jungle book @ myriad gardens

Last Friday we met our friends the Kochers at the Myriad Gardens. We love having them here and have missed them terribly! The Gardens' spring fundraiser usually transforms the children's garden into a theme, and this years' is Jungle Book. They always do a fabulous job with the activities and decorations. The kids had a blast! So worth getting a membership every year. Sweet memories with sweet friends!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

branson trip 2013

The Lewises are such great friends that they drove to Branson to meet us for a visit. We rented at 3 bedroom condo and had a good time catching up. The weather was beautiful and so were the leaves! We hiked a little, explored downtown Branson, played putt-putt, took in a show (Dixie Stampede), and a christmas light trail (Shepherd of the Hills). I think the kids enjoyed the condo the most, but my favorite was just being with wonderful friends! Even if we're breaking the rules in line to use the bathroom! Love you Erin and Justin!

we've gone to the dogs

A few weekends ago we dog-sat Ms. Lori's (OSSM PR person) dog, Nick. Everyone, dogs and people, enjoyed having him visit. He's so fast compared to Mops that it was hard to get any shots of him!

We've also been busy building forts on cold nights. Dr. Sapariuc's son, Andre, has even joined us when his dad comes for tutoring time. Elle and Andre (Elsa and Audrey) couldn't get each other's names right, but they still had a blast together!

waco summer 2012 part 2

We should have called this summer the back to our roots tour. We got to reconnect with old friends on our TN/KY trip and we also got to see a lot of friends and family on the Waco trip. Thursday night we ate dinner with Josh, Carly, and Jonathan. Good friends we went to church with at Robinson. I don't have any pics because I had forgotten my SD card and hadn't had a chance to go buy one yet. Hopefully, Josh and Carly got some good ones and will send them soon. Elle and Jonathan were like two peas in a pod playing in the backyard, the house, the pool, and watching movies. We couldn't get enough of them so we met them for breakfast the next morning at Shipley's for donuts and kolaches. Elle insisted on getting this red donut!

Friday for lunch Chris' Uncle Steve, Aunt Gloria, cousin Stephen, and his daughter Mackenzie came over from Hempstead to visit. We hadn't seen them since we moved and they were so nice to come over to us. We had a great visit and lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings, but I didn't get any pics of them either.

We got lucky and happened to be in town when a Philosophy Potluck was scheduled. It's a semi-monthly meal the department has at a student or faculty members' house. Chris went to one his interview weekend and it's one reason he wanted to go there. So Friday night we went around the block to the Clevelands  and got to see a lot of old friends. It was so nice to visit and of course you just feel smarter being in the room when they're all talking philosophy. It was also a little bittersweet since it will probably be the last one we go to since so many of Chris' classmates are graduating and getting jobs other places. Elle really enjoyed playing with Trinity and Nathan and some of the other kids. They even got Jessica and Angela to do a game of Mother May I.

Saturday morning we ran over to the Mayborn Museum so Elle could play. I now know to book more time the next time we're in town. Here are some shots of things Elle and Chris went to look at. Most of them are things I haven't been brave enough to go see. I'm hoping to use the pics to slowly desensitize myself like my friend Heather suggested. We'll see!

The Mayborn is a children's museum on Baylor's campus. They even have a degree program that runs out of it. Elle was having so much fun looking at everything and then when we got to the little city she was so excited to play!

Some how, the entire 3 years I lived in Waco I never went upstairs. I don't know why. Chris used to take Elle here a lot when there was bad weather and I was in class. They had been up there a lot, but I guess when he was describing it to me I didn't realize it had more playrooms. So, the upstairs was new to me and because Elle was so little before newish to her too. This tea party room was by far our favorite. I think I need one of these in our dream house. (Chris and Todd went to do boy things while we played.)

These cabinets have antique, child-sized glass tea sets and dishes that a family from Waco donated. So cute! Then they have etiquette rules written on the plates that are painted on the tables.

The giant bubble and water room was also fun. Chris waited until all the other kids left so he could play with the water table.

Saturday for lunch our friends Matt and Angela joined us at our house. They had to wait on us to talk to the new renters and then they helped us pack the car. Love them! Then on our way back to OKC my cousin Jace, his wife Randy, and they're little guy Owen met us in Ft. Worth at In-N-Out for a quick visit during dinner.

We didn't even make it to Baylor because of all the house stuff, but we'll probably go back in September for Chris' defense. It was brief, but so nice to see the people we did see!

swimming at dodds

We are really lucky that Chris works with some wonderful people. We went for a swim at Dr. Dodd's house last Friday night. We had a great time catching up with Dr. Dodd, Suzanne, and Lori (plus the dogs Hannah, Fred, Grady, and Lily). The water was great, which helped us get Todd to swim in his float too! Somehow we didn't get any pics of that. Elle decided to try the float out too, and Hannah, Dr. Dodd's older Jack Russell, kept trying to steal the pool toys. It was such a fun evening and we can't wait to do it again.