Wednesday, September 9, 2015

After School Right Now...

This little girl comes home from school each day and is exhausted! Today she walked upstairs and landed on a pillow in the corner of the playroom and crashed! The first month of school is torture for these sleepy kiddos! Bex crashes out all the time before dinner happens! Hopefully she can adjust soon!

Monday, September 7, 2015

Ziplines at ZipNac



We drove a couple hours north to Nacadogess for a family fun adventure in ziplining! We had a blast! This was everyone's first time ziplining and ZipNac was a great family place for us to all enjoy! Our guides were all wonderful and put up with my crazy screaming and super cool tricks I tried! Nobody got injured and that thrilled me! It is getting harder and harder to find things our whole family can enjoy doing together with the kid's age difference. ZipNac was highly enjoyed by all!!!
Getting geared up and meeting our guides
Emily and Matt are ready to go!
Bex was too young to go by herself so she was able to piggyback with her guide
Jacob was not as thrilled to get suited up!
Before heading out, they made us watch the demo
This should be a piece of cake, right? Demo is over and it's time to climb!
We had to climb all those flights of stairs to get started! We were all worn out before our first zip! Here's Katie
Bex got to ride with her guide named Rebecca (great name!)
Emily was fearless and took off!
Little Jacob, not yet 2 years old, got to ride with a guide also. He did not like having to be away from mom and dad! 
All smiles from this sweet girl! 
Daddy coming down the first line 
 Kept these two together as much as we could in between each zip!
 Having to climb up the bridge between the 3rd and 4th lines
Katie catching some hang time!  
 Matthew would just blast off each time!
Katie making it up the bridge! It was way more difficult than it looked! 
Emily cruising in for a landing
 Taking a break! 
Emily flying!
  It took Jacob a few lines to finally stop crying and enjoy zipping! This was on the first run so he doesn't look too happy yet!
Graceful Katie  
Bombs away Matthew!
I love Emily's eyes tightly shut here! It was a great landing!
The Bex's chilling on down the line! 
Jacob might like this flying stuff afterall!
There goes Emily!  
Daddy had a fun time zipping too! 
Bex got to zip solo down the final line because it was so long and gradually slow that there was no way she could get out of control! Here she actually needed a guide to help push her the rest of the way to the end. She was just a little bit too lightweight!
With Bex riding alone, Matt was able to race Rebecca to the finish line!
 The side-by-side lines were the grand finale! Matthew was too light to make it clear to the end and needed the guide Matt to help push him along! Katie and Emily were able to race eachother! We did not keep track of who actually won, but I believe each of them will say that they did themselves!
 Matthew made it to the finishline!
Oh my goodness! We are such goofballs! The whole run took about 2-1/2 hours and it was perfect for the whole family to enjoy! Rebecca got to zip down the final line all by herself because it was the longest line which meant slowest speed and she thought she was the coolest girl in town! Such a big girl! We went inside the shop and each designed our own T-shirts and picked out our favorite colors to wear. I have not heard so much laughter and screaming (not by me of course) in such a long time! What a perfect day!!!

Thursday, September 3, 2015

Ballet Bex

 This beautiful girl decided to give ballet and tap dancing a try!
 She is such a fun dancer!
Her classes are Thursday night so I have to pick her up from school at 3:20 (which means Jake and I get there around 2 for the car rider line to be in the front to snatch her and Matt real quick). Then we race home to get her clothes and a snack and pick up the older girls. Everyone rides to Bex's dance class in The Woodlands. I leave Bex with either Katie or Emily watching in the hall so that I can pick up Sam from work, then come back to pick up Bex and drop Katie and Emily off at their acting class from 5:30-7:30. It is one crazy night but I love seeing everyone happy and doing what they love!

Tuesday, September 1, 2015

Kelly Clarkson Concert

I surprised Katie with tickets to see Kelly Clarkson and Pentatonix at the Woodlands Pavilion on a school night! She knew something was up when I did not take the usual route to church for her young women's activity that night! She totally skipped and we had a blast at the concert!!!
We were so excited to be there! The seats were awesome too! We were in the front section and not stuck way out on the grass with no overhead coverage in case it rained!
Waiting for the show to start, Katie got a yummy pile of nachos to munch on! Yum! 
Pentatonix was amazing to hear!  
 They were the main opening act for Kelly Clarkson
I let Katie pick out a souvenir before the concert started! Pentatonix of course!
 Kelly Clarkson has such an impressive stage presence! She was funny and the crowd loved her! 
 I was pretty much wailing each song out by heart!
 She let everyone know that she is pregnant and expecting their 2nd child in about 5 months.
The song that Katie and I both heard and started to cry was "Piece by Piece". Kelly introduced that song as one that is so personal to her as her father left her and her mother at a very young age. You could definitely feel her pain and love her joy at having progressed through her life regardless of the lack of her father's presence. Pretty powerful song!
We stood up almost the entire time! 
I hope Katie really had as much fun as I did at that concert! Our feet were pretty tired the next day and our voices gone! That is definitely a memory that I will never forget - taking Katie to her first concert! We rocked it!!!