Embrace The Camera

Every Wednesday at our house is library day.

I didn't go to the library nearly as often as I should have when Elodie was younger and it was just the 2 of us. She was 4 before we started going on a regular basis where as Addysen has known the library since she was born. The perks of being second come in spurts sometimes.

The library here is a tender mercy for me. There is very little I love about being here in Texas. Which doesn't mean much as there is very little I LIKE about being here in Texas. The list stops after Christopher's job....

I am by no means trying to get sympathy comments. As a family we are happy and healthy and for that I am extremely grateful. This is, however, a part of our reality and my job to document it so we can go back in 5 years and realize how great the whole scheme was.

So there.

Back to the library. When we moved here, and after things settled down, I realized how very much we were starting over. I cried over little things...."How do I EVEN get to the library!?! I don't even know where it is!"

And then the heavens opened and I found the library. And it wasn't hard to find. And it was close. And brand new. And had row and rows of kid books. And because the library was brand new...the books were brand new too! I was in love.

And after every Wednesday trip I had a new story to tell Chris.

How the book that everyone in Arizona was on the wait list for I got without having to put my name on any list.

There is never ANYONE there. With the exception of one or two people using the computers. There. Is. Never. Anyone. There.
We have the entire building to ourselves.

The shelves are always packed. And they have a section of books fresh from UPS.

In the summertime in Arizona the shelves are ALWAYS bare. As they should be. Not here. I'm wondering now if I should boast about this as it means not many people are checking them out. Their loss. My gain.

The summer reading program was AMAZING! So many awesome prizes to keep the girls motivated including a free ticket to the circus!

One time I was looking for a photography book and the library didn't have it. The guy working the front desk was trying to help me find it but was having no luck. I shrugged my shoulders and said it was no big deal. The next week when we went back to the library that very book was waiting for me! Still. In. The. Wrapper. A $80 book ordered just for me! Christopher cut his eyes at me on this one assuming I was flirting with the guy to get the book....but I didn't!

Just last week I went with a list of books I wanted to check out. They didn't have 3 of the ones I wanted and immediately asked me if I wanted them ordered.

I am so grateful for this library. I don't think I could have handled it if we had gotten here and there was no library. Or a junky library. Which could have been worse than no library at all.

I'm so grateful for this one day out of the week that my girls and I can go to the library. To enjoy a nice clean space all to ourselves.

I love reading. I have so many vivid memories of reading as a child. Going to the library with my own mom and brothers. And having a love affair with the library in college. I was just telling Chris the other night how I would pack my journal around with me. I would find a cubicle in a corner and in between studying or doing homework I would make time to write in my journal. I loved it so much that after I graduated and moved back home I would still take time to stop at the library after work, find a cubicle in the corner, and write in my journal.

I love the library here. And every time we are there, I say a silent prayer thanking my Heavenly Father for this little tender mercy.

The rest I am still trying to figure out!


And bonus! There wasn't a single person around to give me crazy eyes when I pulled out my camera and took some timer pictures of me and the girls reading together!

1/2 Marathon

Christopher competed in his first half marathon yesterday. He isn't much of a "pay to run" kind of guy but this half marathon was on the beach and was a cool opportunity to add to our "exploring Texas".

He calculated that it would take him less than 2 hours to run the course so we tried to schedule our arrival time with when he would cross the finish line. I didn't like this idea. The whole trip to the beach (45 minutes) I was picturing Chris waiting for us in the parking lot. I was also picturing a ton of people, no place to park, and hauling 3 kids by myself 1 mile from our parking spot to the finish line.

Of course, everything turned out just fine. We ended up finding a parking spot close to the finish line, 3 cars down from Chris' car, and despite the bitter wind, the girls were great! It wasn't super cold, just very, very, VERY, windy!And since the wind was cold...I forget the beach can be like that.

We ended up waiting about 20 minutes for Chris to cross the finish line. Christopher didn't factor in the awful wind and when he turned around to run against the wind he got slowed down quite a bit. When he crossed the finish line he kept saying "I was not prepared for the wind!" It was pretty brutal. Addysen had a hard time standing up straight!

I made signs for the girls to hold. This was tricky because of the wind but none of them blew away and that was an accomplishment! The "Time for Pizza" sign is funny because the whole week prior to his run, Chris told me after his run he was going to order a pizza for lunch! We have found a little hole in the wall family pizza place that serves New York style pizza. It's good but by no means a replacement for our family favorite, Barro's. It's better than chain pizza (gag) so we are happy to have found it.

The sign made a bunch of people laugh and Chris was happy to eat his pizza for lunch! He definitely deserved it!

Here he comes...

