Look out Kindergarten, Here I come!

Tess started Kindergarten this year. We had a meet the teacher event and Tess was able to meet her Teacher and get comfortable with her classroom. We then had a huge storm hit and the first day of school was delayed for 2 weeks. It was the longest summer ever and it seemed like it would never end.

School finally started on September 11^th and Tess was excited to finally go to school. I took the morning off and Clayton made sure to leave work right at 6:30 so that he could get home in time to walk her into school for her first day. Tess had a great first day and she is really enjoying big girl school.

Vacation Time

This year, Clayton played in the World Police and Fire games in LA and we decided to make a family vacation out of it. Tess was so excited to go on a family vacation since we didn’t go on a vacation last year. Since we made a vacation out of the trip we stopped in San Diego first and then drove up to LA.

After we landed and dropped off our luggage at the hotel we all headed out to find something to eat and then toward La Jolla. We found a great parking spot and then got out to walk around. One of the biggest tourist attractions of La Jolla is the seals and sea lions. We walked the shore and were able to climb down to get a close up view of them in their natural habitat. This was a pretty cool way to start off the trip, the weather was nice the seals/sea lions were awesome and the cherry to top it off was we all got some gelato before we headed back to the hotel to shower and rest up for the Zoo in the morning.

Our first full day of vacation was spent at the San Diego Zoo. This zoo is set up so nicely and has buses and recommened routes that even though there is a lot to cover and it expands a lot of space we felt like we were able to cover what we wanted. We started our day on the guided bus tour which was included in our ticket and provided a nice way to see the zoo and hear the best ways to visit certain animals. Tess thought the bus tour was the whole zoo and was ready to leave but once we started seeing more animals she was glad we stayed. The weather was great, a lot cooler than Texas. We had a lot of fun walking around and enjoying the animals and spent the majority of our time outside.

We stopped in Legoland on our way from San Diego to Los Angeles. This was Tess’s first amusement park and she had a blast. Legoland is nice because the whole park is geared toward the younger crowd. Throughout the park there is also a section of the park called Miniland which is landmarks completely made out of Legos.

We started out the day with Tess riding her first rollercoaster. I was a little worried that she wouldn’t like it because she sometimes over thinks things and talks herself out of situations before letting herself experience them. She enjoyed the coaster so much she immediately wanted to ride again. I was glad that she enjoyed the coaster because there are more of them in her future.

The rest of the day was spent riding various rides, activities, and playing with Legos. It was crowded so there were some rides that we decided not to stand in line. Tess was not really excited about the lines, she really wanted to go from ride to ride without the lines. Overall Tess had a blast and was exhausted by the end of the day.

There was also this one ride that was called the scorpion that had different difficulty levels and would move around over a body of water. Tess and Clayton did the ride and Tess had a lot of fun. They did the lowest difficulty level and they basically just moved up and down and around. The other difficulty levels turned people upside down and rotated them around.

We all had a lot of fun at Legoland and I am really glad we made the trip to San Diego. Now on to Los Angeles to finish up our Vacation.

We had to work in our tourist activities around Clayton’s soccer games. He was guaranteed three soccer games and depending on how the team did then there could potentially be more games.

On our first morning in LA we headed over to the Police Academy so that Clayton could pick up his credentials and his packet of information. His game was later that day so we headed to lunch and then over to the fields. The guys played a good game but in the end the other team ended up winning. Since Clayton had a later game we decided to head over to the Getty Center. We walked around looking at the paintings but we also had fun in the family room and doing the kid scavenger hunt. We also hunted for fossils in various rocks around the grounds. This museum does a good job of making a very adult area kid friendly. We came back to our Air BNB and relaxed before dinner and then grabbed something quick to eat.

Clayton’s second game was also right around lunch time so we had time to eat breakfast at our house and relax a little before our day started. The boys played all over LA and this time they played on a field in Griffith Park. The boys again played well and this time they were able to outscore their opponent. Since we were already in Griffith Park our thought was to make a day out of it and walk around the observatory and see a program at the Planetarium. By the time we arrived there were no parking spaces left and as we were driving around trying to find one Tess let us know that she needed to go to the bathroom so we decided to skip Griffith Park and head to the Tar Pits. It actually wasn’t crowded and it was like we had the place to ourselves. It was really interesting to see the group of tar pits that have seeped up from the ground in Hancock Park. The Museum is dedicated to researching the tar pits and it’s pretty cool to see everything that has been trapped in the pits over time. We spent time walking around the museum and having fun family time.

