Reflecting on 2009

Happy Holidays to our family and friends! It feels like I just finished last years letter, and yet a year has already come and gone! As we think back over the last year, blessed is the word that keeps coming to mind.
Payton turned ONE at the beginning of March. She is such a FUN little girl. She is so snuggly, happy, easy-going (for the most part), and a great sleeper. She is pretty sensitive (I don’t know where she got THAT from) and listens really well. When she’s not “talking,” eating, or laughing, she is generally seen with her two fingers in her mouth and holding onto her favorite blanket. She LOVES her big brother, loves to dance, and loves to take care of her babies! She brings such a sweet presence to our family.
Our summer was filled with adventure, family time, and fun. We headed to Texas at the end of May and enjoyed some much needed time with Maggie and Peepaw at the Lakehouse. Preston wanted nothing more than to fish all day and night and go for the occasional jet ski or boat ride. We were also able to take Preston to Uncle Gene’s “farm” for the night where he held baby goats, chased chickens, looked at cows, and did more fishing. Preston was in his element and has talked about Uncle Gene’s farm many times!
At the end of our trip to Texas, we made a six day stop off in California and went to Disneyland! Maggie and Peepaw met us there for a few days and Jen’s sister-in-law and kids were able to join us for a day. Disneyland was SO MUCH FUN! It was definitely a highlight of our year. Preston and Payton were fearless and enjoyed every part of our trip from the rides, the characters, the food, the shows, the cousin time, the “extras” bought for them, and the special time with Maggie and Peepaw! It was a trip for the memory books for sure!
This summer also brought about lots of camping and fishing with family and friends, along with a lot of hard work! Darron worked incredibly hard to redo our backyard. He built fences, cut down trees, moved sheds, made decks, and turned dirt into beautiful grass! We now have a beautiful, relaxing backyard with a hot tub, hammock, fire pit, and play fort. We spent many nights out back as a family and loved every minute of it (minus the mosquitoes)!
As Fall came, the start of another school year began for Jen who is still teaching part-time in a 5th grade classroom. Preston and Payton are still enjoying time with cousins and even Grandma one day a week! Darron took the plunge to complete his Master’s degree in October. We are very proud of him!
Preston is turning FOUR years old at the end of this month. I can’t believe he is already so big! He is still my sweet little boy (although I was wondering who snatched his sweetness for about a four month period!) and we have so much fun with him. He is very smart and verbal, and headstrong and “right”! He LOVES Payton and time with his cousin (might as well be brother) Max. Preston played soccer for the first time this summer and really enjoyed it. He wants to play again. He loves Sunday School class and is looking forward to starting Preschool next year. He’s still a momma’s boy, but he only snuggles when he wants too. He adds great joy, laughter, and happiness to our family!
To add to our joy and blessings this year, we just found out not long ago that Baby Number Three is on the way and due at the end of June!J
As another year ends, we are so thankful for so many things: a beautiful house, two great jobs, supportive and loving families, an incredible network of close friends near and far, an awesome church home and family that we love being involved in, health, and most importantly, our God. We hope this letter finds each of you happy and healthy and finding peace in the one that matters most! Take time to remember “the reason for the season” and let us know how you are doing! Check out our family blog when you have time at www.rizerfamily.blogspot.com and Happy Holidays!

We love you all,
Darron, Jenny, Preston, and Payton

9 Great Years Together

Nine years ago I snatched the best man possible to be my husband! And I'm so glad he chose me to spend this earthly life with! I knew I was a lucky woman then, but I had no idea how lucky I truely was. In honor of our nine years together (well, actually 11 together, but 9 married), here are nine things I LOVE about my husband:

(in no particular order)

1) I married a man that was always cute, but now he is sexy! He just gets better and better looking with age! That's the kind of man you want to marry! :)

2) He is an incredibly loving, caring, fun, capable father to our children. He leads by example, disciplines with love, is able to take care of them without much instruction :), and does fun things with them.

3) He is a man of God. He leads our family to know the Lord and tries to constantly better himself.

