South Padre!!!

We just got back from an incredible week in South Padre with some of my family. It was awesome! We got to take out our sailboat, I got to lay on the beach and get really brown, ate some good food and had a blast with my family. Here are some pics from this past week!

Our sailboat!! It was so happy out on the ocean. The waves were soft and the wind was just enough. It was almost silent out on the boat. One of the times that we took it out, Brian and I saw dolphins! There were about 10 of them, including a baby dolphin! They jumped and swam around the boat, close enough to touch and one even swam in between the hulls of the boat and took a look at us! It was great! I was so proud of my aunts and all my cousins, even the little ones went out on the boat!!


Every night we cooked dinner and hung out at the condo. One night we had a dance party! It was so fun! Another night we went and took sunset pictures on the bay.

My cousin Rusty

Cyndi and me doing our best gangsta pose

My Aunt Jo "dancing" with Brian

Sunset picture of the Tindells...that was picture 5 of 8 that Brian ruined. Honestly, why do I bother...

Some more of my cousins doing their best gangsta pose...and Brian...doing his...best...gangsta...nevermind.

Me, Cyndi and Rusty...we are three of the first set of Long grandchildren. There's 14 grandchildren and 7 great-grandchildren. Most of you know my mom's the 2nd oldest of 9 children...so this is only a small percentage of the whole bunch!

We also went and saw the sea turtles conservation center. Last year, Brian and I happened upon the baby sea turtle release early one morning when we were out fishing. These guys are so big and really make me think to be careful with my trash and where I dispose of things...its amazing how just a helium balloon could affect a sea turtle 7 hours from where I live!


My cousins Tyler and Kaitlyn feeding "Crush", remember "Finding Nemo"??

On our last day, Brian and I threw a line over the side of the boat and I caught a 2 ft long Spanish Mackeral!! I could barely touch it, let alone gut it and stuff, but it was by far the biggest fish I'd ever caught!!! And it tasted really yummy all fried up!

Then in the next run, my cousin Jake caught almost the exact same fish!! Awesome!
I'll have to fill you in on my special souvenir tomorrow...here's some pics of the after trip in San Antonio.

My Popo being silly

Guitar Hero rocks!!

Nanny making my Great-Nanny's homemade pound cake recipie! Yummy!!

My Nanny's so ghetto-fabulous...

My cousin Shaughn and his sweet baby Celeste

My baby cousins Brianna and Celeste...so cute!!

My uncle James and our parrot Tom-Tom

Brian and the kiddos, all of my family loves him so much, especially the kids. I'm so blessed! Thanks for sticking through all these pictures, I love my family so much and feel so blessed to be have such a big family that I'm so close to!

4th of July

Last weekend was super fun, some of my family came into town from San Antonio. We went to some of the hot spots here in town, and spent some time at our new house and my sister Manda's new house. For anyone trying to plan next year's 4th of July vacation, plan on coming to Granbury! We went up to the highest spot in our neighborhood that looks out over the lake. From there we could see all the fireworks that people were shooting from their houses. Then after an hour and a half, the Granbury fireworks (which are of the top 5 best in the nation) started. They were amazing! We took the kids to Dinosaur Valley in Glen Rose, my cousin David was so excited he couldn't stand it! Then we went to Babe's for dinner and to Manda and Paul's house. Sunday we went to church in the park downtown and then to the feach. David loved the kiddie water park. Here are some pics from last weekend:

Firework fun on the hill...we were all a little tired there towards the end!


David wanted to take a bath in our bathtub, so the kids played in the water. Aren't they super cute!?

Dinosaur Valley, you gotta go!



Dance party in my living room

What a cutie!

This week has been a busy one. I've been in training most of the week at UNT's Play Therapy Summer Institute. I've been working on getting my private practice ironed out this week as well. Until God blesses me with a little one, I've really become at peace with helping out other little ones that need some extra love and support. Please pray for me as Brian and I are getting ready to step out into our own buisness. I pray that it will be not only profitable for our family, but fulfilling for me personally, as well as a tool for God's healing here in Granbury and Hood County. If you have any advice, or know a good CPA, let me know!!

We're going to South Padre tomorrow for a week, so I won't be on for a while. Have a great one, we'll see you when we get back!

Best week ever!!!

So, if last week was a little sad and pathetic, this week has been just the opposite! Thank you God for blessing me with this week! Here's a rundown of what's been going on:

Saturday night:

We took Brian's mom to the Fort Worth Symphony Concert in the Botanical Garden, laser light/firework show for her birthday/mother's day present. After sitting in the car in the parking lot for an hour and a half, waiting out the massive storm that went through the area, we got to go in. Yeah, we had to sit under umbrellas (ella, ella, hey, hey hey) and it was a recording of the symphony, but it was AMAZING!! Here's a pic:

Sunday: HAIRSPRAY!!

Jody and Kaycee Thornton, a family that my family has been friends with all my life, decided to give me free tickets to Hairspray. Kaycee had gotten them for Christmas, but couldn't go because she wouldn't be back in time from Opp Camp, so they gave them to Rachel and me, since they know what crazy Hairspray friends we are. It was AWESOME! The chorus was fantastic, the performers were incredible, the seats were great (14th row!). We are totally blessed! Here's a pic of us right before they came and took my camera...

Monday:

Our best friends from Austin were in town visiting their families for the 4th, and haven't seen our house yet. So Brandon and Mindy came over and we had mexican food on the patio at Ayala's, dollar margaritas, then went back to our house and talked for about 5 hours. All of us except for Brian were on vacation...sorry Brian! It was so fun and felt so good to be with a couple who has stuck with us through a lot of good and bad. Here's a pic of Brian and Brandon, then Mindy and I, (could you tell we're excited?)

Tuesday:

Met Rachel and Heather, the girl from my support group who got her embryos implanted last week, for lunch and a movie. You can't hate on Fish n Chips and Baby Mama! If you haven't seen Baby Mama, you MUST go see it. Brian says it helps us laugh off the hurt of infertility...

Wednesday:

Yesterday was just what I needed. Rebecca, my other best friend, her mom and Hadley, her sweet baby girl, came out to see my house with Mindy, her three kiddos and Kim, Mindy's mom. I love these kids like they are my own, so it was so great to get to play with them and love on them. We went to three of my favorite places in Granbury: my house, Maurice's (a rockin clothing store) and the feach (fake beach). We wrapped it all up with SNOCONES! It took Bec coming in for me to finally get my first snocone of the season. Thanks Bec, for sharing my ridiculous passion for snocones...

It felt so good to get to be with these two girls and their families. Mindy and Bec, you guys are my constants (thanks for the word Min). I know it's been hard to know what to say to me, but just knowing you guys are praying for me and thinking of me means everything. I love you both tons! It was really hard to see them go, I didn't realize how much I needed to see them. But then I got an awesome surprise! Brandon was driving in to hang out with Brian and he picked up Mindy somewhere by Kaye's house and brought her back. So we had another great night of eating and talking and laughing on the porch. I love you guys. Here's some pics from yesterday:

Dressing room fun at Maurice's


Hadley at the Feach! Adorable swimsuit!


Dylan, Maddie and Kenzie swimming. And not one of the 3 of us brought our suits...no worries, if one of the kids got too far out or started to drown, I was going to sacrifice my semi-dry clothes since I live the closest...

I love these girls!

Today I get a break to clean my house, then we have family coming in for the 4th festivities! So it looks like the fun doesn't stop here folks! Thanks for all of your thoughts, prayers and sweet comments and emails, I'm truly blessed to have such amazing friends and family! Happy 4th!