October 31 - Spider Mountain

Last weekend the kids and I met up with Bryan in Burnet, Texas (an hour west of Austin) at a really cool place on Buchanon Lake called Spider Mountain. It's Texas' only year-round mountain bike area complete with a chair lift! 

This is the first time we've seen family in almost 2 years so it was wonderful to spend the weekend together. Bryan took Julia and Luke mountain biking all day Saturday and they had a blast. I was worried Luke would get injured but...Julia was the one who ended up busting several times, scraping her arm, hip and knee.

Luke apparently had a near death experience at one point but managed to escape unscathed. Needless to say, they both had fun with Uncle Bryan and Luke is already begging JD to take him back. 

While Bryan and the big kids biked, Jillian and I took a 'scenic chairlift ride' which I thought she would love. Instead she told me it was slow and didn't want to go more than once. That's okay, the place we were staying in had some old school swing sets and she was perfectly happy to place on those. She also met a 7 year old boy named Syd (his mom works at the park) and they played together for hours. 

That evening, we drove to Lake Travis to eat at the Oasis, which has the best view in the state of Texas. The food was delish and we loved seeing the sunset over the lake.

It was a short weekend but so fun!! We love Uncle Bryan!!

The kids loved his tent on top of the car!

Ouch!

Chairlift

Oasis

Family

October 27 - Zoo Boo

We headed back to the zoo a few weeks ago, this time as a family for zoo boo. Amazingly, we made it out of the house on-time and got to the zoo right when it opened. The animals were the most active we have ever seen them which was just fantastic. Julia and Luke loved the tigers and lions, while Jillian loved the cheetah and gorillas. We actually say a group of younger gorillas playing with older ones and it was pretty incredible. Everyone, even Luke and Julia, had a wonderful time! We did talk about the candy at zoo boo which they weren't actually handing out, so Jillian was bummed about that, but we assumed her she will get more than enough candy on actual Halloween. 

It was a wonderful day. We can't wait to go back for Zoo Lights this winter! 

Love these kids

October 18 - Monday Snuggle

 The best way to start the day is with a snuggle:

Happy Monday everyone!

October 17 - Top Golf

For Julia's 11th birthday, we did that crazy road trip to Universal with a few of her friends. Luke was offered the same thing she was: Disney, Universal or Schlitterbahn. Of course, we were hopeful that kids would be vaccinated by now but that didn't happen. He chose Schlitterbahn, an outdoor water park, that could have worked out fine but the majority of the park was closed all summer. So this year he considered Kemah Boardwalk and Top Golf and decided on Top Golf. A few of his friend's from school came and they all had a blast! We were there last night for 2h and they have fun golfing, eating and laughing. It was nice to be able to do something outside with fabulous weather too. 

Luke & Kaleb (Kaleb consistently hit 175-185 yards, it was impressive!)

Luke & Jasim

Crazy Crew

October 14 - Eleven!

Happiest birthday to my favorite son!! 

Age: 11

Grade: 5

Favorite Class: math

Least Favorite Class: art

Current Activities: Aquastar swimming, Beastmode XC & Tennis

Current Style: casual with anime hoodies, wild curly hair

Current Interests: video games (Minecraft), yoyoing, robotics

Favorite Foods: mac and cheese

Best Friends: Jasim, Jacob, Bella, Angel, Shees

Dream Job: Attorney

Place you really want to travel: Japan

Fun Fact: loves anime and water, loves to play video games with his friends 

Mom Brag:  currently on safety patrol at school and doing a great job!

We love you!

 

October 4 - I'm a Barbie Girl, In a Barbie World

Jillian went to a Barbie themed swim party for one of her classmates yesterday and had so much fun! She passed the swim test and was able to swim without a lifeguard, so she was pretty excited about that. After swimming, the kids snacked on pink popcorn (strawberry flavored..it was interesting), fruit and a delicious rainbow cake. Jillian usually only eats the frosting off the cake but she was so excited to see the different layers, she actually ate some of the cake. And the biggest hit at the party was the Barbie box. I had to tell Jillian to get out of it to give the other kids a try, she wanted to keep posing. 

Beautiful cakes (homemade!)

Impressive rainbow cakes for the kids (parents had carrot cake, delish)

How cute is this?

September 27 - Can You Help with a Bun?

Our little tomboy/sporty spice has now been a teenager for a month. She has been wearing athletic clothes and her hair in a low ponytail since 1st grade. So imagine my shock when 2 weeks ago she asked me to take her shopping for new clothes (apparently large baggy sweatshirts are 'in style'), wears jewelry to school (rings and bracelet) and before school last week asked me to put her hair in a bun. Let me tell you guys, she has A LOT of hair so I suggested she wear it down for that day and I would buy some bun supplies. This past weekend we practiced buns..

Warning! The bun donut literally creates a bun bigger than ones head LOL

Some other bun device (which requires rolling the hair)

Bobby pins for the win

She let me do a high ponytail (although took it out after 5min)

September 24 - Velcro Dog

As you guys know, I love my fur babies. Apollo is the most chill dog and likes to sleep the majority of the day. He likes to know where I am but doesn't follow me around everywhere. Bella on the other hand is a total velcro dog. 

Folding laundry...

Helping with bath time

Supervising teeth brushing

Good morning Jillian, time to get up

Watching me while I work

Bedtime snuggles? Me too!

We love our Bella Rose!

September 22 - Celebrity Sighting

When Julia and Luke were little, we had a membership to the Houston Zoo and went all the time. I realized last week that Jillian has only been to the zoo a handful of times and the last time was a few years ago. So I texted her friend Mia's mom and say "Let's meet up at the zoo!" She was game.

Parking at the zoo is horrendous. The parking lot is used for the zoo, museums and various parks around the area. When Julia and Luke were little we always tried to get there early but never did. I'm happy to report that getting one child out the door was so much easier than two and we actually made it there at 8.50 (zoo opens at 9am). We were parked right up front which has never happened before! Mia and her mom were running late so Jillian and I checked out several exhibits together and she loved it! We eventually met up with Mia and her family and the girls had a wonderful time chit chatting and seeing all of the animals. 

Also totally random, we were walking at one point and zoo security came by an requested everyone "Move to the left side!" so we moved. Then two golf carts rode past. We didn't really think much about it. About 10min later we were in line for face painting near the sea lions when zoo security came by again and closed the spectator area. We saw a group of people inside the sea lion exhibit and said "Wow, must be a private birthday party. I wonder how much that costs." Turns out it was Kylie Jenner, Travis, Scott, their daughter, looked like a few family members and bodyguards. They got into a golf cart pretty close to us (maybe 15' away) and drove off to the next attraction. So random! I told the kids and JD about it later that night and they wanted to know why I didn't get a picture, I honestly didn't even think about it. 

Zoo Fun