Don't Judge Me....

Carter asked for a snack yesterday afternoon and asked if he could have some carrots.   He ate a few and then I came and found they looked like this!  I said to Carter those look gross!  His reply "No Mom, they were just a little bit gross, but not too gross." Hopefully you won't judge me too much for having the nasty obviously quite old carrots in my fridge.  

Sweet moments

So, I think I finally realized my issues with Blogger....I was still using the OLD editor!  When did they make the Updated one available?!  This is so much easier for uploading pictures, organizing and wow. I also like this size of picture that is a little bit bigger than what I've used before.  I think my blogging life just got a whole lot easier.  Anyway...Here are a few things from June so far.

Emory had been a little "too quiet" in her room for a bit.  I was pleasantly surprised to go in and find this happening!  How sweet!  She LOVES little books.  She carries them around in her purse and will just sit and look at them for long periods of time.  I LOVE it!

Wearing her cute new summer jammies Grandma Wilson sent for her.  And sitting in my new patio chairs!  I have been eyeballing these at Target all spring.  They were originally $30 then they went on sale for a long time at a whopping $25 which I still wasn't willing to spend.  Then one day they went to $17!  I sent Mike a picture and the new sale price.  He came home from work with them!  I was so excited.  (The best part is they wouldn't fit in our car, so he had to walk home with them from Target!  Good thing we are only a 3 minute walk from Target...this could also be a bad thing depending on how you look at it!  :)

Carter and Emory have been into "doing the dishes" for me lately.  Usually it ends up making more work for me, but it's cute and they are learning to enjoy doing the dishes so maybe it won't be so bad when they are a little older right?

The other day we went to a park I've seen several times right by the zoo, but we just haven't actually gone to it.  It is great!  I love that it has a sandbox especially because my kids love to play in the sand.  It has great playground equipment that is easy for Emory to get around on and they have some cool xylophone instruments to play too.  ( I love that I captured this cloud of sand looming over Emory!  She obviously didn't mind because I didn't even realize it happened until I loaded the pictures on the computer.  I guess that is why Emory had sand in her ears! )

Yellowstone National Park

Warning this post has TONS of pictures! I took so many pictures in Yellowstone. Like I said in the previous post....Wednesday we rented a minivan and drove to West Yellowstone with Mike's parents. Wednesday the weather was great, Thursday we saw every kind of weather possible (most notable was the nonstop snowing from about 2pm on through the night!), Friday was another mix of snow, sun and rain. It was kind of neat to see the park with snow and without though. This was the first trip to Yellowstone for all of us! I guess technically I have been, but I think I was only like 2 and I don't remember anything about it.

The trip included a whole lot of time in the car (especially since the weather wasn't great) and the kids did pretty well considering. All in all though the highlight for them was probably sleeping in a hotel and swimming in the hotel pool! The highlight for me was probably Old Faithful. So many people have said that it isn't that impressive that I think I had low expectations or something because I thought it was great! The "lowlight" for all of us was probably the food. Seriously what is up with the crappy food in W. Yellowstone?! We ate at a few restaurants that were recommended to us and they were all very disappointing. The best meal we ate was probably Arby's! Actually the last night we did eat at a Mexican place that was pretty good too.

The fam waiting to see Old Faithful go off.

Waiting....

Waiting with Grandpa.....

The Castle geyser went off a few minutes before Old Faithful and it was pretty amazing itself. It's not as high, but it went for a long time.

Then Old Faithful went. We didn't really have to wait that long...maybe 30 minutes. It was pretty cool.

Watching as it died down.

"Junior Ranger Carter" (Imagine me saying that with a nice hick accent)

After Old Faithful we headed to see some waterfalls. First stop..Gibbon Falls.

On the way some Bison decided to put on a show for everyone right on and just off the road. They are huge. Don't worry, we were smart and all pictures of wildlife were taken from the safety of our car. We couldn't believe how dumb some people were with getting so close to these massive animals. We even saw some people trying to coax a baby over to them?!

The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. This was amazing. So beautiful and massive. We need to go see the actual Grand Canyon one day.

Lower Falls

This is the second day as we drove into the park. There were lots of Elk out this day. This one is wearing what looks like a very uncomfortable radio tracker of some sort.

