Rodeo

We took the girls to the Austin Rodeo last weekend and they had a such a great time! We didn't see the actual rodeo -- only went to the carnival and fairgrounds. We hadn't planned on riding any carnival rides, but when you enter the fairgrounds you have to walk through the carnival to get anywhere. Of course the girls immediately started begging to ride some rides!!

Pigging out on cotton candy!

Their favorite ride were these little boats-they were convinced that they were "real" and that they were really driving them!

Giving Dad a high five. Joel kept yelling, "Slow down! You're driving too fast!" and they would squeal and giggle uncontrollably.

Airborne!

Petting zoo

The highlight of the trip: Pony rides

Willa named her pony Tulip

budding photographers

The girls got kid cameras for Christmas and I finally got around to downloading all their pics--they've taken over 1,000!! It's funny to see what they like to choose to photograph. While browsing through them all I noticed some themes--Willa loves to take pics of feet, and Larkin loves pics of herself!

bug cage

gate latch

candle

glass half empty or full?

They alway say, "Make a funny face!"

Lucy

"Willa, make a funny face!"

light bulb at the grocery store

number on a mailbox

Auntie Lisa's wedding

Sorry for the lack of blogging over the last month--my old computer was on its last legs and I've finally replaced it with a laptop!

Auntie Lisa and Uncle Kyle got married a few weeks ago, and we all headed to Wisco for the wedding. Before we left, I bought Lisa some lingerie as a bachelorette gift, and the girls came with me to buy it. We were in the mall and I told them, "Let's go to Victoria's Secret and buy Auntie Lisa some fancy underwear." Larkin started laughing hysterically and said she was very confused and didn't see how underwear could be fancy, or why Lisa would even want fancy underwear.

After we got home, Larkin was concerned that we didn't buy anything for Kyle. She said, "I know! How about we buy him some fancy underwear too? It can match! Eww. Wait. But then I'd have to touch some boy underwear, and that would be gross. Let's get him a coffee cup instead."

So off we went to shop for the "perfect coffee cup." Willa got to pick out Kyle's (she chose an awesomely tacky one with a parrot handle) and Larkin searched the store endlessly for a "fancy gold one, because you know, it's a wedding and weddings are fancy, so Lisa needs a gold coffee cup." She was ecstatic when she found exactly what she wanted!

-----

The temperature was negative 18 on our first night there, but that didn't stop the girls from going outside to play (for just a few minutes until both came back in saying, "MY TOES ARE FROZEN!"). Check out Joel's frosted glasses from snowmobiling in cold weather!

The wedding was at a super cute farm in Northern Wisconsin for a long weekend. Everyone had their own cabins and the wedding was in a little log church. Luckily there was a "heat wave" and the temps got up in the lower 30's--so the girls were able to do lots of ice skating, sledding, and even snowshoeing!

Our cabin had a sauna, so Joel and Uncle Ryan and Uncle CJ all decided to jump in the snow and then run to the warm sauna. Crazy Wisconsin natives!! Brrrr!

The girls have this flower girl routine down pat. This was their third time to be flower girls in less than a year! But most likely their last, as now all the Aunts and Uncles are married.

Congrats Auntie Lisa and Uncle Kyle!!

Davis Mountains

Two weeks ago we took the girls to the Davis Mountains in west Texas. On Wednesday morning Joel told me that he was thinking about taking the rest of the week off from work. He has worked a lot lately and things were finally quieting down a bit. By Wednesday at lunchtime I had our trip planned and booked! The Big Bend area is one of our favorite places (we've camped there a few times and would go there every year if we could!). We've always wanted to check out the Davis Mountains, which are about two hours from Big Bend National Park. It was about 7 hours of driving time--but worth it!

We started out by packing a cooler full of food to last us for the trip. The food in west Texas is usually terrible and grocery stores are far and in between out there. We only had to eat out once on the whole trip, and that was mainly because the kids just needed a break on the long drive home!

We rented a room at a place called Indian Lodge. The only picture I took of it was this one (you can see it in the distance), but basically it's an adobe building that was built by the CCC in the 1930s. It has lots of character, was very clean and quiet, and is right inside the state park!

After we got settled into our room and took a nap, I peeked outside our window to check out the view and noticed that there was a javelina right near our car! We grabbed the girls (who were in the tub) and ran them outside to see the javelina. We figured this would be a once-in-a-lifetime-chance to see a javelina.

Javelina walking on the white curb

Little did we know the javelinas in the park are about as common as birds--we saw them everywhere!!

Javelina crossing!

Watching javelinas eat dinner

The girls' favorite part of the trip was probably the near-camping experience they had one evening. We set up shop in a campsite and grilled dinner/smores while the girls ran around playing. Willa collected every rock in a one mile radius and built a home for raccoons, while Larkin chose to build a home for cockroaches. They were upset the following morning because they really wanted to go back to the campsite to check on their new residents. The weather on our trip was great--never a cloud in the sky and highs in the 60's and lows in the upper 30's and 40's.





We did a little hiking, and Joel did some skateboarding. Not to worry--there were NEVER any cars. We laughed a lot while driving on some of the highways out there because often we would go 20 minutes before even seeing another car!


It's hard to tell from this picture below, but Larkin is leading the way on our hike and there's a huge dropoff just a few feet to the right of her. She had no fear though and always wanted to be the leader!

Willa and Joel watching teeny tiny cars far away

The air was super dry so the static electricity was quite impressive

Larkin's fussy face

The main reason we wanted to go to the Davis Mountains was to check out the McDonald Observatory. It's run by the University of Texas and is one of the top observatories in the US. The area is a great place for an observatory because there's hardly any people (and light pollution) out there, and it's on top of a mountain so you're above 1/3 of the atmosphere--which makes even more stars visible.

Here's a pic of us touring one of the telescopes during the daytime. Larkin and Willa both got to push a button and aim this telescope in different directions.


They have "star parties" on weekend nights where you go up on top of the Davis Mountains and a guide points out all the stars, constellations, nebula, etc. in the sky with a high powered laser pointer. Our guide was able to aim a laser into the sky and point out everything. Then they set up a bunch of different telescopes for visitors to look through and they explain what you see. It was by far the darkest, most star filled sky Joel and I have EVER seen. Unfortunately the girls were not all that impressed (well, mainly Larkin--she kept complaining about the cold--even though it was around 50 degrees with no wind, and she was bundled up like crazy) so I had to leave a bit early with them...but Joel stayed and learned all about Jupiter and even saw a shooting star!

We'll definitely be back again once the kids are a bit older and can fully appreciate the observatory!