Road Trippin' in the USA!

This summer, Scott and I wanted to plan for our family a summer holiday that is distinctly American. We've been so lucky these last few years to travel the globe and see so many beautiful wonders. Now that we are back in the US, we wanted to show our kids some of the natural beauty right here in our own country. So... what to do?

Well, we couldn't think of anything more American than road tripping and camping in Yellowstone National Park. We plotted our route, chose the days that we will camp and which days we will stay in a hotel. We checked out our camping gear (we haven't used it in a while!) and hit the road!

Day 1: Austin to Amarillo

Texas is HUGE. Amarillo is green and not yellow. We loved the Holiday Inn Express in Amarillo. It was clean and the staff were friendly. There was free beer and wine when we arrived and some food for the kids. We walked around the Botanical Gardens, they were beautiful and it was great to get outside and walk after such a long day in the car.

Taken at the Amarillo Botanical Gardens.

Our home for the next few weeks. We added the car top carrier for this trip and we are totally impressed with how much we can fit up there!

Day 2: Amarillo to Pike National Forrest

Today, we drove from Amarillo, Texas to Pike National Forrest, Colorado. Our plan is to camp for two nights. Scott's cousin Andy and his girlfriend Tracy are meeting us too.

All of us experienced a bit of altitude sickness. After a day in Colorado, our fingers and lips were totally dried out and we even had some vomiting. We drank a ton of water and by the time we left Colorado, we all felt better. We still enjoyed ourselves, but probably not as much as we had planned to.

Our tent is huge. We set up 2 inflatable queen mattresses inside. Kids on one, sleeping sideways and Scott and I on the other. Our first night in Colorado, we slept with the rain fly off, so we could see the stars. It was beautiful! However, a little cold, so we had the rain fly on the tent for all of the rest of the nights that we camped.

Funny story about my Lily. Once we arrived at our campsite and set the tent up, Lily went inside and sat on her bed. She told me that she's an indoor girl and she thought that it was a good spot there on her bed and she'd be spending the rest of her time there. I laughed and said that it was going to be a very long holiday for her if she spent all of her time in the tent. Of course, she didn't and within a couple of hours she had embraced the great outdoors. 

There were these amazing red rocks in our campground. We hiked all around them and climbed the ones that we could.

Cousin Andy brought a hammock and that was BIG FUN for these little people. It inspired Scott to buy a hammock for the remainder of our trip. 

I took this picture of Lily just as we were packing up to leave. She was filthy and looked as though she hadn't brushed her hair in days. A long way from the little girl that told me she wouldn't be getting out of the tent and it had only been 2 days.

Thanks for the fun Andy and Tracy!

Next up, Keystone, SD.

Wyatt's 6th Birthday!

My BABY is SIX! Wow. When did that happen?! We measured him this morning on our growth chart and he is the tallest six year old in our family. Wyatt has been a lot taller than both girls at each age. He is still the smallest in our family. He will always be my BABY.

For his birthday, he invited a few friends over and we had a robot wrestling activity (provided by the awesome people at Advancing Robots), followed by a Plants vs Zombies water war and then some cake. He had a ball and I think his friends did too!

First the kids learned about what they had to do and then they got to work. Each team of 2 was given a robot to modify. They used legos to add their unique modifications. Each robot is programmed to seek out the other in battle mode and try to push it out of the sumo ring.

All of the children were very busy modifying their robot. They stayed focused on this for a long time.

Some of the dads got involved too!

Wyatt and his buddy with their masterpiece!

The first battle...

Victory!!

After everybody had an individual battle, there was a robot melee. All of the robots battled together.

There was some wind, so I needed the kids to help keep the candles lit.

We were so happy that Papa and Grandma could join us too! We also has special guests Aunt Dolores and Uncle Dave!!

Dorothy

Here are a few pictures from Lily's last day of school. Her 3rd grade class put on a performance of The Wizard of Oz and Lily was Dorothy!

My sweet little Dorothy with Toto before the play began.

Talking with Glenda the Good Witch of the North in Munchkin land.

Arriving at Emerald City.

Waking up at home after using her ruby slippers to travel there.

A few pics

Somehow, I haven't found the time to keep up with my blog lately! I just got some pictures off of my camera, so I'm posting a few...

Today is the last day of school. It's been a great year. I feel like the kids and I have really settled into our new world. They love school. They had awesome teachers and have grown so much. They've made beautiful friendships and have really found their place in our new community. I am so proud of them.

Scott was a guest in Lily's class on Career Day. He spoke about what it's like to be an electronics engineer. He did an excellent job and the kids had really good questions! Lily LOVED having her dad in class with her.

Lily was a member of the Zilker Choir this year. She loved it!! We are so lucky to have the awesomely talented Mrs. Garcia as music teacher and choir director. For the end of year choir performance, they did a Pete Seeger tribute.

We've enjoyed snow cones after school a few times with our great friends!

Wyatt graduated from Kindergarten! He is so proud that he has learned to read and write this year. I'm proud of him too! There was an adorable little celebration in his classroom. Each child made a sign and sang a line in a song about what they learned in Kinder this year. Wyatt was extremely enthusiastic about the song. He was the loudest kid!

Madeline's class had an award ceremony. She won the Chief Award. She has natural leadership abilities. Madeline had an awesome year and I adore her teacher.

Lily's classroom end of year celebration is today. They are putting on a version of the Wizard of Oz and Lily is playing Dorothy! I'll take pictures and post them later. 

Springtime

Spring is here!

We are all so happy winter is over and the warmer weather has arrived. The warmer weather brings lots of out door adventures and fun. Scott and I have both felt a surge of new energy and motivation to get out and start running again. On the weekend mornings, Scott has been taking the girls out to the running trail, girls on their bikes and he is running along beside them. It's a dream come true for Scott!

Spring in central Texas is absolutely gorgeous. I've loved watching the trees come alive again and the flowers bloom. This year is a particularly good year for the bluebonnets and other wildflowers that you see all over Austin. It's been really magical. I had forgotten how much I really love having some seasons. 

A few weeks ago, the girls had a class out in the woods building forts and fairy houses. Wyatt was too young to sign him up too, so Scott and I had a day with just Wyatt. We visited a dinosaur park and found a playground for him to play on. It was a lovely day with just my boys!

These beautiful pink blooms are all over the place. The color is stunning. It makes me so happy to feel the warm sunshine on my face, a crisp breeze and beautiful bright flowers all around.

We found a small bluebonnet patch to take some pictures. This patch was a bit sparse, but we could walk to it, so that's a plus.

Madeline found a butterfly! After our bluebonnet pictures, we all got snow cones and sat by the lake.