The Most Random Re-Cap Ever

I"m basically recapping all of the randomness from August today. Because I haven't been in the blogging habit, I haven't shared all that's been going on. We've been busy, but there has definitely been some laughter and fun along the way. Grab a cup and sit back and enjoy some random moments today. 

Two girls, stealing mom's phone, and having a photo shoot. 

Adalyn and Casey. 

So many photos just like these on my phone. These two girls have the sweetest relationship.

Twinsies.

 They even fixed their hair the same. 

Megan's team leotard came in!! Thank you so much to all of our family and friends who supported her for her August fundraiser!!! We are working on thank you cards, but she is not having a ton of time to sit down and write them after school and 15 hours of practice during the week. 

These two cuties, the night before school started. 

Overalls on the 2nd day of school. 

She told her best friend to wear them too, so they could match. 

Mock meet time.... our gymnast was ready to compete at her gym for their 2nd mock meet before competition season was officially underway! 

Our town opened a Crumbl cookies months and months ago. We are more of an ice cream family, but I wanted to get a treat for family coming in to town. The cookies did not disappoint. Seriously delicious. This franchise is expanding all over after getting their start in Utah, so be on the lookout if you don't have one near you yet! Their nutella cookie was amazing. 

Three girls being silly while eating in Georgetown. 

DJ's family came to town, and we all went to eat at Blue Corn Harvest, in Georgetown- seriously so good. It's a local farm to table restaurant and we love it. And thanks to a sweet daughter who snapped this picture of us, because we definitely don't have a lot of pictures together lately. 

We are SO thankful DJ's dad and stepmom came to visit us. We loved having them in town!

A cute girl that wanted her picture take with this monument. 

And a sweet girl on a mommy & me afternoon! Both big sisters had activities after school, so it was just the two of us! 

and some ice cream :) 

Confession- we do not check our mail often enough. I hate the mailbox set up in Texas because I just don't remember to check the mail. We will have packages just sitting in our mailbox for weeks before I think about checking the mail. Sigh. 

Oh my gosh y'all, Adalyn asked for cowgirl boots and I had to get them for her! How cute is she! She has worn these tons and tons since I bought them for her. She's a Texas girl more and more every day. 

We ended our girl's night, with baking brownies for ourselves.... and some for DJ's students as well. 

Gretchen went to Six Flags to celebrate a friend's birthday and had so much fun! 

And I found the cutest shoes ever. I've worn them several times to work and they're so comfy. They also come in black with leopard accents, and I'm heading back soon to grab that pair! 

Each Wednesday, the girls have college shirt day. These two were representing our Horns on their first college shirt day of the year. 

We went to Boerne, Texas for Megan's first gymnastics meet. After the meet, we were starving, and we found the cutest pizza restaurant, with this fun bus. 

A co-worker and I hosted a Very Hungry Caterpillar themed baby shower for our sweet friend at work. I loved all of the bright colors! 

We had a pop up rain storm, and Megan just had to go play in the rain! 

We hop back in the car about 30 minutes after the girls get home from school to run Megan to gymnastics, and Adalyn was not about to leave her snack at home. She brought her chips with her, and between her and Megan, they almost devoured the entire can. 

She's been learning about matter at school, and had to bring some show & tell items: liquid, solid, & gas. She blew up the balloon for "gas" and then proceeded to rub it all over her hair and then said, "Look, it's hanging on by a hair!"

And these two cuties with their CFA cow masks will wrap up this most random re-cap ever. 

But, aren't they cute?!

 

Our Epic Camping Trip: Cadillac Ranch & Palo Duro Canyon

6 weeks after our epic camping trip has come to end, I'm finally writing our very last wrap up post. We spent 16 days traveling through 4 states, exploring mining towns, waterfalls, cities, mountains, wildlife, and lakes. And on our last leg of the trip, we visited a ranch and a canyon. 

