surprise or upset them – they clearly like you for you or else you friendship wouldn’t have lasted over 30 years. That is how my friendship with Wendi is. So awesome.

Wendy lives in Denver now but most of her family is still in Las Vegas so she planned a trip home at the same time as me so we could see each other. We also have that ideal type of friendship. It was so great to see her – I haven’t gotten to see her nearly enough since she moved to Colorado, which stinks. But I got to spend some time with just her and we had lunch with some of our friends from growing up – loved it.

The top 3 pictures are of my lunch with my friends - it was super windy and we were having my friends young daughter take the pictures, so considering these conditions I think it turned out very well. In the top right picture from left to right: Julie, Jamie, Wendy, Me, Katie - lov ethose girls. In the bottom pictures I am with Wendi's daughter Haylee and Wendi.

Steve, my friend that works for Wynn, and I met the second day of our freshman year at BYU. I thought he was cute so I sat by him in chemistry class, and we have been friends ever since (nearly 15 years – crazy). He is actually from Washington but moved to Las Vegas while I was on my mission, so in 2001 I think. We have another one of those fantastically blessed friendships. I’m always happy to see him. We went to lunch at this great little restaurant that I had never heard of but ended up being owned by a girl I went to elementary and high school with – small world.

4th of July - and another state down.

Ryan and I were feeling a bit anxious for a trip, and with 4th of July coming up we were going to have a long weekend. I decided to try Priceline and see if I could get us cheap tickets for somewhere we were wanting to go, and I did. I got us cheap flights to South Carolina, one of the states we hadn't gotten to yet. We didn't really know much about South Carolina, where we wanted to go or what we wanted to do, so I got tickets to the capitol, Columbia. We also decided to take an extra day off work in order to lengthen it out a little. I found a cheap hotel and cheap car rental, so that was great.

As soon as we flew in and got our car we headed to Charleston - what a fun little town. We spent our first day just walking around the downtown area - seeing all the historic houses and such.


That evening we walked on the beach, which was also very nice.


The next day we played on the beach for several hours. I LOVE boogie boarding. I don't do any tricks or anything, just ride the waves. I could (and did) spend hours - I just love the ocean. We had tried for a while to find somewhere to go diving, but apparently there isn't a lot of diving there.

After washing up we headed to the Magnolia Plantation. If you are ever in Charleston I highly recommend going here. The grounds are huge and you could easily spend a whole day here. They have a fantastic petting zoo, we enjoyed our tour of the grounds and learning all about the family and the rice plantation, walking around all the grounds was also fantastic (there was the huge house, the gardens, old slave quarters, a maze, etc.), especially the swamp (which had alligators, turtles, and tons of birds)- we loved it.
The petting zoo

The swamp

Plantation House and some of the grounds


Sunday was actually 4th of July. After church we drove back to the Columbia and on the way stopped at Congaree National Park - which is actually a swamp. Most of it can only be accessed via boat, but they d have some boardwalks to allow you to walk through the swamp. I wouldn't say it was my favorite national park, but I loved that it was free, not crowded, and really quite pretty.


Later we went to see the temple

and the capitol building,

went to 2 fun city parks,

and then went back to our hotel - a good way to celebrate the sabbath and our nation.

Monday, before we had to fly out we went blue berry picking - so fun and we got blue berries for $1 a pound!



We also went to the state museum which is a science and history museum. I am pretty sure I have never been to a science museum I didn't like - I really had fun.

I am not sure if I will ever make it back to South Carolina, but I wouldn't mind - what a pretty state (although I was surprised just how incredibly flat it is - I am a mountain lover.)

Happy Anniversary to us!

We celebrated our 7th anniversary. We started out by doing our shift at the temple, always nice. After, we did some sealings. This is a bit of a tradition for us, which I love. We ate dinner at Pappadeux next. All I can say is AMAZING. We had some gumbo, and the most incredible halibut EVER! I have had a lot of good meals in my life, but usually it is only with desserts or fruit that when I eat it I wish I could keep the taste in my mouth, but with the first bite of this halibut I thought "How can I keep this taste in my mouth for the rest of my life?" It was that good. After dinner we went to "Wicked" - the broadway. I have read the book that it was based off of so I was pretty excited. It was fairly different from the book, which was fine for me in this case. I really enjoyed it. I'm so grateful to be married to the best person in the world - not sure how I got so lucky.

At Wicked...




Beautiful flowers Ryan gave me...

