George Mitchell Park

With the great weather this weekend we had to get outside! We explored George Mitchell Park which is on the south end of The Woodlands. Duke enjoyed his first real hike while he explored the trails and made sure the kids stayed out of trouble. By the end of our 3 mile hike I think all were tired (note the last picture of Duke and Emma). We all had a job to do today while on our hike and Duke was responsible for carrying his own (and my) water bottles - good thing for him his load got a little lighter the farther we walked! This is a great area of The Woodlands and we learned today from a Park Ranger that it is also home to the following: wild pigs, horned owls, road runners, bobcats, foxes, coyotes, and an occasional alligator. You never know what you might run across while out on a Sunday hike!

Explore Conroe

A fun Sunday exploring Historic Downtown Conroe with great places for photography! Duke was able to get out and explore quite a bit as we strolled through downtown finding great places to shoot pictures.

Horsing Around!

What a great weekend! Saturday was Emma's first horse show and she did a fantastic job riding Cory for TallyHo Farms. It was super cold (37 degrees) but we had a great time and she came home with a green ribbon for her riding. A few pictures to commemorate the day.

Duke - Welcome Home!

Happy New Year! I hope to do a better job in 2010 keeping up with the blog. However, with travel, busyness of life, and the cold weather my camera has been hiding...I finally decided to dust it off! Today was the first day I have taken any real pictures this year and it is for good reason - we have a new addition to our family! We decided to bring an English Springer Spaniel rescue dog into our home. We are very excited and we wanted to share our first picture of Duke with you. I am sure we will experience much of life together and you will see many more posts that include Duke. Enjoy and have a great weekend!

Bringing Back Memories...

The grandparents were able to spend the weekend with us visiting with the kids at the school's annual "Grandparent Day" celebration. What a fun weekend for the kids. Lots of great time with both sets of grandparents, horseback riding lessons, and building a few memories (both old an new...). The grandparents decided to clean out their attic and brought with them a few boxes of old college textbooks - and my old BMX bike. That bike probably had 1,000 miles on it, jumped everything, and raced at the old "Texas Tornado" and "Armadillo Downs" when they were still operating. Thirty years later the bike needed some work. The little guy and I worked late Saturday night and a few hours today to get it back in riding condition. With a little over $60 (new tires, tubes, pedals) and a LOT of work, we got it up and running. We literally took every single part of the bike apart, cleaned it, and put it back together. Many of the moving parts were "frozen" due to non-use. We cleaned all the ball bearings, repacked them in new grease, adjusted the brakes, put on all the new parts, cleaned it and what do you know...it was as good as new! Many, many rides this afternoon around the block. It brought back some great memories, and allowed me to create new ones with my son. Great weekend!

Boo!

We had a great Halloween! The day started out at Tally Ho farms with a few horse riding competitions. Later that night the kids got all dressed up for a night trick-or-treating with friends on our street. They had a great time and brought home a TON of candy...way too much in fact! Here are a few pictures that capture the day!

McCain Family!

We had a great time with the McCain family last weekend! It was a full time job keeping up with the little guy but I think we managed to pull it off. I hope you all like the pictures - order is on the way but here is a sneak peak!