Summer Update

Well I haven't been as good at keeping up with this as I had hoped, but I will try to catch everyone up to date.

Summer has been HOT yet fun for all of us!

Ashlee began the summer at her new school (St. Mark Lutheran) attending summer camp. She has experienced the thrill of riding an actual school bus to 2 off campus field trips! The first to see the movie "UP" and the second to "Glazed Over" to paint ceramics. She is thoroughly enjoying her new friends, the weekly themes of camp, and attending weekly chapel.

Ashlee will begin Pre-K at St. Mark this fall (actually just around the corner 8/17). The school goes through 8th grade so hopefully we will remain in a position to continue her education here. It appears to be a great environment for her.

As most of you are familiar with, Ashlee has NO FEAR when it comes to most things! She absolutely loves the water and has completed 2 sessions at Fleet Swimming in Cypress.

Ash continues to do gymnastics and is dying to do cheerleading and tumbling, but unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) we found out about the cheerleading program a little too late to justify the money half way through the season and she can't start tumbling until she's 5. So the poor thing will have to "plain ole gymnastics" until next spring. LOL

Keith and I attended my 20 year High School reunion this July. The theme was Vegas Nights and we had it at a nice restaurant here in Houston called Vargo's. We had an awesome planning committee and fabulous connections to help make the night a HUGE success! It was so good to see everyone and reconnect. Thank goodness for Facebook! This was our life line! Keith was probably just as relieved for it to be over as me though because it began to take up A LOT of my time, but it was totally worth it and I was very happy to be a part of it all. Already scheming for

the next one... ahahhaha

Summer vacations have been at a minimum this year, but it's been nice to somewhat relax and be at home for a change. We are planning a trip to Disney World next year for Ashlee's 5th B-day so we're holding out for that. Houston has been spared a lot of the hardship of the economic downturn this year and we have both been fortunate in our employment. My company laid off for the first time in it's 100 + year history! Scary times...

As for me and Keith, not much going on other than we started working out with a trainer in early May and have both made great strides towards our individual goals, but with Keith's arm injury and all of us fighting the summer crud, these last couple weeks have been tough.. but not to be the end of the story! :)

Most of the summer has been taken up by hanging out with friends and making new memories. Although we're probably 4 months away from cooler weather, fall and the holidays will be upon us before we know it! I'll do my best to try to keep these updates coming!

Event - March 31, 2009

So Ashlee will be 4 at the end of the end of April. We have been working on tying her shoes with a book that I ordered from one of those mags at school. I know they work on it at school as well, but last night she got it! She did it! Like 4 times in a row and then tied her shoes at school this morning!

Not sure what the normal "tying your shoes age" is, but I thought this was pretty exciting!

We were very proud of course :)

Yay Ashlee!

(sorry to all of those who automatically get this update). I created this blog for friends and family, but mainly to have a log of memories of the little things that we soon forget.

The Last 2 days in Utah

January 24 & 25th (Saturday and Sunday)

Well before I forget, I guess I better post about the rest of our trip. After our 2nd skiing adventure on Friday we decided we would ride up to Park City and walk around. The Sundance Festival was coming to a close, but I was hoping the town would still be bustling. Unfortunately it was another rainy day so most of the events were closing down early and no sight of anyone famous... even up in the mountains it was not cold enough to snow! Figures right? Anyways.. we walked up and down the streets for about an hour jotting in and out of stores in search of some keepsakes at a "reasonable" price. We did stop and eat lunch at a little Deli and I think for 2 sandwiches, 3 drinks, cough drops, and some tic tacs it was only about $30! Wow.. what a deal!

We unfortunately didn't take too many picutres of Park City that day because it was rainy and gloomy. This one is a ski lift that runs right through the middle of the historic district though.. that's pretty cool.

Saturday night we went over to my other cousin's house and visited with all the local family. It was good to see everyone.. had been about 15 years I think for some! Ashlee had a ball playing with her cousin (3rd cousin). They were too cute!

Sunday came too fast and it was time to go home. We said our good byes to my Dad and Vanese and were on our way back to our beloved "country" of Texas! Of course it snowed like 8 inches that night in Salt Lake and there were reports of up to 36 inches in the mountains! Just our luck! Oh well... just the excuse I need to go back again. I know Keith can't wait! :)

Day 2 of Skiing

Friday January 23, 2009





Well day 2 arrived much to Keith's disappointment. I kinda got the feeling he didn't really want to go skiing again, but because he loves me so much he agreed to another beating. So with a not so smile on his face we got dressed and loaded up and decided to try Brighton this time. We were able to get a 1/2 day pass and limit our lifts to just a couple so the price was good for the taking (in case Keith wasn't).