On our way up to Mammoth Springs we saw this Grizzly Bear! It was probably just a little over a hundred yards off the road. We watched him for probably 30 minutes. He just walked around looking at all the dumb people out of their cars (their cars weren't close either to run to if need be) and probably thinking about which one would make the best lunch! It was pretty amazing though. I have tons of pictures of this guy....but I won't bore you with all of them.

Mammoth Springs

And the snow started falling...

Enjoying the pool. The water was like bath water! It was fun to swim in such nice warm water while looking out at the snow!

This was a cool little Mexican place inside a bus! This isn't the one we actually ate at though. Mike and Dale went in and it looked a little too authentic for us. We like Tex-Mex best. :) Such a cool place though!

On the last day we decided to drive out through the south entrance and go through Grand Teton National Park and Jackson and then back home. We saw this cute baby nursing on our way out. I didn't really take any pictures this day worth sharing because it was so cloudy that you couldn't see the tops of the Tetons :( Good thing we're close so we can go another time.

Just as a recap...for animals we saw: Bison galore, Elk galore, one wolf, Grizzly bear two separate times (but likely the same bear) Black bear. I was sad that we didn't see a moose...maybe next time! :) We got a year pass so come visit us and we can go to Yellowstone! It is only an hour and a half to W. Yellowstone from here. We're also only an hour and a half to Jackson! So come visit!

Texas Grandma and Grandpa!

Mike's parents (Dale and Janet) came to visit the last week of May and we had such a great time! The kids were so excited to have "Texas Grandma and Grandpa" visit. Janet just got a new Toyota Prius so they decided to drive since she did the math and they could make it here in about 2 tanks of gas! They arrived Sunday May 22nd and stayed through the week.

That day we took them downtown to see the waterfalls and to Mike's office. Then we came back ate dinner and played before the kids went to bed. Monday morning we went to see the "Bodies" exhibit which I thought was fascinating. Michael was a little grossed out by it. Carter loves learning about skeletons and how the body works and such, so he really liked it too. Lunch at Cafe Rio. That afternoon while Emory was napping Janet and I did some shopping. Tuesday we did some more shopping I think and played around the house. Wednesday we rented a van and all headed to Yellowstone! I'll do a separate post on that trip next. Here are some pictures from the day we went downtown by the river.

This picture makes me laugh a little bit. It looks like a pose out of the 80s. If you look closely you can see the temple is behind him. It is kind of hidden in the clouds though.

Go Mavs!

This is a common sight around our house these days. I love my boys in their Nowitzki wear routing on the Mavs! Mike's parents came to visit the last week of May (long post to come with all we did with them) and brought Carter and Michael some new Maverick's attire. I love their matching shirts. They also brought us some Mavericks signs that we have on our balcony (we already had one, but now we have 2). We went up Sunday night and put signs on his friend and fellow clerk's door after the Mavs swept the Lakers. He also put one on his Judge's door. He is becoming a Mavs fan because for all of you who know Michael...his love for the Mavs runs deep and is contagious! :)

Remember this one?! One of my all time favorites.

Random Pics from May!

In May we finally had our first few days of temperatures in the 70s! It was so wonderful and we lived it up while it lasted...because it didn't last for long. We got these cute Sandals for Emory and I painted our toenails (That word grosses me out. I wanted to say I painted our toes which sounds so much cuter...but I didn't paint our toes I guess...it was the nails). Sorry this picture wouldn't upload rotated for some reason. I have such a love-ate relationship with blogger.

Just a silly but cute picture of Carter goofing around.

When the weather turned south again we made this little "ocean" and went fishing! The kids loved this. They were fishing for almost a week I think. Then I got tired of the box and fish all over my house in random places. So, I put it away for a bit. :)

I know you are probably wondering if my brother and I are actually related because he is such an amazing artist and I crank masterpieces like these!

Some more hair clips and headbands I made for Emory.

Carter's expression cracks me up in this picture...he is too cool for posing with his sister apparently. But doesn't Emory look so cute!

An amazing sunset one night. They never look quite a good in pictures...but I guess that is what makes them so special...they can only be truly appreciated in the moment!

When I left for Zumba one night at 8:15 everyone was in their own beds...but I came home at 9:30 to find this!

Went to a playgroup at the Frew's and Emory LOVED swinging with her doll! This girl LOVES babies...but not for me to hold real ones. I held Emily's little guy while she ran to get something and Emory threw a fit! I don't know if she will allow us to have another child!