Riding the Rails

We just got home from a long weekend trip with Paw-Paw. Our friend Jenni recently rode the Amtrak from Austin to Ft. Worth and said it was great, so we were inspired to plan a trip around a railway adventure.

Paw-Paw came to Austin Friday afternoon and we departed Austin around 9:45 a.m. Saturday and arrived in Ft. Worth around 2:15 p.m. Yes, a longer trip than driving, but so much more fun! If you have a relaxed schedule, riding the train is the way to go. Super comfortable seats, plus a separate lounge car for hanging out - which is where we spent most of our time. We brought a picnic lunch and a few activities for Spence, including  "Train Tracking Games" that Dave created. (How many windmills can you find? How many of these animals do you see? etc.) There's a dining car too, but since we brought food we didn't visit it.

Ready to go on our adventure. It was SO HOT at the station Saturday morning.

Waiting in line to board.

Giving our tickets to the conductor.

Just before boarding.

Logging all the things we saw along the way.

The games Dave made were awesome.

Having lunch in the observation car.

A quick selfie from our seats.

Love this one of Spence and Paw-Paw

There's an Enterprise rental car place at the Ft. Worth station, so we picked up our vehicle and headed over to Grapevine Mills Mall. We explored the Sea Life Aquarium and then had dinner at the Rain Forest Cafe (which apparently I didn't get any pictures of?). That restaurant is so loud and crazy, it makes me question whether I'm cut out for Disney World one day... anyway, after dinner we let Spencer ride a little train around the inside of the mall. I have to admit, I held my breath when the train rounded the corner until I saw his smiling face return.

Spencer fish.

Shark tunnel.

Spencer and the sharks.

Riding the train inside the mall.

Next we checked into our hotel, which was a two-bedroom suite and perfect for our family getaway. Spencer started out in our bed each night and then we moved him to the sofa when we were ready for bed. Of course Paw-Paw had his own room.

Guests of the day - ha!

It was a very long day and Spencer was a champ - he's a fine little traveler. Just as he was almost asleep, we heard some popping noises outside. The nearby Gaylord Hotel does a fantastic fireworks show on the weekends, so we opened the curtains and enjoyed that. It was almost 10:00 p.m. before Spencer finally fell asleep, and the rest of us were not far behind.

The big activity for Sunday was LEGOLAND Discovery Center, also at the mall. This was the main reason our vacation took us to Grapevine and we were prepared to stay as long as Spencer wanted on Sunday. This place was great for his age - lots of activities and even 3 rides. It also has a 4D movie theater and we caught all 3 of the movies. We got a big kick out of the 4D experience (wind, rain and snow in the theater!).

Ready!

Being gangsta at the 4D theater

Getting an intro from Professor Brick-a-Brack

Daddy had as much fun as Spencer!

Mini-Land Rangers Stadium

Building cars to race.

I snapped a picture before our spin on the Merlin's Apprentice Ride

Spencer rode this 3 or 4 times - his favorite.

Of course when you leave LEGOLAND, you go through the gift shop on the way out. Paw-Paw was super generous and told Spencer he could pick out something for $50. Spencer was scoping out all the LEGO City sets. He found one that cost $50, but then an $80 set caught his eye. He said to Paw-Paw, "Hmmm...$80. Do you think you can handle that?" Paw-Paw smiled and said, "Yeah, I think I can handle that." But then Spencer put that one back and grabbed one that cost $20 and said, "Ohhhh, if I get this one and the $50 one, that'll be less. It'll be $70 instead of $80." Well, Paw-Paw couldn't argue with that, and said, "I guess I just saved $10." (Sidebar: I guess all that cash register play is paying off?)

After almost 6 hours at LEGOLAND, we caught the hotel shuttle back to our room. Spencer worked on the smaller kit and then we found a place to grab some dinner. We were all wiped out after our long day. Spencer wanted to do a little more on the small kit, before hitting the hay.

Just a little more...

We had considering squeezing in one more activity this morning before driving back to Austin (we did a one-way car rental - I had heard bad things about the return trip on the train being late a lot, so we opted to drive back for our maiden voyage), but decided we had done plenty. We stopped along the way for lunch and then Paw-Paw went back to Angleton shortly after we got home.

It was such a fun getaway. We are already scheming for our next train trip. Thank you Paw-Paw for a great weekend!

Memorial Day Weekend

I have a whole lot of catching up to do, but I'm going to start with Memorial Day and work backwards. I didn't take many pictures last weekend...

On Friday, Spencer got a big boy bed! We found a perfect bed frame on craigslist — Spencer requested a bed that was low to the ground. The white headboard matches the rest of his furniture perfectly.

We woke up Saturday and headed to the ranch to see Geep and Pop. Spencer and I went on a couple of hikes and Spence chased butterflies and took pictures with Geep's camera. There was also time for fishing and having breakfast on the porch.

We came back to Austin Sunday evening. Steffani, Chad and Ella were nice enough to invite us over to Nana's house Monday for lunch and swimming. Spencer tried swim goggles for the first time and had fun peeking underwater. We all had fun watching Ella dive and swim like a little fish! You can see pictures on Steffani's blog.

