Surprise Trip to Dallas

I've been wanting to do this post for almost a week now, but obviously haven't, so here I am finally getting to it. A few weeks ago my brother-in-law, Mark, called me to see if I wanted to go to Dallas to surprise my sister, Sarah, for her birthday. I LOVE surprises so I readily agreed. Kathryn and I flew down there on Sarah's birthday (May 16th) and Mark and my niece (Adriana) picked us up from the airport. He had told Sarah that they were going to work on a project for her birthday so she wouldn't be suspicious of anything. When we got back to their house, he let me out in the driveway while he pulled into their garage. I waited a couple of minutes and then rang their doorbell. My sister answered and she was really surprised and shocked to see Kat and I on their doorstep. The look on her face was priceless. Anyway, it was so great to go down there and we had such a fun time together. Our two little girls had a blast too. Here are some pictures from our trip...

These first ones are all from the Dallas Arboretum (botanical gardens). It was so beautiful and a fun place to take pictures of these two cutie pies.

There was a spot with little benches and chairs that were just their size.

These are a few of my favorite flowers we saw there...

Speaking of beautiful flowers, I went running several times while we were down there in preparation for the 10K I ran on Memorial Day. It was fun to be on a new trail and it really made me think about how much the Lord loves us. I think being in a new place made me notice all of the beautiful things around me more and think about how they were all created for us. He didn't have to create all the things He did, let alone more than one type of flower/tree/butterfly/bird/other animals, etc., but He did for our enjoyment. It just felt so good to remember that in that way. I love being outside and I am so thankful for all of the beautiful things we have to enjoy and make life more interesting. Anyways, back to the rest of our trip...

While we were there we also got to see my cousin and her family, which was really fun. We also went shopping at the outlet mall where we found lots of good deals, played games, watched movies, hung out, went out for a delicious Mexican lunch, and even tried taking a dip in the pool. Unfortunately the water was pretty cold and neither of the girls liked it very much.

Oh well. We'll try again another time. They DID have fun in the bath though.

It was so fun to watch Kathryn and Adriana play together. Adriana loved kissing...

hugging...

(Can you tell how much Kathryn liked this?) :)

...and feeding Kathryn (sorry no pic). Just like the last time we were with them, Kathryn picked up something new from Adriana (last time she learned how to wave). We had seen her clap her hands a couple of times, but while we were there she really refined that skill. It's really cute and I love the sound her tiny little hands make. Kathryn loved having a playmate her size and has been bored without her since we've been home. They definitely played hard!

We did, too! We only got a couple of pictures of the two of us, but here's one since Leslie asked :) I thought about putting it on before, but my hair is kinda big in it. Maybe it will appear too small to really tell. Here's hoping :)
Thanks Sarah and Mark for having us come. We had an awesome time and can't wait to see you again!

Weekend Fun!

It's been a little while since we've done a post and we've done some fun things the past two weekends, so I thought it would be fun to put up some pictures. Two weekends ago, we had fun playing games on Friday night with our friends the Hreinson's and the Palmer's. On Saturday morning I was giving Kathryn a bath which has become difficult lately because she wants to grab anything in her reach. This can be a problem at bath time since she can reach the faucet. :) Anyway, I asked Drew to come help me and this was his solution...

In case you can't tell, that is his sweatband around her. It actually worked pretty well :)

That afternoon we went to look at some apartments because we are wanting to save some money. We had seen an ad for our apartment complex offering much lower rent, so we decided to check on that, too. To make a long story short, we signed a new lease for an apartment in our complex just like the one we're in now, minus the newer carpet, countertops, and paint, for $230 less than we're paying right now. We couldn't believe it and feel really blessed that we could do that. We're also very happy our apartment search is over. That evening, we went with our friends Deborah and Jaran to Boulder to try out a burger place that one of Drew's co-workers suggested. It is called Larkburger and they take pride in using all natural ingredients and eco-friendly packaging. Their cups are made from corn and their utensils are made from potatoes-so they're called spudware :) (Of course it all looks normal, but it's cool to think about what it's made of.) Anyways, the burgers were really good and they also have delicious garlic fries and shakes. YUM! It was definitely worth the trip.
After we ate, to make the trip even more worth it, we decided to take a leisurely drive through the mountains. It was really pretty and we even saw some wild animals...at least Deborah thought we did...until we found out the "wolves" she thought she saw were actually dogs :) But that's okay. On our drive, we passed through this tiny town called Nederland-population 1,394.
There was a sign on the side of the road advertising a movie showing of "Knowing" at their community center.It was about 10 minutes before it started, so we decided to go in and see it. The movie was pretty good...at least until the aliens came in, but that's okay. It was fun to go to a movie again and especially in such a unique place. It reminded me of all the small towns in Iowa. Kathryn did really well during the movie too. It's always fun to do something spontaneous.

This past weekend, we went to the Park Meadows Mall for a date. They had a traveling exhibit there about the Titanic which was really cool to walk through. It was amazing to see all of the things they've been able to recover from the site where the Titanic sank. They had things like cuff links, money, a bathroom faucet, a mirror, clothes, bags, and a bunch of things that were made out of paper or cardboard. We couldn't believe that all of that had lasted for so long under water, especially the paper things. At the beginning of the exhibit we were each given a boarding pass with a passenger's name on it. Then at the end we saw if our person had survived or not. I was a first class passenger from Europe and Drew was a third class passenger from SCRANTON, PA (If you watch the Office, you'll know why that is so cool!) :) He didn't survive, but I did. It kind of reminded me of the movie Titanic. Anways, it was cool too because they took our picture...
After we looked at the exhibit we ate at a burger place at the mall. It was pretty good and they had amazing sweet potato fries--Yum!

Then on Saturday, we went downtown to participate in the MS (multiple sclerosis) walk. Drew's mom and my cousin have MS and so did my uncle, so we wanted to go support the cause. Unfortunately the website had some bad information and we got stuck waiting for 45 minutes in a high school parking lot for a shuttle to come pick us up. We finally made it over there as the walk was ending but we still had fun walking around and checking out the booths.
That night we made truffles! It was fun, pretty easy, and they turned out so good! We did 4 different flavors-plain chocolate, raspberry, orange, and almond butter. We're already excited to make them again!
Well, if you actually read that whole thing, I am impressed. Maybe we'll bring you some truffles the next time we make them :)