Karina's First Nightmare

Karina had a VERY scary dream last night. She told me in detail what her dream entailed. She said her and her friends were being chased by a scary dinosaur. They ran toward a house that was orange with blue windows. She said when they went into the house there were these small mice (some were frozen-- Chronicles of Narnia??) that were telling her where to hide from the dinosaur. The dinosaur was taking big steps and were catching up to them and eating her friends.



Karina said this was the scariest dream she has ever had. She said when she woke up she was really scared, and wanted to come into our room... but she said she fell asleep again.



I just wanted to share Karina's first nightmare! She never has talked about having a scary dream before. When she was telling me about it I wanted to laugh because just the way she told it made it so dramatic (if you can believe that!).

Family Vacation

We had a very nice family vacation this past week. We traveled close to 12 hours to South Padre, Texas and I have to say, the drive wasn't so bad. Ok, I should say the ride wasn't so bad... Kolby drove. We left Oklahoma, Thursday night, Aug 28 at 9:00pm. Eva feel asleep before we hit Norman and Karina was out soon after. They slept most of the way. We were so thankful to our friends, the Campbell clan, for letting us borrow their DVD player... it was definately a LIFE SAVER!!




My family from my Dad's side were planning a very special Surprise party for my Grandma who had just turned 76. This was one of the main reasons why we were traveling so far... & it was a much needed vacation. My family, my sister's family, my brother's family & my dad arrived on Friday. My uncle decided that he better let my Grandma in on one of her surprises so she was not overwhelmed on Saturday (her birthday surprise party). He went and picked up my Grandma and brought her over to his house where we were waiting for her. I wish I would have taken a picture of the look on her face when she saw us. She did a TRIPLE take!! She was sooo HAPPY to see all of us.

Saturday my uncle and family decorated the backyard for my Grandma's surprise party. It was hard to not tell her, but she had no clue what was going on!!! The MEXICAN'S know how to throw a party. It was so much fun... HOT & HUMID, but fun! My Grandma was once again SURPRISED and very happy.

The rest of the week, we relaxed by the pool, played at the beach and shopped around at the flea market and island shops.

Karina first touch of ocean water... she LOVED it!

Eva did not like the ocean water!


Karina couldn't get enough swimming. She wanted to swim everyday. I was happy to see her so happy. Eva didn't like the beach so much, but she did love the pool. She loved swimming back to me then Kolby. She didn't really swim, but she tried. She loved going under water and several times tried to jump out of my arms.

We made several trips back and forth to my uncles house and the condo we stayed at in Padre. It was worth the drive. I would do it several more times to spend time with my WHOLE extended family. I was very sad to leave. I also was not looking forward to the drive home since we were leaving during the day.

We started home, Thursday, Sept 4th, around 11:00am. The girls fell asleep as we had planned (during their nap time). They woke up 2 hours later. They did really well on the drive. We ended up staying the night in Hillsboro, TX which is just before Dallas . We arrived around 8:30 pm. I had told Karina we would go swimming once we got to the hotel. I was not expecting to get to the hotel so late. We had hit rush hour traffic in Austin so that was unexpected. I did let the girls swim for an hour and then we were dead asleep! We woke up to eat waffles and juice and I was sooo excited to hit the outlet mall! But I was very disappointed to find the Hillsboro was not as awesome as it was 10 years ago. Most of the stores were gone. We did do some shopping though. Kolby found a book in the 75% off book store autographed by Newt Gingrich. It was $3.74. He was happy with his find. We ate lunch at Black Eyed Pea and headed on home.

Our dogs were being cared for by Kolby's sister, Karen. She stayed at our house and made sure they were not lonely.

Even though the ride was LOOOOONG, it was truly a vacation I will never forget.