It was raining when we headed out of the house so we figured we would just drive and see what it was like at the resort. As we got closer and closer the rain turned to snow and it was coming down! It was the m0st beautiful thing and I'm not sure who was more excited among the 3 of us! Again, pictures don't do it any justice. It continued to come down when we got there, but it made for some great skiing that day and tons of fun afterwards.


















I was smart this time and took Keith straight to the bar to take a little bit of the edge off before tackling this fun sport :). Despite Keith's unsure thoughts of what he was going to endure again... he had FUN this time! We skiied on the same hill Ashlee was having her lesson on so we got to watch her a lot.

This was fun for us, but I know distracting for her. I kept having to shoosh Keith (LOL)...

I ended up going to the other lift and going down another run before it was time to call it a day. After skiing, we promised Ashlee we would play in the snow so we just went to an unpopulated area of the parking lot along some trails and there was more than enough to play in. Ashlee wasn't too sure about making a snow angel and Keith wasn't thinking when he free fell backwards in to maybe only a foot of snow.




















This was a really fun part of the day and you can tell that Ms. Ashlee was not ready to go home.
Despite the tears, it wasn't 3 miles before she was konked out!















That night we went for some Mexican food... ok.. well... keep in mind that this is Utah we're in so it's all relative right? Seriously though... it's not our Mexican food by far! gotta love Tex - Mex!

All in all a great day! We had a ton of fun, the snow was great, the temp was good, everyone WALKED away and we have plenty of memories captured my the numerous pictures.

Woo hoo... headed for the mountains!

Thursday January 22, 2009

I was so excited to go skiing.. now keep in mind that I hadn't been in over 10 years, Keith and Ashlee had never been, and my dad is 71! We decided on Snowbird since they had a good ski school for Ashlee and a good one for Keith as well. So once we got them situated my dad and I braved the sky tram going up to the basin of the mountain (that's THE highest point!). It was windy, we were in the clouds and the visibility was almost nil. I was a little nervous, but was ready...

My dad headed down first and went about 20 ft and fell. Once he got to his feet, he declared that "he was too old for this crap" and told me to go on and that he would catch the tram to get back. Thankfully nothing more than his pride was hurt. So I scooted on down the mountain.. like how I make that sound so nonchalant! LOL yeah.. it took me a good 30-45 minutes to make it down.

Here's a pic from a mid way point at Snowbird that I took while I caught my breath. No pictures that we took do justice to this beautiful state!

I stopped a couple times and fell a couple more, but all and all made it down in one piece. If it makes my dad feel any better, I too questioned my age and agility a few times! After my run, I caught up with my dad and Vanese and had a couple brewskis before heading back up. I decided to only brave the green this time and figured that I needed another day to get my groove back.

Ashlee and Keith were off "enjoying" their lessons. Well at least Ashlee was.

By the time I caught up with Keith, he was spent, tired, totally exhausted, stick a fork in him d-u-n! A couple days later he told me he was thinking "what is FUN about this???" LOL

It was a fun but exhausting day for all! Little did Keith know that he would be heading back out again on Friday much to his dismay......

On our way!!!

Wednesday January 21, 2009

So Wednesday morning at the crack of dawn (actually before any smart rooster would be awake), we began moving around and getting ready to embark on our first ski trip together and headed to the some of the best skiing on earth in Utah!!! Keith had never been skiing so obviously neither had Ashlee. The most snow Ashlee had seen was the dusting we got in December (2008) so she was totally beside herself with anticipation of what was to come.

I got Ashlee dressed in her best trendy traveling attire and we were off to the airport! How cute was she?

Well as usual we couldn't get there fast enough and she was just full of questions! It kind of freaked her out a bit to have to take her shoes off for security, but I assured her it was only so they could make sure she didn't have stinky feet.

Soon we were on our way to Las Vegas. This leg was 3 hours long and by the first 30 minutes of the flight I wasn't sure I was going to make it. I was SURE I was a prepared mom this time.... I took books, crayons, coloring books, the Leapster with 5 games, flash cards, home made cookies, gum!!!, magazines etc and I think she was asking "what do we do now?" 10 min into the flight! Knowing that I didn't have to drive anywhere when I got off the plane, you know what I did!

The flight from Las Vegas to Salt Lake wasn't too bad. It was only an hour.

Most of this day was taken up with traveling and once we landed, got our baggage, picked up the car (Keith drove), picked up my dad and Vanese, it was nearly 5 so we headed to my cousins.

The evening was relaxing and we had BIG plans for skiing the next day....

