Cedar Hill State Park

We finally did it! For Christmas last year I gave Andy a water-filter kit. For our anniversary, I told Andy not to worry about getting me something because I had a combined gift (a tent!!!). I've been asking to go camping for over 2 years. Since that is something he loves to do, I want the kids to experience it also. And I love smores!!!

Andy says he loves camping in Utah and Colorado. However, he finally gave in and we had a great trip - continuously running fan included. We left Thursday afternoon and drove a whopping 45 minutes to Cedar Hill State Park. We bought a Texas Parks Pass, so we do plan to go camping a few more times within the year. It took us four different stores to find firewood, but everything was smooth. We planned ahead and the two things that we didn't bring from or list, we needed. Alas - we still had a great time!

This was our first night. It was hot and taking a while to get the fire going. The kids were excited to sit in their new chairs. Emily just had fun climbing in and out. I brought lots of things for Ben and Annie to do, but their very favorite was a new Usborne product - 100 thing for little kids to do on a trip. It is awesome!!! And yes, Ben and I planned the colored outfits. The kids all matched and then Andy and I matched!
They had a great time in Joe Pool Lake! It was beautiful and Ben made several friends! Emily was quite the daredevil throughout the trip. I'm exhausted from being her shadow all weekend!

We had plenty of room to play frisbee and soccer. Here we are trying to teach Annie to throw a frisbee. And yes - roasting marshmallows!!!
I love seeing Andy in this atmosphere where he is so RELAXED! He just knows what to do and how to solve problems. LOVE IT!!! My one complaint (there has to be one!) was my biggest trial - too many ants! We did a small hike this morning before coming home. I squatted down to let Ben on my back and fell over into a huge fire ant pile. My whole leg swelled up as we drove home, but it's all under control now. Yuck!!! We had a great time, but were glad to be home. The kids were all asleep by 6:30 tonight and should sleep until at least 6 tomorrow morning!

Happy Memorial Day!

We had a great holiday yesterday! We had a church picnic and then went swimming at my mom's house. This was the cake we made for the church potluck. No one would eat it. But Ben and I did have a lot of fun making it! When he did the lines at the bottom of the cake, he wanted them to be curly, so they would be cute like Annie's hair. How sweet can you get??? My little Emily is such a doll! I love the back view of her in swimming suits!
Annie is decidedly a fish! She loves the freedom of a life jacket so she can go where ever she wants, but the underneath strap left a burn on her thigh from two days before. I let her wear it for about 20 minutes. When she started walking funny again, I had to drag it off her cute little body. "But I can't swim without my life jacket!" However, this little girl can swim! She can hold her breath about 1/2 the width of the pool and just kicks and kicks!
Ben likes to jump in at the side and swim to the steps.
Emily LOVES the diving board! Annie kept jumping off it, so Emily just thought she could too. Except, Emily just likes to stand and bounce. As soon as someone comes close to her, she quickly sits down and is really hard to move! This was her hesitation...is Aunt Jamie close enough to get me??? She's surprisingly fast!

An Atypical Blog

Not much to report on the kids at the moment. Just a few things about me - the sane one in the house. Riiiiight!

There are a couple things that really bother me. Most things I can get heated up about and then move on, but there are a few situations that I continually feel slighted at. Maybe insecurity? Maybe jealousy? Who knows? I just get bugged. Then Andy gets bugged because he bears the brunt of most of my burdens. He tells me not to worry about things, but it still bothers me - at least a week each time it happens - and that bothers me that I can't not let it bother me! Make sense???

And one other thing - okay, I've erased that one three times because I can't think of a nice way to say it! Let's just end with GRRRRRR!!!

Alas - now I can step down from my soapbox and go back to real life - doing something productive this evening with my next 150 minutes!!! I'm supposed to be doing a list of a 1001 projects, but as soon as I sit down with free time, I can't remember ANYTHING that I am supposed to be doing! Oh well...