Heather has been asking me for quite a while to do a post on her blog, so I thought what better time to surprise her with a post than her 40th birthday!Heather and I met when she was 30 years old. I can't believe we have known each other for 10 years! (I was only 29 at the time so she was robbing the cradle a little bit and I continue to joke with her every year during the month that she's actually two years older than me.) Despite her older age :-) she has always had more energy than me and is definitely young at heart. When we first met I was immediately drawn to her energy, joy for life and her outgoing personality.
During the last ten years I have truly gotten to know what an amazing women she is. She is highly intelligent, outgoing, adventurous, competitive, loving, driven, compassionate, creative and fun. She desires to be the best at everything she does, whether that was in her career, or now as a stay at home mom and the teacher of our children. She loves to interact with other people and explore new things. She is the constant social planner in our family and I am so thankful for that as the kids would have experienced so much less if I was planning the activities. She loves her family immensely and is always thinking of ways of making all our lives better. She challenges me, which is exactly what I need some times to push me to do things I'm afraid of. Of the two of us she is the less cautious and willing to take risks. A great balance with my calculated and "realist" mentality.
She loves going on adventures and bringing others along with her. I fondly remember going on a way too late at night hike in the woods of a park here in Austin and also remember her climbing up on top of the pergola structure on top of Mount Bonnell with her high heel boots on so we could sit and enjoy the night sky. She is very creative. I'm so thankful for all the pictures and videos she has taken of our family and others and enjoy looking back at them. Not only does she blog to document our daily life, each year she collects stories and pictures together into books for each child so they'll have them to look back on when they get older.
I could write so much more about Heather but decided pictures might help tell the story, so I had some fun putting together a movie of Heather over her 40 years of life. Please watch and get a brief glimpse of the girl I get to spend everyday with.
She is my best friend, the love of my life and everything I prayed for and am so thankful everyday that I get the honor of calling her my wife. I've only known her for 10 of her first 40 years but am so looking forward to being right beside her for the next 40. Happy 40th Birthday Heather I love you!
We have made it a big family tradition the past few years to head to my parents' house for a big extended family fourth of July celebration. This year, we had a "blast" as we spent some time with family again on the 4th.
Before we shoot off fireworks, we head to the pond area to take family photos.
It's fun because we are all in coordinating colors.
Plus, it's fun to see how the kids grow each year. But, we were really missing mom this year.
As always, we have to make sure there's a silly picture.
And a cousins picture...
Then it's time to go play with fireworks.
Drew is ready!
We start with some kid friendly fireworks.
The kids always love the smoke bombs.
Then our family friend, Rob, usually sets off a crazy amount of parachutes. The kids (and, I will admit--the adults) love these!!!
The kids were a bit competitive in trying to get them. You can see the dads thought that the extra height might help the little ones get the parachutes.
It didn't really help, but I am sure it is a special memory that they will remember.
So much joy in this photo. I think this is the one that Rob set off that sent what seemed like hundreds of parachutes descending from the sky.
They are ready!!
Rob was set up and ready. He has a big passion for fireworks and it shows. He picked some amazing fireworks from Missouri where he goes to a special place to purchase them. (His truck was full of fireworks!)
An amazing fireworks show!
Our tradition is for Drew to write something with a glow stick, while I take a photo in bulb mode. He has a special talent for it, as you have to be able to write backwards and completely cover the glow stick in between each letter.
What a fun time with family for the 4th! It was also a hard time though, as we missed mom immensely. This picture is from last year at the 4th. We had to help mom up out of her wheelchair for the picture, as she had already begun to lose the ability to walk, and she was not herself. But, it was good to still be able to hug her during our stay there. I am thankful for pictures like this of us all together, which is why we make an effort to get the family picture on the 4th each year. I find myself staring at old pictures of her (when she was herself) and watching videos where she is talking. The latter is hard to find and I regret not having more of them. We miss you, Mom!
This past weekend, we took our first camping trip as a family. And, what was even more fun, is we camped with all of my siblings and their families, as well as my dad. At Christmas this past year, we decided that instead of buying gifts for one another, we would plan a camping trip all together. We knew we would all need camping supplies since we have all had kids since the last time we went tent camping. That meant larger tents, more air mattresses, and other supplies. Instead of buying gifts for one another, we would spend the money on our needed camping supplies and have the gift of the camping experience together. The campground where we had originally reserved sites got flooded. So, we set up a group text for Drew and me, my siblings and siblings-in-laws and dad to discuss where we could possibly go that wasn't expecting a ton of rain and that was not too far to travel. That group text conversation ended up having a total of around 800 texts! If you know my family, you know that not all of those texts were "planning" texts. There was a lot of silliness going on as well.
Anyway, it was nearly impossible to find a place to camp that wasn't expecting a lot of rain and that wasn't over 8 hours away. We finally ended up deciding to try out a place in the Arbuckles in Oklahoma called the Chickasaw National Recreation Area. It looked promising with only 60% chance of rain on Friday (early) and only 40% early on Saturday. We would be arriving around 12pm on Friday and heading home on Sunday morning. We decided to chance it and to pray a lot for the rain to hold off.
