Texas vs BYU Game

For over a year now, Matt and I have been planning this trip down to Austin, TX for the BYU vs Texas game. We met up with our friends Joe and Lacy. Joe and Matt have been very close friends since Freshman yr at BYU and our families have vacationed together often since.

Wrestling the long horn.

We ate lots of YUMMY local food. My favorite being the Tex Mex. This was the first dish Matt ate and it was incredible!! It was BBQ fried and grilled pork tacos. OH YUM! Sadly, I didn't remember to take pictures of the other great food we had, but I think eating was my favorite part of the trip! :)

We went to a free botanical garden. Sadly, this was the ONLY green part of Austin. They were under a drought advisory and so no one was allowed to water and everything was DEAD and BROWN!!

I know this is not a good picture, but one thing we did that is very popular in Austin is to go to this bridge (S. Congress bridge) and watch the 1.5 million bats swirling around underneath it. We couldn't get a picture of the bats because it was too dark.

We took a tour of the capital which was a very pretty building.

What the inside of the dome looked like.

Other things we did that we didn't get pictures of was tour a museum about TX, walk S. Congress and look at all the cool, eclectic shops they had, work out, and just hang out with our buddies.

That really tall structure in the background, that's the TX stadium. IT WAS HUGE!

Bronco

We lucked out as we got up close to the stadium, we saw a big crowd of BYU fans gathering so we gathered, too. Next thing we knew, the team pulled up in their buses and we got to see them all get out. It was really fun to be there and helped add to the excitement we had building for the game.

Jake Heaps
Here we are up close.
Here we are way up high in our seats. We were against the very back wall, the highest you can get in the whole stadium. It was a little scary up there, I was scared to lean too far forward.

Our back wall, at least it acted as a back rest. :)

Texas has lots of cool traditions and were really great fans. They were very nice and cordial with us and we had a fun time watching the game surrounded by them.

We were sad to have lost, but had a great time being there. Next years plan is Notre Dame (that is if I can make Matt stick to our original plan of him taking me before the boys enticed him to do a mancation to the Notre Dame game).

And a big THANK YOU to my wonderful in-laws who took the kids for the weekend. They were so sweet to do that and I didn't need to worry about the kids for one second because I knew they were in good hands.

Another Day at the Farm

In August, we decided to venture out to that awesome free farm that is somewhat near to us. Grandma, Aunt Meagan (just days from her due date), and cousin Dade all came with us. We had been going through a horrible heat wave and this day was actually mild and the perfect day to venture out.


These tractors are Carter's favorite part of the farm I think.




My favorite part is feeding the baby goats. They are so cute (and aggressive).



We also went on a hay ride behind some big, beautiful horses.



I tried the impossible to get a cute picture of all the kids at least looking at me at once, I didn't even expect smiles from all of them. Yeah right!!


Grandma with her grandkids. She had just given each of them a sucker after we ate our lunch.


Hayden loves to sit on these rocking animals. It's so cute to see her be so big.




Peek-a-boo (a new game she can play) at the playground.

Carter's First Day of Preschool 2011

It's crazy for me to think that this is Carter's 3rd and last year of preschool. He is looking so big and grown up, but I remember thinking that last year at this time and now I look at those pictures from last year and think how much he's grown up since then. They just grow so fast. I love this boy so much and am so grateful that Heavenly Father deemed me worthy to be his mother. We have our struggles, but everyday we are learning from each other. He is a remarkable kid!


He was so excited to wear his new Lego Star Wars backpack and carry his new lunchbox. This is the first year he is taking a lunch to school, it's a pretty big deal!


It's so fun to have a Grandma in town that can go to days like this with you! And for those of you wondering, I am 25 weeks along.


Carter really wanted to wear his mohawk on the first day of school. His only disappointment was that it wasn't higher. He will soon learn, that with his Daddy I don't know if it will ever get much higher than this. (My Mom is nodding with approval right now as she is reading this comment. I love you, Mom!)




For the fun of it, I thought I would include last year's first day of school picture. It's amazing how much he's grown!

Iowa State Fair 2011

When we used to live in Des Moines one of our favorite things was to go to the IA State Fair. I dare say it's the best state fair in the whole country. One year while living there, USA Today voted it one of the top 6 things do in the summer through out the country. While in town for the weekend we stayed with some very dear friends of our that we made up there while Matt was going to school. I worked with Tom, the Dad, at a local bank.


This was Carter's favorite thing he did at the fair. I couldn't believe how high up he went and how big he looked.


The Big Slide. Carter slid down with Michael on one side and Taylor was on the other side.


I love the look of pure joy on Carter's face.


Michael and Taylor holding Hayden on this big wooden train that the kids LOVE to climb on. It was really cool.




There was a baby pig that we got to pet that was only a few days old.



This baby calf was also a few days old. They had two big flat screens on the walls of this building showing the birth of this calf. I find it quite fascinating. It was a lot messier than what you see in movies. It was all really cool to me until the Mom started licking off all the after birth and then my stomach couldn't take it anymore. That is one impressive Momma willing to do that!!

A baby ostrich!


We saw this baby chick come out of it's shell. It was so amazing to watch, I got all teary-eyed.


Baby Goslings


These baby goslings were so funny because they would play tug a war and tag with these little fishes in the pond. We just sat around and laughed as we watched.


Our crew admiring the baby goslings.


The other part of our crew - Tom and Michael.


Baby Sheep


The famous butter cow, celebrating it's 100 year anniversary of being made.


Carter was quite impressed by these HUGE pumpkins.


Matt and I were in shock over the cost of these tractors. Some of them cost as much as a REALLY nice house!


This wagon was our big rip off of the day. We forgot a stroller and without there being straps in the wagon to keep Hayden in, it was pretty close to being a total waist of $15 rental fee for the day. But we did get close to 100 people asking us where we bought our collapsable wagon.


Here is our Fair crew except Matt (taking the pic) and Carter (too exhausted to smile in a pic)right before we took off. It just felt so good to be back in IA again. It truly is America's Heartland. It is so beautiful and peaceful. Plus, to see friends we love was so great as well.


What cute boys I have!

Carter jumping on the tramp: