Recent road trip

Labor Day weekend we decided to go on a little road trip around some Texas towns. We headed northwest to Austin to eat at Salt Lick bbq. It was gmod but not the best, Rudy's is the best in my opinion. We then saw on the map that Luckenbach was around these parts. We thought Luckenbach was a town in Texas. It is NOT. It is a dance hall. We drove through the parking lot but didn't get out. We then headed to our destination, Fredericksburg, to go to the Pacific War Museum. It was fun but involved lots of reading, and well the twins don't read. So we ended up breezing through and waiting at the end for Ashley and Aaron. We did go to the reenactment which involved guns and fire which we all enjoyed. We drove to San Antonio and spent the night so we could wake up bright and early to go to Sea World. We had so much fun at Sea World. W got to enjoy the water park this time. Last time we went Ashley was 10 and we took her in November. We only stayed until about 2 since we knew we would be worn out. We took naps and then ate dinner at La Margaritas. Monday we went home to lots of rain. Here are a few pictures of our trip.

Preston who refuses to get a hair cut. I trim the front and sides while he is sleeping, hehe

Cute little sea lion

Me, Ashley and Lily feeding the dolphins

Stuck on this roller coaster...............

called LIFE!!!! Living in Newfoundland I developed a simpler way of life and I liked it. Now I am running ragged, driving here, there, everywhere and stuck on this roller coaster. As if I didn't have enough to do with raising 3 kids, a husband who travels, associate director of Cypress Calling Ministries and lots of changes to a few other family members. I decided to start my own online business. I am so proud to announce that Lily Lou Designs is open for business. I hope everything is set up on the website correctly. I have spent the last few months learning everything I need to know to get it started.
Back to Calgary. We rode the train all over the city. When we got back from Banff Aaron had to work. The kids and I would plan our day and look at the train maps to see what train went where. We went to the zoo, museum, a few malls, parks, splash pads. We had a great time. Houston could learn a thing or 2 about the transit system up there. It would be nice to jump on a train and go to an Astros game........ in the future, MAYBE?

Calgary Stampede

Saturday we went to the Calgary Stampede. This happened to also be mine and Aaron's 6th anniversary. We didn't have anything planned, just dinner that night. We took the train into the stampede grounds, Preston loved this part. The first place we stopped was the midway, Ashley had high hopes that we would be riding EVERYTHING! I am sorry but any ride that is assembled overnight by who knows who, no thank you. She and Aaron rode a few things then we headed to see Thomas and Friends. The kids were not impressed by the foam like Thomas figure on stage and the Sir Topem Hat dancing around. We decided to go to where the smell led us. Carnival food! Aaron and I ate beef that looked like it had been cooking for days, it was so good and juicy. Ashley played it safe with a corn dog. We also ate jalapeno cheese sticks. I was really impressed by the Stampede. There were lots of horses, cows and other animals. It was alot like the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. We left exhausted but knew we had to get our energy back up for our anniversary dinner. We got to the room, got ready and headed to a huge tent set up in downtown for the stampede. It was called Wild Horse Saloon and it was wild. Aaron and I surely were out of place with our wedding bands shining like beacons in the night. This place was for the young and single. We drank a few then headed to Caesar's Steak House. Now this was our kind of place......... classy, great steak and great atmosphere. This is probably the best steak I have ever had, and I have been to Ruth's Chris. Seriously I don't know what it is with the beef here but it's good.

