April Album IV: Birthdays and Easter in Coppell

Our final stop in Texas was at the home of my sis, Rita, in Coppell.  The day we arrived, we celebrated Tommy’s 7th birthday. 

My brother JP and his family also joined us, which meant the kids got lots of COUSIN time!  Six cousins!
   
   
Our visit included Easter weekend, which of course, is not complete without the making and breaking of cascarones (worthy of its own post, I think) and a visit from the Easter bunny, plus lots and lots of family.  My grandparents, along with my aunt Carrie and cousins Albert and Amy also joined the festivities. 

    
Dad with his sister and dad. 

Aunt Carrie and Amy, cooking up a tasty zucchini dish!

I caught some snuggle time with baby Leo.

Fiona shared some secrets with my cousin Albert.

Tried to take an epic family photo with my children and their great-grandparents around naptime.  It’s still epic.

The twos!  Fiona and cousin Lydia (only a 17 days apart) love each other.  Dean had fun climbing on top of a little tikes car. 
  
Leo gave many smiles!

There were many movies to be watched!  Especially involving princesses and fairies.  Fiona had lots of catching up to do with her girl cousins.

One morning Gramps and Leo wore stripes together.

Matthew finally arrived!  He didn’t miss a beat holding sweet baby Leo and entertaining/playing with the kids while performing animal exercises (such as the sloth, below) and wii dance.
   

Finally, the day before we left for Oklahoma, my family celebrated my 34th birthday (!) with a sweet bunny cake and many, many candles (Thanks, Rita and Dad!).

Phew.  What an adventure we have had.  One of my best birthday months on record.

April Album III: Padre Island

After our stint in Kenedy, we headed further south for the coast – to my parents’ place in Padre Island.  The water was refreshingly warmer than the ocean temperatures in the Pacific Northwest.  Fiona took right to the beach. Dean wasn’t used to getting in the ocean, and he was more interested in the sand dunes at first.  At Heceta Beach in Oregon, we had an awesome time playing in the dunes, but here they offer more of a snake pit, so I was eager to introduce him to the water.  It took no time to love the sensation of jumping with the waves!  Leo’s beach experience took place in the shelter of a tent, listening to the natural beach air (better than our sound machine at home).

   

  

We had fun in town shopping and playing at the park.  I think Dean and I were the only ones excited about this giant shark mouth.

Gramps gave the kids a fishing lesson off the dock, and Dean caught and held his first fish (which was thrown back). 

We also got to watch our neighbors feed the pelicans off of their dock!  That was a real treat. 

Leo can’t wait to have his own adventures here!  For now, he was happy with the cuddle time.  He keeps growing and growing!

April Album II: tu y yo

 

Our Texas adventure led us to my grandparents’ ranch in Kenedy, “tu y yo”, about an hour and a half outside of San Antonio.  Kenedy has always been a quiet, humble little town of around 3000 people.  My granny used to say it wasn’t rich enough for two “n’s”.  They’ve owned this ranch since the year I was born, and it used to hold around 20 cattle and my Aunt Boots’ horses.  In the past ten years or so, my grandfather stopped keeping cattle and his sister bought her own ranch in Pleasanton for her horses, so the ranch has been dedicated to hay production - until most recently.  The introduction of a new technology called “fracking” has allowed oil and natural gas extraction from the shale that covers most of this area in South Texas up to parts of North Dakota, including Kenedy.  Tu y yo now has an oil pump and natural gas tanks, with large trucks entering and exiting all parts of the day.  Ranches all over Karnes County have sprouted this new crop, along with new houses and fences, gates and roads. 

For Tu y yo, it’s a dramatic change, but it’s not in most ways.  It’s still a place to visit, drink a cold beer, work on a project outside, and wait for the best-tasting, mesquite-smoked-anything to be ready – Polish sausage from Falls City if I’m lucky.  My dad remarked, why is it that I can sit here and do nothing when there’s so much to be done?  Huh.  Maybe this is the only place you can really just be, and that’s always been part of its charm.

For me and the kids, it was a pure dose of Vitamin D.

Mom drove us out on the “Emily C” (named after Grampa’s late cousin) to see the oil well.  We were a circus!  A baby, two kids, Maybee-dog, Granny, Mom and me all rode this thing together.

We went on many treasure hunts.  Our findings: a large feather, an old wasp nest, small egg shells, cactus blooming, and three deer running! 

The kids enjoyed picking wildflowers.

We worked on potty-training…

Dean and Fiona got to ride in a red cart behind the Emily C – they couldn’t stop giggling!  They were bouncing around, and Granny kept hollering at Grampa to slow down!

It was a relaxing visit, lots of time spent outside under the mesquite tree, waiting for that Falls City sausage, enjoying each other’s company, just like always.

On to the coast…

April Album I: San Antonio

Oh, what a wonderful birthday month!  It started in San Antonio, where we basked in the sunshine with tons of playtime outdoors.  Before we arrived, I needed to buy shorts, short-sleeved shirts, and sandals for all of us.  It was strange not to be wearing our raincoats (or socks).  April in San Antonio is definitely the month to visit.
   
   
Leo got to meet his great-grandparents and great Aunt Mary - he enjoyed cuddle-time with everyone.  I loved taking these multiple-generation photos:
   

In the mornings, Leo liked to read the Express News with Nani and Gramps over coffee.

We also experienced a bit of San Antonio living: lots of trips to HEB (especially during sample Saturdays), visiting the zoo, and getting together with my old classmates from Texas A&M Landscape Architecture – Studio 99.

By the way, Dean was REALLY interested in looking at the animal pictures in the zoo map – we had to ask him to put it away so that he could enjoy the real animals.  He agreed to keep it in his pocket until lunchtime.  Here he’s planning our next route.

The night I met my friends from A&M, I realized in a panic that I needed Mom and Dad to accompany me.  I actually had thought I could manage my three kids at this restaurant/play-place on my own until about an hour before we got there.  I’m so grateful that my parents came with me… Thanks, Nani and Gramps! 
Look at us, twelve years and nine kids later.

One of the best events this month: Fiona became potty-trained!!  She had many cheerleaders to encourage her.  Mom and I giggled that she often declared from the potty, “I want Gramps!” 
More great events: Leo and I squeezed in as many naps as we could. 

We missed Matt terribly, but we made up for it with FaceTime phone calls almost daily. 
 
Our adventure in Texas continued on to my grandparents’ ranch in Kenedy and Padre Island…