Labor Day Picnic

On Monday September 2nd, we had a family get together with my Dad's side of the family .  We were glad to celebrate Labor Day together--those of us that could gather.  Paul was glad that he didn't fly to Spain until the next day, so he could come to this get together.  (He had missed all the gatherings when I was here before and he was in Texas.) 

We gathered at Evergreen Park in Salt Lake City.  We used to go there when we were kids and it was fun to go there again, now with our kids.  It did change, but they did keep some of the same elements that we loved about it so much--two words--pumpkin carriage!

On the Road Again

As I mentioned in the previous post, we had one week in Austin after our vacation to Branson.  Paul was returning to Spain for the Fall months, and Glenn and I were going to live in Utah for that time.  When we first made these plans and decisions we still hadn't sold our house in Lehi, Paul didn't have many vacation days this time in Spain, and every-day living in Spain had been pretty hard for Glenn and me.  So we were going to live these months apart.  Paul was able to take a couple of days off so we could drive to Utah and then he would fly to Spain from there.  We left Friday, August 30th at 6pm, hoping to miss the hottest part of the day.  We also wanted to just drive right on through the night until reaching Layton, getting it over with instead of dragging it out over a few days.  We had a rule though--once you hit the rumble strip, you were out!  And the other person had to take over driving, or if both were too tired, we would pull over to rest.  So once again, we were on the road, driving through many states in the good ol' USA.

Saturday morning we made it to Four Corners.  We took a bit of a detour to visit a few places on the way.  We loved having an excuse to get out and stretch our legs.  

Four Corners

Dinner with Friends

Just after our trip to Branson, we had one week back in Austin.  We were invited over to one of Paul's coworker's home for dinner.  Miguel and his wife Rebecca also stayed at the Staybridge Hotel back at the beginning of the year.  They are from Spain (and Germany) and were relocating to the Austin office.  We enjoyed getting to know them and were excited to see them again.  

Branson Fun at Home

The morning that we were to leave, Paul came downstairs looking for Glenn.  When he couldn't find him, he looked out the window...

The Branson Belle

Our last show in Branson was on a showboat.

The Dutton's

Thursday night, Paul and I went on a date to another show--The Dutton's.  They were an LDS family as well, and we joked that we only saw the LDS acts in town!  They were all really good and I was glad to be supporting fellow members of our church.

The Dutton family was by far the largest group on stage.  Paul and I really enjoyed that they included many, if not all, of their family in the show.

Miniature Golf

Thursday of our week in Branson, we went to lunch at Applebee's.  

We really enjoyed having someone else make us food while we got to sit and visit.  We talked to Grandma and Grandpa about their lives--what was good, what was bad, what was hard.  We are so blessed to have grandparents who have lived good lives and have endured great trials.

George Dyer

The next day, August 21st, we went to another show--George Dyer.

He has an amazing voice!  I wish I had recorded him--not sure why I didn't--maybe because I was enjoying it so much that I didn't think about it.  At the beginning of his show he walked around the theater, shaking people's hands.  He came right up to us--you can see us in the big screen behind him--and I tried to snap a picture of him but it was really blurry.

The Bretts

Branson is sort of like a Las Vegas, but better. :D  It has lots of fun things to do there--mini golf, go-carts, water parks, etc. and it has tons of shows!  That is what Branson is known for--it's family-friendly shows.  We were excited to get to go to several of them throughout the week.  

Our first show was on Tuesday August 20th to see the Bretts.  They are an LDS family who live in Branson.  This was their 15th year there and they had a fun show to celebrate it!

Branson, Missouri

Our vacation was in Branson, Missouri.  Paul's maternal grandparents have a time share there at a resort called Stormy Point.  We were so excited to be spending a week with them in this cute resort spot in beautiful Missouri.

On Our Way to Missouri

Remember how we were subletting an apartment during the summer while we were in Texas?  Well our lease was up on Saturday August 16th and we had a family vacation planned for the next week--perfect! So we packed up the few things that we had with us in their apartment, put some in storage, and took some with us on our way to Missouri.  On our way out, we stopped at a local chicken restaurant called Raising Cane's.  It had really yummy chicken fingers!  

Happy 6th Anniversary!

A week after Glenn's birthday, Paul and I celebrated our 6 year anniversary!

Can't believe it's been 6 years already!

I'm so happy to have Paul in my life.  He is a wonderful man, husband and father.

We celebrated by going out to dinner at Maggiano's Little Italy.  Yum!!  We highly recommend it to anyone looking for good food.  We love the zucchini appetizer!  And we love the food deal even more--get one appetizer, two entrees to eat at the restaurant and two more to take home with you, and one dessert. It's such a great deal!!  And we have yummy food for another meal or two after the restaurant.

I love you Paul!  Thanks for asking me to marry you!!

Summer Reading

 During our few weeks in Texas, Glenn really started reading more and more.  I found this idea on Pinterest--to set up some sight words and have your child race to it with a car.  I decided to try it out with Glenn.  We had practiced with these words here and there and with reading short books.  He really liked this idea.  He felt so proud of himself and so happy when he found the words and had learned to recognize them.

Glenn turns 4!

Glenn was so excited for his birthday and for turning 4!  

He woke up happy, as he always does, and couldn't wait until his new friends came over for the party.  It wasn't time for that yet, but we did start celebrating by eating a birthday donut for breakfast.

Glenn loves donuts and was happy to be starting his day with one.

HEB Buddy Bucks

Here in Texas there is a store called HEB, or Here Everything's Better.

It is a regular grocery store, except for the Buddy Bucks.

At the cashier, if you have kids with you, they can get some Buddy Bucks.  Buddy is the paper bag character that you can see in the machine.  You take these bucks and put in them in the machine.  They get points and save up to 'buy' or redeem certain little prizes.

Glenn loves it!  And it helps him be good in the store too.

Peter Pan Play

On Saturday, August 3, we went to a free kids play of Peter Pan.

They had some cute hats for sale along with the kid's book.  We bought both since they were a good price and we knew both would be used a lot.

Glenn loves the story of Peter Pan and loves to pretend to be him.

Fun in Texas

We like to have fun anywhere and everywhere.  

Glenn got this little minion in a kid's meal somewhere.  We thought it was so funny.  We decided it would be funny to have this be on our blog, to start this post, showing how much fun we have together.

Convert Baptism

In our ward Paul was called to be a ward missionary.  There was a man, Cyprian, who was investigating the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  We have sister missionaries assigned to our ward, so they needed places to meet with Cyprian.  We loved having him in our home.  We loved having the missionaries in our home as well.  After accepting the invitation to be baptized, we were blessed to attend his baptism on July 27, 2013.  We loved seeing his happiness as he made this new step in his life.

Splash Pad

One of our favorite things we found while we were in Texas were the splash pads.  They apparently have these little water pads all over and it is so great.  It gets so hot here in Texas and it's nice to have several places that we can go to cool off.  And I think I like these splash pads more than pools because I don't have to worry about Glenn drowning or having to hold him the entire time because he doesn't know how to swim yet.

Fire Ants

Texas has a lot of bugs and pests.  We found out the hard way that fire ants' bites really hurt!

Glenn and I were playing outside when he hid behind a tree.  After a few seconds he came out screaming and crying.  I looked down at his feet and there were hundreds of ants all over him.  He got bit so many times and was in a lot of pain.