Erika's Wedding Part 1

My cousin Erika got married at a beautiful hill country property in Fredericksburg.  Unfortunately I attended without Forrest and the kids.  We had just been to Texas two weeks before for spring break and had plans to go to Wimberley three weeks later for Bryan's wedding, so it was just too hard for them to make the trip again.  So, I flew in and went with my dad.  We had a wonderful time - what a great wedding date he is!

We drove from Dallas to Fredericksburg on Saturday morning and we ate very well on the way.  For breakfast we stopped at the Waffle House - a favorite for Dad and me.

 After breakfast, we kept on making our way to Fredericksburg.  It must have been the good conversation, but my dad seemed to forget that he was low on gas.  We realized the situation when we were about 20 miles outside of Granbury.  The "gauge to empty" said we had 16 miles left.  As the miles ticked off, I think Dad got a little more worried.  Sure enough, before we got to Granbury the dashboard screen showed 0 miles to empty.  But alas, we rolled in to a gas station 4 miles later. 

For lunch we ate at a wonderful little restaurant in Johnson City called the Hill Country Cafe.  It's one we've eaten at before and they're famous for their chicken fried steaks.  They advertise "10's sold" or something like that. 

When we got to the wedding itself, we were wowed.  The property was owned by someone in Brandon's family and is in a pretty remote area.  We drove deep into the hill country then parked our cars outside their property.  Then a shuttle bus drove us from there down a one lane road that wound up and down hills to their house.  Once we arrived, we were rewarded with stunning Hill Country views.

Look at my handsome date!  We had a wonderful time together that day.

Before the wedding, we all hung out in the cocktail area and visited with our family.  It was so great to see everyone......well not everyone.  In addition to my husband and kids, Bart's kids couldn't attend, and perhaps most notably, my mother.  This was right in the "crunch time" for her tax season work so she couldn't get away for this wedding.  I know she was sick about it and it certainly wasn't as much fun without her.  Boo!  But back to the good times - prewedding festivities:

I sure do love the Boyd girls.  Obviously they're beautiful, but I would say they're even more beautiful on the inside than on the outside. 

Palm Sunday

This wasn't the twins' first Palm Sunday, but it was the first one that they could be active participants in.  I have looked forward to this for a very long time.  I loved waving the palm branches in the "parade" through the sanctuary at the beginning of Palm Sunday service as a kid.  Since I had to retire my palm branch, I have always enjoyed watching the kids. Some wave theirs with spirit and pizazz while others just drag the palm behind them as they timidly scuttle through the parade.  Regardless, it's adorable and I think it starts off a celebratory day with extra joy.

I was eagerly anticipating the parade, but unfortunately our church decided to can the procession this year.  Needless to say, I was disappointed.  In fact, I was pretty unreasonable angry, but what was I to do?  Thank goodness I kept the hissy fit on the inside.

Instead of the parade, they had a children's sermon at the beginning of the service.  AFter a short lesson on Palm Sunday, each child was given a palm and was told to stand up and wave their palms while the Praise Band sang "Sing Sing Sing".  This experience made up for the disappointment of the parade.  The kids loved it!  I wish I had gotten better pictures.  Mostly I wish I had taken a video.  Olivia danced like I've never seen her dance before. 

New tools!

When we arrived home from our Texas trip (in the wee hours of Tuesday morning) we noticed a box on our front step.  Neither Forrest or I could remember ordering anything, so we promptly ripped into the box and found that it was a surprise gift from Aunt Marge.  Garden tools for Olivia and Carter.  These things are perfect for them and we knew they'd enjoy using them.

We had to wait until Sunday since Saturday was too rainy to work in the yard.  However, they gave them a go and loved the tools!  In fact, we've had difficulty ever since convincing Carter that the tools are to stay outside only.  He wants to carry them around in the house, hold them while he's eating, play with them in the tub, and sleep with them at night. 

I didn't get very many great shots but I'm sure these tools will show up in some future blogs.  Thanks Aunt Marge!

 Alas, even with tools just for her, Olivia still wanted to use Daddy's spade. 

Rainy day at the nursery

USM's Biology department was having a plant sale/fundraiser at at nearby nursery.  Forrest was interested because he loves to buy plants for our yard.  I was interested because they advertised a petting zoo at the nursery.  So, we packed up the kids on a rainy Saturday morning and drove to the nursery.

I totally underestimated how much fun the twins would have.  We ran into two of our friends there, one of whom had her 3 year old daughter in tow (you'll see her in one of the pictures).  The kids ran around, played in the fountain, and generally just enjoyed exploring on their own two feet. 

There are no pictures of the petting zoo because we never even made it to that part of the nursery.  We spent so much time with the plants that we had to rush home to make lunch/nap time.  Oh well, maybe next time.

Spring Break at the lake

As mentioned in the previous post, we went to Texas to see our family.  It's been a little over 2 months since we've been back to Texas, so the twins were really eager to see Grandmommie and Pops again (and they might have missed the twins a little bit too!).  It was a shortened spring break, as we were only there for three days, but we made the most of the time we had.

It was a much warmer weekend than we were anticipating.  I didn't bring any warm weather clothes for the kids (because I do'nt have any!) so my mother quickly solved my problem.  First thing on Saturday morning we all went to Beall's and she bought 2 outfits each for the twins.  I love their new summer clothes!  See pics of them modelling their new duds below.

 Carter loves to blow zerberts on my belly.  Looks like he's trying to plant on on Olivia too!

Pops bought the twins this rake.  Olivia liked it but Carter rarely gave her the opportunity to use it.  He carried it around with him everywhere.  It was a hit - thanks Pops!

 I love this picture of Grandmommie and Olivia.  #Love