Another Leg of the Journey

O.K. when I started this blog I had decided that I would write about how my life has been changing over the last few years.  First of all I think Scott and I have entered the next leg of our journey.  Emily graduated from high school and left for college.  That allowed us to have more time together as a couple.  Grant is such a "entertain himself" type of kid, of course the x-box helps because it allows him to hang out with his friends from the comfort of our upstairs couch.  This of course is a subject for another post.  So we have been trying to find time to be together and get used to life without kids.  Not that our kids are not fun to be around but eventually they are going to leave and we need to make sure we have our own lives to lead.  I think we realized that we were finally at the stage in our life where we could go have a drink after dinner and not worry about making arrangements for someone to be at home with the kids.  Grant is perfectly fine to be at home alone or hanging with his friends.  So we have taken advantage of that quite a bit on Friday afternoons. We are now branching out even more!

When it came time for our anniversary this year we decided to take a weekend trip.  Emily is home now so she and Grant are fine spending the weekend alone without us worrying about them.  O.K. maybe we worry but we really don't have to.  So we decided to rent a Goldwing and take off on a Friday for Broken Bow Oklahoma.

I really enjoy riding on the back of a motorcycle.  It allows me to see so much more of the towns passing by.  You can see the colt in the field running and playing, you can see two buzzards sitting on a fence that you think are not real and as you get closer they fly away.  You can smell the wisteria and honeysuckle vines.

Sometimes I just sit and ride, I don't have to talk or think its total relaxation.  We stop periodically and get off the bike and walk around or stop at a diner in one of the small towns and have really "bad for us" food that tastes delicious.  This weekend we stopped in Paris, Texas - it's not quite like Paris France but it has it's attractions - like the very large longhorn head in the Roadside Grill and it may not have an Eiffel Tower but it does have a large water tower.  So I guess it's all in what you want to see.

We hiked at the National Park in Broken Bow and saw so many amazing things, a Red Headed Woodpecker, a "touchdown tree" a few waterfalls and so many things that if you take the time to look will just amaze you!  While we were hiking we heard the tornado sirens.  We were about one hour into the hike and had to decide if we should keep going or hide.  Turns out we didn't need to hide but it was a little scary.

The next day we rode some more in the Ozark Mountains in Arkansas and just enjoyed the journey!  Over all a fantastic weekend and some really good couple time!

Bunnies, Babies and Crawfish Oh My!

I know some of you might be tired of my new skills in blogging but here are some more pictures and a little commentary!

First of all we have begun the tradition of having a crawfish boil during the Easter weekend.  We have had it 3 years now and we hope to keep adding participants and family members.  The first year we had some of Emily's friends and their families and this year we added Grant's friends to the list.  Now it's very interesting to see how Texans deal with crawfish - some don't even want to try it and some dove right in!  Grant's friends all gave it a shot and I think they enjoyed it!

We were also very glad to have Al and Leah, Al, Stacy, Ely, Luke and Molly and Grandma also be able to spend the afternoon with us.  Ely ate quite a bit of crawfish as long as someone could peel them!  Glad to see he has some Louisiana blood in him!  The twins are now just over a year old and trying to walk - they are the best babies in the world and we love them soooo much, it's so much fun to have babies that I can play with and then give back.  But I will say I can wait a long time before it's time to be a grandmother - not happening anytime soon!!!  So here are some pictures -

Look how pretty - these are actually Louisiana Crawfish.

Oh No my Pretty there is no escaping the Pot!!

Scott and Emily have this boiling thing down to a science.

Ely getting in on the fun.

Now for the pictures of my babies and their friends and some pictures of Molly, Luke and Ely.

Luke

Crazy "E"

Molly

Now here are my babies with their friends:

Lindsey - Emily's friend with the escapee!

Now they are eating!  Scott did an excellent job they were very yummy!

Eric Arnov and Nick.

Nick, Patty and Grant!

I think Grant and his friends enjoyed the party and at the end of the festivities they all hunted Easter eggs that Emily and Lindsey hid and each one went home with some junk and a Sonic gift card - except Grant who got bubbles!


We went to Al and Stacy's house on Easter after church and got some baby time!

Got to have the picture with Grandma!

Luke, Emily, Ely, Grandma, Grant and Molly!

Grandma and her boys - Scott and Al.

Emily and Molly and Grant and Luke getting ready for the hunt!

Girls against the Boys and Ely ready to see who could find the Golden Egg!

Well it turns out that Grant and Luke had the most prizes, Emily and Molly had the most eggs and Ely ended up with all of the loot because he has really nice cousins that give him whatever he wants!  So it all turned out great in the end.

Atlanta Visit

O.K. here is the last post from vacation - I am just going to post a few pictures of our trip to the Aquarium and the Coca-Cola Museum.  Both were fun and it was a really good ending to our vacation.

Check out Grant's face - that is the really Mom another picture???

Have a Coke and a Smile!

There were all these funky little characters - thought they were interesting!

O.K. so we saw lots of fish and lots of people - both quite interesting and then we drove home!  This is how we travel now that the kids are older - it sure is easier than when they were younger.

Grant loves taking "good" pictures of Emily!

I'm going with I was looking out the window and not sleeping!

Very teenage boy picture!

 Now I have our crawfish boil and Easter pictures to post - so I will get to those soon!

Vacation Part 2

O.K. I have posted one and now here is the other part of the vacation.  I am trying to do this without anyone helping me so here it goes...

We arrived at the The Ritz on Sunday afternoon and checked into our room, as I walked out onto the patio I started to relax almost instantly, the picture says it all...

This is the view from my patio.

How wonderful is this view!  Here are some more pictures of the grounds and some of our activities while we were there.

The kids acting like little kids and playing on the swing.

The other view from the Patio!

Emily and Grant totally enjoying the "view"

Just one more picture of the grounds.

This is what they do to the trees when they die - they sculpt them into different things - very cool.

Scott having smores - they have them every night at around 7:00 all free!

I loved to sit on the patio in the morning and have coffee, it was so quiet and relaxing. And at night they would have a fire and everyone could make their own smores!  Scott and Grant really loved that!

We were able to go swimming in the heated pool, fish, take out kayaks and do a lot of different hiking trails - it was really a lot of fun.  The day we went fishing was not the best of weather but we enjoyed it anyway.  The next few pictures are of us on the boat.

Captain Scott

My future retirement home!

Aren't they sweet! 

This was 2 seconds after I snapped the first picture!

Here are some more pictures of other things we got to do - such as skeet shooting for Grant and Scott, horseback riding for me and Emily and just general relaxing.  So here are some more pictures.

Emily checking out the horses and below right before we had to saddle up our horse!

Yes we brushed and saddled our own horses!

The kids had it really hard!

Grant's first room service meal

Learning how to shoot skeet! (He liked this more than I like but oh well)

Literally hanging out at the pool.

The swing was a big hit with the kids.

Next are just some pictures that I took while we had them dressed up and cooperating.  Some of the pictures came out really nice.

My beautiful children!

My beautiful family!

My silly children!

Grant is almost as tall as Scott now!

This was a "statue" in one of the little towns where we had dinner...

Emily was afraid it was going to move if she got too close...

Turns out it does not move but Emily was never really comfortable with it!

This is the hallway to our room - can you say "Twilight Zone"!!

O.K. enough for one day - I have figured out how to get most of this done so I was on a roll.  I still have one more day of vacation pictures to post so I will do that soon. - hope you enjoy these pictures!!