We spent a week in Texas...it was great! Wonderful company, awesome weather...we didn't even need our jackets most of the time! We kept ourselves busy and had a ton of fun!

Here are some of the highlights:

Jan 23rd:

Here we are at the airport...getting ready to leave for our big Texas adventure! Taking 4 kids with us to fly stand-by wasn't as bad as we had anticipated. Everyone was very nice and accommodating. At first they had us seated all over the plane...one seat here, one seat there, another one WAY over there! Jeremy went up and explained our situation (2 crazy parents trying to travel with 4 children under the age of 6!) and they gave us new seat assignments (closer together) and then once we were on the plane the other passengers were more than willing to trade seats so we could sit together (Jeremy sat with Hannah and I sat across the isle and down one row with the other three) I think they saw us coming and thought "I don't want to be stuck on a plane for 2 1/2 hours next to all those kids!" The kids did wonderful on the plane! We had packed snacks, coloring books, barbies, paper, pencils...we were prepared! I think they would have been fine without any of that...they were excited to be on a plane and more excited to be going to Texas!

Jan 24th:

We headed over to Jared and Mitzi's to see their new house! It was still under construction last time we were here! It's really cute...they've done a great job decorating! Then we let the girls play at the park (thanks Ali for all the way cute pictures! You can tell she misses the girls...I think she took over 400 pics of them playing at the park!)

The girls got to do a coffee filter art project with grandma!

Just hanging out having fun at grandmas house!


The girls found Nancy box of costumes so they had a fun time dressing all of us up!



Jan 26th:

Jared made these canoes (he actually built them in his garage...pretty amazing!) So we took them down to the river for some fun! He even made a little one just the girls (and Mitzi's) size!

While we were down at the river we made some S'Mores...YUM!

Jared even made a sail for the boats so you could take them sailing!

Jan 27th:



We took the girls to the butterfly museum in Houston (the boys went to the car show!) The girls had a great time looking at all the displays and reading about all the bugs but when we went into the atrium they were scared to death! Mind you the atrium is filled with BUTTERFLIES...oh and moths, but mostly little butterflies...B-U-T-T-E-R-F-L-I-E-S! Not man eating butterflies just normal pretty butterflies that tickle when they land on you like this:

My girls couldn't handle it...they screamed like...well, like little girls and wanted to leave soon after we entered! I made them hang out for a while hoping they would get used to the butterflies but as soon as they saw a butterfly anywhere close to them they would scream and hide behind someone! I tried explaining that they were just HARMLESS butterflies but that didn't work either! Then we saw this:

It's an Australian walking stick. And it's a little (A LOT) creepy! My girls...didn't scream! They didn't want to get close to it but it didn't get nearly the reaction that the scary butterflies got!

When we left the atrium they had a play area for the girls...they loved it! They got to learn about bugs without having to be around any moving ones! They had a wall that had butterflies "flying" on it (it was a movie screen with butterflies projected onto it) and the girls loved dancing around with the "fake" butterflies...just don't ask them to be around any live ones!

After the fun day in Houston (at the butterfly museum and car show) we went to the park to play baseball with Maggie! It was fun to be outside and run around! The girls had a lot of fun and Maggie just has way too much energy!



Jan. 28th:

Grandma helped the girls make party hats out of paper plates! There are plenty of art crafts when Grandma is around!

After that Hannah and Wynnie got to help Grandma Nancy make Esther a birthday cake!

Then they got to attend Nancy's art lesson. They had a great time. They got to learn about doodling and then decorate their own pair of flip flops!




After dinner we had a birthday party for Essie! I can't believe she is one! We had a great time. She loved her cake and enjoyed opening her presents!

Jan 29th:



Mitzi took us down to a nature trail. It was nice to walk around and look at all the cool "swamp" nature.



The night before we left Hannah's tooth was REALLY loose and I was afraid it might fall out in her sleep so I wiggled it around and it fell out! She has joined the ranks of all her friends who have lost teeth! She was really excited! She has been waiting for this day for a long time!

Jan 30th:

Jared got to fly our plane home...how cool is that! Mitzi came on the flight too (she was coming to Utah to visit her family.) It was great to have her help! Hannah and Wynnie insisted on sitting by her which meant Jeremy actually got to sit by me...so nice to have his help with the two little ones! Once we got to SLC Jared took the girls up to the cockpit! It was neat to see...it looked really complicated...lots of buttons, and dials, and levers...I'm glad Jared knows what he's doing!

We will miss the company and the weather but it's always nice to be home! (Even if it is a mess...because we started a crazy home improvement project then went on vacation!)

I have some fun videos of our trip too but this post is already WAY long so I will try and post the videos later!