Sunday
We didn't have anything planned we decided to just lay low and take the kids to see Toy Story 3. The nearest theater was in the Eau Claire district. Which is a really nice side of downtown. We left a few hours early just because you never know what our family will stumble upon. We just so happen to stumble upon the Turkish Festival. The food smelled so good that we couldn't wait for them to start serving. We all had some Shawarma, Doner Kebab, and Baklava.
The kids did great for their first movie theater experience. Preston said a few times "I wanna get outta here" but we told him we couldn't leave until the movie was over. We loved the movie but it was kind of questionable with some of the toys being rude, hitting and saying mean things. After the movie we looked at our map to see if there was anything else in the area we wanted to do before walking back to the hotel. There was a little island across the river called Prince's Island Park. I loved all the gardens and flowers. The weather is so mild here that there are a ton of flowers and gardens overflowing with greenery. Things that are shriveling up and dying in Houston are thriving and loving the weather here. Prince's Island just has a few nature trails and access to the Bow river, which was freezing cold. We walked back to the hotel through China Town and Aaron promised we would go back to China Town on Monday to eat real Chinese food............................... which we did.

Calgary

We have only been here 4 days but I feel like it's already been 2 weeks. We have doe so much and walked so far. Seriously this city has alot to offer. We got in Thur and headed to our hotel in downtown. We unpacked and hit the town. Since the sun doesn't set until about 10 pm we had lots of day light left to burn. We went to Stephen Ave., which is a trendy part of downtown. We checked out a few things at Betsey Johnson, all of which were way out of our price range. We ate dinner at Milestones Grill before heading back to our hotel. Can I just tell you that going out to a nice restaurant and ordering a cheeseburger is not an insult in Alberta. Their beef is awesome.

Friday morning we had a date with the Calgary Stampede parade. I have not been to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo parade so I can't compare. It was really neat and reminded me alot of Texas. We stayed for about an hour and a half but left before it ended because it was loooooong. They had horses, cowboys, all the usual rodeo type floats and animals. We took a ton of pictures but have yet to go through them all. We spent the afternoon walking around downtown, grocery shopping (so we didn't have to eat every meal out) and napping at the hotel. We ate dinner at a place I found called District that specializes in gourmet Poutine. Poutine is french fries with gravy and cheese curds, something we all loved to eat while living in Newfoundland. District has lots of topping you can add to your gourmet Poutine. I didn't get too outrageous and only added mushrooms and onions. The kids have had so much fun. We really needed this family time. With Aaron working in Calgary and me holding down the fort in Houston this trip has been wonderful!

I will leave you hanging with the rest of the trip....... stay tuned for the Stampede post. We head to the Canadian Rockies to see Lake Louise and Banff tomorrow.

It's taken me long enough!

We have been home from Disney for almost a week and not one single post. It's been a rough week. As soon as we got home I kicked it into Christmas gear. I spend the day Monday shopping online. I love that I can shop online and ship the gifts to the recipients. Makes traveling and shopping so much easier. Now getting the gifts home from the states to Canada is a whole other process. Then there was the house that needed to be cleaned, the laundry that needed to be done and oh about 1300 pictures that needed to be uploaded and gone through. So here I am finally ready to tell you all about Disney. It really is a magical place. There is not a detail that the folks at Disney have left out. If you can dream it they provide it. We had a lot of fun and felt like everyone at Disney really loved being there and loved their jobs. Not to mention the food at every place we ate was amazing. Special thanks to my sister and her husband for allowing us to tag along on their yearly Disney trip. We will have to do it again. We visited all 4 parks, Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom, Magic Kingdom and Epcot. Our favorite was Magic Kingdom. I love that all the parks had rides and entertainment for all ages. Preston and Lily were able to ride most of the rides that included shows like Haunted Mansion &Pirates of the Caribbean. They were even brave enough to ride on Tomorrowland Speedway, Dumbo and the Dinosaurs in Animal Kingdom. We didn't really have much of a plan to our day we just went on the morning then came back to let the kids rest for a few hours before heading back out. We did stay late on night at Magic Kingdom to catch the fireworks. It was worth it the lights, the music, the fireworks were amazing. It was an awesome way to spend my birthday! And now for some pictures. I will put some up here but if you click on the link you will be able to see all of them.

Disney World 2009 Pictures

Notice Preston quickly moving out of Eeyore's way!

Is it me or does Lily look older here?

