An Evening with the Hales.....

The Hales and us have been trying to work out a dinner/bowling night for quite a while now. We hadn't been able to make it happen for various reasons but we finally accomplished our task a few weeks ago. We started off the evening at Texas Roadhouse. Delish!!!

Here is Kevin and Tenille...Bryon, Madster and I....After dinner we were off to Shepard's All-Star. Check out Madi's tiny bowling shoes. So precious!Be warned the rest of this post is incredibly picture heavy!
Madi started us off... In retrospect, it probably wasn't a good idea. She had a hard time grasping the concept of taking turns. So she pouted! After a stern talking to in the arcade room (not very effective, here's a bit of advise, if you are disciplining a child, try not to do it in a room full of games and blinking lights!) She finally settled down enough to let us all play. She managed to entertain herself. Here she is singing and dancing all in her own little world. Can ya tell I like to take pictures of my cute kiddo?

We all took our turns....I swear we ALL took turns. I just mostly took pictures of Madi's turn. It was just too cute.

we played 3 grueling games of heated bowling. You can't tell who is who really because of the "funny" bowling names. Lets just say even Madi beat me.... We took a few pics just at random. Here is Kevin and Tenille....Tenille and Madi posed, sort of. Madi may or may not be acting like a brat in the picture. I don't really remember.
Here too....As the night wound down, Madi started getting bored and wanted to color. She also found the fan on the ball return. She liked how it felt on her face. We MUST do this again! Soon!

What have we been up to, you ask?

This one is pretty self-explanatory. There is a bun in the ole oven! We will find out what it is exactly a week from today. I'll keep you posted.

Parks & Picnics

This past summer we had a family picnic with Bryon's side of the family, more particularly, it was with Bryon's Dad's family. It was a beautiful day with plenty of shade and a light breeze. Bryon's cousins brought a fun cowboy golf game. Here are Gail and the kids just getting the game set up. Mads was doing her best to help out.Of course Madi was more than helpful with Grandpa Davis when it was his turn to play. Bryon's aunt had a little dog that Madi was in love with. Seriously, if any of you out there care about me, tell my husband to let me get that little kid a small dog of her own! How cute is this?The highlight of the day however was the park! Once Madi tried the slides, there was no going back. Poor Kenzi and Kennedy were probably worn out after Madi was done with them. She made them take her over there who knows how many times! Thanks girls, Mads appreciated it! We aren't totally bad parents though. We took her over there too. Here is Bryon putting her up on the slide that we didn't realize was faster than Clark Grizwold's sled. She dang near knocked me over! We only did this slide once. We decided to go over to the smaller slides that were more suited for a child of Madi's size. She loved it!Although I only took a couple of pictures, we were there for a LONG time. Trust me! This child is one slide lovin' fool! She was actually crying when we left. Poor kid! Note to self: Take Madi to the park/playground more often! Dually noted.

SpLaSh PaRk

This past summer we were invited to go the splash park with Kevin and Tenille. Madi was VERY excited! We weren't really sure how she was going to like having water poured on her since she hates being in the shower at home. We got her in her swimming suit with a "little swimmer" diaper. It had a funny bulge right on her butt. I told her it looked like she had a turd in her shorts. After that she kept telling everyone she had a turtle in her shorts. It was hilarious! Here is a classic picture that will illustrate what I am talking about! Do you see it? Now that is all you will notice in all of my pictures.

Mads was a little bit hesitant when we first got there. Tenille walked her around to show her where to stand when the water would splash. She had so much fun! As soon as Madi would get splashed she would come running as fast as her little legs would carry her back to us. It was adorable!As the day went on, she got a lot more brave and started running around by herself and playing in the water. Here she is in all her glory!Madi was having so much fun, she wanted daddy to share the fun. Plus I think she may have needed help with the button to start the sprinklers. Too cute!Afterwards, we bundled the Madi Monster in her robe and prepared to head out. What a great day for the little one. We will definitely have to do that again next summer!

Hogle Zoo

It has been a while since I posted and I have pictures galore that I still need to share. I realize that it is actually snowing, yes, snowing outside today but I've got pictures to post. Here is a little flashback to the glorious days of summer.

For Madi's Birthday we decided to take her to the zoo. It was about a month after my knee surgery and I had forgotten how hilly the zoo is! We kept a slow pace, but we didn't mind. We had fun. It was an incredibly HOT day and all of the animals were showing it! Our first stop was at the elephant encounter. Even the elephants were fanning themselves with their branches. The poor bear was panting and sitting in the only shady spot available. It is pretty cool to be able to go and get such an up close look at these amazing animals!Next stop was the Zebra's. They were posing so perfectly for a fantastic photo op. Next, we saw the penguins. I must say that this was Madi's favorite! She loved watching them dive off the rocks and swim around in their pool. She would laugh every time they jumped. We probably could have spent our entire time there and she would have been happy. Alas, there was a baby giraffe to be seen! So the talk of the town was the new arrival of a baby giraffe. It was all over the papers, the gate people at the entrance said that the baby was out on display today, etc, etc... Needless to say, we were pumped to go and see the new little guy. So, you can imagine our disappointment when this is all we saw.....Not that the mommy giraffe isn't cute or anything, but come on!!! Apparently the little one wasn't a fan of the heat and chose to hang out inside. The jerks at the zoo decided to close off the observation booth to the inside. So, no baby for us! Here it is almost 3 months later and yeah, I'm still bitter!

We decided we liked Tigers better anyway and headed over there. The snow leopards were gorgeous! Can you imagine this picture without the fence? Gorgeous!The path from the tiger area lead straight to the.... carousel! Since I was still in my large knee brace, there was no carouseling for this ole girl! This was a job for daddy. Unfortunately, Daddy didn't want to ride the carousel. This was Madi for about 15 minutes. Finally we were able to convince daddy that all the cool kids rode the carousel, so he had too. Finally he did and I think it's safe to say, he liked it! I believe I see two smiles in this picture! The last stop was the classic lion fountain. Madi was a little bit overwhelmed. There were several rowdy kids running around and she didn't know what to do. Daddy stepped in to help. Unfortunately, Daddy's idea of helping is to soak his child right before the long drive home. Yes, my friends, he made her sit in the fountain! She wasn't happy and neither was I. We did make a stop at the gift shop. Madi couldn't decide what toys she wanted most. She came home with a big elephant and a mommy and baby monkey. She is all about the mommies and babies right now. It was a great day!