Vacation

Its been an INCREDIBLY busy month!!!

We started it off by heading to Lake Texoma for a few days:

One hot family after 2 taking a few walking trails

Followed by a ten day trip to see family in SD:

 the cousins

My sister & I ran in our hometown's 4th of July race

I ran my first race: a 10K

I ran it in under 1:08...I was pretty impressed considering I had never ran over 4 miles before that day! (We did walk a little bit of race, though).

 Then we headed to see to the rest of the family...

And since we didn't think the 17 hrs we'd been in the car was long enough, we drove another 3 to see Mt. Rushmore with Grandma & Papaw.

 Stopped at Storybook Island to saw the Cat in the Hat (Megan's favorite of all time...and she HAPPENED to be wearing her Cat shirt, in fact!)  We also saw many of Rachel's favorite princesses...

And dalmatians

Then we topped it off by celebrating Grandma's 80th birthday a little early.

Her birthday isn't until December, but since we're not coming back in the middle of winter, we figured we'd celebrate while we were back.  Here the girls are with Grandma & their cousin, Ryley.

SD Trip

The trip to SD went well. The girls did FANTASTIC in the car--which is 100% a miracle considering the day after we got back they couldn't even make it the 5 minute drive home from Rachel's school without a tiff. Ah, back to "real life".

Glow sticks made the last hour of the trip just FLY by. It was the best $1 investment I made for the ENTIRE trip!

Rachel & Ashley had a fashion show for us

More fashions...
And "where was Megan while the "big" girls had the fashion show?" you may be asking.

Well, outside playing football with Uncle Keith & Brady, of course!!!
My little football player girl...

And the fashion show continues...

A cousin picture: Brady, Megan, Rachel, Ashley
We were unable to get ALL the SD cousins together on this trip with the short notice.

Papaw and Grandma drove to come see us at Nana's as well.

The "girls"
Megan, Rachel, Brooklyn & Baby Brea (the newest cousin)

The return trip went well. We did have a HUGE miracle (besides the girls not fighting the entire way home, that is). I ended up with a flat 2 days after we got back. Come to find out I needed all new tires. It was only by God's grace and protection it didn't happen on the trip. I thank and praise God it did not!!!

Zoo

Megan's first "horse experience"
(She loves horses, but not this one much, apparently.)

Our attempt to get a photo of the girls..

Feeding the goats
She liked it, but I was afraid she would eat the food herself!

Photos

We went to the zoo with NanaLin, Brooklyn, Aunties Tosha & Katie
(more photos of that later)

The best we can do with our subjects...
Don't they look adorable in their matching/coordinating outfits?

The beautiful girls!

Such a cute photo!

Auntie Jodi with a not so excited Megan

More to come...

A Quick Hello

...from the great (but cold) state of SD! We are having fun seeing all the family...but looking forward to some warmer weather. Yesterday was nice (in the 70s). Nana, Aunties Katie & Tosha, Cousin Brooklyn, Megan, DH & I all enjoyed a beautiful day at the zoo yesterday followed by a picnic at the park. Megan's party is today (looking forward to seeing Auntie Jodi & Uncle Keith as well as Cousins Ashley & Brady!), and it's only supposed to be 60. BBBRRRR...cold considering it was a balmy 91 when we left Texas!

So, photos when we return on Wednesday!

We're back.

A few photos from our trip. It was fast and exhausting, but good. We didn't get much sleep, but had a great time with family. It was the first time all of my cousins (minus 1) were together in I don't know how many years.

Here's a few photos. Maybe more later...we took lots!

A tired Megan & Daddy at Nana's

Brooklyn, Ashley, Megan and Brady
(we did NOT purposefully coordinate the outfit colors! We're good!)

And we wonder why Megan doesn't like group photos! lol.

And Now it's 2009

We had lots of fun in SD (well except when I got the stomach virus, which thankfully was short lived!). Here's a few photos...

Auntie Jodi, Cousin Ashley & Megan

Uncle Keith & Megan making "ornery eyes" at each other

NanaLin, Cousin Brooklyn & Megan

Cousin Brady & Megan "negotiating" just how close he could sit by her
(he was constantly trying to steal kisses, which was not approved by the princess!)

Auntie Katie & Megan

What a year 2008 was. We have marked 9 months Megan has been with us...and we are just a month away from the first anniversary of seeing her sweet precious face. Boy has time flown!