Our campgrounds were just a little over 2 hours away from Dallas, so Drew, the kids and I decided to head to Dallas early on Thursday morning and visit the Perot Museum, which we can get into for free through our Thinkery (Austin Children's Museum) reciprocal membership. That place was AMAZING!!!! We would love to go back and could easily spend 2 full days checking everything out there. There are 5 floors of science and wonder there!
There were some really cool minerals and gems there.
On this section of minerals, Abbey said, "Look at that strawberry icing mommy (top left--it is actually really pink but hard to tell from the photo), and look at those marshmallows (bottom left). Oh, and look at that glitter on that rock (bottom right).
This was really neat. You could spin this big wheel to open up the rock (a huge geode) and check out the inside.
We could have spent all day on their technology floor!
Luke built a structure, and then selected a particular earthquake on the screen that has actually happened historically. When he pressed enter, the wheel simulated that exact magnitude earthquake that happened in history. His structure withstood it marvelously.
We got a killer deal on an awesome hotel there in Dallas. This was Luke and Abbey's favorite part of the hotel--a large picture window. We were on the 17th floor.
The next day, we headed to the campground!! (don't worry--we hadn't begun driving yet and don't let Luke lean forward like that in his car seat normally)
When we arrived we were excited to set up our tents and then go explore. While we finished setting up the campsite, the kids decided to have a water fight. We had a really nice large group site, that had lots of green space for the kids to run around in. They had water fights, explored, played baseball, and so much more together. It was awesome "cousin-time."
After we got the tents set up, it was time to gather some firewood. The guys took turns being lumberjacks,-- I mean splitting the wood into firelogs. Here, Ryan is taking a turn.
There's dad (Grandpa), chillaxin' and providing some supervision on the wood chopping.
My brother, Jason, and niece, Natalie relaxing by the campfire.
Drew's turn.
My brother-in-law, Ryan, and my dad decided to shave. :-)
These two were close buddies this trip.
Little Sawyer and his big blue eyes!!
Buddies, Traber and Luke.
Snacking
This guy, my nephew, Brody, was the leader of the cousins.
Linnea
The girls realized that these 4 picnic tables side by side made an excellent runway.
Once we got the campsite all set up, it was time to explore!!!
My sister, Holly, and niece, Linnea. There was so much to explore. And even though we were there all weekend, we didn't get to see everything. We would love to go back.
There were tons of natural springs there, known for their healing properties.
Our nieces, Lilly and Linnea.
Above is a brief video of part of our short hike the first afternoon we were there.
Do you spy Drew? I loved this really old bridge.
We headed back to the campsite and cooked dinner. Campfire food is awesome! Dinner #1 was trail dinners. You just chop up a ton of veggies and throw some ground up or chopped meat and some seasoning, roll it up tightly in aluminum foil and set it on the hot goals. We put our food on parchment paper before rolling it up to prevent the aluminum from leaching into the food. These are DELICIOUS! We make them at home as well.
And, of course, Smores are yummy for dessert!
Emily and Jason bought these little headlamps for all the cousins to use. This was one of Abbey's favorite things. Our budding photographer pretended it was her "GoPro" and brought it everywhere with her, snapping photos left and right.
The kids were so excited about sleeping in the tents. The kids actually asked us to go to bed at a pretty normal hour--it wasn't even dark yet. So, we put them to bed and then sat around the campfire with the rest of my family and played games, like "Catch Phrase." It was such a fun time!
The next morning, we woke up bright and early and hiked to the nature center. It was a gorgeous hike!!
See Abbey's "camera?"
My brother Jason, sister-in-law Emily, and kids Brody, Kaylee and Natalie.
My brother, Jeremy, sister-in-law, Brandy, and sons Traber and Sawyer.
Our family.
My sister, Holly and her girls. Ryan went on ahead to put our name on a list at the nature center for a "night hike" later that evening.
The last picture of Abbey above is at a fun swimming hole that the kids enjoyed swimming in on day 2.
The kids also enjoyed a couple of fun ranger programs while there and learned about the purposes of various animals' tails. I enjoyed the programs as well. And, on Saturday night, we even enjoyed a "night hike" at 9pm. Of course, it was completely dark, so we were given dim red flashlights, that wouldn't hurt the eyes of the nocturnal animals. It is amazing that when you can't see very well, how much your other senses become stronger. Everything smelled so good, and I could hear so much along our hike. And, at the end of our hike before turning back around, we got to drink from a natural spring, Antelope Springs, right as it came up from the ground. Let me tell you--that water was AMAZING! It's said to have great healing properties!
It was such a fun little camping trip! Even though there were chances of rain, the weather ended up be absolutely perfect! And, the Lord provided us all safety. I am excited about planning another one for the fall!!