For our last stop, we went over to Garven's house that evening for a cookout. Spencer had so much fun playing with Camp and Robert. Spencer even tried the game Just Dance on the Wii. I was so proud of him for stretching out of his comfort zone. I couldn't stop smiling — so cute!

Mother's Day 2013

Dave and Spencer treated me to the nicest Mother's Day. First, they served me a cup of coffee in bed which I leisurely sipped while they wrapped my gift. (Confession: I slipped into the bathroom to flat-iron my hair for a minute because it looked crazy and there would be pictures!!) Then Spencer excitedly presented my surprises - a beautiful green scarf and lavender sweater. He picked out both and I love them. He also made me a pretty picture and painted a flowerpot for me at school.

I had requested breakfast at Bouldin Creek Cafe - so off we went. Yum! We had to wait a little while, but Spencer was very patient and ran around outside and we made up games to pass the time.

When we were finishing breakfast, I was remembering how we had eaten there last Mother's Day and went to The Natural Gardener afterward, and that sounded so nice that we headed there next. There's so much to see - beautiful plants, flowers and gardens of course, but also chickens, goats, and donkeys. Dave captured our official Mother's Day 2013 photo and then bought me a super cute hat!

Next on the agenda: frozen yogurt! Man, was I spoiled today or what??

After that we headed home for special treat. We bought a video camera right after Spencer was born, but we've never had the proper cable to download the videos or watch them on our TV. Dave ordered one last week, so this afternoon we watched a bunch of footage from 2009 - Spencer's first time in a pool, first boat ride, lots of bouncing in his jumper, 1st birthday and 2nd Christmas. It was fun, sweet and surreal - seems like a lifetime ago. Spencer got a big kick out it, too.We even saw my mom a couple of times and heard her talking off camera once, so that made it really sentimental and was great timing since I'm missing her so much today. (Sidebar: Why why why didn't we take some videos of my mom?? I know she hated being on camera, but I'd give anything to go back in time to do that. Ugh!)

Our final activity was dinner at our favorite Indian place, then home for Spencer's bedtime. When I tucked him in, Spencer said something like, "Thank you God for sending me to be my mommy's son." Swoon. It was a wonderful day filled with gratitude and love! I have the best husband and son a girl could ask for!

The Look Away Magician

Spencer likes to do magic tricks for us so Dave decided to film a couple of them the other day. Take a look. Look away. Be amazed!

You can see the other four tricks at http://www.youtube.com/LookAwayMagician. A big thanks to Daddy for doing such a good job producing these videos.

Nature's Way Field Trip

Spencer went on his first field trip while I was in Minnesota. The Hummingbirds went to Mayfield Park for the morning. Daddy went along for the ride, which definitely softened the disappointment (and mild uneasiness about the van ride) I felt when I found out I would be out of town. Here are some pics I grabbed off Dave's phone.

Loaded up and ready to leave.

Mr. Britt, Mr. Cedric and the Hummingbirds ready for a hike.

What a neat discovery!

They found a makeshift fort to explore.

8 little Hummingbirds

And of course the main attraction at Mayfield Park - showoff!

Golf Golf Golf

On Friday, Daddy and Spencer walked to Kerbey Lane for breakfast. When they were finished Spencer asked, "Where can we walk to now?" So they headed down South Lamar to check out Tuesday Morning. Well it's a good thing they did, because there just happened to be an awesome junior golf bag and club set on clearance.

When you have new golf gear, of course you have to head to the driving range to test it out.

On Saturday, Spencer said he wanted all three of us to go to the driving range. Of course we think Spencer's a junior Tiger, but Dave was a proud Daddy indeed when the golf pro there commented that he had been watching Spencer and he has a really good swing for age 4 and even called him a prodigy!

And what better thing to do on a Sunday afternoon than to hit the tent sale at Golfsmith? Daddy was in the market for a thing or two, but guess who came away with all the stuff? Spencer found some golf shoes (marked down to $17 from $60!), a golf cap, a glove and driver. He practiced inside the store where you can hit toward a big screen and a computer calculates the distance, etc. In this video he's making sure our friend David Baker is watching.

Spencer also hit a small bucket of balls at the driving range outside the store and practiced putting before we headed out.

When I was watching Spencer today at the driving range, I thought of the picture below and wanted to recreate it. I wasn't able to get the exact picture I wanted, but makes me sentimental to compare the Spencer of almost 3 years ago with his first golf set and my big boy golfer today.

A Snowy Week (with revised video...)

Note: I replaced the video with a YouTube version so it'll work on mobile devices.

I've been in Minnetonka, MN this week, where much to everyone's displeasure, a nice little snowstorm came through yesterday. People in these parts get grumpy when it's still snowing in April, but to this Texan it's just magical.

I'm so ready to be back home with the boys. They sent me the sweetest message yesterday.

Off to the airport soon. Just hoping there's no trickle-down effect from Boston to delay my flight!