The last day of soccer was an early one and it ended up being the prettiest soccer complex. The field was at the base of a mountain and a perfect place for a family picture.

The boys had fun and played their hearts out but in the end this tournament wasn’t theirs to win. They didn’t advance but they had a lot of fun playing and meeting people from other countries along the way. I am glad that Clayton decided to play this year.

After the last soccer game we headed over to the California Science Center which was huge and had 4 major exhibit areas. We made our way first to see the Space Shuttle Endeavour, which was really interesting and cool to see it up close. We then watched an IMAX show and walked through the museum. Tess had a lot of fun looking at everything and doing various activities.

Friday was one of the best days on our vacation and it was also one of the longest days. We headed down to the Aquarium of the South Pacific which is one of the best aquariums I have ever been to. We had a ton of fun walking through and seeing everything. 

This aquarium has a lot of kid friendly activities and 3 different levels along with an outside space. We watched the fish being fed along with keeper talks for Seals and Sea Lions and another talk on Otters.

Tess also overcame her fear of touching sea creatures and she went to several stations and touched several different creatures. I was so proud of Tess because I also have a fear of creatures and I am glad she was able to play with the animals.

We also spent some time at the Queen Mary but didn’t get any pictures. We had a really good tour guide but I think most of us had wished we had been able to get on the ghost tour.

On Saturday we met up with one of my mom’s old coworkers in the morning. We went to the original farmers market for lunch and walked around for a bit. We also had tickets for the TCL Chinese Theatre tour. The theatre is still really nice inside and the most beautiful part is the ceiling.

We also walked around Hollywood boulevard and found some pretty famous hand and footprints. Tess also put her hands in some pretty famous people’s handprints.

After our afternoon of fun we headed out to the Dodgers game. Our intent at the time was to see a game against who we thought might be the Astros' opponent in The World Series. Tess insisted on wearing her Astros' shirt to the game and of course she had to get her pretzel. To be honest since none of us had a vested interest in the game it was pretty boring and we left around the 4^th inning and headed to the Santa Monica Pier.

Tess really wanted to see the water and wanted to get wet but she didn’t realize how cold the water was going to be. We let her change into her swim suit and she played for a little bit and then she was ready to play at the pier. We did a couple of activities and then Tess was ready to call it a night. The pier was a good way to end our vacation.

We decided to head home a day early since we had done everything in LA that we had wanted to do. We were all tired of being away from home and Tess had a camp that started Monday morning. We flew back home Sunday and got back late. We had an awesome vacation and I am glad that we decided to turn Clayton’s soccer tournament into a family vacation.

Summer Should get a Speeding Ticket...

This summer was jam packed with fun activities. We of course we to our fair share of Astros games. Tess has grown to have a love/hate relationship with the Astros. She likes the idea of going but then gets there and then gets bored and now that there are no more games she misses her time at the stadium.

Tess has a reward chart and about 3-4 times a year she earns a big reward. During the summer she picked going to the Zoo as her big reward. We picked a hot day that rained a little on us but it was a fun day. Mona and Kevin joined Tess and I at the Zoo while Clayton worked. I hadn’t seen the Zoo since they had made all the changes and we had a lot of fun walking around. I just wish there was a bigger breeze at some parts because it can get HOT.

Tess also showed us this pose that she learned at Daycare. We were waiting out the rain and she was climbing around inside and asked us to take pictures of her. We all had a lot of fun and enjoyed our HOT day at the Zoo.

Tess turned 5 this year and we decided to do a party away from the house, it was the best decision we have made in a long time. We didn’t have to really do a whole lot except show up do a little set up and then enjoy the party and then leave. The place took care of the rest. Tess enjoyed her party and had fun with her friends and that’s all that mattered. When we were picking out the party favors we went to Party City and walked around and I asked what she wanted her theme to be and she saw all the cool dinosaur stuff and she instantly chose dinosaurs. She has loved dinosaurs since she was little and we had a pretty cool dino cake this year.

This summer she only spent one month at daycare and then the rest of the summer was spent at various other camps/activities. So she was only able to enjoy a couple Splash days at Daycare. I received this picture one day and it made me laugh. It looks like she is having the time of her life.

One of the activities that Tess was able to enjoy was bring your kid to work day. This was the first day that I was able to bring Tess to work. Anadarko has a full morning of activities for the kids to enjoy that helps teach them about our business. She had so much fun meeting my colleagues and working a little bit in the morning. We ate some breakfast and then made our way to the fun Anadarko sponsored activities. Clayton met us for lunch and then took Tess home while I worked the rest of the day. She continues to ask when is the next time she will be able to come to work with me again.

