Bird Watching

We had a great day yesterday exploring around. We started at the Sea Center Texas, which is a small free aquarium center.

The kids loved the exhibit with the shark the best.
They were a bit squeemish about the petting tank.

Next we went to two different wildlife refuges. Mark saw six new life birds.

The kids were being lazy and didn't want to walk. The other guy is our neighbor, Dann.

We ended by driving along the coast and stopping at the beach.

We found tons of nice big seashells. That was the kids favorite part.

Gingerbread Houses

This is one of my favorite Christmas traditions:

Maddie's house

My house
Sydnie's house

Mark helped Sydnie

Last week we went to the zoo.

Witnie likes the wagon

This is at a park next to the zoo.

The bear is trying to get the fish

Happy Thanksgiving!

We took some family pictures today:

Maddie put it best today: "We had a lot of delicious food today!"

Witnie loved the rolls.

Adventure Race

We put up our Christmas tree and this is Witnie's favorite spot.
This alligator hung out just off shore from our camp site.

A family photo

Making smores with Grandma

Mark and I before the race. You can go to this link to see the results: http://www.texasadventureracing.com/TAR%20results%20huntsfull.html

We did the - sprint. I am just happy I finished.

Happy Halloween!

The kids ended up with 3 pumpkins full of candy after the ward Trunk-or-Treat and Trick-or- Treating. Sydnie was pretty happy about the haul.

All of us in costume.

We went camping Friday night to canoe and bike in preparation for our adventure race in two weeks. That was the first time I had been on the trails at Huntsville State Park and I learned two things. I will be able to finish the race, but we will be last.

Chillin' with Dad.

Maddie always manages to find critters.
Our pumpkin

Maddie had a Mother Goose dress up day in school. A friend let us borrow this costume.

I found a huge box of GeoTrax at a garage sale to add to our collection.

Birthdays and More

Maddie had a blast running a race yesterday. Several of the elementary schools get together and each grade has a race. All the little kindergarteners were so cute racing.
I hadn't picked peppers for a few days, so this is what I got when I went out.
Obviously Sydnie loved her birthday present (she picked it out).

The cake wasn't bad either.

Witnie has joined the ranks of the eat-out-of-the-icecream-bucketers.

Where's Maldo

Mark got to be in Where's Maldo again this year. He had a friend's son help him dress up and go with him. He was just a bit scary looking.

I'll end with a cute video.

Fall Fun

We went to a fall festival at the local community college.

Maddie was so excited for the pony rides, but Sydnie refused to get on when it was her turn.

Sydnie was terrified when the animals at the petting zoo looked at her, but she enjoyed petting them from behind.

Sydnie was also too scared to get on the firetruck, but Maddie enjoyed learning about it.

This is how Witnie enjoyed the festivities.

The old fashioned firetruck wasn't as scary.

I thought this chicken was really funny.

Last week we went on an evening canoe trip. We paddled down a not moving river from one park to another. Then we were suppose to canoe back. We paddled and paddled and finally made it back to the wrong park we had just left. Somehow we got turned around and headed back the wrong direction. By this time it was 9:30 and we were 3 miles paddling or 5 miles running from our car and the parks closed at 10:00. Thankfully a park ranger drove by right then and drove Mark back to pick up our car before it was towed away. We had a fabulous time though because we never knew we were going the wrong way until the end, and it was a full moon and warm and absolutely beautiful.