Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Roller Coasters!!!

Here are just a handful of the roller coasters that were ridden that day. Andy and the girls (minus Melanie) rode most of them. I rode my first "adult" roller coaster, the Texas Giant. Needless to say I will NEVER ride a wooden roller coaster again! My neck and left shoulder paid most of the price. A chiropractic visit and a week's worth of healing, and it's feeling much better. :) Andy and I took turns riding the mild rides with the girls so that we could both have fun with them. The third picture is Andy coming off of the Batman ride. The last picture is just a portion of that ride. He also rode Mr. Freeze. He had to ride those without the girls because of height requirements. The lines were too long for the Titan and Superman. Oh well.

We're playing with the idea of going to Six Flags in St. Louis, but we're not sure when. Emily, I'll let you know if we do for sure. :) We had a FANTASTIC time and can hardly wait to do it again.

BTW, Andy is using our experience there as rationale for a 4th child. He figures if we go ahead and have a fourth, in the future everyone would have a buddy to ride rides with. (Most of the roller coasters sat two side by side.):) I'm thinking they can take turns bringing a friend. :) I guess we'll see. :)



Posted by Picasa

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Ice Cream Break!

WE LOVE ICE CREAM!!!! Andy and I have always loved the stuff, and we have passed that fetish down to our children as well. I'm sure when grand kids come along we'll pass it onto them as well. :) We came across a Cold Stone Creamery at the park and couldn't resist! It was a good time for a break. :)




Posted by Picasa

Saturday, April 19, 2008

The Grand Finale--SIX FLAGS OVER TEXAS!!

Okay, I'm trying this post again. For some reason I wasn't able to see the pictures yesterday or today. While posting all seemed fine, but anyway--who knows!

We had the best time at Six Flags!!! We got there shortly after the gates opened and stayed until 10 min. before the gates closed that night. The girls enjoyed riding the roller coasters that they were tall enough for. Melanie was fantastic all day!!! I'll be posting more pictures from Six Flags later.

The first picture is of Andy and the girls on one of the kiddee rides in the Looney Toons park. We didn't stay there for long. The girls had their sights set on "more fun" rides. The second picture is of I and the girls on a batman kiddee ride. The third and fourth pictures show how Melanie spent her day. When she was in the pack with Andy she got a lot of attention from other people who thought she was "SO CUTE!" Of course she is!!!

We had such a great time that we are thinking of going to the Six Flags in St. Louis sometime this year, too.





Posted by Picasa

Thursday, April 17, 2008

The Dallas Aquarium!

Last Friday Andy's class only went until noon. Thankfully checkout at the hotel wasn't until 3pm. The girls and I just relaxed and watched Cartoon Network until Andy came back from class. Then we packed up and took the girls to the Dallas Aquarium. We had a challenging time trying to find the place!! Mapquest isn't always reliable, but I'm sure you guys all know that. :) We finally arrived. It was a much smaller exhibit than I was anticipating, but it was still nice and the girls enjoyed it.

The girls in front of the entrance to the aquarium.














In front of one of the tanks.

After the Aquarium we checked into the Wingate in Arlington. We found a great Tex-Mex place called Pappasitos Cantina to eat that evening! It was fabulous!!! The only other place that compares to it is Margarita's in Mystic, CT!! Then we went to The Parks (a 2-story shopping mall) to buy the shoes I wanted for Six Flags the next day. Posted by Picasa

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Visiting Family!

Wednesday and Thursday of our trip were spent seeing family. Keep in mind that Andy is in class all day while the girls and I are out and about.

Wednesday morning we drove out to see my cousin Brent's wife, Stephanie and their 2 year old son, Mason. They just bought a new house last October. I'm sorry that I don't have a picture of it, but it was really nice!! The girls enjoyed playing with Mason in his playroom upstairs. My Aunt Linda Ziemann (my dad's oldest sister) came over as well. We took the kids to eat at McDonalds so that they could play some more and we could continue visiting. :) After lunch Stephanie took Mason home for a nap, and the girls and I ventured out to the Grapevine Mills Mall. This place was HUGE!! To complete the full circle of the mall was 1 mile! Wednesday evening we ate Mexican food with my Aunt Linda, Uncle Dick, Brent, Stephanie, and Mason.