4) He is very outgoing. He is willing to meet new people and make them feel welcome.

5) He is a leader. He has stepped into some leadership positions at church and is amazing. People can't help but follow him.

6) He has a magnetic personality that attracts people. I haven't ever met anyone that doesn't just love my husband. He is open, friendly, hilarious, and makes people feel at ease.

7) He loves me. He daily makes me feel beautiful, hugs me, listens to me, and goes out of his way to take care of things that may be stressing me out (I know, hard to believe that things would stress me out)!

8) He is a family man. He loves to be with our family. He also loves his parents and sisters and it shows. Family is a top priority for him and I love that!

9) He can build and/or fix just about anything. He amazes me with his skills and know how, even when he's never done it before. It reminds me of my dad and that's pretty cool! I'm so proud of all the things he's built and fixed (like a room on our house, a family cabin, new floors, a bookcase for my school, and the list could go on and on).

I could easily name more than nine things that I love about my husband. Yes, we've had our rough years and rough days, but I have never had to question his love for me. I feel like the most loved woman because of his actions and words on a daily basis. I feel so blessed to call myself his wife and the mother of his children. We have been blessed with a beautiful family and I am so thankful he's my partner in life. Here's to all the happy years we will have together in the future! I love you D!

Here we go again!

For those of you who may not check Facebook, I thought I'd let the cat out of the bag "officially" on my blog. Here we go again with Rizer baby #3! :) We are unexpectantly expecting this new baby at the end of June. We are very excited, and Preston is super excited. He's hoping for a brother! :) I'm 11 weeks now and we were able to hear the baby's heartbeat the day before Thanksgiving. Other than being extremely tired, I'm feeling pretty good and looking forward (and terrified all at the same time) of adding another little Rizer to the family. Payton really has no idea what's going on, but she LOVES her babies and rocking/feeding/taking care of them, so I hope that's a good sign. :)

I will update again soon with pictures of the kids and what we're here to. Hope you're all doing well.

Kids and Moose

It's been a little while since I've posted some new pictures. Ignore the dates on the pictures. We switched back to our "old" camera and forgot to make sure the date was correct.

We had a great Halloween. Our church youth group put on a Fall Festival for the first time in at least 5 or more years. They did an AWESOME job! Everything was free, kid friendly, positive, and just plain fun!

Here is our little Pooh Bear. Payton wore her costume all night and looked adorable! Excuse the carrot in her mouth and orange drool! Preston was Tigger....again. He's had this costume for three years now and loves wearing it, even when it's not Halloween! He had his face painted at the Festival and he cried when he had to clean his face for bed!
Here is Preston, Payton, and our good friend Faith (aka. Piglet). Faith's mom (Kimi) had the Pooh Bear costume for Payton, Piglet's costume, and a little Honey Pot for her 6 month old little girl. The four of them together looked so cute....we just couldn't get a picture! Notice the two girls holding hands! Believe it or not Faith is actually 2 years old, but Payton has almost outgrown her (Faith has always been on the small side though)!

And of course our annual "dig the seeds out of the pumpkin so we can roast them" day. This year Preston actually dug in and helped. He would only get one hand messy though. And our seeds were delicious!

And for those of you who love seeing all things Alaska, here is a sweet little moose bedded down in our front yard a few weeks ago. There were actually three moose eating from the trees and bedding down, but it was hard to get good pictures. This one was right next to the drive way.

It is finally snowing here. I don't think it has ever waited this late to snow in the eight years I've lived here. We got a few inched on Sunday and another inch or so today. It's still "warmer" (in the mid 20's) so that's been nice also. But we're ready for LOTS more snow. If it's going to be cold, it may as well be beautiful and snow!

Hope you're all having a great Fall and getting ready for the Holidays!

