Florida Bound

We had the amazing opportunity to start the summer by heading to Destin, FL to meet up with Brian's family. It was so much fun having time to relax and spend some quality time with everyone. Not only did we get to spend time with Brian's parents, brothers, Adrian, and Jackson but his family from Atlanta came too! We had not seen any of them since our wedding and even then we didn't get to spend much time together. We had fun catching up, fishing, playing volleyball, and games. I did have a slight wardrobe malfunction while playing sand volleyball. The clasp that holds my swimsuit top together is made out of plastic and decided to break during the game. Thankfully, I caught my top before it completely fell off.  It was a nice "welcome to the family" moment for me! :) 

Brian's grandparents were there celebrating their 80th birthday's. We all went out to dinner at Logan's Roadhouse. Here are some pictures from our time in Destin. 

This is everyone at Logan's.

This is a picture of us and the cousins. 

From left to right: Drew, Molly, Keri, Brian, Michael, Daniel, us, Andrew, and Aunt Leigh

Hopefully, we will get to return next summer!

Jackson's 1st Birthday

Yesterday we had so much fun celebrating Jackson's first birthday! He dominated the cake and got blue icing all over himself. 

Adrian opened most presents because he wasn't too interested in the wrapping paper. We got him the corn popper and he loved it! I think his favorite present was a huge dump truck that Grandmom and Granddad gave him. He spent most of the afternoon pushing it around the house. 

Jackson wasn't interested in posing for pictures :). He was was too distracted by all of his fun new toys. Adrian and Scott threw an awesome party! We loved celebrating with them. We love our little nephew!

Trinity Railway Express

Last night we had so much fun hanging out with Nate and Jenny. We were feeling adventurous and decided to ride the Trinity Railway Express (TRE) into downtown Fort Worth. We got so excited that we jumped on the first train that showed up only to realize that we were going the wrong direction! We jumped off at the first stop and got on the correct train. We had an amazing dinner at Taverna and then headed over to The Flying Saucer. Thanks Nate and Jenny for a fun night! Let's do it again soon.

Keeping me busy...

Obviously, the biggest "perk" of being a teacher is having summer's off. Many of you might find this hard to believe but it can get boring after a while. You can only run so many errands before you start spending money on things you really don't need. :) 

We were lucky to start the summer off with an amazing vacation to Destin, FL with Brian's family and will end the summer with a trip to Winter Park, CO with my family. To fill some of the time in between, I offered to help paint a mural in the Kindergarten room at The Village Church. I got paired with an art teacher, Lindsey, and together we painted trees, clouds, and animals to make the room more enjoyable for the kids. I have to give all artistic credit to Lindsey though. Here are the pictures I took throughout the week. 

Monday's finished product.

Tuesday's finished product.

Wednesday's finished product. Yes, we did get to use the lift to go up really high. It was so fun!

The finished product. I can't wait to come to church this weekend and see how excited the kids will be! 

Brian's New Look

Every once in a while, Brian's company has a "theme day" where everyone has to dress up. Yesterday's theme was "Guidos and Guidettes". All of the managers had to create their own t-shirt for the event. Here are some pictures of Brian before he left for work. 

Float Trip #2

We had an amazing weekend with our home group! Friday night we drove half way to New Braunfels and stayed at my parents house. The next morning we woke up early and headed down to the river. 

I wish we had a waterproof camera because we had a blast on our 5 1/2 hour float. We spent a lot of the time laughing hysterically. Our float was followed with dinner The Gristmill. Our waiter told us that Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton were eating there too. Sadly, we never saw them. 

Dinner was amazing!

The next morning we headed to Schlitterbahn and enjoyed a day of water rides. More than anything it was awesome spending time with our home group and getting to know each other better. Looking forward to next year's trip! 

Another Year Under My Belt

Today marked the end of my 4th year of teaching. This year was one of my favorites because I had the greatest group of kids. I can't wait to see how much they have grown over the summer when they come back in August. 

Today I spent the day cleaning and getting my room ready for summer cleaning and hopefully painting! My walls used to be covered with blue paper but I ripped it all down so that I can start fresh next year. The paper had been there for about 8 years and I think it is time for a change. Here is a picture of my room when I left. I will have to post a picture when I have fixed it all up for next years group.

View from my classroom door

Looking at my room from the other angle

Let summer vacation begin!!!

Memorial Day Weekend

We had a great Memorial Day weekend! We drove to Temple on Friday night to stay with my parents and then woke up bright and early to make our drive to Boerne for Mason Finley's wedding. Brian was invited to the Groomsmen Brunch so I headed up to Fredericksburg to have lunch with one of my best college friends, Valerie. It was great catching up with her while Brian was hanging with the boys. The wedding was beautiful! We enjoyed spending time with some of our friends, Charles and Jordie.

Charles, Jordie, Me, Brian in the courtyard of the church

The next morning we woke up and headed to Gruene to float the Guadalupe River. The water was FREEZING but it was fun being with everyone. We borrowed tubes from a friend that lives there and Travis loaded up 9 tubes into the back of his truck. It only took us an hour and a half to float because the current was strong but after sitting in freezing cold water, an hour is long enough! We are headed back to float the river again this weekend with our home group. I hope the water has had time to heat up a little bit! :)