We went to see the Lion King (the play) with the Braun Family and it was awesome. The Brauns have seen the play in New York but this was the first time seeing the Play for Tess and Clayton. Tess was mesmerized by the play. I was worried that she would get bored and would fidget but she did great. We took a couple pictures before and one of the snapchat filters was a lion. We had a great day!

Another Family Activty that we participated in this year was Dave & Busters held a first Responders night and we were able to play games and eat for free. Tess had a lot of fun and Clayton saw a couple of people that he knew that work for the department.

This Summer went by so fast, we spent as much time outside as we could before it got too hot and then we spent time in the water when we could. Per usual we had a lot of fun.

Today is your day! Your Mountain is waiting, So... get on your way!

Tess’s preschool/daycare had a graduation ceremony. It was pretty cute and I am glad that she was excited to be a part of it. My parents came up for the event and we went and had ice cream after.

The kids walked up the isle singing a graduation song. Tess was one of the last ones to come down the aisle, which is fine because that means she will in the front row.

It was a pretty cute event, there were multiple songs that the class sang together and there were even a couple of a couple of the kids got to sing in small groups. Tess was in one of the small groups and sang a song about the planets.

After all the songs each kid received a diploma and it was announced what he or she would like to be when they grow up. Since Tess loves animals she gave the same answer that she has given since she was little, she has wanted to be a Vet.

It was a fun night and Tess is ready for her next adventure, Kindergarten. 

With Brave Wings, she flies…

This year we decided to grow some Butterflies in the backyard and let Tess release them once they were ready. This started out being for Tess but she and I both had a lot of fun watching the caterpillars grow and change and morph into butterflies.

Clayton built a special butterfly box, we went and bought some milkweed and throughout the spring we released several Butterflies. Our neighbors even said they saw butterflies around and thought about Tess releasing them. We don’t see that many so I bet they were ours!

This is something that if Tess wants to do again this Spring I will definitely do again! 

No matter how long the Winter, Spring is sure to follow…

We have already started to have a fun filled Spring, we have been out riding our bikes and soaking up the nice weather while it lasts. It will be hot before we know it. Tess has her last PreK picture, next year we will be in Kindergarten and have our first official school picture. She actually let me braid her hair, people always tell me that she looks older than she really is. I am just not ready for any of it, not ready for her to be 5, not ready for kindergarten not ready for her to grow up. I guess this is why people have more kids.

We sadly lost one of our fur babies recently, Toby was not doing well. He was not eating and as it turns out it was his teeth. He had an infection that would require surgery and the doctor said that after they did the surgery and got him eating she wanted to run some additional tests because she thought that there was some additional underlying issues. We made the hard decision to let Toby go and not put him through the surgery and additional tests. He hadn’t been himself for a while and we had to think about his quality of life. It was a very hard day, and it was even harder to get Tess to understand that Toby wasn’t coming home. We all miss him and it gets better day by day.

Mona and Kevin came down for a couple of days during spring break and we finished up painting Tess’s room. Clayton and I had painted it purple but it was now time to paint the butterflies on her wall. My mom came over and the girls got started. I had two stencils and I think the butterfly wall turned out pretty cute. She loves it and she even made a hand butterfly herself.

The next day we went into town to Discovery Green because they were having an event for the kids, she played and was able to climb in various different construction vehicles. We saw some art cars also as they were promoting the art car parade. It was a great day to be outside and we all had a lot of fun.

This Spring we have already replanted our front flower bed, played sand outside, we went to a crawfish boil, an Astros game, and have been to a couple of birthday parties. We don’t really plan on stopping as every weekend in April is packed with activities. This year is already been busy and it doesn’t look like it is going to slow down any time soon.

I am going to end this post with one picture that shows it is definitely spring time in Houston. 

Family Time

We took a quick trip up to Bedford in the middle of February and spent some time with the family. The girls visited the American Girl Store while the boys played guns. Tess has two American Girl dolls and loves both of them, one can fit in her back pack and she likes bringing Camille with her. After the American Girl Store we walked around the Galleria, watched the ice skaters and even made a build-a-bear. It was a full day.

One morning we were waiting for everyone to get ready so we could head out to run errands and Tess and I decided to Snapchat a couple pictures. Tess forgets about the app and then she sees it wants to take a million pictures. She really enjoyed the banana face one.