Back at home

I'm going to start this blog off somewhat backwards because it is 9:50 pm on Sunday evening and I am beat and ready to hit the sack! But, I promised myself and Kat that I would post before I went to bed. So here it goes... Oh.. and I will have to post pics tomorrow sometime.

So today started out around 7 am getting everything packed and ready to head to the airport in Salt Lake City. Everone thinks I'm a travel nazi because I like to follow the rules and be there 2 hours early! Oh well... we always make our flights! It was cold and rainy again but unfortunately STILL not cold enough to snow which is probably a good thing when you're flying, but still.... I came to see snow dang it! *** NOTE... it's Monday and my cousin called to tell my dad it snowed 8 freaking inches last night!!!!!! AARRGGGHHH!!!

The first leg of the flight took us to Denver and thank goodness Ashlee slept the whole way so there was no need for vodka at 11 am today. We had a couple hours lay over in Denver, but the time went by quickly so we were soon on our way to Houston... this leg and Ashlee were a different story, BUT I still refrained from the vodka... too tired. Just layed my head back and tried to sleep some. Seriously though.. all and all she wasn't that bad. Who CAN sit still for 3 hours on a plane? We didn't get any stares or shh's so I guess she was good. :)

We had a GREAT time on our trip and we thank my cousin Janet and her husband Jay tremendously for letting us crash at their house. They are awesome hosts and we had a blast. I think the funniest part of the whole trip was last night though.... I had followed my dad upstairs to get something out of their room and my dad was chewing on a piece of jerkey and he turned to me and whispered... "they had a bag of jerkey down there, but this has to be the worst jerkey I've ever tasted!" I looked at him and said... that's because they're dog treats!!!! OMG OMG OMG!!! We both about pee'd our pants we laughed so hard!!! I think I laughed myself to sleep! For those of you who may know my dad... he would NEVER EVER let anyone live something like that down so don't think we went easy on him this morning or will EVER let him forget that. It was STILL just as funny today! Boy.. his family is going to have a field day with this one! The comments were just a flying... Janet told him if he wanted any snacks to go she could make him a "doggie bag"! I told him that we were having real bacon this morning not Beggin Strips so I hope he wasn't dissapointed! LOL.. it goes on and on...

I will definitely post some pics tomorrow and try to recaputre the days events when we were in SLC Utah! Good night John Boy!

Keith's B-day

We celebrated Keith's birthday on his actual birthday this year! What a strange concept. The fact that it fell on a Saturday helped. I got up somewhat early and ran out to do a couple errands (one of them being to pick up a b-day cards... I don't know why I can't remember cards lately!) and then stopped by Starbucks to bring home my honey's favorite beverage... Caramel Macchiato. It wasn't breakfast in bed, but that stuff is a little too mushy for me!



So we all got moving and headed to go shoe shopping (FOR KEITH believe it or not). We hit a couple stores and then had lunch at Chilie's with just the 3 of us. Then we went to pick up our 65 lb pup (Annie) who's been with an obedience trainer the past 45 days. She did amazing! So far at home.. doing better but we need to work with her on a daily basis because she's like a kid pushing us as far as we'll let her. Oh and not to mention she's in heat when we get her back! NICE!



That evening a big group of us got together continue the celebration. We started off at Windfern Bowling Alley. Our lanes were reserved for 8:00... I think we started playing around 9- 9:15??? Let me just say this among other scary factors such as the sorted groups of characters there will deter me from ever setting foot in there again. Despite it all, we had a good time and were well on our way to continuing the party elsewhere. We moved it over to Cypress Saloon off Telge. This is a fun local bar that is spacious and low key.. well at least until we get there usually. All and all it was a great day and evening spent with friends and family.

The First Day of our new blog

So I have to start off by giving kudos to my friend Kat who has inspired me to keep a blog of our family and friends. For those of you that know me, you know I love to write and I try to be somewhat creative; however life often gets in the way of taking time to document those momentous occassions or just the little things that make us laugh. I now can confirm what everyone always says when you have a child.. "they grow up so fast". I cannot believe that Ashlee will be 4 this year! Like the Brad Paisley song goes... "Don't blink".

What a great life we have had with our monkey (as we have grown to call her... she ought to love that when she's in high school!) . I can't begin to recap everything we have done over the past (almost 9 years) that Keith and I have known each other, much less capture in a few words or less what we have seen, heard, learned, and laughed at with Ashlee over the past 3 1/2 years.

One of my New Year's resolutions is to keep this blog running and hopefully provide to all of you a glimpse of what goes on in our lives. I also hope that this will be something that Ashlee can look back at one day and understand why her parents were so crazy (LOL)... it's all good! Seriously though, she'll never know how much she means to us and to so many others.

Again, thank you Kat and I will do my best to keep my feet to the fire on this one!