Hockey Girl

So I've been posting about my hockey games on Facebook and many of you can't believe I play hockey and have asked for pictures. So I thought I would blog about it and give you a little "proof" of me on the ice! :)

I started playing a couple of years after I moved to Alaska because my girlfriends were playing. Believe it or not, it's quite a popular sport in here, even for women. I guess it helps us stay half way in shape during our hibernating months of winter and gives us something to do! :)

I played for about 3 years until I got pregnant. I've taken a break, but my girlfriends have kept at it. They were already good, now they're great. I haven't played in several years and wasn't planning to play again, but they had an opening on their team and talked me into it. I'm loving playing again, but still not great and way out of my league with these girls. Somehow, I've managed to score the two out of our three games so far!

Here is the six of us (from left to right): Becca, Kimi, me, Marta, Hannah, Marquel

These were my first girlfriends here and these are the girls I have Bible study with every Tuesday night and girls campouts once a year. I truely LOVE these ladies!Becca, me, Marta, Kimi, Marquel, Hannah....sweaty and stinky after our game

There is me in action.....notice I'm even on my feet and not my rear-end! I'm getting better! :)

This is my (in the black and gray socks) and Marta (#9) celebrating my goal!

Here is me (in the green) waiting for the puck.

So, there you have it. Me and hockey! An uncoordinated, long-legged Texan on ice. Can't get much more humorous than that! :)

Out of the Mouth's of Babes

Just wanted to share a couple of the cute things the kids are saying.

We are blessed to spend lots of time with friends and their kids. When we leave, I generally say "Bye guys" while waving to all the kids. On Friday, we had been playing with our friends and I said my normal "Bye guys." While putting Payton in her carseat, she was excitedly waving and saying, "Bye duys, bye duys, bye duys!" So cute.....

Payton is also starting to mimick the way I sit on the floor to play with her, trying to lean on her hand exactly like I do. :)

Driving home yesterday, it got quite in the car for a moment. We were driving by some new hydroseeded grass and Preston said, "Mom, are they making grass all over the Urth (Earth)?" I explained that they had made this new road and were making the sides look pretty by planting grass. Another moment of silence, then, "Mom, why does God give them Urth a big dwink of water when the Urth doesn't have a mouth?"

I love the innocense of a child! :)

Catching Up

I know it's been awhile since I've posted, so this is just a catch-up post. We are doing well, just very busy. Darron is desperately trying to finish up a Master's Program by Oct. 15th. He still has one test and four papers to write, so he is spending most of his extra time studying. That means, the kids and I are spending our time together and trying to leave D alone! :)

It is definatley Fall time in Alaska. The leaves are all golden and falling from the trees. The temps are in the 40's during the day and 30's at night. "Termination dust" has hit the mountains. This is the first snowfall that starts at the tops of the mountains and slowly works its way down to us in the town....therefore, it is slowly "terminating" our summer and Fall.

The kids are both doing great, growing like weeds. Preston is getting so tall and we're continuing to work on expressing our frustrations without major fits....the joys of a 3 1/2 year old! He is surrounded with wonderful friends and has a group of about 4 little boys is "hangs with" on a regular basis. Here's a great smile from my big boy!


Darron went Halibut fishing this summer with some of his buddies. They had a great trip and came back with a lot of fish for the freezer. This was D's biggest catch of the day...about 70 lbs!

P
Payton is also doing great, growing up so quickly! She is such a momma's girl and I LOVE it! She is so happy (most of the time) and always smiling and laughing. She is learning so many words and tries to repeat everything we say. Her favorite thing to say right now is "no, no" while shaking her head....this is her general response to anything we ask her.

Preston and Payton love each other (for the most part) and their favorite thing to do together is wrestle and tackle. Usually, it's Payton taking her brother down. A few tears are shed if it gets out of hand, but most of the time the tackle sessions are full of laughter! It's so cute to watch!

Pres and Payton also love trying new things together...like Preston pulling Payton in a miniature red wagon around the living room! I think her toppling over was the funniest part for both of them. :)



These pictures are obviously out of order but here is Darron and his buddies with all of their fish....halibut, sea bass, link cod, and a red snapper!

