Monthly Archives: October 2008

Camping at Enchanted Rock

We paid homage again this year to one of the so-called places to climb in Texas. And by homage, I mean we climbed less this year than last year (i.e. not at all). That’s ok. Jeana is six months pregnant and the pregnant belly may not be conducive to agile climbing.

We learned some funny things about the Wayes on this outing, which I have no problem blogging about since they’re moving away from us soon. I will miss them. First, Becca has issues with some funny things: sand in her nails, fish, and eating meat off bones (although this is dwindling with the advent of Texas BBQ). Second, Scot told us a funny story about him running full speed into a chain parking lot barrier and falling face-first into the pavement. Thanks for the laugh. And, thanks for bringing Bernie to entertain our children. Oh, and thanks again because now they want a pet dog!

Ocean was so thoughtful of Jeana by offering her a piece of licorice. Jeana declined the offer, but Ocean insisted on keeping track of a certain piece of licorice in case Jeana changed her mind. Jeana sat at the campfire watching Ocean caress the licorice in her hands and thread it through her toes. Ocean asked for another piece, to which Adam replied that she already had one. Ocean told Adam that piece belonged to Jeana. When Jeana said she didn’t want it, Ocean caressed and threaded more, and finally took a bite.

While in Utah at my parents’ house this summer, my dad carved some walking sticks for Audrey and Kate. Yesterday we finally took a hike for the girls to use the sticks for their intended purpose (rather than just play with them around the house with some sort of princess theme) up to the top of “Enchanted Rock”. Kate surprised me and made it up a good portion of the hike – she was a good little hiker.

Poor Audrey. Audrey had school pictures on Friday so she dressed up a bit. Jeana packed her camping gear for her so that we could just pick Audrey up from school and drive straight to our destination. I paid our entrance fee after arriving, and when I returned to the car, Jeana told me we had a problem. Jeana had grabbed two right shoes for Audrey. You see, Audrey and Kate have the same shoes, except that Kate’s are smaller. Oh well, what can you do? Scot asked me at the campfire, “So what’s the deal with Audrey’s shoes?” As if she had some “condition” – just kidding. Despite the two right feet, Audrey hiked all the way to the top and most of the way back down before complaining. In fact, she and Jackson were racing to the top of the hike! I found it easy to take pity on her and carry her on my shoulders part of the way down.

Chicago Trip

Danielle and I decided to have a girls trip and meet up in Chicago for the weekend (last weekend).  It was so much fun despite the 44° every morning while waiting for the train.

We rode on a trolley around to all the different sites and saw Navy Pier, went on an architectural boat tour, went to the Field Muesem (home of Sue – the world’s largest and most famous T. rex),

went to the Planetarium (got chosen to be astronauts on the next shuttle to the moon), had lunch at a table looking out over Lake Michigan,

went to the Hancock building, and my personal favorite – went to Wicked.

It was such a blast.  Oh, we also had some Chicago style pizza at Gino’s East.  We had to wait in line forever and then when we were finally seated and ordered, we were told that it was going to take 45 minutes.  I was starving so we got a family style salad and snarfed so much of it that when the pizza came, we could each only put down one slice.


It was really good pizza and we didn’t want it to go to waste, so I decided to find a homeless person to give it to.  So, after a lot of walking, I finally found a guy to offer it to. I said, “You wouldn’t want some pizza, would you?”
What I thought he said was, “Think again.”
So, I said, “You want it?”
Then, he more clearly said, “Thick or thin?”
A little surprised I paused and then said, “Oh, thick.”
To which he replied, “Nope.  Too much dough.”
After that I ended up throwing it away.  I couldn’t take the rejection again.

This is what I had waiting for me when I got home.  What sweetie hearts!

A Musician in the Works

Kate and I grabbed my guitar this morning to do a little jamming. Last night I thought of some songs by the BoDeans so I felt the urge to play the guitar. I really wasn’t paying attention to anything besides remembering the right words to sing. Then, I noticed Kate standing up and lifting her toes up and down – tapping her toes. Nothing exciting for most people I know, but for me it means a lot.

For Grandma Gussy

These are for my Grandma in Idaho.

A day off of school

Today was Columbus day/teacher inservice so Audrey had the day off.  We had such a fun day.  We started with a half mile jog around the block.  Audrey is doing this thing called Marathon Kids.  She’s supposed to run a little bit each week so that by the end of February she will have run a total of 26.2 miles.  After our half mile I needed a little bit more of a run so Audrey got on her bike (which she can now ride without training wheels, btw) and I loaded Kate into the jog stroller with her bike across the top.  We ran/rode over to a street where there aren’t any houses yet and let Audrey and Kate ride all around.  Audrey used to stop by crashing, but she was doing really good today to slow down and put her feet down.

After that we made a quick trip to the library, and then headed over to the Arboretum for a picnic, some good cow fun, and some letter boxing.

Our neighbor Jim gave them some green kid sized HEB bags and they carried them every where today.  Somebody put bubbles in the fountains today so there were suds flying all over the place.  Audrey and Kate really wanted to play in the bubbles, but I wouldn’t let them because I saw a bunch of dead flies and disgusting-ness stuck in the suds.

I don’t quite get the Arboretum cows.  What’s their story?  All I know is they are a big hit with the kids.

Okay, so the letter boxingJodi introduced us to letter boxing at the family reunion.  You look on this website and find where a box is hidden near you.  It gives you directions on how to get to your letter box like this:

“From the black cow, go 20 steps to the right towards the largest tree in the plaza with a big hollow trunk. The letterbox is hidden in the hollow of the trunk.”

It’s kind of like geocaching, but for kids.  There is a stamp in the box you find and you use it to stamp your own little notebook.  Then leave your own personal stamp along with your stamper nickname in a notebook in the box.  I’m not explaining this well, so if you’re truly interested, look at the website.

Anyway, we followed all the steps and the box wasn’t there.  We were sad but determined to stamp something, so we just stamped our own stamps in our notebooks anyway.  Kate kept saying to us, “Okay guys, here’s what we have to do.  We have to follow the clues to find the treasure.”  For some reason it just wasn’t sinking in for her that we weren’t going to find it.  Since we’ve only done it once, they really weren’t too disappointed about it not being there. I asked them what their favorite part of the day was and Audrey said that stamping their books was.  Kate said that looking for the treasure was her favorite.

My personal favorite part of the day was when Scott asked them what they did today and they were so excited that they were talking over each other telling him about our adventures.  He turned to me and said, “See what a fun mom you are?”  I needed that.