Kate's 3rd Birthday

  My baby girl is now three years old!!  We celebrated her birthday this past Saturday at the bowling center on base.  Best decision ever.  All I had to do was bring the cake and ice cream.  No clean up before, no clean up after, and no worrying about anything in between.  It was wonderful.

  Kate's day started off with a visit from our friend Brian.  He stopped by to drop off Kate's gift - an Elsa dress, Elsa jewelry, and a birthday card that sings "Let it Go."  As soon as Kate opened her gift bag, also Elsa, she squealed with delight and ran to her room to change immediately.  Her adorable self danced around for a good little while afterwards making me smile.

  Bowling was fun.  It took Kate a little bit of time to warm up to bowling by herself but once she did, she had a good time.

  Last year Kate needed a bit of help from her friends opening her presents but that was not the case this year.  She was very excited to see what she had gotten from her friends.  

  We did cake and ice cream after presents.  Singing to Kate started off just fine but then she got shy and I had to hold her.  :)  The song was short enough that tears did not flow.  Having the cake right there to distract her worked out well, too.  

  Once the party came to an end, the Strongs came over.  Kate wanted to show Julia "her new puppy."  The day before we, mostly Kate and I, decided to foster a momma dog and her baby.  Kate is fairly gentle and careful with the dogs and she was super excited to show her friends.  

  We've now had Momma Dog and Baby Dog for six days.  I keep telling Kate that we can't keep them forever, just until they find a new home.  I guess we'll cross that bridge when we get to it but she sure is enjoying this tiny puppy that she can carry around everywhere!

Wonderful weekend

  Gosh, we had a great weekend.  It started last Thursday. We drove out to San Antonio that morning for Andrew's follow up surgery appointment.  After being in the car for three hours we knew it wouldn't be fair to set high expectations for the girls' behavior. So we dropped Andrew off at the hospital and went to go find some fast food and a park to play at. 

  Well, we found quite a few parks. And they were awesome. Andrew's appointment went faster than we were planning and the girls didn't want to leave the park so I told them we'd come back after we picked up daddy.  

  We came back and ended up playing at the parks for two more hours!  They had bridges, ladders, long slides, music toys, toy balls, rocking bugs (not horses), swings, steering wheels and more. We all had a great time, including Andrew and myself. 

  After the park, we headed over to our friends' house. They are in San Antonio for fighter fundamentals and will be heading to Whiteman AFB in June. It was nice to visit with them and catch up on all the exciting things going on in our lives. While there, my friend April convinced me that I should start fostering puppies. She has had seven great experiences with finding unwanted dogs new homes. Her last and present experience involving three 10 day old puppies. Kate was smitten, as was Abby.  ...As was I.  

  Friday morning we had breakfast and departed for Houston. We arrived at the hotel one minute before my brother, Jared, and his beautiful bride, Kristen.  The girls took quite some time to warm up to their aunt and uncle, no surprise there. We got our swim suits on and headed down to the pool. The pool was quite chilly. Jared braved the cold in an attempt to get Kate to play with him. Kristen even hopped on Jared's back to show Kate how much fun she could be having but Kate wasn't convinced. 

  We returned to our room to change back into our clothes and left to go to the Houston Astros baseball game. The entire evening was awesome. I haven't been to a baseball game in fifteen plus years and it far exceeded my expectations.  The girls even had a great time! 

  After the baseball game there were Friday night fireworks which was icing on the cake. The girls loved all the pretty colors. 

  Saturday morning Andrew and I went to the temple while Jared and Kristen watched the girls. We grabbed the girls right after so they could go through while we headed off to the zoo.  

  Here Andrew is with the girls right before going into the zoo. Yes, before. I guess they were tired. :)

  We just moseyed around until Kate woke up. Worked out great cause Jared and Kristen arrived ten minutes later. 

  Kate didn't totally open up to Jared and Kristen but she did warm up to them enough to hold their hands and allow them to hold her.  

  We saw the monkeys on our way out. I'm not a fan of monkeys but the girls sure loved watching them swing and jump around. They were both laughing together which was super sweet to watch. 

  After the zoo we went and got some delicious Texas bbq at Fainmous BBQ. It was so delicious and the service was great. 

  We headed back to the hotel happy and full.  After breakfast the next morning we parted ways. Our drive home was long-ish and fairly uneventful, minus the nail Andrew found in our tire. We arrived home safe and sound and only $10 out of pocket to fix our tire. So much less than I was expecting!

  Had dinner with the Strongs and brought the dogs home which nicely finished our wonderful weekend!