Out West

Jarrett had to go to Minnesota for a sales meeting.  Since he was going to be gone all week, I decided to go to Midland and visit our family.  Debi went, too.

Stella was in a great mood...until we got in the car.  We stopped a couple of times to feed, etc.  Before we knew it all of the kids were finally asleep.  We didn't even think to stop for gas until...

It was a close call but we made it to a gas station!

Hanging at Nana's.

The next day, Stella and I went to hang with Granny in Big Spring.

 

 When I got home, my parents small group was meeting at their house. They had a surprise birthday cake for my mom.

 Skype with Daddy!

July

Jarrett will be traveling for two weeks in July, so we took advantage of his time at home.  

We went to eat at Mi Cocina in downtown Fort Worth

Stella is getting really rough.  If she has the chance, she will grab ahold of your face and just smash her mouth against your cheek.  I thought she was doing it only because she was rooting for food.  She also does it when she is playing or fussing.  I am not quite sure what it means.  Look at the grip she has on Jarrett's face!!

Kisses for daddy.

We went to Taste of Dallas.  Stella had a taste of chocolate gelato and she was definitely a fan!

Trying to crawl!

She is finally starting to feed herself foods.  I gave her a noodle to chew on while I was eating.  She liked it!

 

 My sweet girl!

Mama's first night away!

I have had a girls trip planned for months to meet up with Emily, Julee, and Courtney (my ZTA sisters from college.)  I got pretty nervous about leaving Stella, though.  It was not that I didn't think Jarrett could handle it, but I was not sure I could!

 

Once I got there, I had a blast!  We went to Luckenbach for a beer.  It was just as I imagined...just a tiny little town with people playing guitar and a bar.

 We toured several wineries in the area.  My favorite was Pedernales.

It was much needed time with my girls! We had too much fun.  I am ready to get another girls trip on the books!

I was also ready to get back to this...

 And this... (look at those arms!)

and this...

Best 4th of July Ever

We met Chris and Olivia in our small group when we living in College Station.  They are some of our closest friends.  When we moved here, they moved closer to Chris' famliy in El Paso.  After months of wanting to plan a visit, and a couple of pregnancies later, we FINALLY reunited.  We flew to El Paso then drove up to Ruidoso to stay at Chris' family's house.

I was nervous about our first flight with Stella.  It went pretty well though.

 We got to El Paso around 6 or 7, then drove to Chris and Olivia's house.  Then, we had a 3 hour drive to Ruidoso.  It made for a long night.  Stella was a trooper.  We stopped for a late night green chili cheese burger on the way...YUM!

 

Ella is absolutely adorable with the kids.  Ella is 2 and Asher is just two days younger than Stella.

 

We finally arrived! In the morning, this is what we woke up to! Beautiful!

I took a million pictures of the kids playing... they did so well together.  Stella and Asher would stare at eachother and laugh and grab eachother.  Ella was the little ring leader.  So sweet!

 On the 4th, we walked around downtown Ruidoso and stopped in to have some appetizers at a little pub.

Daddy's little firecracker.

That night, we went to a small town rodeo to watch the fireworks.  The fireworks never actually happened...but we had fun anyway!

 

 The next day, we went to Lincoln County, where the Lincoln County wars happened and Billy the Kid was caught.  Jarrett has wanted to do this for so long! It was fun.  We had a picnic at a park there.

Ella gave make overs at our picnic.

 

The next day, we tried our luck at Ruidoso downs horse races! Stella is good luck! We won about $70 in just an hour or so.  We left before we spent any of it.

 

 

It was time to head back the next day.  Stella did perfectly.  We played in the airport.  When it was time to get on the airplane, we all slept!    We were so lucky that there was a woman behind us who kept Stella entertained, too!

 

Home Sweet Home!

We had so much fun spending time with Chris and Olivia! We are blessed to have friends like them!

We love you, Duncans!