Happy Birthday Daddy!

Today is Cory's 35th birthday!

You are such a wonderful husband, father, and friend.

We are so lucky to have you in our lives and we hope that you have a wonderful day!

These are just a few of my favorite pictures of Cory with the kids over the past few years.

Unsafe Driver

I should really talk to Eden about the dangers of playing on the phone while driving!

Girl's Day Out

Today I was able to go spend the day in Dallas with several of my close friends from college. I was so blessed to meet some wonderful girls when I attended Texas A&M and we have stayed close ever since we graduated 11 years ago. They are the kind of friends that no matter how long it has been since we have seen each other, we can pick up right where we left off.

We started our day with brunch at Bread Winners. The food was great and the conversation was even better.

Jeni, Amanda, and Heather
Ruthie, Brooke and Emily

After brunch, Ruthie and Heather had to leave so the rest of us headed out for a little shopping and pedicures. What a relaxing way to spend an afternoon with friends!

After pedicures, we still were not hungry enough for lunch so we stopped at Celebrity Cafe & Bakery for a little sweet treat before we all headed home.

It was a great day of laughing, relaxing, and catching up with old friends. I am already looking forward to the next time we will be able to find time in our busy schedules to all get together again.

Top 10 Things We Learned in Colorado

10. The views in Colorado are much more beautiful than the ones from our back porch in Texas.
9. Always keep your middle-of-winter coat handy. You can never be too prepared for a chilly mountain breeze.

8. The fireplace hearth is an excellent place to store shoes for 11 people.
7. People who travel on a plane with 2 young children without the help of an iPhone are CRAZY!!!!!


6. Playing in the dirt, rocks, or in this case- mud, is a very inexpensive way to entertain 3 young girls.


5. If not careful, we will soon need to hire help from strangers just to push all the strollers down the street. 4. Getting on one elevator with 4 strollers, 4 children under the age of 3 1/2, and 4-7 adults requires a lot of strategic planning.


4. Pushing a pink stroller EVERYWHERE you go can be quite masculine, as long as you are wearing your cool Lightning McQueen shoes that light up.

3. Eden is totally addicted to her pacis!!!

2. When traveling with 4 toddlers, meltdowns will occur at some point during the trip.

And the number one thing we learned on our vacation is:

1. Traveling with Granna and GranStan is lots of fun! Thanks again for such a wonderful week in Colorado! We had so much fun and made so many great memories! We can't wait to go again next year!!!

Colorado Family Pictures

Throughout the week, we tried our hardest to get a few good family pictures. Here are some of the better ones.

The whole family

Granna and GranStan with all 4 grandkids

The Rhone Family

Dad, Meredith, Amy, Emily, and Mom

The Rowland Family

Addison, Emily, Jon and Aubrey

Mommy and Parker

Mommy and Eden

Dad and his daughters

Mom and her girls

Aunt Meredith and Parker

Colorado- Day 6

Friday was our last full day in Colorado. I'm still sad that I'm not there anymore. It was such a great trip and I really didn't want to come back home.

We started our last day with an attempt to get some good family pictures (which I will put in a separate post later). Eden wanted nothing to do with pictures, even after being bribed with a sucker, so they didn't turn out great, but I guess that's to be expected when several young children are involved with picture taking.

My mom convinced Parker that we needed a picture of him hugging Addison. I don't think Addison thought it was such a great idea!

Eden got a sucker despite the fact that she didn't cooperate for pictures. After pictures, we went for our last breakfast at Clint's (sniff, sniff). As usual, it was delicious and I am already looking forward to eating there again next year. While we ate, the kids spent some time looking for chipmunks with Granna. They were all over the area and we finally found one as we were leaving to go back to the condo. Next to our condo was a store that gave train rides. We found a coupon in the lobby and decided to let the kids ride the train. Emily and I decided that the little girls weren't old enough to ride solo, so we got the privilege of riding the train too. (Next time, Cory and Jon will get that privilege!!) Don't Emily and I look like we are having fun!!
Parker and Addison
We tried to get the kids to wear the cute animal hats during the ride, but they wanted nothing to do with them. Emily and I ended up getting to wear them most of the time.

I was able to put this hat on Eden just long enough to take a picture. Addison kept hers on for a picture too. After the never ending train ride was over, we let Parker and Addison have one more picnic lunch in the condo. Granna found some Clifford juice boxes for the kids and they were a big hit, especially with Addison, who loves anything Clifford right now.
After we put the kids down for naps, Cory and Jon left to go tour the Country Boy mine. Cory has always wanted to do this, but has never had anyone else who wanted to go with him. I was so thankful when Jon showed some interest in wanting to see the mine.

After naps, we made homemade Frappuccinos. Eden thought they tasted pretty good! We all had to leave pretty early the next morning, so Emily and I went ahead and started packing our bags. Meredith kept the girls entertained by coloring some pictures with them.

After the kids were in bed, we went walking downtown to enjoy the cooler weather one more time before we headed back to the 100+ degree Texas weather. While we were sitting on a bench drinking some hot cider, a fox ran right past us. You don't see that in Cleburne very often.

The trip home on Saturday went very smooth. The kids did a great job on the plane and we made it home safely. As much as I hated being home, it felt so nice to sleep in my own bed. I think the kids were glad to be back in their own beds too.

We made a lot of wonderful memories in Breckenridge and I can't wait to go back next year!