On to Lubbock...

After the mall, we traveled on to Lubbock. We got to see Hank, Gwen and Mammaw's new house (very nice) and eat with them at Abuelo's (Mammaw's favorite place).

Hank made friends with Brett. Here they are checking out the garden:
Brett, Jace, Matt, Mammaw and PJ:
And with the silly faces...
We spent the night at a hotel there and then said goodbye Saturday morning (kind of late...we had to wake Jace up! Seriously, we need blackout curtains at home!). We traveled on to Big Spring for lunch with Grammy, Pop and Lindsey...and then on home...it was a great trip!

Westgate Mall

Our last stop in Amarillo was the mall for some Lights Out Golf and Corn Dog 7...YUM!


Before I leave the Amarillo posts, I have to say that one of the hightlights of our trip for me was eating in Amarillo...I'm surprised my clothes still fit! We had Donut Stop (mmmm...blueberry cake), Belmar Bakery (Chocolate Cookie Bars...mmmmm), My Thai (thanks, Josh and Jenny!), and finally Corn Dog 7 (it still tastes the same, Mom!). Comfort food from my growing up days...

Museum and Palo Duro Canyon...

When we first got to Amarillo, we went straight to eat dinner at Fazoli's for Reilly's birthday. We just so happened to come into town on her birthday! Then we came home to do presents and and bedtime. Chuck had all the beds all ready for the kids and so all we had to do was put them in it...everyone slept good!

On Thursday, we visited the Panhandle Plains Museum in Canyon, TX, which is just south of Amarillo. Then, we went to lunch at the Rock'n'Roll Sandwich Shop there. It was yummy...best vanilla cokes. Then we headed to Palo Duro Canyon for a visit to Charles Goodnight's dugout replica, a hike to a cave, and some site seeing...thank goodness Tecoa came prepared with her little backpack with water, a snack and most importantly, her camera...since Chuck and I both forgot ours.

Chuck and I decided that these guy must be blowing bubbles:
The kids:

Tecoa at Charles Goodnight's:

On our way up to the cave:
At the top:
The view from the top:
Back down to the car:

Waterpark Fun

So the day before we left, we went to a really cool (small) indoor waterpark right down the street from Kat. It's in their community center and we had so much fun there.

Matt and Brett after coming down the tube slide:

Jace, Matt and Brett:
The kids playing games in between waterpark trips:

In honor of Bayli learning to swim, here is a video of her and me coming down one of the slides (although she made me promise I wouldn't dunk her at the end). Seriously, I'm so proud of her...last year at this time, she wouldn't even get her face wet. This year she let all of us take her down slides and even swim under the waterfally in the lazy river. Way to go, Bayli!

Camping for the big kids...

On Saturday night, Matt and Ryan took Jace, Brett and Bayli camping up in the mountains. They had a great time and even visited the Railroad Museum on the way up. Here are there adventures:

Brett looked like this when they got to the camp site and this is what he looked like when they got home, too:
"We're on top of the world!"
Jace is very serious about communicating with his walkie talkie:
On a hike...
Bayli and Jace...

Happy 4th!

We got to Kathi's the afternoon of July 3 so that we could spend the 4th with them. On the 4th, we took a small "hike" to the park and played for a couple hours. Then we went back to Kat's for a small lunch and naptime. Ryan made the best roast, potatoes and carrots in his dutch oven for us for a late lunch/early dinner and he and Kat made Jordan River Mud for dessert. YUM! It was really delicious. The kids got to play in the water while dinner was cooking and then they had fun playing with those little pop it things that you throw on the sidewalk and they pop (the only "fireworks" they were awake for!). Pictures of our fun:

The kids (Bayli, Jace, Brett, and Bronco...in the stroller). They're ready for our "hike" to the park:
Brett decided this climbing contraption looked like a kitty cage, so he was meowing and being a "kitty in a cage":
Here's Bayli saying "word" to the camera:
Sisters, sisters...Kat and me:
Jace looking through the scope:
OK, so Brett has a hard time doing thumbs up...his index finger usually comes up instead. This is him at the top of the climbing wall after doing it all by himself! Thumbs up!

Teeter Totter! Kat with Bronco, me with Bayli...
Brett, Jace and Bayli race down the slides!
Jace in the little pool:

Brett ready to slide into the water:
This one's for Ryan...always sabotaging our pictures by doing something gross. Here we are relaxing after our busy and fun day (I'm really bad at the camera timer...I ran in but I covered up Jace):

Our Vacation to Colorado, Amarillo & Lubbock...

I know it's been a while...this is what vacation does to me! Despite my plans to blog on the road, I didn't even check email while I was gone. Matt was the only one that got on the computer. Anyway, I wanted to share a little bit about our trip, so I'm going to split it into each activity. Here's a quick summary of how long we spent in each place:

We left San Antonio on Wednesday, July 2 traveling to Amarillo to spend the night. Chuck and his family were still in California on one of their many summer trips, but they were nice enough to allow us to stay the night there. We got up bright and early Thursday morning and headed to the Denver area (Broomfield) for the biggest chunk of our vacation. We stayed with Kathi and her family until Wednesday morning the following week and traveled back to Amarillo that day to actually see Chuck and the girls (Heather had a training conference she went to, so we missed her again). We spent Wednesday night, Thursday, Thursday night and half of Friday with Chuck then we headed south a couple hours to Lubbock to visit with Matt's grandma, aunt and uncle. Then Saturday, we drove to Big Spring to meet Matt's parents (and Lindsey and her new puppy Presleigh...SURPRISE...we didn't know she would be with them) for lunch. Then we headed south for home. We got back to San Antonio on Saturday, July 12 in time for dinner and bed.