Blues Brothers

Miller Outdoor Theater has opened for the season!  We enjoyed a show last weekend with Jared and Hope.  The weather was perfect and the Blues Brothers cover band was pretty entertaining.  Rachel and Owen enjoyed it.  They were in such good spirits that we stayed for the whole show instead of only the first half as we originally planned.

 

 

 

Spring Break - Part 2

And now...for the rest of our Spring Break fun.  Be prepared for a lot of pictures :).  On Thursday evening, Tante YaYa and her friend Gisela drove down to stay with us for a few days as well.

When they arrived, Rachel was ready to show off all the fun.  YaYa helped her fish for some sea weed.

It was great to have a beach just a short walk behind the house.

They brought food so we all worked together to cook dinner.

Friday morning, Rachel had her Tante back at work again.  She brought her coffee down to the beach and helped with the sand castle.

Rachel decorated her castle with all kinds of things that she found on the beach.

We headed to the beach again later that morning.

Owen enjoyed relaxing in the nice breeze.

Rachel was hard at work again.

There is a fun Audobon Bird Sanctuary on the island that we visited in the afternoon.

We enjoyed some local seafood for dinner.

Saturday morning, we all put on our green to celebrate St. Patrick's Day.

Oma and Opa were not too far away so they drove a couple of hours to come spend Saturday with us.  Oma enjoyed her tea while giving Owen his bottle.

Owen was happy to see his Opa again.

We had a very nice walk on the beach in the morning.

We also spent a lot of time relaxing on the porch and enjoying the nice weather.

In the afternoon, we went for a walk at the Shell Mound Park.

Here is one of our attempts at a family picture - it is hard to get all four of us to look and smile at the same time.

Before dinner, we spent some more quality time playing in the sand.

Before bed, Owen watched the sunset and showed off his St. Patrick's pride.

We got to have some more time at the beach on our last morning.  Rachel LOVED feeding some leftover bread to the birds.

Owen liked the birds, too, but he preferred to keep a safe distance.

Rachel once again had fun playing in the sand.

3 out of 4 of us could find the camera in this one...that's not too bad.

We all worked hard helping Rachel with this hole.  She wanted to fit into it and was able to do it before we had to leave.  We were sad that our fun week had to come to an end.  We will have to plan another trip soon!

Spring Break - Part 1

We had a great time at the beach on Dauphin Island last week for Spring Break.


We arrived in the evening on Tuesday and had time for a walk on the beach.  The house we rented is the blue one in the background.

Owen got a new bike trailer for the trip.  He is able to join the family on bike rides now.

On Wednesday, it was a bit cloudy.  We explored Fort Gaines on the island.

 

 

After the fort, there was time for sand castles - Rachel's favorite part of the beach trip.

Thursday, we visited the Estuarium.  We all had a great time seeing all of the different creatures they had.

Jellyfish!

Rachel got to pretend she was deep sea fishing.

 

The weather cleared up in the afternoon and we spent a long time at the beach in the beautiful weather.

Rachel worked very hard on her sand castles.

 

Owen also enjoyed playing in the sand and with the sand toys.

We have so many pictures from the week we will have to  break it up into two posts.  Check back soon for the thrilling conclusion of our trip!

Houston Livestock Show 2012

Today we braved the pouring rain and went to the livestock show that is part of the Rodeo.  Rachel was much more into this year than she has been in the past.


We started out with some lunch - Rachel loved her pig in a blanket.

While she finished eating, we watched some kids showing their animals.

Next, we hit the petting zoo.  It was hard to get Rachel to stand still for the picture.  There were so many fun animals!

Rachel also got to pet a very soft rabbit.

We also saw bees.

And we planted a sunflower.

And we saw some baby chicks hatching.

Rachel even got to drive a tractor!

Through all of this, Owen enjoyed watching the animals and all of the excitement from his stroller.

Before we headed back out into the dreary weather, we took a break for some juice and a snack.  It was a very fun afternoon.