Llano Lights

We headed to Cherokee yesterday afternoon to spend time with the Valdezs.  It was like old times with all of us sitting around the kitchen table eating dinner together.  It's been 1 1/2 years since they moved and I STILL miss them all the time!  ugh.  Anyway we got to let all of our kids play together and catch each other up on life and it was wonderful.  When we left, we noticed a sign that said something about the Llano Lights on the water so we thought we'd drive through downtown and see if we could find them.  

We found them all right and they were great....even though it was less than 32 degrees outside...SO COLD!  We pretty much RAN through the light display and told the kids if they had a good attitude, we'd buy them some hot chocolate.  They all were very well behaved.  :)

Here's what the whole light display looked like from the over side of the river.

As we headed home, we passed through a few other small towns that had amazing light displays in their downtown area.  This one was in Burnet I think and it was super cool.  It looked like dripping icicles.

Singing Her Heart Out

Ava decided to be in the choir this year at school, which surprised is all very much.  But, that is one fun thing about her....she is full of surprises!  This past week, she had her first concert and sang lots of fun Christmas songs.  The entire concert took exactly 29 minutes so that was kind of nice too!

Ava's right in the middle

It helps when one of your best friends is in choir too!

So what else is going on with us....other than reminding our Elf Mikey to do something different every night, I got a job....like a real bonafide job!  Well...it's not 9-5...it's more like 9-10, 12-1, 2-3 and sometimes 9-10pm.  I am working for a company called Shipt and I shop and deliver groceries to people here in town, using our HEB stores.  It is PERFECT  for me and I love how I get to set up my schedule and can change it around at any time!  Yes it's hard work, but it is just right for me right now!  I am very thankful that this came along when it did.  Here's me in my "uniform" which couldn't be more perfect since it's my favorite color!  I've worked there for 2 weeks now and have already shopped and delivered THIRTY-ONE times!

This is by far the most hectic month of the year for us...other than April.  I love so much about it, but a little peace on my part of the earth would be nice right about now.  Shawn and I both have our eye on January 1st!

We survived Primitive Camping

I think yesterday was our first time as a family to primitive camp....meaning you have to hike all your stuff in, and there's no running water or electricity.  It was a challenge for sure!  We decided to stay local and visit Berry Springs Preserve.  

We headed out about 4:30 Friday afternoon and quickly got going.  (We were able to cheat just a little because the park had wagons you could borrow!)  

It was a 1/3 mile hike to our campsite.  Each child was required to carry a 1 gallon jug of water along with a few other things.  This made the backpack around 10 pounds or so.  Levi wasn't having it.  He threw the biggest and baddest tantrum I've seen in years as we walked.  He worked himself up so bad that he made himself puke.  I could tell that once he did that, he thought he'd be out of the job of carrying the jug.  I guess he doesn't know me very well yet.  I told him to wipe his mouth and keep going.  He screamed like he was being slowly tortured, for the entire 1/3 mile.  It was a bit of a stressful start....but guess who learned that he could carry it all by himself.

We quickly pitched the tent and notice that everyone is back to calm.  Thirty minutes of laying silently on the picnic table while everyone else works to put up the tent, seems to calm a person down.

For dinner we had dehydrated beef stew and chicken fried rice.  Both were excellent and everyone liked them!  For entertainment we sat around the fire and stared at it for at least 1 1/2 hours.  It was wonderful...even if a few said they were bored.  I told them they were welcome to go to bed....no one wanted to.  We roasted marshmallows and were able to lessen the load by at least 25 marshmallows.

Night was okay.  No one made me get up with them to go pee so that was a win.  Unfortunately the park is pretty close to the 130 which allows speeds of 80 mph so we listened to cars whizzing down the road for most of the night.  

Time to rise and shine and make some oatmeal!

Breakfast at sunrise (much easier to do when the whole family goes to sleep at 8:30.)

Hot chocolate makes everything better.

Oatmeal by sunrise

After breakfast, it was time to pack up and hike back out.  Because we used up all the water....no tears were shed on the trip back!

Another camp out is under out belts....Shawn and I just hope that all the stuff we have to deal with,  with our kids behavior, is worth it down the road.  Hopefully the kids have good memories of these times.

Trump Card

Though I really don't care a lick about politics, I knew this election was something else.  So, I decided to throw an election party and invite a few other like-minded friends so that we could all witness history together!  What an interesting season that has truly been and I would be lying if I said I wasn't at least curious to see who would become our 45th president.  We had such a fun night together and it was worth all the work to pull it together!

Here's a few of my favorite pictures from the night.

The purple drink is "I Can't Decide Juice" and the almost black on is "I Don't Care Juice."

My 'Merica Cupcakes

Every pizza was half one topping, half another

I made them take tests on how knowledgeable they were on past presidents.  The winner got an "American" themed gift with beef jerky, a fried apple pie and American flag duct tape.

I love this picture :)!

I had coloring pages for all the kids to do.

Kimberly was our map colorer...it was a hard job since they kept projecting but not telling for sure who had each state.

After all the games we spent time skipping back and forth between ABC and Fox News to see where this votes were going.

This was as far as we got.  Most of us made it until 11pm and then we had just had enough and wanted sleep!  It was a good thing that we didn't stay up.  It was sometime around 1;30am that the final decision was made that Donald Trump will be our 45th president!  This should be a very interesting four years.

The Big 4-0, aka Over the Hill

Welp, it officially happened.  I am married to an old man...at least for the next 1 1/2 years when he will officially be married to an old lady.  But, right now it's all about his oldness.  Shawn decided he wanted to go camping for his birthday which I was thrilled with because I love to camp in the pop up!  Shawn's mom Barbara, came with us!  We headed to Inks Lake, which we haven't been to in 8 years, when Ava ate deer poop.  She prides herself in that story.

Friday afternoon before we left. 

Starting to cook dinner

Before it got too dark and while we waiting for dinner to cook, Shawn opened his gifts.

Dinner by lantern light (It wasn't really that bright...just looks like it!)

After dinner...gourmet S'mores with "40" candles. 

The next morning Shawn and I...and all three kids, were up bright and early.  We left the kids and went fishing for a little while with our coffee.  It was nice and peaceful...but no fish.

Time to make breakfast!

My shirt should say "Camping hair, clothes, face, body....Don't Care" but I know that's not quite as catchy.

Took these peaceful picture of two kayakers cutting through the water just as the sun had come up a ways.

After breakfast we went for a hike.  Ava is at the top of that rock!

We played in the water a little bit.

I had to take a picture of Elle helping Levi...this is rare at this stage in their lives.

We fished a little more before lunch with still no luck.  Boo!

Another adventure in the pop up, in the books!  It was fun to have Gramme with us to celebrate my old man.