Chester

Ryan's boss took his family down to South Padre for a week. Usually when they are on their vacations they take their dog, Chester with them, but they couldn't on this one. Ryan volunteered for us to watch him. He is a King Charles Cavalier Spaniel, and we are pretty in-love with him. He reminded me a lot of my families dog - Pru (short for Jurisprudence - she was born at a law school). Pru was an Irish Setter. Chester is smaller than Pru, but their coloring was almost identical, they both have the long hairs under their chest, and he made facial expressions similar to Pru. It really made me miss my dog, and made our desire to get a dog even more intense - he was so much fun to have around. So, you wonder why we don't have a dog - it is because we are not home enough. Between both of us working full-time, being gone at the temple almost all of Saturday and at church almost all Sunday, we are just not home, and it wouldn't be fair to a dog. We even felt bad for Chester and felt a little rushed to get home to be with him. But one day we will have a dog - and that will be fantastic.

Video Chatting

I am not very up on the latest technologies - I just have a regular cell phone and have never once texted (texting is actually blocked on our phones), we do not have cable or a dvr or a flat pannel TV, we only got high-speed internet 2.5 years ago - and I only got a web cam a couple months ago. There is a lot about technology I don't like - but there are also some things I love - and I have just fallen in-love with video chatting.

At Christmastime my family had a big party - I didn't get to be there. I also didn't have a video cam at the time, but my sister did and so for part of the party I got to watch my family (they couldn't see or hear me but I could them so it kind-of felt like I was there with them).

My MTC companion and I have a tradition of talking every year around the time we entered the MTC. She is a Canadian however, so I can't talk to her for free. But video chatting with Skype and Google chat is free - so this year we bought a web cam. We have tried a few times to chat, but our chats have been cut short due to technical difficulties. One of the times our chat wasn't working out one of my friends from BYU, that I haven't seen since before my mission I think, was on-line and I ended up getting to chat with her for a little bit, which was fun.

Last night I got to chat with my companion, Crystal Little Schlenker, for 1 1/2 hours - so fun. Since being home from the mission I have only seen her twice - once just a month or two before I got married - so 7 years ago. The other time was a couple years ago when Ryan and I were on our way to Vancouver for our Alaska cruise we had a lay-over in Toronto where she lives. She traveled about an hour (each way) to see us for 30-45 minutes. But it was so great to see her. Well, after last night I almost feel like I have seen her again. I feel blessed.

Now I want to chat with all my favorite people who I don't get to see regularly. So, you should get a web cam if you don't already have one and we can chat. Let me know when you want to!

May Holds Camping - and more bird stories

Our temple closes the first two weeks of May for cleaning and up-keep. That means we have two free Saturdays. As our first free Saturday was approaching we tried to remember what we used to do on Saturdays before we started working at the temple - we would get things done. So, our first Saturday we spent the majority of the day doing stuff in the yard and around the house. It was exhausting and we thought we needed to get back to the temple to get a little more rest. (We did play games with Ryan's parents that night, which was fun.) It was interesting though, we spend almost every Saturday at the temple and have done so for a year and a half now, and somehow despite work and church service we are still able to get all our stuff done. I have no doubt that if we hadn't had this time off from the temple we would still have been able to get all our stuff done some how. I think it is like keeping the Sabbath Day holy - you may have to take a break from your work and focus on the Lord for one day, but if you do you are blessed to get all your other stuff done faster - I have seen that happen too many times to even need to rely on faith anymore, I know it will happen. I guess it is the same with all obedience, God will make sure everything can work out, as long as you are obedient - so nice of Him.

But since we got all our work done that first Saturday, we were able to play the second one - and play we did. When Ryan and I were engaged and registering for gifts, we registered for camping equipment. We were given a lot and used it frequently our first several years of marriage. Camping is a tricky thing in Texas though because the weather doesn't go very gradually from cold to hot or from hot to cold. There are definitely some nice days, but they are rather sporadic and hard to predict. Generally you can only think of camping in April and May or September and October, and even then, like I said, it's hard to know. As a result, we haven't been camping since before we started working at the temple because there just haven't been many opportunities. But we had a weekend off that also had perfect camping weather - and so we went. On my way home from work I always pass by signs for Joe Pool Lake. Neither Ryan or I had ever been there. But a few months ago (like 6) a guy I work with said he would go camping at this place near there and that there was camping there. Ryan and I tried to go hiking there on New Years, but it had been rainy and so the trails were closed. But we decided to try again, and I am so glad we did. It is only about 20-30 minutes from our house, and oh so pretty.