That night while the boys were out running an errand Tess scooted back in the chair and screamed out in pain, Mona and I looked at each other because we could not figure out what had happened. We put some ice on her arm and continued playing out game because we were not sure if she was in pain or if she wanted some sympathy. After about 10-15 minutes of her not moving the arm and she saying it was still in a lot of pain we realized something must have happened we got her shoes on and took her to an urgent care place, about an hour later we walked out good as new. She had nursemaid’s elbow. Basically the parts in her elbow came out of place and the doctor had to click everything back in. Her body relaxed the minute he put everything back in place. We are on the tail-end of this injury, so she should grow out of the risk soon. She was a trooper in the room and with the doctor.

We woke up early Sunday and headed home because we had bought tickets to Monster Jam. Tess had been watching Monster Jam videos for about a month getting prepared for the event and was pretty excited. She got pretty bored during the time trials, which I will admit is boring, but she loved the freestyle. In the end she said she liked it and would like to go back. We got tickets through the Buzz morning show so the tickets were cheap and great seats so if we have the opportunity to do that again I would totally take her again!   

Tomorrow is the first blank page of a 365 page book, Write a good one...

We had a good but cold start to the New Year. Texas had one really cold weekend where the entire weekend was below freezing where we stayed inside all weekend and I passed on an activity that my mom did with us down to Tess. We made Ice Ornaments, before Tess went to bed we got everything ready and set the Water outside so that it would freeze overnight and make the Ice Ornaments. The first attempt didn’t go as smoothly as planned but by the second time we made some pretty cool ornaments and she was asking when we could make them again.

On one of the colder weekends we took Tess to the mall so she could run out some of her energy in their indoor play place. She loves running around and climbing on all the different obstacles, we have also taken her to the trampoline park so she can bounce out her energy.

Another indoor activity that comes around in the winter is the boat show, which for Tess turned into the RV show. She wanted to walk into every RV and picked out just the right one that we were going to move into. She picked out the perfect place for all her toys and she knew exactly where all her puppies were going to be sleeping. She was a little upset when we told her that we weren’t buying one and that we weren’t planning on moving. She was thinking we were going house shopping at the boat show.

Most of the time during January and early February we try as much as we can to find indoor activities that Tess will enjoy that will get us out of the house and burn some energy off. Even though Christmas is my favorite time of year it falls in my least favorite season, I hate the cold. What I hate more than the cold is having a toddler in the cold because when it’s cold you want to stay in bed and not get out from your warm bed, toddlers don’t understand this concept and need to be constantly moving. 

Dear Santa, I can explain…

I love Christmas, Tess loves Christmas, and Clayton tolerates Christmas. I love when the time comes to set out all the decorations and put the tree up. Tess would turn the tree on every morning and sometimes at night she would just sit near it. I would ask her sometimes why she was sitting on the floor and she would respond that she like sitting next to the tree and liked looking at it. I like her innocences when it comes to Christmas, like sitting next to the tree made her feel more Christmassy.

Sugar Land has a light show similar to Zoo Lights but less expensive and I think a lot more lights. The Holiday Lights Show is at Constellation Field and we picked one of the coldest nights to go but it made it feel a little more like Christmas. Tess loves Christmas lights so this event was right up her alley. She liked walking around looking at all the lights and they do a good job with the display. There is so much to see in the small space. We also had never been to the field so it also gave us a chance to see the field for the first time.

This year we had Christmas at our house, Mona and Kevin came down and all the Brauns came over. It was a big crowd but fun was had by all. My little girl did so good, she woke up early, around 6 or 6:30 but she played on her iPad or watched Christmas Movies till about 9 when we all ate breakfast and then started opening presents. Since everyone was in one place this year, the present pile was ridiculous. Most of them were for her, but she helped me distribute the presents out to the family and then she had so much fun opening up everything. Everyone had a lot of fun watching Tess enjoy her Christmas.

Christmas wore everyone out this year, we did a big breakfast and a big lunch so everyone was full and content most of the day. Clayton used his Christmas present and smoked a huge brisket which turned out great and we had all the fixings to go with it. All in all we had a great Christmas this year, we are blessed and I can’t complain.

We had friends over for New Year’s Eve, we were so busy having fun that I didn’t get any pictures. We did do some fireworks for the kids early in the evening and I got a pretty good video. Clayton left me alone with the fireworks guy so I am glad to know that I picked out good ones. Tess didn’t make it to midnight so we had to get our family picture the next morning.

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