Grandparents Day

Yesterday was Grandparents Day at Aidan's school, so Grandpa and Nanna drove up from Crawford! The school put on an assembly and each class performed for their grandparents (the kindergarteners recited Psalm 100). I was busy setting up the classroom for the party afterwards so I missed the assembly, but a friend of mine took a video! Back in the classroom, the kids presented gifts to the grandparents and showed them around the classroom. We are blessed with several grandparents and great-grandparents that we love and cherish, and I love that Aidan's school has this special day to celebrate them! Thank you for coming Grandpa and Nanna!

Jailbreak Mud Run

I had so much fun doing a mud run with my sorority sisters last spring (aside from the whole taking our friend to the hospital for a tailbone injury thing!) that I convinced a few of my fellow mommy runners to do another one with me! We chose the Jailbreak Mud Run because it was only a 5K and looked like a fun course. So we had shirts made (of course!), trained together a little bit, and looked forward to it for weeks! Our "trainer" Jessie even came with us to cheer us on and take pictures, which was so awesome. It was a BLAST!!! We got filthy, laughed ourselves silly, and finished with no one getting hurt :) After the race, three of us had paid to do ziplining. I really wanted to do it, but was terrified the whole time (I don't really do heights). We did four zips total...once I finally got up the nerve to do the first zip, the rest were easy. I don't know if I feel the need to do it again, but it was crazy and fun! It was such an unforgettable day and I'm so proud of my fellow Dirty Mammas Tracey, Kimberly, Julia, Vanessa, and Amy!!

GCA Homecoming

Aidan's school had Homecoming this past week. Since it's a K-12 school, we get to celebrate along with the high-schoolers! I found out that there was a super-creative and artistic mom in Aidan's class so I commissioned her to do our class banner. Each class got to march with their banner (I got to help carry ours, which Aidan thought was so cool!) in the parade on Friday morning. All the kids were decked out in green and gold gear...I'm so excited they have the same school colors as Baylor! After the parade there was a pep rally which totally brought back high school memories for me! Again, how fun is it that elementary school kids get to join in the festivities? Aidan loved it, and our class even won runner-up for best banner! There was a game that night which we all tried to go to (and the kindergarteners were supposed to take their banner onto the field at halftime for the players to run through), but of course that was the night that the sky opened up after 3 or 4 months of no rain. So we watched the Homecoming Court presentation in the gym, then headed home. Oh well, we'll make it to the next home game!

Hooray for Fall!

We are settling into a nice fall routine. It still feels like summer, but we've kept busy with school, MDO, homework, activities, church, and hanging out with family and friends!

After Daniel and I got home from Puerto Rico we went to the park with Papi and Grammy, who were still in town. It was a gorgeous day and both kids got to ride their bikes and play a little soccer!


Aidan's school had Patriotic Day a couple weeks ago and they got to visit a nearby fire station and present a gift basket to the firefighters. Since I'm room mom, I was in charge of buying the items with part of our class's party fund. Luckily I had a couple of moms help me out! Aidan had a great time and was REALLY excited about riding the bus:



Avery started a Pre-Ballet class with Cousin Sage. She's still taking gymnastics (she loves it and I couldn't decide between the two activities, so we're trying out both until we decide that it's too much). Her heart belongs more to gymnastics and her first days of ballet were a little half-hearted, but she had a better day today.

Aidan's playing Upward Soccer again! Our church friend/neighbor Jessica is teaching, and Aidan's friends Chad and Robert are on his team, along with another little boy from his team last year.



Aunt Lindsay is getting married in a month! Her friends threw her a bridal shower, so Gigi and Cookie came in town for it.



The kids are always happy to see each other after Aidan gets out of school. I caught a moment when they were actually playing quietly!


They stayed up a little late to play together this weekend and this is how I found them:

Puerto Rico

Daniel and I are back from a four-night trip to Puerto Rico! My parents were planning to be here for the week anyway, and Daniel had earned some free promotional nights at a resort from all the business traveling he does. So off we went! We got to San Juan late Wednesday night and stayed at the St. Regis hotel on the main island. The next day we took a ferry to Vieques Island and stayed at the W there for a couple of nights, then it was back to the St. Regis for one more night. Really the only sight-seeing type thing we did was to take a nighttime kayaking tour of the Bioluminescent Bay on Vieques. There are some microscopic plankton in the water that light up whenever you touch the water. So cool! We thought about going to see the rain forest, but the one day we'd laid aside for it was rainy, plus I didn't bring any sneakers. Hurricane Irene had just blown through the week before, and we could see the damage from it everywhere we went...trees were down and vegetation was pretty beat up. Oh well. It was great to just relax (our hotel suites were really nice!) and lounge by the beach and the pool! We missed our kids but knew they were in good hands at home with Papi and Grammy...they were entertained and chauffered to school, Aidan's soccer game, the pool, and other fun places. Gotta love grandparents! Thank you Daniel for a romantic getaway :)

The St. Regis

Front of our villa:

Our bathroom - with a huge rain shower!

View of the beach from the main house:

Pretty mountains!

Our suite at the W on Vieques Island:

Beach time!

A message for the kids:

Getting my read on:

Before dinner at the main house on Thursday night:

View of the sunset from dinner:


This crab was waiting at our door after dinner! We saw another one like him on the beach.

Chillaxing at the pool:


Dinner in town on Friday night (before our kayaking tour):

Beautiful scenery:

Daniel picking up some shells for Aidan and Avery:

Trying to keep up with the Baylor game! Go Bears!!

Our last night was rainy and the hotel restaurants were booked, so we ordered in:

We flew first class on the way back...a first for me! LOVED IT!