San Antonio with the Coopers

Our friends, the Coopers, moved from Phoenix to San Antonio so we decided to make a trip down to see them and their new house.  Marley and Charlie are 3 months apart.  Ezra and Grace are about 6 months apart.  The Coopers were gracious enough to let us stay with them while we visited San Antonio.  We tried Rudy's, this BBQ joint that everyone raves about (and Erza ended up barfing all over the floor in) and we went to Corpus Christi for a few days as well.

 Ezra, Charlie, Marley, and Grace

 We stopped by this gas station/convenient store called Buc-ee's.  It is the Costco of gas stations.  There were something like 30 gas pumps and the store itself was MASSIVE.  It had every type of convenient store type food, treat, and drink you could possibly imagine.  It was so ridiculously unreal!

 That wall of candy is INSANE!

 It's the Buc-ee beaver hat!

 Nice bumper sticker!

 This store is like 20,000 square feet or some crazy number like that!

 Apparently Marley got bored in the car when we were going somewhere at one point because I found all these crazy pictures she took of herself!

Even though the beach near the rental house we stayed in Corpus Christi had lots of seaweed and other ocean debris, the water was WONDERFUL!  It was so warm and even I got in.  There were so many shells that Marley had buckets full of them because she wanted to pick up everyone she saw!

  Kevin and Chantae are helping Marley find shells.

 Charlie and Grace

 For whatever insane reason, Kevin and Karl decided to spend time putting together this 500 piece puzzle.  I have zero patience for these types of things and can't be credited for helping it come together. But look how proud they all are!  Good job!!

 There was a pool in the housing complex we stayed in.  Marley would have stayed there all day, if we'd let her.  After lots of encouragement, we finally got her to jump in the pool by herself!  I wish she would try to do it without the arm floaties on!

 Grace may look all-smiles but she and Ezra had a power struggle over the sand castle and toys!

 On our drive back, our car had to be ferried across an inlet of the ocean (at least, I think that's what it was).

 Grace loved riding this horse thing!

Another wacky picture Marley took of herself!

Throwing a Fit!

Grace is a wonderful child, except when she's throwing a fit!  Sometimes if she doesn't get her way, she turns her back on you and walks into a corner to pout.  Other times, she just stands there crying quite loudly, until you acknowledge her and pick her up.  Often times, these fits happen in the worst possible places, of course.  In this case, I was stuck at the hospital lab waiting to have the glucose tolerance test done for the new baby.  I was chained to the hospital and couldn't leave because you have to consume that horrible sweet drink and wait an hour before they can draw your blood, so I had to just listen to her scream.  Sometimes nothing will appease her!

Hugs and Kisses Sweat Shop

I was released from my Young Women calling as second counselor in my Mount Olympus ward.  I will definitely not miss the amount of time I spent away from my family but I WILL miss all the lovely young women and what wonderful people they are!  I decided to send them a letter about how wonderful they all are and make little bags of candy hugs and kisses.  Grace insisted on helping me put them together.  It was almost like a mini-sweat shop because she helped me put together nearly 40 of them!!

Eating Avocados

Grace is really not my picky eater (that's more Marley's realm!).  She saw me eating an avocado out of it's shell and insisted that SHE get to eat one as well!  She begged for a fork so she could dig right in!!

Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?

Our friend's children had the cutest dress-ups that Marley and Grace had so much fun running around in.  So I finally was able to find some of their own to play with.  I love it because they pretend they are the bear or wolf and make these cute growling noises!

Bob's Birthday Bear Surprise

Kevin's work decided that their boss, Bob, needed a really great birthday surprise.  So instead of celebrating with the usual favorite treat of the birthday boy, they decided to invite a special guest, unbeknownst to old Bob.  Since it took some finagling to get the surprise guest to come visit, Bob thought that everyone forgot and bypassed his special day.  A few days later, the special guest arrived and gave Bob a surprise of silly string to the face!  Bob DESPISES the mini-Jazz bear which made it all the more entertaining!  He plastered a smile on his face and just got through the grueling visit!  Apparently, they didn't have to pay anything to get the mini-bear to show up because the mini-bear doesn't get many requests for appearances and because they are such long-time Jazz season ticket holders.

Tepanyaki

We met up with Kevin's sister, Kristen, her two boys, Aaron and Ethan, and Ruth for dinner at Tepanyaki before Kevin and I went to the Jazz vs Spurs playoff game (where the Jazz would loose...of course!)   Even though it was Aaron's birthday, he DID NOT want to have anyone at the restaurant acknowledge it! Instead, he stole food off of Kevin's plate!

Miss Funny Face

Just after Grace got out of the bath, Kevin put Grace in front of the mirror, and she just started making all these funny faces when looking in the mirror.  She's so darn cute!

Popcorn in the Buff

Grace loves to be free and run around sans clothes, and, apparently, eat in the buff.  She grabbed a bowl of popcorn and started chowing down!

Virginia Tanner

This was Marley's last day of dance at Virginia Tanner for the spring of 2012.  She really liked her teacher, Ms. Joni and I really think she enjoys dancing.  It's more of a modern dance type class.  I think as Marley gets older, I may put her in ballet for more technique, but I've been really happy with Virginia Tanner.