Hondo Corn Maize

Our family went to the Hondo Corn Maize on the first day of the season  which was military appreciation day.  It seemed liked they were still finishing setting up things for the season.  There weren't very many people there.  Grandma Mindy was in town to see Matt because he was going to be leaving for Afghanistan soon.   It was a really warm day and the corn maize hadn't really grown too much.  You could see all the people that were in the corn maize it was so low.  The path was pretty dusty and it was hard to tell were to go since the corn wasn't very high.  We only did the first maze.  Nobody wanted to go on the second half. They raised the prices, so everything was included.  In years past you paid for the cow ride, the apple launch,   The kids rode the cow train several times.  Matt and I also got in on it.  We didn't feel too bad about not staying too long since we didn't have to pay.  It was a pretty warm day.

What's the word, Officer Bird?

As long as I can remember Matt has said, "What's the word, Officer Bird?"  I just thought it was a phrase he made up.  Brayden asked what it was from and Matt told him it was from a public service announcement commercial from his childhood.  Brayden looked up Officer Bird on YouTube and found a whole series of PSA commercials with officer bird riding a bike, a scooter, or police car to respond to different emergencies and give a tip about the right way to respond.  Everyone had a fun time sitting around the computer watching and laughing.

Paint ball fun

Brayden received a set of paint guns and gear for Christmas.  He had been anxious to go to paintballing with Matt.  So, one Saturday they went out behind our house and went and shot some paintballs.  

Asher's 3rd Birthday

We went as a family to Marco's to celebrate Asher's Birthday.

Favorite outside activity...explore and jump on trampoline
Favorite inside activity...playing with his toys and watching TV
Favorite food...all fruit, leepops
Favorite color..all the colors
Favorite shows...Daniel Tiger and Curious George
Favorite book...Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb
Favorite movie...Minions
Favorite friends...Austin and Soli
Favorite toy...buckets, christmas stocking to stuff objects in, and animal pet house
Asher loves his blankets and kitty. He is very observant and checks things out when I am driving.  He pays attention to details of everything he sees out of the window and notices if something is different than normal.  During the drives he is non stop talking and asking questions.  He looks at all the picture details when you read his stories for bedtime.  He comments on all that is going on in the pictures.  He was on a kick of pointing out whenever he saw "diggers", construction vehicles.

We wanted to do a party for Asher, but were not up to all the planning and work.  We were originally going to invite all the nursery kids and their families.  That would be a lot of people, so we decided on a few families.  We invited the Herrera's, Moore's, and Wideman's.  We didn't really start making preparations for the party until a few days before.  We went with a Daniel Tiger theme because that is one of Asher's favorite shows.  We decorated Prince Wednesday crowns, played pin the tail on the tiger, and broke a pinata.  Matt also had rented an inflatable water slide.  It was raining all morning and we didn't know if we were going to get to use it.  Luckily it stopped raining and kids were able to go out and play on it.  Asher was scared about climbing up it to slide down.  Matt had to set him up there everytime he went down.  It was a little bit chaotic at times, but it was fun to have a little party for Asher.  He had fun.   Kylee also did balloon animals and we found out that brother Wideman has a talent with it also.

Staycation August 2016

Since Matt didn't get to go with us on our "vacation" this summer to Mexico, he decided to take the last week before school started off so that we could do some things as a family.  It was forecaste to be a rainy week, so we were waiting to decide what to do on each day.

Tuesday, August 16th-
On Tuesday we decided to go and hike around OP Schnabel.  The kids were venturing off the paved trail and going into the trees to explore around.  They had fun hiking up and down some hills.  It was a pretty humid day, but a little bit more bearable in the trees.

Wednesday, August 17th-
On Wednesday we decided to tube the Medina river.  We showed up and because of the recent rains the park that we were planning on going to was closed.  We drove around a little bit trying to figure things out.  We ended up finding the tube rental place.  We blew up our own tubes and for a fee they gave us a ride to the drop off point.  It was a pretty quiet day, not too many people tubing.  About 10 minutes after we got on the river there was a 5-10 minute down pour.  It was kind of fun and nice that it didn't last long.  It was a pretty slow moving river.  Matt chose the shorter route of 1-2 hours?  We packed a cooler with sandwiches and drinks to eat along the way.  We were able to stop at a rope swing where Matt, Brayden, Julia, and Blake took turns jumping off.  As we waited to be picked up there was a convenient location where we could get out and walk back to the beginning of some rapids to go down again.  The kids had fun doing that.  Kylee decided not to go because she didn't feel up to it.

Thursday, August 18th
Thursday was the day that we biked the Mission Trail.  We drove down to Mission San Jose with some of the bikes.  We had to go in 2 cars to fit the bikes.  Kylee and I rented bikes there.  They were heavy bikes with some baskets.  Asher was in the stroller attached to Matt's bike.  We got a little lost on the start of our bike ride and had to turn around to try and find the trail.  Blake was on bigger "new bike" to him.  He was used to the bikes the brake by pedaling backwards and this one had the brake on the handle bar.  It was kind of wide, so it was hard for him to squeeze.  His bike ride was a little out of control.  We started at Mission San Jose and went down to Mission Espada.  We went a total of 5 miles, with frequent stops along the way for snacks and water breaks.  The humid day made for lots of red faces and sweat.  

Family Pictures 2016

Our pictures were a little earlier this year because I wanted to make sure to get them before Matt left for Afghanistan in September.  I contacted EmyLee McIntyre and we settled on August 13th for the pictures.  We planned several weeks ahead which gave me plenty of time to search for coordinating clothes.  It is always tricky to figure out a balance between coordinating, but not too matchy.  Open to location, EmyLee suggested the Cibolo Nature Preserve in Boerne.  It had been a rainy week, but Saturday was supposed to be OK.  There was a downpour on the way there and we almost turned around, but when we arrived it was only a drizzle, which made for frizzy hair.  The location ended up being perfect. The tall cypress trees that line the creek give the same look as the rivers we have been exploring lately. The kids said it was the most fun they had taking pictures as a family.  We took pictures standing in the water and the kids enjoyed walking in the water with their clothes on.

After we were done taking pictures, we did some exploring.  Kylee enjoyed finding little frogs, the kids enjoyed exploring the forts, and I enjoyed sitting on the wooden bench swing with Matt.  We also walked on the boardwalk to explore the marsh.  It was fun to watch a little turtle swimming in the water.

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Exploring the Medina River

On one of our morning walks, Nicole had mentioned that they had tubed the Medina River with her husband Matt Winmill's family.  She said that they all really enjoyed it because it was not as busy as some of the other rivers, and it had great trees all along that shaded the river.  We decided to explore it on Saturday, August 6th.  We drove around trying to figure out where to go.  We found a park a little out of the town of Bandera where people were hanging out in the river and setting up picnics. We decided to pick a spot there and set up our camp chairs.  We ate a lunch and played in the river.

We had tubes that we had purchased from Costco.  We didn't go down the river.  We just hung out playing on the tubes in the river and enjoying the refreshing water.

The older kids were able to go off a rope swing a few times and Asher enjoyed picking up rocks and stacking them in Matt's hands.