Thursday, June 25, 2009

Fredricksburg

My mom came out for the week and it was so wonderful to see her! It was fun to have a work out buddy and she was so good with Tyson. We had delicious meals every day and fixed up the house a bit. I am so grateful for such a giving and serving mother. Thanks Mom for coming to visit! We stopped at a fifties-style ice cream parlor and it was delicious! They had world famous flavors there and all of the ice cream was homemade! Smiling for the camera! Our Texas Cowboy! Tyson eating one of his first sour lemons at a restaurant! Tyson sitting on an Amish-made baby toilet. It even had its own toilet paper roll and magazine rack! It was so cute! Ride that pony! Tyson with his dad. The trip was so much fun! I love you Mom!!

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Pedernales State Park!

On Monday Christian was able to take a break from researching and head up to Pedernales State Park with us and the Garlick family. It was so much fun! It was perhaps the most perfect day I could imagine! The water was warm, the kids were good, it was beautiful, and we were with awesome friends. Thank you to the Garlicks for inviting us along!Tyson absolutely loved the water!
A family photo by the waterfall...that is mostly a waterfall when there are flash floods! It was beautiful nonetheless!
Kallie and Joshua (Tyson's future best friend!)
Steve, Madeline, Christian, Tyson and the Texas Cowboy...we don't actually know who that is!
Tyson and his daddy playing in the water. It was so warm and absolutely perfect!
Tyson started to splash around. At first he would lift his legs up to sit on the rocks. Finally he got used to the idea of swimming!
We had a picnic on the beach!
What great friends! Thanks again for inviting us along! If I had to pick only a few days to repeat over and over again, this would be one of my top five! Thanks!

Julie!!

Friday night my good friend and old roommate Julie and her family came to stay with us! They just moved to Austin and it was so good to see them! She has an adorable daughter, Alessa, who is a few weeks younger than Tyson. They actually had the same due date! The weirdest part was seeing Julie as a mom and realizing that things really have changed since college. It was so fun! Here's her daughter, Alessa. Alessa was so beautiful!! She was so cute and calm and looked a lot like her mom! We all went to the Japanese tea gardens for the day and it was really beautiful! We will definitely take anyone who loves plants and meditation here when they visit next. Our family at the tea gardens. The Kimballs and the Franci! The kids playing together. It was so fun for Tyson to play with someone exactly his age. They were so cute together! Thanks for coming to see us!

Happy 25th Birthday Christian!!

June 5th was Christian's birthday and it was wonderful! Happy Birthday to my favorite person on earth! I love him so much! He is the kindest, funniest, most wonderful person I know and I am so grateful for him. Thank you everyone who remembered him on his special day! Here are pictures of his birthday!
Christian had told me birthdays weren't fun anymore because there weren't presents or games anymore, so I tried really hard to make it look like there was a lot of presents. Most of them were coupons...which he guessed from the getgo. Hopefully he wasn't too disappointed! An action shot of Christian opening a present.Most of Christian's presents were coupons, but some were real--Here's some Jolly Joes!
Christian said he wanted a cake that looked like him only black. This is what he got! It's an ice cream cake...good choice Christian!
Christian is finally old enough that not all of his candles will fit in one cake :)We had a couple of friends over to celebrate with us but not all were interested in staying inside. Here is Jackson hanging out with the dog we are watching for the next two weeks. He loved York who loved the attention in return!Some of the kids playing outside. Thank you everyone who came to celebrate his birthday!

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

California!!

Two weeks ago our family got to particiapate in the Francis family reunion in California! It was so much fun! This was one of the very best reunions I've ever been to as everything worked together perfectly! We stayed in a house by the beach which was beautiful.
Here's the whole family by the beach!Here's a bunch of us eating at the beach house! It was so much fun!!We went looking at tide pools one day and it was so cool! It was like being at Sea World without paying for admission and there's no glass in the way! It was cool to see the crabs, sea anemones and more in every pool!
Tyson and his daddy by the ocean! It is no wonder to me that so many people want to live in San Diego! It's beautiful. While there, we visited Disneyland and Sea World. Every part was fun for us but Sea World was one of Tyson's favorite places. He loved the water, animals, and being outside. In fact, he started to throw fits every time we tried to take him from one exhibit to the next.
Here are a bunch of the cousins reaching in the water to touch the sea stars!!
My favorite thing to see were the flamingos. They were so cool! I guess they are born white but their food turns them pink. It's a good thing this doesn't happen to us...otherwise I would probably start to look like vanilla ice cream...wait a second... I could have stayed at this exhibit the entire time!
We got to ride over the bay for free! Christian was so nervous Tyson would fall he wouldn't let go for a second!
Everyone was so good to help out with Tyson. Here is Wilbur holding the little guy. They were the best of buds! Next to Wilbur is Matt. I was most impressed with him the entire vacation as every time you saw him he was holding someone's kid. He was the most unselfish teenaged boy I have ever met! He is going to Las Vegas on his mission in a few weeks! Good luck Matt!! Sea World had the coolest playground where it was big enough that the adults could play with their kids on the equipment. It was so much fun feeling like a kid again and watching Tyson crawl through tubes and such. Here is our family playing with some blocks.
Tyson playing with his daddy.
While in our room, Tyson discovered Christian's shoes....They were a bit large for his feet!
It was too cute of a moment not to capture!
Here we are in Disneyland!
Tyson got a bit sleepy in line.
I was amazed he could fall asleep with all of the light and noise!
His grandpa came to the rescue again and let him have a nap while we rode the rides. Thanks Greg!
Here's the oldest cousin Cassie hanging out with the bad guy from splash mountain. He SEEMS harmless enough here!
Tyson and me on Dumbo! This was one of Tyson's first and least favorite rides. He seemed to prefer Winnie the Pooh to any other ride!
Here's Christian and Tyson with the "happiest cow in the world!" Everything was the happiest there! It was so fun to be with family! Thanks Mom and Dad Francis! It really was wonderful! We love you!