Florida {picture overload}

Some of you may know we are on vacation in Florida, which is the reason for my absence. It was pretty stressful the week before not knowing if Aaron was going to be able to go with us. He has a huge project at work that started the day before we were leaving. He decided to stay behind in Newfoundland and meet us in Disney on Wednesday. It gave him enough time to get the project started and to a point he felt comfortable leaving. So Ashley, Preston, Lily and I arrived on Saturday. We stayed at Floridays Resort outside of Disney since we didn't actually go to Disney until my sister and her family got in on Tuesday. As soon as we stepped foot off the plane we were driving all over Orlando. We rented a car and drove to Wal Mart, hotel to check in, then to Olive Garden for dinner. The kids did well on the flight especially Lily since she didn't sleep at all on any flights. She did fall fast asleep as soon as we got in the car though. I guess she was afraid she might miss something. We went shopping at the outlet malls on Sunday and got some Christmas stuff. I say malls because Orlando has 2 huge outlet malls. Monday morning we woke up bright and early because we had a date with a big black and white whale named Shamu. We had such a good time at Sea World. Ashley rode a BIG roller coaster called Manta. The riders lay on their stomachs and it's supposed to simulate gliding through the water like a manta ray. Ashley had fun and mentioned she thought she was going to throw up because she was so nervous waiting in line. I stayed behind with the babies and watched the sea turtles. It was her first time on a big roller coaster and she did it solo. If you are ever at a theme park with 2 toddlers or 1 for that matter I would highly recommend a kid leash. I always said I would never put my kid on a leash until I had twins. It was so nice to be able to let them out of the stroller to walk or run and burn some energy while not worrying about where they are disappearing to. Most of the time we held onto their hands and just used the "tail" as we call it as a back up. Tuesday we drove about an hour to Cocoa Beach. After being in St John's weather we were in for some sun and sand. It was so nice to see the water and relax by the ocean. Even if the relaxing was short lived. Preston and Lily were all over the place. Preston has no fear, he was running into the ocean and laughing when the force of the water swept him off his feet. Lily would just put her feet in and would scream bloody murder if she fell down. It is so funny she has no fear when it comes to animals but is terrified of the ocean. She was the same way when we went to the pool. She would get in up to right above her ankles then get out. Ashley managed to get some boogie boarding in. She went over to the Ron Jon surf shop and bought a board and attempted to ride the waves. She did well and I even got some pictures in between soothing Lily and making sure Preston didn't get swept out to sea.

Tuesday afternoon we drove back to Orlando and met up with my sister, her husband and their daughter. We moved over tot he Animal Kingdom lodge where we will remain for the rest of our trip. Aaron got in safe and sound on Wednesday and we have been going ever since. Stay tuned for all the Disney fun!!!!

Ashley is 2nd from the left. I took this picture from under the roller coaster.

The cutest sleeping seal ever!

Silly hat we all tried on.

Preston was the only one who wanted to play in the water!

We'll start with a party

When we booked our trip to Houston I wanted to make sure I was in town for my cousin Evyn's first birthday. I love family get togethers. We usually sit around chit chatting and telling stories of years passed. The kids run a muck because well someone is watching them right. If not then someone will let you know if they are doing something wrong or nip the naughty behavior in the bud. Anyway this party was a little different because there was a pool involved. We needed as many adults as possible in the water. No problem for the sun worshipers, Meme and Aunt Dar. They floated around with the babies for quit a while before I finally got in. Thanks to all our family who helped us out on our trip. We had a blast! More pictures and posts to come. Gotta go get the gremlins up from their nap.

Lily and cousin Jakob

Great Grandpa Schoen with Lily

Ashley and Preston

My mom, Me Me and Preston

Birthday girl Evyn

Do I look worried? Because I am......... kids and pools make me nervous.

My sister, Michelle with Evyn.

Evyn with her mommy and daddy

We're finally home!

