anniversary trip

since it was our 5 year anniversary, and we haven't been on a trip without kids, cody and i felt like we were overdue for a vacation, just the two of us.  for the longest time we could not decide where we wanted to go. cody once surprised me with a trip when we were first married...and since then i told him he can't do that anymore.  let's just say it consisted of taking everything i needed in a backpack so we didn't have to pay for a carry on (yes, the airline he chose charged for a large carry on) and taking public transportation everywhere. it was an adventure.
all i really wanted was to go someplace where there was a pool or beach, where i could sit with a book and soda and read without being interrupted by my kids. we finally decided to go to galveston, and i'm so glad that we did.  it might not be the most exotic place, but we had a great time.

cody delivered this time.  he picked the hotel, we stayed at the hotel galvez.  it was really beautiful, right on the beach, and had some neat history.

i didnt get tired of this view!

 i'm a beach bum.  literally could spend all day down there, and normally do when i go.  cody on the other hand is not.  but, my sweet husband spent time each day at the beach with me so i could get my beach time in.  he's a pretty awesome guy.

 we found out there were some really cool houses to tour while we were there.  there are 7 "castles" on the main street in galveston, some of them are privately owned and a few of them you can go in.  they were once owned by families, and the historical foundation has preserved them.  it was so cool! 

 this one is called the bishop's castle.  because the family that built it sold it to the catholic church and the bishop lived there.

when we went to dinner one night, we drove down a street with the most amazing and amazingly scary houses!  this was one of the creepy ones, all of the shutters were closed, the paint was peeling...totally creepy.

then we found this one.  still so weird to see these huge brick homes by the beach!

 then we found another creepy one.  this one looked straight out of a horror movie.  we thought it was abandoned...until we saw shoes on the steps.  we hightailed it out of there,

love this guy.

then we toured the moody mansion.  the moody's owned a lot of galveston, and played a big role in rebuilding the city after the great storm of 1900.

 pleasure pier is a must while you're there.  we love amusement parks, and while this one isn't amazing, it was fun to ride some rides.  and, it's a beautiful view.

 i've never been on a ferris wheel...i know, who am i?  so i thought, what better place to ride one for the first time, than over the ocean...wrong!  it was so scary!!  the wind was blowing like crazy, you aren't strapped in, you stop all the time, and you're just hanging out over the ocean.

 so glad that we had this time together to reconnect.  it's been a really long time since we've been able to have so much time alone.  it made me remember why i fell in love with him in the first place.  it was wonderful.

 i'm not typically afraid of rides or anything.  but for some reason that stinkin' ferris wheel freaked me out.

 i have a death grip on that pole.

we made a stop at the houston temple on the way home.  it has been so long since we've been able to actually go to the temple together.  it was a wonderful way to end our trip...along with a stop at buc-ee's!

gram, gramps and uncle coleman

a few months ago cody and i decided that we wanted to go on a trip, just the two of us, to celebrate our 5 year anniversary.  the only time i have been away for a prolonged period of time from either of my kids was when i flew down here for 2 days to look at houses.  so i was a little unsettled about it.  lucky for us, my parents and brother decided they would come stay with the girls while we took out trip!

of course we got delicious food while they were here.  we went downtown and had Lucy's Fried Chicken.  it did not disappoint

it took mae a little while to warm up to uncle coleman, but once she did, he had a little shadow.

this kid and her long arms and legs

 haha cody didn't have a chance to change after work, and we were eating outside, so he rolled up his pants because he was hot.  i had to capture that.

mae really wanted to sit in the high chair at the restaurant.  she was hovering around izzy.    

cody and i left on sunday, and i was pretty proud of myself.  i didn't text my mom to check on the girlies until close to 3pm.  that's a good 6 hours!  it was hard to say bye, not because my parents can't do it...they raised coleman and three other kids for goodness sake...but because i was nervous about how my kids would be!

well, they didn't miss me much.  mae had fun dressing her baby doll in izzy's clothes.

and izzy probably got more attention than she has gotten in quite some time.

 love this picture my mom took.

