Annual Sunday School Camping Trip

This year for our annual Sunday School camp out we went to Lake Whitney. It was a new experience for us, since this was our first time w/o our camper. We sold our old one just after the new year, and haven't found one since...so we were tent campers for the first time. We put the boys in a small tent and Day and I used a tent we borrowed from our friends the Smiths. The weather was beautiful and the fellowship was great! We had a lot of fun, but it sure is different now that so many of us have kiddos. It just makes for a lot more work and a lot more mess to clean up, more mouths to feed, more clothes to wash when you get home, more people to keep track of, and more toys to fight over share.

The kids really did well overall and Cooper made a huge milestone while we were there. He's been talking for awhile about wanting to learn to ride his bike w/o training wheels, but since our first attempt, we just haven't taken the time to work on it any more. Well, Cooper made up his mind that he was going to take them off while we were camping. So the first chance he got, we took them off and he never looked back. In true Cooper form...he hopped on his bike and started riding like a pro. He did have some issues with starting and stopping, but mostly because his poor little legs are too short to reach the ground.

We are so thankful that we have a group of people that we can make memories with, that encourage us in our walk with the Lord and have seen us at our worst and love us anyway! I love the memories we are making with our family. (By the way, in case you were wondering why Carter didn't make it into any of the pictures, its because my mother graciously offered to keep him with her for the weekend. We love ya Carter, but you're just not camping material quite yet!)

The boys LOVED having their own tent!

Amelia and I played in the waves.

Conner looked for shells in the sand.

It was SOOOOO windy! Perfect kite flying weather!



Conner taking a turn with the kite!

Conner took great care of Amelia!

They were buddies all weekend!

The bluebonnets were starting to bloom, so we got a few pictures. Not the best outfit for bluebonnet pictures, but oh well!

He's just too cute not to take his picture!

Brent was nice and let Cooper hold his fishing pole. No luck with the fish though.

Dad was fine tuning the pole.

Nothings more fun than throwing rocks in the lake!

Cooper was learning how to skip a rock. It's harder than it looks!

Cooper taking off w/o his training wheels! Look at him go!

He was so proud of himself. Somehow this turned into another teary eyed moment for mom. Another sign of him growing up!

Dallas Bloom at the Dallas Arboretum

We made a trip out to the Dallas Arboretum and enjoyed the spring display! We'd only been there in the fall, which was also beautiful, but the spring flowers are some of my favorites. They also had this new exhibit that was really cool. They had tree houses that were made based on various children's books. The kids had a blast in the Peter Pan pirate ship. Some of them were books I'd never heard of, but they loved playing in the just the same.

I had high hopes of getting some great spring/Easter pictures of the boys while we were there, but the night before Carter took a spill down the ladder to our playground and not only had a huge scrape on his face, but a black, swollen eye to go with it. So if you're wondering why he looks like he's been in a fight, that's why;)

There were too many cute pictures to only post a few, so I had to go with the slide show. Enjoy!

Cooper's Fun Run...

Cooper's school had a Fun Run on Friday that was two fold. One, they were finishing a unit on nutrition and wellness, so what better way to encourage an active lifestyle. Two, they were hoping to raise money for a new sound system for the cafeteria by having people "sponsor" the kids who committed to run a certain length of time.

When I first asked Cooper how long he thought he could run he answered, "49 minutes!" I told him that would be like a Word World and half and maybe he should try again. His next choice was 15 minutes, but even then I was afraid that would be a stretch, so we finally negotiated it to 12.

The night before, during dinner he asked me, "Mommy, are you gonna come to my fun run and watch me?" "Heck yeah, I am!" I said. "You're not bringing Carter are you?" "We'll yes, he wants to cheer for you too! Plus I don't have a choice. Why would you say that anyway?" "Mom, he's always a trouble-maker!" (Can't really argue with that!)

So on Friday, the whole family...including Mimi, Pawpaw, Uncle Cory and his friend Clay all came to cheer Cooper on. Cooper was at the front of the pack and ready to take off with a vengeance. He did a great job and it quickly became a family affair.

Waiting to start...

And he's OFF!

Look at them go!

Making his first lap around. Looks like he's having a BLAST!

Carter really wanted to get in on the action so I decided to run with Cooper and let Carter come with us. After one lap around I was going to stop and let Cooper go on his own, but Carter screamed..."Do adin! Do adin!" So around we went, adin! After a second lap, he was not ready to stop. He went around 'adin' with Mimi, then 'adin' with Cory and once by himself! That makes for 5 total laps he went around! He was a runnin' fool!

Finish his second lap with Mommy.

Mimi took all three boys with her. Carter is now on lap 3!

"Do adin?"

That's really what he was saying! This was right before lap 4 with Cory.

Finishing up lap #5 with Cooper, and some other kid who seems to be confused as to which way the race is going:)

After about 20 or so minutes, I asked the teacher how long they were going to let them keep this up. "Oh, they're doing this for the whole P.E. hour! We still have thirty more minutes!" Good grief, that's a long time for 5 & 6 year old's. They could walk of course, and Cooper walked some, but mostly he ran his little heart out. We didn't stay to see him finish, it was windy and getting colder by the minute, so we headed home.

It was gettin' cold! Conner had seen enough, Carter wanted to keep on runnin'.

Cooper did a great job and had lots of fun! We are quickly becoming a family of runners! Come back soon to see a post of Day and I running the Cowtown.