And last, but certianly not least, the beginning of our summer was filled with putting in a backyard...a three year long project has finally come to life! When we bought this house 5 years ago, the backyard was mainly dirt, little grass. Over the years, the little grass became all dirt. We have spent the last two summers putting up fences so Maverick, our dog, would have his own area. We also had to take down old decks and make a deck for our hot tub (a big $200 purchase from Craigslist). Then, we had to move sheds, level out the yard, bring in 2 dump loads of topsoil, and spread it all. Finally, the hydroseed. I had pics of the entire process, but can't locate them now. However, this is the finished product! Complete with a hamock, an outdoor firepit, a box for a veggie garden next year, a trampoline, and a fort/slide/sandbox for the kids. We LOVE our backyard!! Thank you to my main man for working so hard to give our kids such a great place to play!

Well, that's our mid-summer/Fall catch-up. Now it's getting colder, my hockey season has started (yep, I play hockey with my girlfriends!), school is going, and we are beginning to hibernate for the long, cold winter!

Hope you all are doing well and thanks for checking in on our family. Leave us a comment and let us know how you are!

Aching Heart

Tonight, I had the honor to go to a Celebration of Life for a sweet little four year old named Hannah. I first met Hannah a year ago when her older sister, Katie, was one of my fifth grade students. During Parent-Teacher Conferences in November, Katie's mom told me she would be traveling out of state for her younger daughter, Hannah. I asked a little about what was going on and little did I know that was the beginning of a year of prayer and thankfulness over this special little girl.

When Mrs. Kingsley was pregnant with Hannah, they discovered by ultrasounds that she had some heart defects. She wasn't suppose to live through birth, but that was the first miracle God performed in this little girl and families life. Hannah was born with Congestive Heart Failure and at just 8 days old she had her first heart surgery. The doctors told the Kingsley family that she would most likely need a heart transplant at some point in her life, and they were amazed she had even lived this long.

During her 4 years and 9 months of life, Hannah lived through 5 major surgeries and countless procedures. Just over a week ago, Hannah got sick and it began to turn into pneumonia. Her little heart finally gave out and she had congestive heart failure and passed away on August 28th. Although the family knew that each day was a blessing they weren't suppose to have with Hannah, they thought and hoped they would have many more years with her.

From the time I met Mrs. Kingsley a year ago, we have both been very open about our faith in the Lord. I have had numerous conversations with her and have prayed through the most recent surgery this past January for Hannah. The Kingsley family is, and has been, an incredible witness for the Lord. Little Hannah loved the Lord with all her heart and wasn't ashamed to tell people of the love of Jesus. Mr and Mrs. Kingsley have always thanked God for sharing HIS little Hannah with them for the 4 years they had, thanking Him for each added day. They have not been asking "why us" but, instead, have known that Hannah was HIS and they were blessed by her life and are thankful the Lord took her to be with Him, healthy and pain free.

My heart is aching tonight for the Kingsley family. As a mother, I can't imagine watching my child go through so many procedure and surgeries, many of which were very painful. I can't imagine watching my baby be sick and fragile. And I can't imagine saying my goodbye's for the last time on Earth. I came home tonight and just held my "baby" Preston and cried over him. I am so thankful for my two beautiful, healthy children.

Please join me in lifting the Kingsley family up in your prayers: Gary, Brenda, Meagan (19), Ryan (12), Katie (10) and Zachary (2). And if you have children, be sure to love on them and give them extra hugs and kisses.

May the Kingsley family continue to be a great witness for the Lord and an encouragement to you and I.

You know you live in Alaska when....

You go fishing only to see this bear!

Do you see the black bear in the trees? Well, we didn't....until we were about 5 feet away from it! It was an incredibly amazing, and bit frightening experience!

We had just walked up on the boardwalk of the river after fishing all day. We had walked about 6 or so steps when Darron suddenly jumped back yelling "BEAR!" We all looked to the side and saw this beauty watching us from the trees. We see bear at the river all the time, but generally IN the river...not on the Boardwalk. With guns in tow, we were able to safely walk past her with no problems.

