Home sweet home....

It is always nice to get away and have a change of scenery, but even better to get back to the comfort of your own home. We had a lovely time at Horseshoe Bay Resort and the Gaylord Texan. Both hotels were wonderful, though completely different. Horseshoe Bay was relaxing and serene, while the Gaylord was...shall we say...over the top! It was kind of like being at Disney. Put it this way, it had a huge (and I mean HUGE) atrium with a replica of the Alamo, the Riverwalk in San Antonio, a windmill, canyons, etc. all inside! It was so entertaining to just walk around. There were miniature train sets that Clark could have watched all day. Our room was on the 5th floor overlooking the center of the atrium. We would sit on the balcony at night and just take it all in. Amazing! Yet, Horseshoe Bay was so tranquil. We would just walk the grounds and enjoy the serenity. The marriage conference went very well. I went back and forth between checking on Ali and Clark to sitting through some of the sessions. We paid Ali to help us with Clark while we were there. She was thrilled to make some money. One other staff couple brought their one year old daughter, and they paid Ali to babysit one evening so they could go to dinner. I'm sure she is contemplating what to spend her money on...however, knowing Ali, she will hang on to it for awhile.

While we were in the Ft. Worth area (Grapevine actually), we were able to visit with a family that we were in Ukraine with. They adopted their son from the same orphanage that Clark was in. We flew into Ukraine on the same day, and were there the entire time together. We were so excited to get to see their son again. He was 2 1/2 years old at the time of adoption. He is now 4 1/2 and several inches taller than Clark (no surprise). They got along so well...like they knew somewhere deep within that they shared something pretty special. It was great to see them together again. Although this time, they were both speaking English. They took us to lunch, and then we took the kids to play at Jump Zone.

We signed Clark up for another round of soccer today. He will start in 2-3 weeks, I believe. He was hoping he started tomorrow. Ha!! Maybe he will learn to not be such a ball hog this time around...time will tell.

Ali is full force into swimming. She will have a meet the middle of October. It's been a couple of months, so I guess it's time. :) She is also playing the guitar with a few others next Sunday morning in church. She loves to do that. She could play the guitar around the clock, I do believe.

I will leave you with quite a few pictures from our week.

Horseshoe Bay and the Gaylord

Back in the swing of things...

We are on week 5 of being back in school around here. I think we are finally into the swing of things, so to speak. I suppose Ali is as used to her morning swim practices as she is going to get. I mean, who REALLY enjoys getting up at 5:00am? She has been a trooper about it for the most part. Though I sang to her to wake her up one morning, and she was none too pleased about that. She asked me that night at bedtime to please not sing to her the next morning. Haha!!

The kids and I were able to make a quick trip up to Shreveport to visit family for the Labor Day weekend. We had a great time in a short amount of time! T.C. was supposed to join us, but the shuttle was late taking off and so it wasn't possible. Clark was able to follow one of his favorite cousins around, D.J. He loves D.J. and wanted to be in his presence every waking moment! Sunday morning Clark ran to D.J.'s room and D.J. had gone to the store. Clark walks in his room...no D.J...he went in Lisa's room (D.J.'s mom) where she proceeded to tell him where D.J. was. Clark just responded..."HUH"...kind of like, I dare him leave without asking. Ha!! My cousin, Lisa, and her husband had a family cookout on Sunday. We had a grand time, and we all ate WWWWAAAAAAYYYYYY too much. It was delicious.

On our way out of town last Friday, we stopped of at the Houston Museum of Natural Science to visit the Terra Cotta Warriors exhibit. It was wonderful...simply amazing that they were so well preserved after so many years.

We are looking forward to a little get away soon. We have a National Guard marriage retreat/conference that T.C. will help teach part of here. We usually leave the children at home and my parents come to keep them when we have these retreats, however, they are joining us for this one. We thought they would love the lake and all the resort has to offer. After we leave the conference, we are heading to the Grapevine area for a meeting that T.C. must attend for NASA. This resort looks fun also! A definite perk of homeschooling is being able to travel and not worry about having to pull them out of school. School just comes right along with us! (though Ali would just like the week off...the mean teacher says that is not happening! :) )

Clark is still enjoying his new gymnastics class, and eagerly awaiting soccer to start up next month. I'm just not sure if I am ready for somewhere ELSE to be during the week. I'll get it figured out. He starts back to Mother's Day Out on Monday, and is so excited to have his same teacher from last year. Hope she is ready for this wild man again. :)

Here are some pictures from our past week.