A weekend visit to see G-Dad and Gigi!

Jon went with some of his friends to Vegas for a fun weekend so I packed up the boys and headed to Roscoe to see my parents. Two totally different weekend trips, both absolutely enjoyable! Mine was very relaxing; kid friendly and full of mom’s cooking (as usual). Jon’s was much faster paced; airports, an MGM hotel room (barely used for sleeping), table service and clubs to celebrate a birthday, poolside lounging/recovering and a massive hangover lasting until I think Tuesday morning.
Jude would ask “where’s daddy?” and almost immediately remember and tell himself “daddy in airplane!” all weekend! So cute!
“G-Dad” (my step-dad) had double knee replacement surgery Oct 10th so I figured he’d be stuck in his bed quite a bit…wrong! He’s a super star! He was up walking around and playing with the boys quite a bit! Jude kept trying to kiss his knees saying “G-dad boo boo, ouchie!”
We stayed around my parent’s house most of the weekend and just hung out. It’s such a nice “slow down” coming to visit them. I even get to sleep in! ;-) Gigi (my mom) spoils everyone! You want for nothing at their house! We did a mini photo shoot with the boys in the front yard, Jude helped carve his first pumpkin, we baked the seeds…all kinds of Fall fun! I love my family! ♥

The boys ♥ their Uncle Kevin!

Going home for the Labor Day holiday weekend...times 3!!!

I’m blessed and SO thankful to have a wonderfully sweet & giving mother in law! I couldn’t have handpicked her better myself! She kinda reminds me of Angela Lansbury (minus the British accent ofcourse) to give you a mental picture. Even sings like her. :) She makes the 6 hr drive to see us quite often. We’re fortunate to live in the middle of her other 2 kids (Jon’s older brother and sister) so she typically stays at our house. We’ve definitely taken this for granted and haven’t been out to Dalhart, Jon’s home town and where Judy still lives, since Christmas…and even then, we just passed thru on our way to Colorado. Few in town had met Joel and most hadn’t seen Jude since he was just starting to walk. So…we packed up the house (very little exaggeration) and if my calculations are correct…we drove 883.46 miles over the holiday weekend making the rounds visiting my parent’s, Judy’s and Jon’s dad’s house!


I wish I had taken a better picture of the inside of our 4Runner! Suitcases, blankets, ice chest, diaper bag, swing, boppy, play mat, travel booster seat…Bentley (our D-O-G) in between the two car seats. It was a site!

Being Labor Day weekend, we had Friday and Monday off work. We loaded up and headed west for Roscoe Thursday afternoon pulling into Highland High School just before half time to watch the end of my little brother’s football game. He’s the QB this year. “GO KEVIN!” We stayed the night with my parents Thursday then got up and headed to Dumas to see Jon’s dad Friday. We got there around 4:00…in time for Jon to help his dad a little bit (install windows) on a building he’s working on and eat a delicious steak dinner! From there we went on to Judy’s where we stayed thru Monday early afternoon. We got to see several but some but even having 4 full days…the weekend flew by as usual! Jude and Joel soaked up the attention and love being at all of their grandparent’s houses! The weather was amazing and we were sad to leave Monday afternoon. We made a stop in Dumas for lunch and to meet Jay, Mary’s (Jon’s step sister) fiancé before heading home. Why is it that the drive home always seems so much longer than the trip going?! We got home around 8:20…I did a load of laundry, ran the dishwasher and unpacked…before I knew it, it was 10:30! Lights out!
It was a wonderful weekend! Thanks to my parents for DVD player! Jude enjoyed being able to watch sesame street in the car and we loved that it occupied him! ;-) Thanks to Judy for letting us invade your home w/all ours and the boy’s stuff! :) Thankful Melanie is such a fabulous garage saler! Jude LOVED all the toys at Grumpa and Mimi’s house! HeHe. Thanks to Lisa for the cute homemade humpty dumpty pillow dolls! Thanks to the ladies at church for ensuring Jude didn’t escape after lunch when he was crazy running around! And thanks to everyone who stopped by Judy’s house to come see us – we love you all! AND ofcourse thanks to ALL for the delicious food…we’re all fat now! ;-)

Maui, HI - July 2011

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Hawaii Family Vacation 2011

My mom called mid March to tell me they had booked a condo in Maui at the Marriott Ocean Club Resort for 2 weeks in July and were looking at airline tickets if we were interested in going with. Joel being due May 6, there was just no way I could commit…way too many unknowns! I just hated we were going to miss out…neither of us had been to Hawaii before.
Joel arrived happy and healthy a week earlier than his “due date” on April 29, 2011! We were in and out of the hospital with no issues…I couldn’t have asked for a better delivery/recovery! By the end of June I was rethinking my decision to decline the trip. ;-) After talking to a couple friends that lived in Maui and several others that had visited, I was VERY SERIOUSLY reconsidering. Jon was on board to look for airline tickets and…we booked our flights the beginning of July! We were definitely nervous about the very long flights and enduring such a dramatic time change with 2 babies less than 2 years old but…we were doing it! I was off work on leave already, we had family there to support us with baby help and we couldn’t be sure we’d have a second chance for a trip like this!
The boys did AMAZING flying!! I was SUCH a proud mommy! :) I must mention that AA has the BEST flight attendants when flying with children. GINGER was our favorite…she was WONDERFUL with both boys and they absolutely LOVED her! She was on both flights (going and coming home) which was a total blessing to us!
My Uncle Rikki and Aunt Sharon stayed with my parents and brother, Kevin, the first week of the Maui trip and we joined them for the 2nd week. We had one night with all and it happened to be Kevin’s 14th birthday! We had a great time celebrating with everyone and we were so thankful we got to see Rikki & Sharon for a bit before they flew back to Texas!
The week flew by and Jon and I are SO glad we decided to go AND that we brought the boys! We made such unforgettable memories and my family was a HUGE help!! Our only wish was that we could have stayed longer!! :)

I'm posting a slideshow of pictures in a post but here's a handful...there are just so many it's hard to choose!! :)


*The Resort Pools*


*Old Lahaina Luau*


*Our smiling beach bum baby*


*Introducing Jude to SAND!!*


*Road to Hana*


*Beach right off our resort*