I guess we had been fairly warned by this sign! :)


This is the Kenai River, about 2 hours south of Anchorage. This is our favorite fishing hole. When the salmon are "running" we generally catch them here, along with everyone else as you can see. Believe it or not, this was not a crowded day. When the fish are really hot, it's literally almost shoulder to shoulder fishing. Some might say it's not fun to be that packed in, but as long as there is a fighting salmon at the end of my pole, I have a blast!

And here are our trusty men filleting all the fish we caught! The limit on red salmon is three a day. Darron can catch a fish in a mud puddle, so he always limits out. I had actually caught about 5 this trip, but only 1 was legal....the rest were either "snagged" in the tail or head, or got off right as I was about to have it to the shore. Oh well.

We try and make it to the Kenai River a couple of times each summer to enjoy the BEAUTIFUL river and mountains, along with good friends and fun fishing. This was our trip last Monday....Darron played hookey from work and we went for the day with Craig and Becca. We had a GREAT day, saw 4 bear total, and came home with 3 salmon each for the freezer.

I'm about to put my on the smoker now....

I truly love living in Alaska and all the adventures it has to offer....I just wish my family lived here with me!

Washington DC Trip

I always forget this uploads pictures backwards, so my trip is a little out of order. Oh well.

I left late Thursday night, July 9th for Washington DC/Virginia and was gone until July 19th....almost 10 days! Earlier this year my teaching partner, Valerie, and I were accepted to the We The People Institute at James Madison University in Virginia. We applied with over 100 other people and we were one of 45 to be chosen. Our trip was all expenses paid....airfair, food, lodging, etc. We were so excited! We were in lectures/groups all day, everyday and we had some homework to do each night. We were learning about the Constitution and its history and how to teach about it in our classrooms. Although I am not a history nut, this conference was AWESOME!

We were each put into group of 5 or 6 for the week with a mentor. THis is my group: me, Joan, Karen, Angela, and Julie. Bernard was our mentor. He was definately the BEST! We had to prepare all week for a Simulated Congressional Hearing in which we had to, as a team, give a six minute prepared speech answering specific questions about the Constitution. Then a panel of judges would have four minutes to ask us follow-up questions. This is my team at our Congressional Hearing. It was fun to show off all we had been learning.
We stayed at James Madison University (Father of the Constitution). We lived in the dorms and ate in their cafeteria. The food was actually outstanding! We each had our own room and we had one bathroom mate. My bathroom mate was a girl named Kelly from Ohio. We spent a lot of time together and got along great.

One of my closest friends from ACU, Amy, lives about 45 minutes from JMU. She and her little boy Charlie drove down to take me to dinner one night. It was SO GOOD getting to catch up in person. Thanks to our blogs, I felt like we hadn't missed a beat with each other. That night was definately a highlight of the trip for me. Her little three year old boy took this picture of us....impressive! :)

This was Gifford Hall, the dorm we stayed in. Beatiful on the outside, decent on the inside!

Valerie and I flew into DC about two days before our conference started so we could tour all of the major monuments. We didn't have time for any of the museums, but we were going all day and night to capture the monuments. This is this Vietnam Memorial....very somber and humbling.

We made it to the Arlington National Cemetary and we were able to see a Changing of the Guards...awesome experience. It's incredible to try and take this all in. It makes me very proud to be an American and so thankful for the thousands that have given their lives for our country and our freedom.

The Washington Monument. We actually got to ride the elevator to the top of this and lookout! I guess they only give out so many tickets for the day at like 8 in the morning. We made it to this monument at 8 at night and were asking about it. A younger teenager was working the line and we played the "we're teachers from Alaska" card, and he let us slip in the line with no tickets!! It was so cool! And by the way, the neon green sticker on my shirt was for the trolley we were riding, not a new fashion statement! :)

I flew all night and landed about noon on Friday. By 3 pm we were off and going...first stop, our Alaska State Senators office. One of our senators, Mark Begich, was at his office between meetings. This sign is at his office door. His staff told him we were in from Alaska and we were teachers and he told them to send us in. He visited with us briefly and took some pictures with us. :)

Excuse the windblown, stuck to the side of my head, hair. This is in front of the Capitol building (obviously). We did go inside, but we didn't want to take the long tour....too much to do. Here's a cool fact: the Senator's have their own office building to the right and the Representatives are in their own office building to the left. Each building is connected to the Capitol by an underground tunnel that has it's own trolley for the Congressman. And yes, I got to ride the trolley with our Senator's staff member. How cool is that!