I like to think that traveling home with two kids was easier than traveling with three. While the 4 of us headed home, Gretchen was off in Glacier with my parents. We spent a night in Fort Collins, Colorado, and in Pueblo, Colorado before driving in to New Mexico, and finally, back in Amarillo. 

We had plans to stop at Cadillac Ranch on our first stop through Amarillo, but we didn't have time, so it was definitely a must stop for us on the way home. We grabbed our cans of spray paint and walked to the ranch. 

And it was muddy! So muddy, in fact, we were only able to reach one car thanks to a spray paint can bridge that had been made. 

We each took turns spray painting the cadillacs. 

It was one of those bucket list things that we definitely had to do at least once. Now, I wouldn't go out of my way to stop here, but if you're in the area, I'd definitely take the time to stop. 

Since you couldn't reach the cars, people were spray painting the ground... and the corn that surrounds the ranch, and I just thought to myself, "I hope people don't eat this corn."

After our stop at Cadillac Ranch, we made our way over to Palo Duro Canyon. 

and it was breathtaking. 

We wanted to stop here, to scope it out for a future trip. The canyon has a ton of hiking, and even a stage show about the history of Texas. We opted to skip the performance, and I'm glad we did, because the mosquitos here were fierce and the show is outside. 

Once the camper was set up, the girls played a round of Uno. It's one of their favorite games to play while we're on trips! 

It was HOT when we arrived at the canyon, and we thought about hiking, but it was also closer to dinner time than we had anticipated. We opted to drive around, and get out for some small stops along the way. 

I may have also been terrified that we'd come across a rattle snake if we went hiking. 

We did get out and DJ and the girls walked up to the inlet that was in the side of the hill. I wore berkinstocks (since we weren't planning on hiking) and decided to not make the climb. 

We drove back up to the top for a few more views. 

And then we headed back to our campsite so we could eat dinner. I was relaxing in one of our chairs, the girls were inside playing cards, and DJ was grilling, when I looked down and saw a tarantula! I let him know that we would be eating dinner inside that night, and after we went back outside after dinner, we saw at least 6 more! They were all coming out of their holes to eat and none of us were excited about it!

Palo Duro is a beautiful park, and I'm sure the hiking there is wonderful! It's on our list of places we would travel to in early spring- before snakes and tarantulas get out! 

The next day, July 9, we woke up and made the trek home! It had been a wonderful vacation and we are so thankful for all of the memories we made! 

 

Our Epic Camping Trip: Yellowstone Part 2

Woohoo! Let's get back to wrapping up this vacation! I still have a few more days to go, but hang in there because we are getting to the end! On July 3rd, we spent our day in Yellowstone. I shared about our morning and all we saw in this post. Today, I'm sharing our afternoon.

After exploring the south and east side of Yellowstone, we headed west to the "Grand Canyon of Yellowstone" It was gorgeous. You are able to park and walk just a few steps and have this amazing view. 

Can you see the river?

The waterfall was spectacular. There was a hike to get down to the bottom of the falls, but we opted not to hike down, because it was getting late, and my parents were with us. 

Here's a better picture of the rushing river. 

You can see this waterfall from several different views. On one side, you can get right at the top, at the bottom, and then you can go further back for the view we had. Then, you can drive around and hit the waterfall from the other side. 

I literally cannot get over how beautiful it was. 

This bench had the perfect frame of the falls. 

After we visited both sides of the "grand canyon" we went to the mud pots!

Bubbling, steaming, sulferic pots of mud. 

This one is called "dragon's mouth" and while there is steam coming out from a hole on the side, it literally sounds like a dragon is roaring from within! 

One last mud pot. 

and a bison! On the west side of Yellowstone, there were bison everywhere. We think because it was summertime and hot, a lot of the animals that you would typically see weren't out. The rest of our camping party took Sunday and drove to way north Yellowstone and they said they were able to see more animals. We were not up for the drive. 

We finally stopped to get a picture by the Yellowstone sign on our way out! 

Back at camp, we roasted s'mores and marshmallows before calling it a night!