12th Anniversary Getaway

For our 12th anniversary, we were able to get away for the first time. in a REALLY long time. too long. We stayed at a Bed & Breakfast in Chapell Hill.  It was a beautiful farm. This is the house we stayed in.

the living room

one of the bedrooms

one of the bathrooms

the bedroom we stayed in

the entry and stairs that led to a locked attic.  I loved the painted floors.

the pool (that was dirty because of all the rain)

the chicken coop

We had dinner at a nice Italian restaurant.  It was so quiet inside.  We are so used to struggling to hear each other if we go out to eat.  It was very nice to literally enjoy a nice quiet dinner together.

my eggplant lasagna

my cute husband, chewing

our raspberry cheesecake

so glad I married this guy!

We spotted a Texas longhorn on a nearby ranch.

this is what I usually see attached to his ear

at our B&B there were two little ponies that wandered eating

and eating some more

sunrise

doing a little antiquing before heading home.  Back to the kids. Back to reality. Back to our home.  Back to our family- something I cherish and am so eternally grateful for.

Promotion

The day FINALLY came after taking the Engineer Operator (E.O.) test a year ago.

Such a proud moment for father and son

Such a happy time for husband and wife

so grateful for the support of Aunt Renee

group picture with Fire Chief Garrison

FD has some traditions: on your birthday you bring cake & Blue Bell ice cream. yes it has to be Blue Bell- its a HFD thing I suppose.
for promotions, you bring a steak dinner for everyone including dessert. yeah, its expensive!

So we went to the station for the promotion steak dinner.  The hot dogs were for the kids. The steak was great!

While we were there, they got a call and we had the whole fire station to ourselves.  It was kinda strange.  Off they go pulling on their gear and getting in the truck

and driving off.  Spencer is driving that Suburban looking thing which is the Medic.

That's really what the EO promotion is, the driver of either the ambulance, medic, or fire truck.

It's the first promotion of many.  We are so proud of you Spencer and love you so much!

A Fire Station party

So we have a boy who loves fire fighters and fire trucks.  His name is Josh. So the invitation to to a birthday party at the fire station was super exciting to him.

The fire truck pinata hanging from the ladder truck

Climbing into the fire truck to check things out

The alarms went off and the fire fighters got a call so the kids had to stand back and watch them step into their boots and pull up their suspenders....

and drive away with their sirens going. Pretty cool for the kids.

Next was hose practice...

the kids LOVED this!  I love seeing Josh pull back on the hose...

the excitement, anticipation,

and pure joy

as he was able to get all of the kids soaked with the fire hose.

my boys in dry clothes

Emily in her dry clothes winding down

Josh still thinking he's invisible when he covers his eyes. Silly!

Happy Birthday Maddox!

A Ballet Party

The girls were invited to a ballet party and they had such a great time!  Emily was super excited to dress up as a ballerina!

I think Emily was struggling to stay balanced.

Such beautiful decorations.

Sharla helped do the make up for each little girl.  All 25 of them.  Way to go Sharla!

And the Star of the party was Sara Bardo.  A ballerina for the Houston Ballet.  She was so great! She had just come from a rehearsal so she was a bit tired but still enjoyed showing all the girls some moves and explaining what they mean.

I can't imagine having strong enough toes for that!  She started dancing after seeing the Nutcracker when she was 8 years old.  Clara was her inspiration to become a ballerina.

She was so sweet to sign a pair of her ballet shoes for each of the girls to take home.

Emily was so excited she could go up on her toes in Sara's shoes!

It was good to see Sara again.  We'd gone to church together for a long time and we each get so busy with life to get time a chance to just catch up and talk.

Thanks Sara for the wonderful ballet memories and fun times for the girls!