While in DC, Valerie and I stayed in a hotel that was about two blocks from a metro station. We took the metro (like a subway) every where we went. By the end of our two days, we were metro PRO'S! It was actually very clean and a pretty cheap, cool way to travel. We had fun and we were proud of ourselves for figuring it all out so quickly.

I had a terrific time on my trip and I missed my family greatly! My heart actually ached for my children by the fourth day, but I tried to fully enjoy my trip. Darron was fabulous with the kids and encouraged me to enjoy myself and to not worry about them. I do think he missed me though because when I got home he had reorganized/cleaned the laundry room, the house was spotless, he had bought a new comforter set for our bed and he had written about 20 little notes and left them all over the house for me. So sweet! I told him if he wasn't careful, I'd go out of town more often! :)

Disneyland

Well, this post is only about a month and a half late, but better late than never! :) Here are some of the highlights from our trip to Disneyland. After spending two weeks in Texas, we stopped off in Disneyland for a week before flying home to Alaska. Maggie and Peepaw met us in Disneyland for the first 3 days we were there. We had hotel rooms across from each other and Preston and Payton loved going back and forth. After Maggie and Peepaw checked out of their room to go back to Texas, the kids had a hard time understanding that Maggie and Peepaw were no longer in the hotel room across from us!

We were blessed with beautiful, mild weather while in California and we had a very memorable, fun week! I"m pretty sure I've haven't walked that much in quite awhile...but it was probably good for me considering all the junk I was eating! :)

Preston LOVED the rides at Disneyland. He, alone, made this trip worthwhile. This is Pres and I in the teacups.....not my favorite (spinning round and round leaves me feeling a bit queasy) but he sure loved them!
Payton was such a little trooper! There wasn't a ride she went on that we didn't see this happy smile. These are the teacups.....again! I think they were Payton's favorite! :)

We had so much fun with Maggie and Peepaw. Darron, Preston, dad, and I rode the big Ferris Wheel. This is us on the Ferris Wheel. I think Maggie and Peepaw enjoyed their time with us. I wish I had a picture of dad riding the Screamer Rollercoaster of the Tower of Terror.....now THAT was fun!

Maggie and Peepaw bought the kids their own Mickey ears and had their names put on the back. Payton didn't wear hers too long, but she was adorable when she would keep them on.

Preston picked out a Cars set of Mickey ears. He wore his non-stop and they are still finding their way all over our house! :)

Andy, my big bro, is out to sea with the Navy, but his wife and two kids were able to make the 2 hour drive to spend one night and day with us at Disneyland. Preston and Lizzie hit it off great! They were often seen walking together holding hands! :) Lizzie is about 2 months older than Preston. They loved being together. Gavin was also with us....he is almost 2 and just as adorable as can be. It was so nice to see them again and spend time together!

Preston and mommy being "Goofy."

Preston kept saying he wanted to ride a rollercoaster. Being the good parents we are, we decided to let him try Thundermountain. :) This is like a run-away mine train that goes pretty fast up and down and in and out of dark tunnels. He was just barely tall enough and we tried to tell him it would be really fast and dark and scarey. He continued to say he wanted to ride, so Darron and I got in a seat and Preston rode in the seat behind us with Peepaw. This picture was taken just BEFORE the rollercoaster started. I didn't get a picture afterwards, because I was too busy consoling a teary-eyed little boy. Needless to say, he wasn't a big fan! :) But, we were so PROUD of him for trying....he's not normally too much of a daredevil! AND....two days later, Preston wanted to ride Splash Mountain (the big drop off that goes into water) with his daddy and he LOVED it! :)

Preston spotted Goofy the moment we walked into the park on the first day. Payton didn't cry, but she wasn't sure what to think. She was trying to grab him! Preston got more and more brave as the week went on and started taking his picture by himself with the characters. He wouldn't let us go with him. My big boy! :)

Eventhough Darron says he planned this trip for Preston (and Payton), I'm pretty sure he was just as excited, if not more! These are my boys at the entrance to Disneyland. THey didn't want to stop for a picture, they were ready to head in!