i'm so glad we took this trip for a number of reasons.  but, one that i didn't even think about until i left, was how grateful i am that the girls had this time with their grandparents and uncle.  i have some special memories with my aunts, uncles and grandparents.  i'm so glad that they were able to spend this much time with them.

oh coleman.   my favorite coleman moment of the trip: mae had to go potty and my mom and i were doing something, so he walked her over to the bathroom and said "what do i do?, i don't know what i'm doing!"  haha, i'm pretty sure that was the one and only time he took her potty.

my parents were troopers.  reading books, changing diapers, taking mae potty, having stickers put on them, getting their "hair done", getting woken up in the night.  so wonderful that they were willing to do this for us.  and more importantly that they still love my kids afterwards!

mickydonalds

well, because mae had ( i say had because we've had a few slip ups since then) gone three whole weeks without any kind of accidents, we made a trip to mcdonalds (mickydonalds) for a happy meal, and a nice large diet coke for mama.
i'm really proud of this kiddo.  yeah it took us a good 6 weeks to 2 months before i felt confident going out without her in a pull-up, but she did it.  so it was a much deserved trip.  and really, anytime i can use my kid as an excuse to get myself a nice big soda is awesome.

 

so this is what a baby jumper is supposed to look like...with a cute little baby in it.

this is what it looks like at my house....with a 40 pound toddler in it.  we've had it out for about 3 weeks, and this kid still gets in it just about everyday.  whatever keeps her busy right?

 she has become very concerned whenever izzy does something.  these are the phrases i hear most often in my home "izzy touching me", "that's mines izzy", "izzy has my toy", and my favorite "izzy looking at me".  so it begins.  we're working on the whole sharing thing, but heaven forbid i ever give izzy one of mae's toys to play with.  i've got her pretty well trained.  instead of just ripping it away from her, she has to go get izzy something else to play with. the other day it was a plastic bag...nice.

this kid.  she still falls out of bed on a regular basis.  the other night i went to check on her and didn't see her and had a mini freak out until i found her like this in the chair in her room.  i'm still not really sure how this happened...

 munchkin number two turned 6 months the other day.  crazy to think that she's 6 months already!  she's eating like a champ, we've started 3 solid meals a day because no matter how much formula she had she was still hungry.  not sure where all that food goes, she's still a lean mean machine.  i've been making my baby food for the most part.  and i'm still trying to decide if it's worth it.  with how much she eats i feel like i'm always pureeing stuff!  supposedly it's cheaper, but, if i factor in the time it takes i'm not so sure about that.  we'll see how long i keep it up.

we've been eating a lot better around these parts.  green smoothies everyday, homemade granola bars, using coconut oil instead of butter (for the most part), that sort of thing.  so i decided to try to make my own pizza.  lucky for me i found a no yeast pizza dough recipe, and was able to "doctor" it up, so it was a little healthier.  it turned out pretty good!  mae is my little kitchen helper.  she had a blast helping me in there.

5 Years

 it's hard to believe that it has been 5 years since cody and i were married. seriously?! some days it feels way longer than that.  and others, i still feel like those young 20 somethings about to start an amazing journey together. 

  i remember being so nervous and anxious that day, lots of angst and even some throwing up.  was i making a mistake? is this really the right guy? do i even know this guy? do i even know myself? there's a lot i wish i could tell that girl, the most important being, you will never ever second guess the decision you have made.  it has been the best most wonderful decision.

that's not to say our life has been easy.  we've definitely had our ups and downs.  but, we've worked together and grown stronger because of it. that's what this life is about, right? 

if you would have told me 5 years ago that we would be living in austin with 2 kids, there is no way i would have believed you.  but, we're exactly where we're supposed to be, and there is no one else i would rather do this with.

i still can't believe how blessed i am to have married such a handsome, kind, caring, patient, hard-working, loving, funny, dedicated man.  he continues to surprise me with new ideas all the time.  he never runs out of goals for us, and is always striving to better himself.

 

looking back, there's things i would do differently, there were things that went wrong, but ultimately the only thing about that day that matters is that cody and i were sealed in the temple.  what an amazing blessing to be a forever family.