I Hate Enterprise

We drove on our last trip to South Dakota. Since the drive is so long, we've rented a car the last couple of times we've driven. My sister works for Enterprise, so naturally, we've selected them to rent a car from. Yes, we do get a family member discount, which plays into our decision to select them. However, DH works for a large, national corporation that has partners with various businesses to provide serious discounts to their employees. Consequently, we could utilize that benefit as well. So, to my vent.

Reading Wendy's experience with Advantage, inspired me to write about my most recent frustration (which is yet to be resolved) with Enterprise. Basically, their staff are complete jerks (okay at least in the state of Texas!) and their managers are even worse. This is the first time I've been accused of being unethical when I'm the customer and am telling the truth. My request is simply that they hold themselves to their signed contract/rental agreement. I don't think that's too much to ask. And I certainly don't think it's unethical to hold that expectation.

Anyways...I surely hope this is solved this week. I got the final document I requested from them today to prove what I've been saying "unethically" all along, so if it's not resolved by the Regional Manager, I'll let the credit card company deal with it. I'm truly done. I'm simply tired of dealing with it every few days over the past almost 3 weeks. ugh.

Some of our Favorite Things

Megan now loves to pull into a standing position EVERYWHERE, for no reason, just because she can. At least in this photo, she's at the window looking out (actually, I think she's playing with the blinds), but frequently, she's just standing against the blank wall. Crazy girl. It is funny, though when she pulls up to stand at her LeapFrog table, then gets down and crawls to the other side to again stand up. She'll figure it out, soon enough.

Remember a few posts ago she climbed under the table? Well, she did it at Nana's too! She found this side table provided a good short cut to the kitchen. It was a regular path she took while we were there.

She's also found a secret passageway in our living room as well...between the chairs and also behind the chairs! She took both of them yesterday, frequently. I have the feeling this little squirt is going to be good at hiding (and she's always quiet too!).

She also loves paper...notebook paper, napkins, tissues...any type of paper really. And she loves to shred it. It was provided a great time in the car several times on the trip! Thankfully, she doesn't eat it, just shreds it into tiny pieces and simply drops it! If she can't shred it, she'll simply crumple it all up.

Road Trip

Finally! A photo of her TRUE smile!

(Obtained by playing hide-n-seek which is her favorite game right now)

We returned early Friday morning (3 am) from our road trip to visit family in SD. It was fun, but the LONG drive is absolutely exhausting. I'm not looking forward to making it anytime soon! (Megan & I are flying up at Christmas time.) Of course, once Megan is a bit older we'll take a DVD player and it will hopefully keep her occupied for a good portion of the trip!

The trip included:

Our first haircut (given by Nana Lin)

And playtime with all her cousins!

Brooklyn

Brady & Ashley

Makayla & Ryley

It was a very quick trip (well, not really, but it felt that way!!!)

More Wedding Photos

Okay...got some more photos from my SIL...Thanks, Jodi!


Bride Katie & Flower Girl Ashley



Dad & Katie (Dad, what were you thinking at this moment?!)

I'm still waiting for the "must take the can-can off now" photos from the Park! Hopefully I've have them soon! (Long story, but hilarious and memorable! Oh, and if you see photos on the internet of a bridesmaid and bride standing behind a bus, both laughing while trying to hold the bride's dress up, email it to me!! Because that's us! --And a video of it would be even funnier--See I told you it was hilarious!)

Katie's Wedding

The Newly Weds: Katie & Greg

She says the wedding was exactly what she always dreamed she wanted, so that's good. From the worker bee perspective, oh my, let's not go there! Truly though, it was beautiful. There were a few funny snafus, but overall everything went grand.

Ashley was the flower girl and did beautifully! Everyone was very proud of her! Somehow, my camera was never where I was the entire day...so I have so few photos, but those with the photos have promised to send them to me. But, I did get a few...


Aunt Kris & Ashley before wedding


Aunt Kris & Brady at rehearsal dinner


Me & DH

***OH, and one final note*** Clark & NaTosha are having a girl! (They found out while we were back home.) So...two new girls will be joining the family in the next couple of months! (And we will be continuing the pattern: girl, girl, boy, boy, girl, girl! Who will join the family next? And will it be a boy?)