Halloween

So... i haven't dressed up for Halloween since late high school.  Somehow the kids convinced us that we all needed to be in this together and i'm all about what ever it takes to build family.  This is the rest of the story....

Celebrating MY GUY

I surprised lance by planning an overnight get away for his 35th bday.  I'm sure there are other things that sound fun for a birthday, but let's be realistic... we have young kids... some quiet, two-of-us, sleeping in time is just what this man needed!

 we started the evening at Fireside Pies.  Delicious pizza and salad!  we loved it!

Then it was off to find him some new clothes and grab some pumpkin pecan cheesecake from cheesecake factory.  have you had this?  oh, shoot!  best thing i've put in my mouth in a LONG time.  SOOO good!

we grabbed a late night movie.  because we could.  

and then headed to the hotel!  woohoo!!

a few days later, on his actual birthday, we celebrated with the kids.  great wall of chocolate knock off- his request- again.

 candles- the kid's request!  HA!!

super yummy way to wrap up a celebration of a great man, husband, and dad! 

pumpkins, pumpkins, EVERYWHERE!!!

The arboretum in the fall is just too pretty for words.  I've always heard such great things, but this is my first time to see it all.  There isn't an inch of that place that isn't spectacular!

We tagged along with my friend Ashley and her girls.  Here is a pic of her big girls and my little boys.   We had a great time letting our kids be kids and visiting in between!

Riley was so grateful to go and keeps asking when we're going back.

this little guy was hard to snap a picture of because he was so busy moving from one thing to the next.  do you see the pumpkin garland wrapped around the tree?  wouldn't it be fun to do that in your own front yard?? dreaming, i know!

there was also free face painting.  the boys picked their own design.  i sent a pic to lance and he wondered why i didn't love them anymore.  ha!

they also enjoyed brushing and petting some animals

 we just could not have asked for a more fun way to spend a day! 

 I HEART FALL!!!

The state FAIR of TEXAS

a sweet friend on the marriage team gave our family tickets and coupons to the fair this year.  we normally wouldn't be able to pull that off, but as it was we all got in for free!!  

so we loaded up on the dart and headed for the fun (but not while also cheering for our favorite team.  wink.  wink).

the kids had only seen the pictures of big tex on fire so it was fun for them to see him and hear him in person!  "Welcome to the State Fair of Texas!"

-probably their highlight!

lance's highlight? 

the corn dogs.  

i thought that man might die without a corn dog from there.  

it was as big as griff's face.

the lion king was in town that weekend as well and they joined in on the parade allowing the kids to see some really amazing costumes!  

Love that musical!

after we had played silly games, eaten so much fried goodness, and watched some ostriches race... 

we ended up where we started...

and just took silly pics with TEX!! I even gave the camera away and let them snap a biz-zillion crazy, blurry pictures.  here are a few that turned out!

not to worry about lance and griff... they were off to find curly fries because they just couldn't get enough!! 

behind the piney curtian

Lance had the opportunity to speak at the Towers at Pine Cove Camps -Back to where it all started for us.  This is the camp where lance and I met 13 years ago.  This swing is where we pushed campers when we were in college.  He got the opportunity to push his own daughter on it and it brought us "full circle" so to speak. 

Of course being there also gave us the chance to catch up with sooo many friends.  its never enough time to visit, but i'm so thankful that we can pick up where we left off  when we do get together.   Here are a few of our kids being wild in the rain...

after the weekend was over, we went fishing as a family.  it was really fun to see the kids enjoy it AND caleb man caught a pretty large fish!

Then we headed to Tyler State Park for one night of camping.  It was griff's first time... check out the excitement!

Through the generosity of an unkown person we were able to buy a three bedroom tent just perfect for a family of 6.  It almost didn't fit on the camp site... oops!

we went hiking three times in 24 hours...

They got to hang on branches....

 enjoy camp fires, smores,

and the occasional unwanted visitors

lance and i were excited to realize that we are entering into a new phase.  a phase where things like this are fun and not so draining.  but we also realized that it is bitter sweet because it means we are leaving baby stage behind and entering into new territory.... early elementary stage. 

 LIFE SLOW DOWN!!!