The 4th in Oklahoma

Wow, I just realized my last two posts have only been pictures of Brent and I. Who wants to see that? I better get some pictures of the kids posted QUICK before my three readers quit coming back!

So while Brent and I were alone the week of the 4th of July, the kids were being spoiled big time with their grandparents in Oklahoma.  It was kind of weird not being with them on the 4th, but we knew they were having a good time and I had enlisted my Dad to take lots of pictures in my absence. 

Here are some of the fun they had at the annual picnic in Mooreland:

The Money Dig: Poor Thad got sand in his eyes first thing and decided he didn't really need any money anyway!

.......and the bike races:

Look at these serious faces.

(The bike Hollace is on use to be Aunt Juana's! It's 20+ years old.)

KId-Free!

The week of 4th of July our kiddos went home with my parents to Oklahoma to stay a week with them and Brent's parents. We were kid-free for 5 days!! This was the first time really that we've not had the kids when we weren't going anywhere. We weren't sure what to do with ourselves. We figured it out pretty quickly though.

  We went on three "dates"- in ONE week WITHOUT having to pay for a babysitter!!

We went to the mall and just wandered around without chasing anyone around a store, or having to look in the hanging clothes for one of our children, or causing a scene and being afraid we were going to be asked to leave a store!

We ate numerous meals without having to break up a fight, or get up 14 times during the meal,  or bribe/threaten anyone to eat their meal, or pull someone out from underneath the table.

We slept in and slept all night.

I actually scrapbooked for the first time in probably 2 years and got 38 pages done!

One night we went to Top Golf. It was our first time to go and my first time to pick up a golf club in probably 10 years, so no judging my form.

It was actually pretty fun, even if you're not really a golfer.  The balls all have chips in them so you can keep score and even see how far you hit the ball.

They have waiters who come around to your bays and serve you while you're playing. The food was actually pretty good too!

Another night we went to a really nice restaurant in Plano, Seasons 52. I think it's one of my new favorite restaurants.

While we REALLY enjoyed our kid-free week, we REALLY missed the kiddos and were ready to get them back. We met Brent's parents in Norman to pick them up on Saturday. I think they were really glad to see us too, although they probably would have gone back with their grandparents if we had let them!  Hollace did try to convince us to take the boys home and let her go back to OK for another week. Nice try Hollace.
Thanks Nana and Papa and Grammy and Papa for keeping and spoiling them! They had a blast!

A Muddy Good Time!

 In June Brent and I did a "Mud Run". It was a course about 3.5 miles long with lots of trail running and 18 obstacles. Most of the obstacle involved mud-LOTS of mud, in some form. There were lots of muddy, slippery, steep hills to climb, monkey bars over a mud hole to cross, a 20ft. rope to climb, muddy walls to climb, muddy rivers to swim across, and an ice-water filled pool to swim across to name a few. Sounds fun doesn't it??  It actually was a lot of fun and something we'll probably do again!

Here is our BEFORE picture in front of one of the easiest/cleanest obstacles.

.......and AFTER

Then we got to "bathe" in the river near the finish line.

 This last pic is after our "baths". You can see one of the obstacle behind us. You had to climb over this (slippery, muddy) wall using the attached (slippery,muddy) ropes.

(I wish we had some action shots, but there was really no way to take a camera/phone with us. There were a few of us taken by the event photographers, but none that we wanted to buy for $12.) 

Wordless Wednesday

****I know this is a Wordless Wednesday post, but this needs to be said:   I asked Brent if he thought it was ok for me to post this on the blog.  He said  "Well.... as long as everyone knew it was one of the kids' rears."    Really??   OK...... first of all, even if you have never seen this chair in our Study for a size frame of reference, I think you can tell this is not a full grown human's hiney. Secondly, I can NOT imagine ANY possible reason why Brent or I would be nude under a chair like this.  BUT, if Brent or I were ever nude under a chair in a manner similar to this, I can NOT think of any reason why the other one of us would take a picture of such nonsense! And finally, if Brent or I were nude under a chair for some unimaginable reason and the other one of us did in fact take a picture, I can GUARANTEE - GUAR-RON-TEE you- it would never be posted on this blog!!   BUT, just in case there is still any question, this IS one of our children's hineys. Thad's to be specific. He was hiding Sunday morning because he didn't want to get ready for church. Brent snapped a pic on his phone when he found him like this! I got a kick out of it and thought you might too.

The Dallas Zoo

A few weeks ago a couple of friends and our kiddos went on an outing to the Dallas  Zoo. I am honestly not usually a huge fan of zoos. It seems like the animals are always hiding and you spend the majority of time staring at trees, open fields, and tanks of water and not seeing many animals. This was one of the better zoo experiences we've had. We actually saw lots of animals. They also had a tram you could ride around the zoo and go through many of the animal areas without having to walk (drag your hot, thirty, complaining kids and wagon full of ice chests, packed lunches, and gallons of hand sanitizer) for miles!

The penguins are always a hit.

They all really like the pink flamingos too!

Here is the whole crew

 Look at this sassy pose I caught.

There was an area with big animal statues that the kids had a great time climbing on.

Hollace decided this elephant's trunk and tusks made a great place to practice her gymnastic skills.

So Rhett had to try too....

 Ok, so maybe I had to try too......

****This was actually really funny. I did this not thinking much about it because it looked fun. The kids were SOOOO amazed and impressed. The ones that saw me called all the other kids over to see and asked me to do it again and again! "Rhett! Come see what your mom can do!!" 

  I think I was just a little insulted that they were SO impressed! 

I mean...How OLD do they think I am??  It was pretty funny!

Looking back at this picture, the only think I'm impressed with is the fact that the seam of my shorts didn't split! I was clearly not planning on doing this when I got dressed that morning. (NOTE TO SELF: Next time there is a possibility of doing any acrobatic moves while hanging on the tusks of a giant elephant statue- wear some shorts with a little more give!)

Fun In the Sun

Here are some more pictures of some of our backyard fun in the sun with friends this summer.......

 We LOVE SUMMER!!!