There are various parks around the lake with camping - we camped at Cedar Hill State Park. It was fantastic because there are tons of trees which makes all the campsites secluded, and the lake is nice. We got there fairly late Friday night so by the time we got out tent up the sun was already down so we only had enough time to walk to the lake and check out our surrounding area. The next morning after breakfast and packing everything up we went to Penn Farm (it is within the park). It was interesting, I don't know how many acres, but pretty big with lots of old farm equipment and buildings and such. I wish I were a better photographer because I think you could get some AMAZING pictures there. I would like to have family pics taken there. Anyway, we walked around the farm for awhile and had some interesting run-ins with some birds. First, we were just on this covered patio when we saw a mama bird sitting on her nest. We took a couple steps closer to get a better look and she started flying all around the nest. We stopped, I was hoping she would sit back on the eggs so I could get a picture, but she didn't. then we wondered what she would do if we got closer to the nest, so we tried. She is not at all a good protector, instead of dive-bombing our heads as we expected she just flew to the other side of the porch and watched us. We got a stool thing and looked right into the nest and she didn't do anything, not even chirp at us. But it was still fun to see her 5 little eggs.

Our second run-in was actually quite scary. I am not sure I can inspire in you the fear we felt, even with the pictures, but I will try to explain. There is this big red barn thing on the farm that was made to incorporate two previously existing buildings - I know one was a school but I can't remember the other one. When you go inside the barn you can easily see the structures of these old buildings inside. They are fairly small though, maybe 10-12 by 10-12 feet. The first one we came across had cut-out windows, one on each side. I looked in first and didn't see much, it was really dark but just looked like a big empty space to me. Then Ryan looked in and told me there were chickens in there. I hadn't seen them when I first looked in so I took a second look. Sure enough I saw these black chicken-like animals, but they were covered in about an inch of dust and standing totally still. I thought for sure they were just statues - what animal would be able to live in such a dark place where they clearly weren't being taken care of - what would they eat and how would they get so dusty? I told Ryan I thought they were fake, but he told me they were alive. As I watched a little longer they started moving, super slowly, and very scary. Their bodies and feet look like chickens but their beaks are more vulcher-like. CREEPY. They reminded me of those vulcher-things on The Never Ending Story - do you know what I am talking about? Anyway, we wanted a closer look so we went to the window that was on the side of the building they were huddled against. As I poked my head in they moved in to the corner to get away (I was so nervous even looking - such crazy animals) but then Ryan looked in and the hissed at him - actually HISSED! They were SCARY! We left them alone as we explored more of the farm, but we wanted another look at them since they didn't seem quite chicken or quite vulcher. When we went back I tried a different window, but they had again moved to a new corner. I only had my small camera with me, but I got a few shots with our zoom. I wanted to get a better picture though so I decided to go in to the building they were in. I was scared - not sure if they would try to get me or something. I climbed in and when I was still 8 feet or more away they both started hissing at me - yep, they scared me - I froze, took my picture, and got out of there. Would you be scared of these birds too?

After the farm we went on a nice hike in the park - it was so nice to be totally in the shade pretty much the whole time and see tons of flowers and butterflies - it was just so nice and pleasant.

We then left the state park and went to Cedar Ridge Preserve - it is kept up by the Dallas Audubon Society and it is amazing. It is free although they suggest a $3 donation - totally worth it. We did some super pretty hikes there as well.

After all our hiking we were hungry and a little tired so we stopped at JBs on our way home. It is in this new shopping center in south Arlington. They just happened to be having a car show in the shopping center - so after lunch we walked around the car show for a while, which was fun - it was a first for me. And that was our great camping adventure - loved it.

April Adventures Continued

My sister Molly came to visit for my birthday. She was here with two of her kids and husband on my birthday a few years ago - I think my 26th birthday. I am pretty sure she has been the only one from my immediate family that has been with me on my birthday since I graduated from high school (except when Emily and Maggi lived with me at BYU). So it was fun having her there. She came on Friday afternoon. She took me shopping for clothes as a birthday present - so nice of her. I got a super cute shirt and sweater.

Saturday, the day before my birthday we went to brunch at Blue Mesa Grill, which is fantastic. Then we went to the temple so Ryan and I could work our shift while Molly just got some good temple time in. We left the temple and headed to Ennis to see the wildflowers, which of course were beautiful.

