Apple time!

I saw an amazing idea on a friend's blog (Hi April!).  She took her kids to an orchard outside Lubbock!  Brilliant!  So on Saturday, we loaded up and drove to Idalou to the apple orchard.

There was a hayride tour.  A nice man gave Audrey this HUGE apple, that she proceeded to eat.  She was one sticky baby...

There was wildlife...

We picked our apples (see Audrey's holding another apple here.  She liked the availability of food...)

It was fun!  The apple trees are small dwarf trees, so you can reach the apples easily. 

After the orchard, we took the girls to eat at Freebird's.  I didn't take a picture.  I was too busy eating. 

Then, we went for cupcakes!  There's a cupcake shop by Banana Republic, and we took full advantage of it.

What a fun day as a family!

Other things we've been doing.....

Just some random shots......

Here's some stuff we've been doing this week.

Gen opened a restaurant in the living room.

We gave Daisy a new hairdo.

Don't panic.  It's washable.  It's nontoxic.  It's funny.

Audrey thought that painting the dog meant that anything goes with the markers...

Genny drew a cow.

And some ducks.

Fall activities!

Gen at gymnastics

getting ready for ballet!

demonstrating her moves

ready for Audrey's first day of school!

Genny's first day of preschool

my big girl!

Pets.

Genny came in the laundry room and announced "Mommy!  I decided I want a pet of my very own!"
To which I replied "You have Daisy."

{I'm sure all you parents out there know that wasn't going to be a sufficient answer....}

She thought about it.  "But Daisy is a FAMILY pet and I want one that's just mine."

Then I asked a dumb question.  "What kind of pet were you thinking of?"
"A little-bitty frog."
"Mommy doesn't do frogs well."  {I don't.  Really.}
Here Genny makes an ugly face at me...  and ponders.

"I know what we can get, Mommy!  A baby giraffe!"
"..."

Wonderland Night

Last night was Wonderland Park night for Rob's work.  And so we were blessed with free tickets and lots of nice fellow Zachry employees to wander around the park with!  

We didn't know how the girls would do or what they would want to ride...

Oh, Rob started the day with fancy pancakes.  That has nothing to do with Wonderland night, does it?

Right, back to Wonderland night.  Rob and Gen began our trek by checking out what they might like to ride.  

First choice?  The rocking pirate ship.  Yep.  Turns out that my arm is long enough to wrap all the way around Genny like a seatbelt since the pirate ship has none.  Good to know, right?

After pirate ship?  A Roller coaster.

Can you spot Rob?  Well, Genny's right next to him.  Yes, she wanted to ride it.  And loved it!  She rode it 3 times.

Next?  Scrambler.

Do you like my horizontal ponytail?  

Log ride!  The people riding directly in front of them decided to find out what happens when you cram WAY MORE than the allotted weight limit into a log.  {A very big splash and very very drenched people.  That's all.}

We decided to test out luck and try putting Audrey on a few rides.  She liked the carousel for about 28 seconds.  This was a fortunate picture.

My pretty girl!

And then we all rode the helicopters.  Audrey was pretty sure the goal was to exit the helicopter.  

Genny rode the frog hopper.  This was the only ride at the park that she seriously didn't like.  I'm not sure I blame her.  But look how happy the other children are!

Audrey's main ride required no tickets.

Gen rode the cars.  She had both a Steering Wheel and a Bell!  Sheer joy!

Vacation, part 3

We drove over to Tulsa and went to the aquarium!

Why Tulsa?  Oh, cause we wanted to see Aunt Meredith and Uncle Parrish!

And Aunt Meredith went to the aquarium with us.

Which was really good, because we very much needed one more adult to keep Audrey from jumping in the fish tanks.

Oh, she liked touching the starfish as well.

Genny fed some turtles.  She was very serious about it.  See Audrey?  Diving in.

Gen loved the aquarium.

She also fed some shrimp to stingrays, which was very cool.

Audrey loved her Aunt Meredith a lot!

Here we are in the shark cage.  

Audrey vs. eel.  

Watch out eel.

Us girls.

Family picture with some shiny fish.

Vacation is fun!

Vacation, part 4

Bathing beauties need a good breakfast.

Aren't they cute!

Today we're headed to White Water.  We were nervous about this since... well, we just didn't know how either Gen or Audrey would do.  It could have been a big pricey flaming disaster.  But it wasn't.

Turns out the kids area was a good place for both girls to get started.

And ride some slides and stuff

And get wet.

And take some pictures.  

But after that, we headed over to the slides where you ride down in your own inner tube. No pictures of this, we were too busy riding rides!

Now Genny was a little apprehensive.  But she bravely followed Robert up to the top and had a very serious discussion at the top of the slide about the various ways back to the bottom:  slide or stairs.  She finally decided to go for it and allowed herself to be loaded up into a tube.  At the bottom, she immediately announced "I didn't like it, and I made this face the WHOLE WAY DOWN!"  {picture a Genny terrified face}  Somehow we got her to try it a couple more times, and by the end of the day she was loving it!  She's a brave little girl, and boy did she look teeny in that giant inner tube!

Taking a rest, about ready to go home.

By the end of the day, Audrey had had enough!