I can't believe we were gone so long. We left Canada on July 24th just to go visit. We had no idea while we were there we would be faced with so much.

Yesterday when we got to Newark they flight was overbooked and they needed volunteers so naturally I volunteered myself and the kids, since Aaron had to get back for some meetings. Hey it's pretty hard to turn down $500 (per ticket) travel voucher especially as much as we travel. So $2000 a free hotel and meal vouchers later the flight was eventually cancelled anyway so we had family night at the Holiday Inn and had a nice meal.

Oh and by the way I am freezing. It was around 95-100 in Texas, here it's 62, YIKES!!!

A few random pictures

I finally uploaded some more pictures. There are over 400 so these are just a few. We are spending the last week of our trip in Louisiana with Aaron's family. Yesterday we took a drive out to Lake Fausse, we didn't realize until we got there that they had a splash pad. The babies had a blast playing in the water with just a diaper on.

Still here in TX

Did you think I forgot all about you? I haven't! We have had a blast visiting friends and family. I have loads of pictures but haven't stopped long enough to upload them. Friday night we had our Cypress Calling Mini Retreat. It was so much fun to hang out with my girlfriends and plan for the future of Cypress Calling. Saturday morning we headed to my grandparents farm in Centerville TX. They have 110 acres of land, a few ponds, some cows and lots of fresh air. The kids had a blast. Ashley rode the 4 wheeler and the babies explored. My parents and 2 aunts came up so we got to spend some quality time with them and didn't feel rushed. Today me and my sister in law took the kids to the Woodlands Market Street. They have shops, restaurants and a water feature that shoots water out of the ground. My mom met us out there for water fun and lunch.

I am so excited to go tomorrow with my friend Jenn, my sister in law and Ashley to get pedicures. My toes are so long over due for some pampering.

We have lots more planned I promise I will post pics soon. We are missing Aaron it's been almost 3 weeks since we have seen him. He will be here on Friday......yay!

Take care and have a good week.

Headed to Louisiana

Aaron got a call last week that his Mama Jean (grandmother) has a brain aneurysm and is having surgery on 8-13. I really wanted to go see her before her surgery. Aaron flies back to Houston on 8-14 and we are going to LA for a week but I want to go and see her before her surgery. So we are headed out from Houston to Louisiana tomorrow to spend a few days with Aaron's parents an grandparents. Please pray that Mama Jean has a successful surgery and a speedy recovery.

We are having so much fun in Texas. Friday we took the kids to the Children's Museum with Aunt Tasha, cousin Jakob and Kate. Today we went to cousin Evyn's first birthday. It was a pool party which was a nice break from the TX heat. The babies really love to swim. I have pictures but of course they are on my camera. You are going to be in for a picture overload once I decide to upload all my pictures.

Take care, have a good weekend.

Yesterday was my parents 33rd wedding anniversary as well as the babies turning 21 months. So Happy anniversary and Happy 21 month birthday babies! You are getting so big and changing so much. Lily has been very clingy I guess it's to be expected with so much going on. Preston is just his regular laid back self always laughing and smiling.

A day of flying

When our friends Jenn and Kevin got here, Aaron and Kevin started talking about renting a plane. Since Kevin is a pilot for a living I thought who better to go flying with then him.  The only thing holding them back from making the 3 hour drive to Gander (the only place on the island that rents planes) was the weather. So Wednesday they checked the weather and since Jenn and Kevin were scheduled to leave Thur they pushed their trip home back to see if the weather was going to be good enough to fly. Well on Friday it was. The boys left in the morning and made it to the airport in Gander about 2 pm. They were able to take a few pictures but not too many since Kevin was busy flying the plane and Aaron was busy learning to be co pilot. Jenn and Kevin are already talking about their next trip up, next time the guys are talking about renting the plane and bringing it back to St John's for the night. I am not a big fan of flying in the small planes but I can watch the kids while Kevin, Jenn and Aaron go up.