After our flower viewing we went to the drive-in movie theater. While waiting for the movie to start we played some miniature golf. Half-way through our game it started raining pretty hard - we played a quickly as we could and then ran to the safety of our car. Have you ever watched a movie at the drive-in in the rain? It was quite an adventure. But we learned that having your wipers on while your car is not on drains the battery fairly quickly. About 3/4s of the way through our first movie, How to Train a Dragon (which was fantastic), our power went out. That was disappointing. It wasn't so out that we couldn't still listen though, so we did. During the intermission before our next movie, Bounty Hunter (not worth your time) we let the car rest, said a prayer that it would start so we could enjoy the movie, but more importantly get home, waited a little longer, and then started it up - and it did start so we were grateful. Doing these things (Blue Mesa brunch, temple, Ennis flowers and drive-in) have become a bit of a tradition for my birthday - and I like it. I am so glad my birthday is at such a beautiful time of year.

Sunday we went to church, took naps, and then Ryan's parents and sister came over for dinner - paninis (another bit of a tradition - this is the third year in a row anyway - maybe I'll change it up next year). They also brought me cheesecake (my favorite.) It was a fun birthday.

Monday I helped Molly set up a blog and then a Facebook account, and then it was time to head to the airport. I'm so grateful I have fantastic sisters, so lucky!

One day during that next week Ryan came home and there was this guy that told him someone in our neighborhood needed their phone line fixed, which meant they would need to work on the boxes in our backyard. We are not fond of the appearance of these boxes so we have planted bushes all around them to cover them up. As a result, this guy said they would need to dig up one of our bushes to get to the box, but that the guy doing it was really good and that they would replant it. We thought it would be no big deal, that they would dig up our bush, do a little work on the box, replant the bush, and no one would be the wiser. Little did we know - this is what Ryan found when he came home from work.

We were a bit surprised to say the least. We had this gigantic hole in our backyard for three days. They filled it in (kind of, if you walk on the area the hole was the ground starts to sink) and put sod over the area where the hole was, but not where all the dirt was piled up so we now have a big muddy patch. But oh well, what can you do. We knew when we bought the house that they would have access to the spot, we just didn't realize they could dig such a huge hole. Now we know - and so do you.

The Friday after the hole arrived, so did a bird on our back porch. Ryan saw him (I am just guessing he was male) lying on his side breathing really hard. We were sad. It has happened before that birds have flown into our window and knocked themselves out, so I thought maybe he just knocked the wind out himself and that he would be alright. We also thought that maybe it had just hurt one or both of his legs, which was why he was lying on his side, so if he could get upright maybe he could fly. I decided to try to help him. I got some of my gardening gloves and headed to help him fly away. When I first reached to pick him up he started flapping and flew a little ways but stayed close to the ground. Once I did actually pick him up he seemed to calm down quite bit, but he never flew away. So I ended up setting him upright in the grass, he didn't jump or fly out of my hands, I had to set him all the way down.

So this reminded me of another time I held a wild bird. This is a fairly funny, yet true story. My last year at BYU, the year I was dating Ryan, I went grocery shopping at WalMart. On my way to my car I saw this bird just sitting right on the ground, his legs tucked up tight underneath him. Even when I got super close he didn't move at all. I was worried if he stayed there he would get stepped on or rolled over. I did not have any garden gloves with me, I just had my groceries. But I had just bought tortillas, so I used them to scoop him up. He still did not move, so I placed him and the tortillas on the child seat of my cart and proceeded to my car. I unloaded my groceries and he was still there, so he and the tortillas went on to my passenger seat. I figured he was probably rather nervous so on the drive home I played some church music to help soothe him. It is about a 15 minute drive from WalMart to my condo. When I was less than a minute from my condo he decided to fly - he flew around my car for a little bit (which was quite startling) and then landed somewhere, I wasn't sure where. I drove a Subaru Forester so there was quite a bit of space for him to fly around. When I got home I got out of the car, leaving my door open and then went to the back where the groceries were. I looked around for him for a while but couldn't find him. I proceeded to take my groceries in, but as I couldn't find him I figured he had flown out when I wasn't looking. As I picked up my last grocery load, which was a huge purple ball he flew out, which was startling again, but he flew right away, didn't' seem hurt at all. SO I suppose he just wanted to get relocated or take a ride in a car, or sit on tortillas, or just hang out with me for a while, I'm not sure which. But I was glad he was able to fly away because I do not know what I would have done with him.
That's the end of my story, and the end of my April adventures. We will have to see what May holds!

