The Fort Worth Zoo

Well it's official. We're off to Austin sooner than later, we should find out this week what day is moving day. For now we are enjoying spending these last weeks going to the places we love so much. Of course that meant a trip to the zoo. Here is a look back over the years (yup years can you believe that?)

Our last trip as Fort Worth natives

Bringing our friends to the zoo

Riding the train a highlight as I am sure you can tell

It quickly became a tradition to get ice cream each trip

Spring '09

We love those stinkin' birds

Baby Bryce has loved elephants from the beginning

2nd trip with Uncle Mark

Bryce (1 year old) with Papa

First trip with Granny and Grandaddy

Bryce still couldn't stay awake the whole time

Spring '08

Bryce's first trip(4 months old), he was asleep on Mommy while Connor ran Uncle Mark around

Our first trip, Connor was 14 months old

The House

This blog is for our family members who want pics of the new house. For my other readers please understand that none of our family lives close by and won't get to see the house for awhile. We actually looked at this house on the first day we were in Austin loved it, but knew that is was too expensive. 4 days later God moved mountains and we were signing a contract of purchase. It was so exciting to see how much God loves us and wants to bless our family. Adam and I are also committing to use this house to bless others(hold us accountable my friends). We have already begun to pray about what that means, look forward to blogs about what happens when a family so crazy in love with Jesus gives up our comfortable house and open it's doors to new ministry opportunities.

Living and Dining Rooms (downstairs)

Kitchen and Eat-in Dining (downstairs)

Kitchen and Family room

4th bedroom(downstairs)

Guest bathroom (downstairs)

Master bathroom(upstairs) I didn't get any pics of the master bedroom

Gameroom (upstairs)

2nd Bedroom(upstairs)

3rd Bedroom(upstairs)

The Boys Bathroom(upstairs)

Our new huge backyard.

House Hunting in Austin

We went to Austin on Wednesday to check out Alamofire's new office and to look around town. We stayed downtown and had a great time walking around our future new hometown. Things took quite a dramatic turn when we received a phone call from our Realtor explaining that he had a contract and that we 30 days to be out of Keller. What a God thing that we were already down in Austin so we stretched out our trip and went house hunting. We ended up staying 5 days and 4 nights, but we did find a house(blog and pics soon to come). It was a high stress situation at times, but our kids totally rocked! Everything was completely off schedule each day and each night. The boys had little to no naps everyday and yet they had great attitudes the whole time. I am so proud of them for hanging in there, even after hours and hours of riding in the van and searching through house after house. Alexis had some problems because day 2 she decided that she hated her carseat. It was quite a family adventure and God took care of us the whole time.

To the boys living out of hotels couldn't have been more fun. They have pools(Bryce finally figured out how to swim by himself with his jacket on while we were on this trip. We had been trying to teach him all summer long.), food that comes right to the room, and little boys get to giggle all night long in big huge beds. Connor decided that we no longer needed to find a new house and that we could just live in "hometels".
My little water dog.
Alexis was excited anytime she was able to stretch out and sleep on anything but her carseat.
Getting ready to go and walk downtown Austin. We had breakfast at a terrific little cafe and saw Daddy's new office. Did I mention that Lance Armstrong's bike shop is across the street? Adam will never get any work done. LOL
Bryce can find a great hiding place anywhere.
Sweet brothers who had hard times understanding why we had to go asleep each night when they were having so much fun.
Hurray, God is so good and provided an awesome house for us. We can't wait to see how else he wants to use this house and bless others.

10 week check-up

Alexis is 10 weeks old already! She had her check-up and weighs 10 pounds 2 ounces and in the 40 percentile. She is 22.5 inches long and in the 60 percentile. Both very good for a preemie, she is catching up. She got her shots and was totally dramatic, she even gave a little pathetic moan right as the nurse was leaving. It was so cute, because the nurse was already feeling bad. She is such a sweet baby and still has everyone wrapped around her finger, especially the males of the household.