Still smiling...

POTD 2012 Week 3

Picture of the Week:
We took the girls to the county fair today. It was perfect because it wasn't busy and there weren't very many rides. We chose to ride the carousel as a family and while Addysen was all for it on the ground, she quickly changed her mind once we got on! I'm pretty sure the carousel at Disneyland has scarred my children for life.


A few others from today. All via the iphone:

ByeBye Summer

To say goodbye to summer we took the girls to San Antonio for a day. We decided on the Children's Museum, took them to see the San Antonio Temple, and had lunch at our family favorite Red Robin.

We had a great summer and while the heat isn't indicating that summer is indeed over we are excited for fall and all that it brings. Elodie's birthday in September, a trip to New Orleans with our besties at the beginning of November (also my birthday), and a trip to Arizona for me in the middle of November to do some photoshoots and see Breaking Dawn with book club. Man I can't wait for that one! I am in serious need of some friend soaking and I think that will do just the trick! And let's not forget Halloween (I'm resisting the urge to purchase Evyn's halloween costume), Thanksgiving, and Christmas!

GoodBye Summer. For good. (Seeing as these are the last of our summer pictures)

Crabby Weekend

Christopher has been itching to get some seafood since we moved here. We had been talking about trying out some fun seafood restaurants but haven't had a chance.

When Christopher heard from a church member that there was an area about 30 minutes away where you can fish your own crab he hopped on the chance to take the girls. So we did.

I would say it was a pretty fun experience. The girls were slightly impatient at times and spent a lot of time throwing rocks in the water. However, as soon as Chris would catch a crab they were all over it! There were a ton of people out there that looked like they knew what they were doing. We joked that we looked like city slickers because we had this tiny net that still had the tag on it and we were squeeling when we caught our first crab!! It was pretty exciting that it actually worked!

We caught about 15 crab and called it good. A bonus about the trip was we found the CUTEST old town along the way that would be AMAZING for family pictures! I'm working on building a client list here but it's hard starting over! Hopefully I can convince someone soon to let me take their pictures in this town!

We brought our crab home, got some pointers from my mom and Chris' dad about how to cook them up, and had them for lunch! Crab isn't my favorite seafood. It takes a lot of work for little meat plus I'm not all about cracking the shells and all (Shudder). Overall, the experience was fun! And the pictures of Elodie holding one of those crab are PRICELESS!















The end result

Summer List: San Antonio

Friday morning at around 11am Chris sent me a text and said "Let's take the girls to San Antonio for the night! I'll get the hotel, you pack us up!" I was in the middle of Wal-Mart getting a few things for the weekend and it took me about 5 minutes to put my things back and get the girls back in the car. A mini vacation: Yes Please. My husband being spontaneous: Double Yes! No need to ask me twice!

We had lost power in our house around 10am (Which is why I was at Wal-Mart and a post all it's own) so it was a little tricky getting everything packed up. However, by the time Chris got home I was ready to go! We didn't tell Elodie what we were doing so she was completely confused as I asked her to get certain things for me. It was a fun surprise for her and Addysen and they loved staying in a hotel!

We left the house around 5:30pm. Got in to San Antonio at 7pm-ish. Got dinner. Checked in to our hotel and then took the girls swimming. The swimming pool was on the 6th floor so it was really fun and a great view of the city.

We have never been to San Antonio so on Saturday we hit all the touristy spots. We saw the Alamo, walked the riverwalk, and took the boatride. It was super hot and we were all sticky and sweaty but still a fun little getaway. We plan to go back in the fall when it is much cooler and do the riverwalk again. According to a few people we learned that the riverwalk does Christmas lights and is very fun during the holidays. That should be exciting! There is also Sea World and a Children's Museum which we plan to do the next few times we come.

On our way out we stopped at Sonic (shocked?) and a car behind us stopped and asked us if it was hotter in San Antonio or Arizona. I would have to say definitely San Antonio-the humidity will chock you! But like the desert heat, I'm sure it will be something we get use to!

We were hoping to get home just in time for dinner, baths, and bedtime. We pulled in at 6pm and our electricity was still out! Like I said, that's for a post all it's own! The title will be sometime along the lines of "How are family spent an entire weekend in a hotel up the street from our house!" or "How the electricity company disconnected us because they thought we had cancelled our service" Fun times for sure!

Our Swanky Hotel: It felt so much like the Titanic. It was beautiful but the room was small and the walls very thin! Our neighbors were some 12 year old boys who thought it would be fun to stay up until 3am and keep the tv on even after they fell asleep! I'm sure their parents had a nice nights sleep though!









The Alamo:

These were taken on our boat tour through the river.