What We've Been Up To

Well, it has been a little while since we last posted so I thought I would give a little up date on our happenings. Mostly we have been working, serving at the temple, doing our church callings, and just enjoying life - but there have been some adventures to report.

In February in snowed here - AGAIN! The 4th time in one season - and this time a lot - I think over a foot in some places. Ryan and I both worked from home that day. We took a half hour in the middle of the day to go on a walk and play a little bit - it was fun. I really like snow to visit me once in a while - as long as I can stay home and not drive in it.

And if that wasn't enough - it snowed AGAIN in March. Have I mentioned before that it usually snows 1 time a saeson here, and usually doesn't really stick. It snowed 5 TIMES this year, and stuck. SO CRAZY (or should I say SNOW CRAZY - okay I'm sorry - that was a dumb joke.)

This is our garden - we foolishly thought that since it was almost the end of March it would be safe to plant our garden. Wrong - I think this happened less than a week after we put our tomotoe plants in - so we had to cover everything with boxes to keep it from freezing.

And this is just to exemplify how crazy weather is in Texas - my trees clearly thought it was Spring - but then the snow came.





But Spring did come and it was beautiful - this is what spring looks like at our house - I love it!

Also in March we attended the BYU vs. TCU basketball game with some of our friends. It was fantastic - even though the Cougars started out a bit slow, they ended up winning by 30 points - Go Cougs! (Too bad they couldn't keep up this pace in the tournament.)

And now it is April. April is my favorite month in Texas - not only because it is my birthday, but also because the wildflowers come out and the trees get their leaves. Other than the people I love here, the wildflowers and the trees are my favorite things about Texas -they make me happy.

Over Easter Ryan and I decided to take a little trip. Neither of us had ever been to New Orleans, not even to Louisiana. One of my friends from Las Vegas lives there (actually two of my friends from Las Vegas - they are married - Jake and Shelley Koch). They were super nice and let us stay witht hem and their cute kids, which was fun. We decided to drive there (since it was spring we got to see pretty flowers the whole way). We spent our first night in Shreveport - we had our first Cajun dinner and it was great. The next day we drove to New Orleans. We had two main stops on the way. First we stopped in Baton Rouge. We went to their capitol first. Loisiana has the tallest capitol building in the nation. We often go to capitols on our vacations and we were kind of excited to go up to the viewing area at the top of this one. But we were disappointed to find it was closed for renovations and we were only allowed to see the first floor. It has a lot of marble in it and it is pretty, but we wish we could have gone to the top.

Another thing we like to do on trips is visit temples - we really like to do sessions in temples, but sometimes it isn't possible. Unfortunately this was one of those times. Mini-temples, like the one in Baton Rouge, have limited schedules. On Fridays (the day we were there) they don't open until 5 or 6, we were there around 12. Darn it. It was still fun to see and they had a picnic table on the grounds which we made use of, which was nice because the weather was perfect.

Our other stop was at the Oak Alley Plantation - I can't remember the name of the city where the plantations are - but htey are along the river about 30-60 minutes outside New Orleans. Shelley and Jake and their kids met us there to go on the tour with us, so that was fun.

Shelley made us a fantastic dinner that night and we just relaxed at their house. The next morning we took Jake and went on a swamp tour. The weather was perfect for beign out on the water - it was over cast, a little cool, but very pleasant - no sun burns. The only problem was that aligators don't seem to like that weather as much as we do. At least they don't show themselves unless it is sunny - we didn't see a single gator. But the swamp was still gorgeous and we saw lots of snakes and birds.

After our swamp tour we met Shelley and their kids at the French Quarter. We had a tasty lunch, and then Ryan and I toured around the area for a little bit, plus we went on a walking tour of the Garden District - such pretty houses.

We spent a little while just hanging out with Jake and Shelley when we got back to their house which was really fun. The next morning was Easter - it was fun watching their kids enjoy their baskets. But we didn't get to do too many Easter festivities before we had to say good-bye and embark on our long drive back to Burleson. But it was a great trip and we were so glad to have gotten to see the Kochs again - it had been since before Ryan and I got married that we had last seen them. I am hopeful they will come visit us soon so we can see them again.

All right - I am out of time so I have will have to finish catching up on the rest of our April adventures another day.