The Polar Express...

Sunday, December 18th it was time for the Polar Express. After church that afternoon we headed to the train station in Palestine to ride the train! This was our 4th adventure riding this train. This is one of FAVORITE things to do at Christmas time! I think this is such a great family adventure. Our children love to go.

Waiting to ride the train.

Cooper and I, ready for our adventure.

Very excited!

Our hot chocolate chef.

My 3 sweet kiddos..

She loved looking out the window.

Our hot chocolate chef.

Punching our tickets!

Enjoying their hot chocolate.

Dancing.

Meeting Santa!

"The First Gift Of Christmas". Playing with their bells.

Dancing and singing Christmas carols, on our way back to the station.

Camping

Friday, October 21st we headed off for our first family camping trip (other than to the deer lease). After picking Hagen up from school on Friday, we finished loading up and off we went. KK was gracious enough to keep Harper for the weekend. So it was just Erik and I and the boys. We were excited. We were joining some friends of ours and their family at Whispering Trails just outside of Tyler. We took our 5th wheel that Erik uses for Deer Hunting, it is probably around 20 years old. When we arrived in Tyler and stopped we noticed we were missing something...

Yes part of our door must have blown off while travleing down I-20. I sure hope it did not cause any accidents!

Riding bike, having fun and meeting new friends.

Riding down to the pumpkin carving contest with Trace, Trent and Michelle.

Picking their stencils, ready to carve.

Cleaning the "guts" out. Yucky...Says Cooper, not show sure about it..

Mommy and Daddy carving away.

Trent was a winner..

Pumpkins galore.

Hagen and Cooper with their finished products.

Later, that afternoon the RV resort hosted a hay ride for the kids with trick or treating around the park. The boys were so excited to get to wear there costumes for the first time.

Green Lantern and Superman. My Superhero's

Travis, Trent, Trace, Hagen and Cooper.

On the trailor, ready to trick or treat.

We had a wonderful weekend, even though late Saturday night it came thunderstorm and our trailor sprung a few weeks. We have fallen in Love with camping. The boys had the best time and we can not wait to go back soon!

Dove Hunting 2011

Friday, September 9th, the time had arrived. The long awaited dove hunting trip to Ballinger. Erik, Hagen, Cooper along with our good friends the McMannus', Scott, Grant and Coy, left Friday afterschool for their big trip. Before making it to West Texas, they stopped off in Arlington to attend a Ranger's game. After the game, they headed to Ballinger, an arrived around 2 am. Of course, the boys slept the whole way so they were ready to go that morning. They had a great time on their trip, I tried to talk Erik into blogging about it, seeing that I was not there, but he did not take me up on the offer. He did however take the camera and get some great pictures.

Hagen with his "mojo". And no, I had no idea what they were called. But apparently, they are called "mojos"???

The boys ready to dove hunt.

Hagen shooting with "Mr. Scott".

Hagen and Coy.

Cooper and Daddy learning how to shoot.

Grant with his dove.

Hagen and Cooper with their "dove". They did not kill these themselves, but let's just play like they did.

Hagen and Cooper hanging out.

The Ballinger "Ritz Carlton".

As you can see they all had a wonderful time, and they can not wait until deer season. Harper Kate, Christina and I stayed home. We had a great weekend with crafts, shopping and a movie.