The Circus

For my birthday this year we went to the circus. I love the circus and have wonderful memories going to them when I was little. There is only one circus in my book which is "The Greatest Show in the World" by Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey. We had a blast!

The boys both loved the show. Connor really got into the "story" of the circus and was cracking up whenever the clowns made jokes. Bryce as always loved the elephants and horses. Alexis enjoyed the show too, well actually she enjoyed sleeping in the sling on Mommy. That girl woke up once to eat and then went right back to sleep.

Later that evening we enjoyed Mommy's cake all together. Connor choose the candles for my cake, "Mommy wants dinosaurs". Why yes I did.

Hot days in Portland-Oregon 09

The last day and a half we stayed with Dad and Shanni in Sherwood. Before our trip Adam had joked that he had never been to Oregon when it didn't rain. Well the joke was on us, because it never rained on our trip and instead was in the 100's. Which is what we are used to in Texas, but we are definately not used to no AC. Yup most people don't have central air in Oregon, crazy huh? My Dad's house had AC, but it was just sad; 1 poor little AC unit for a 3 story condo, umm yeah not so much. Here are some pics of different ways we stayed cool.

We played in the sprinklers at Papa and Shanni's house.
We decided to visit downtown Portland our last day right in the middle of the heat wave so we headed straight for Portland's famous waterfront park fountain. It was the place to be as you can probably tell.
You might notice that my boys are in underwear, well we already had our bags packed and ready for the plane so we went ghetto and just took their clothes off and let them have a ball.
Alexis slept through our trip downtown, what a cutie.

The Beach-Oregon 09

The last part of our Oregon trip we spent with Dad and Shanni and I requested a trip to the beach. After church on Sunday we grabbed some lunch and headed towards the beach with Dad, Shanni, Mark, TJ, Jess, and Cousin Kaiden. We were excited about relaxing there for a couple days and to escape the heat wave that was hitting Portland(103 degrees is hot when no one has AC).

The first night at the beach was kind of chilly 65 degrees(it was wonderful). Alexis was able to finally wear long sleeves and a hat! So cute.
All the good looking girls! Jess, Me, Shanni, and Alexis
That night we played "run away from the waves". Check out Connor's pants; Daddy and Connor lost and got soaked, but it was so funny!
Bryce was too smart to even risk getting wet and rode on Uncle Mark. The next day when the weather was warmer he loved running from the waves.
This was a giant piece of beach wood that was a favorite place to play.
Lovin' the sand
Cuddle time with Papa, Alexis was in heaven cause there were many willing arms the whole trip.
We loved our beach house. The McManus family occupied the 2nd floor which had a room with twin beds and a little TV, another room with a full and twin bed, and a full bath. It was perfect. This is a picture of our "backyard" we had a bonfire each night and had smores(my favorite)! It was a perfect time for adults to hang out, eat, drink, laugh, and not worry about being quiet for the sleeping babies inside. Such wonderful memories.
One night we went to the local pub and brewery called the The Pelican Brewery. We had great food and good drinks and it was right on the beach.....so beautiful.
Adam, me, and Alexis. My hubby got burned while climbing the big dune in Pacific City.
Playing with Baby Kaiden, they had a blast getting to know their cousin.
Alexis is ready to go shopping with the girls at the outlet mall. The boys stayed back and slept and Adam and Mark conquered the giant dune. I don't have any pictures from this day on the beach because we were just having too much fun(plus I got in trouble when I got sand in the camera). Sand castles, frisbees, kite flying, and more sand play were all on the agenda. A brave few also went swimming in the ocean(some by accident hahaha); me, Shanni, Dad, and TJ.
Getting ready for the beach again, but this time we are ready for the sun!
Our view

On our last day we went to Depoe Bay and had lunch and went shopping. We enjoyed some good clam chowder and salt water taffy. It was a perfect day.
Watching the whales in Depoe Bay, they were very friendily that day and were up out of the water all the time.