We had such a great trip: beautiful weather, wonderful family time with Maggie and Peepaw, fun rides and shows, and happy/well-behaved kids. Who could ask for anything more? :)

Trip to Texas

THis is our sweet Payton in her adorable little night gown at the Lake House. I'm pretty sure she was in mid-sentence for the photo....no telling what she was trying to say!
My best friend from high school, Kelli, and her family came to the lake for an afternoon. Of course Maya and Preston wouldn't allow us to jet ski without them! It was a fun afternoon, but very windy on the lake.

We were fortunate enough to drive to Abilene and spend the night with Darron's college roommate, Jody, and his family. We took some time to drive around town and rehash great memories made while at ACU. In the background of the picture is where the magic of Darron and Jen all started! See the middle brown building? Darron and his roommates lived on the left while my roommates and I lived on the right. This was not planned, and we were not dating at the time....far from it! But, thankfully, the Lord had a plan and within the year, Darron and I were in love and I was preparing to make my first visit to Alaska. That townhouse holds alot of wonderful memories for us (keep it clean guys)! :)

We also spent some time walking on the ACU campus and reliving our wonderful college years. We both agreed those were much less stressful times in our lives, although we probably wouldn't have thought so then! They have made so many changes on the campus and it beautiful. It was so nice to be back there.....some of the best memories of my life were made during those years. Here's a shout out to all of my ACU friends.....thanks for the great memories of laughter, silliness, deep talks, tears, Bible studies, discovering who the Lord really is, and just plain fun! I love you guys!

While on campus, we also spent some time indocterinating (spelling?) Preston so he would grow up knowing where he is going to college! :) No, we'll let him make his own choice but we'll also do what we can to "encourage" ACU!

This is for all the ACU friends. We were lucky enough to eat lunch at Harold's BBQ!! It was SOOO good.......rough part of town, hole in the wall joint, but the BEST BBQ you'll find! We told Harold we came all the way from Alaska for his brisket....it made his day! :)

And is my sweet girl and how we found here on many car rides. She was such a trooper. She got much less sleep than normal but she was happy and just took naps when she found the time!

We went to a FT. Worth Cats Minor League Baseball game with my parents one night. It was my mom's company picnic night so we joined them. It was also my mom's birthday and I think she enjoyed getting to show off the grandkids. Preston enjoyed the game and it was a beautiful sunset with the Ft. Worth skyline in the background.

Payton and Maggie on a boat ride at the Lake House. Payton wasn't a huge fan of the boat because she couldn't walk around....but she made the best of it and Maggie enjoyed the snuggle time.

Preston driving the boat with Darron in the background and Peepaw just out of the picture giving Preston directions such as, "A little right....no I said right.....a little more right.....no, right....." I think Peepaw quickly discovered Preston doesn't know his right/left yet. But by the end of the trip, Preston was beginning to understand! :)

Preston and one of the many fish he caught. He is an avid fisherman. Standing on the dock with a pole in the water was all this little boy wanted to do! I guess he takes after his mom and dad since we both love fishing! Preston's job was to catch the minnow out of the bucket and then let us bait his pole. He could cast his own pole and reel in his fish. Peepaw also taught him how to grab the catfish by the tail to throw it back in. It was so fun fishing with him!

We had a WONDERFUL trip to Texas. Very busy and full of lots of good family/friend time, fishing, relaxing, and eating great food! Thanks Maggie and Peepaw for such a great visit! Wish we were there now!

Next to come....hopefully in the somewhat near future....Disneyland pictures!