Thursday morning we went out to my Aunt and Uncle's house in Kellar. I was able to visit another cousin of mine, Wendy. She works at their house for my uncle's appliance business. It was great to visit with her. She has two daughters, but they were in school. We visited for a couple of hours, and then my girls and I hit a shopping area in South Lake on our way back to the hotel. I know it sounds like we did a lot of shopping, but nothing was bought on either Wed. or Thurs. I was looking for shoes to wear at Six Flags because the ones I had brought rubbed sores on the back of my ankles when we were at the zoo. I'm pretty picky about shoes so it took me a while to find what I was looking for. :) When Andy was done with his class we went back to the Grapevine Mills Mall and ate at the Rainforest Cafe. Then we walked around the mall to try to work off what we ate. :)

I did finally get a pair of shoes at The Parks in Arlington Friday night. I was looking for a pair of comfortable slides so that I wouldn't have anything rubbing the back of my ankles again. I have said before that I would never buy a pair of Crocs because I don't like the way they look--no matter how comfortable I hear they are!! Well, I did buy a pair, but not in the original style.

And they are VERY COMFORTABLE!!!! My feet weren't even sore at the end of the day Saturday!! No blisters or anything!
Posted by Picasa

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

The Dallas Zoo!

We arrived in Irving, TX, around 12:30am last Monday morning so the girls and I stayed at the hotel during the day just resting and recouperating from the late drive. Plus, I wanted Melanie to get acclamated to the hotel room so that she hopefully wouldn't wake up too many times during the night. The first night in a new place is usually the roughest. She'll wake up every three hours or so to eat, which I'm assuming is more for security than anything else.

Tuesday I took the girls to the Dallas Zoo. There was rain in the forecast, but thankfully it never did. It was cloudy off and on throughout our time there which made the temperature pleasant. It was usually in the 80's with some humidity. We had a great time, and Melanie was fantastic!!














Here the girls are playing at the Children's Zoo. It was nice that they could play on the playground equipment while I gave Melanie a bottle.















Look!! A double-yoke egg!! :)















It might be a little tough to tell, but they are in front of the penguins. There's a little guy between them in the pool.














I thought this was a funny picture. It's pretty much how I felt when we were done and back at hotel room!

P.S. I apologize for the spacing between pictures and captions. I still haven't quite figured out how this all works sometimes. I have a difficult time putting the captions exactly where I want them so I inevitably just give up and let it post as is. :( I'm sure no one else really cares, but I do.
Posted by Picasa

Monday, April 14, 2008

Naomi's 5th Birthday party!

This picture is of Naomi at her birthday party at the Jones' Center in Springdale last Sunday, April 6. My mom has pictures of them swimming that I will try to get a hold of later. This party kicked off our whirlwind of activities. As soon as this party was over we ran back home to drop off party stuff and put our suitcases and other necessities in the van. Then off we went to Dallas, TX, for the week!! Andy had a class to attend, and the girls and I got to tag along for a suedo-vacation. I also have family that live there so we enjoyed spending time with them as well. I'll fill in the details throughout the week instead of bombarding you all with it now. We are just glad to be home now. Although, I do miss the maid service! LOL!! More pictures to come!!!
Posted by Picasa

Saturday, April 5, 2008

The Purse--Cake!

This is the cake I made Naomi for her birthday party. She saw a picture of a purse cake in one of my cake decorating books only it was 3-D. Her birthday party is going to be at the Jones Center for Families in Springdale, which is about a 45 min. drive from our place. I wasn't sure how the 3-D cake was going to stay standing during the drive. So, I decided to just do an 11X15 sheet cake and draw one of her purses on it. So...



Here's the purse.


Here's the purse cake!



**FYI--I know it seems as if we have drug Naomi's birthday out for a long time. She's having a swim party on April 6 at the Jones Center because that was the only weekend time they had available close to her birthday. They have an indoor ice skating rink and indoor swimming among other things. You can check out their website http://www.jonesnet.org/ . Noami isn't very confident with ice skating so we are having a swim party instead. And the best thing about it is that it's all FREE! This is the party she invited her friends from church for.

Posted by Picasa

Pink Pancakes!

We were out of cereal the other morning so I decided to make pancakes. Well, Naomi isn't too fond of pancakes and doesn't normally eat them. So, I thought what if I make them pink--her favorite color!! I keep the Wilton gel food colors for icing on hand because I decorate cakes on occassion. Guess what!? She ate them all up! I was almost surprised that she didn't ask for more. Anne wanted me to turn the syrup different colors, too, like the who-cakes you can get at IHOP. I told her I would just stick with the pink pancakes! :)


Posted by Picasa