Texas Trip Part 6: Museum Day

The day after Christmas, we went to a FABULOUS museum in Waco with Jason & Mindi (and their kids), Mindi's dad ("Da") and sister Lynnae (and her kids), and Rachel and Brandon (and their kids). It was seriously the coolest museum ever, and we spent a fun few hours there.

Da & Lynnae tossing David around:


Lynnae and Grace, on our way to the kids area (so bummed this picture was blurry!):

There was SO MUCH fun stuff for the kids to do! There was:

An animal section, with bunnies, reptiles, fishes, and more:

Lots of fun shapes to climb on:

A newscaster area:
Jason and Travis telling us about the wonderful weather in Waco :)

A writing area (with hieroglyphics, braille, and other stations), which was of course Grace's favorite. We had to pry her away (kicking and screaming) so we could see the rest of the museum!

Kids vehicle area:
Grace has a couple toy buses which she LOVES, so getting to drive her very own big bus was a real treat!

Taking a radio call in the police cruiser too :)

A kitchen area:
Another of Grace's favorite toys are her shopping cart and kitchen, so this area was also a favorite. I just love this picture. Open wide! :)

A bubble/water room:
Travis showing off his amazing bubble skills:

Grace could play in water all day long; as you can guess, we spent a lot of time in this room.

There was a super cool contraption that allowed you to pull a bubble up around yourself. Awesome, huh?!
Here's David in the bubble:

And Grace:


The museum was so much fun, it wore Bethany out ;)

(Proof that I was at the museum too:)

Music room:

Grace loves microphones or any spaces that echo, so she had a BLAST with this homemade microphone:

Air room:
It was SO funny to watch her put the balls over the air blower and take them off. She loved it!

Reach for it...

A tea party room:
Grace has a couple of tea sets at home, and enjoyed working with these big tea party set ups. (She loves helping set the table at home now too, and does a great job of it!)

An international room, with music instruments and dress up clothes:

A pioneer room:
Grace and Kaden driving the wagon:

And last, but not least, a couple of super neat train sets:

We had a great time!

After the museum (and saying farewell to Rachel and Brandon :( ), we headed over to Da's house, where we had a pizza party and hung out for a few hours before we went back to Jason and Mindi's.
It was a great day!

Texas Trip Part 5: Christmas

We spent Christmas day at Jason and Mindi's house.

Christmas morning, we woke up and opened our stockings and stocking gifts...

"Yay! Trains!" (Grace LOVES playing with cars; they're one of her favorite toys.)

Opening her chapstick (she also LOVES "lips" (chapstick), and applies it daily. :) Jenny was very happy that she no longer has to share hers now.)

Santa gave Grace a new hair brush too (she enjoys brushing and combing hers and other's hair as well):

Travis inspecting his stocking:

And Grace checking out daddy's candy :)

Bethany's first Christmas!

Grace helped Bethany open her stocking presents:

"Rubber duckie, you're the one..."

After we opened our stockings, we had a yummy breakfast of Mindi's cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate, then got ready for Church. It was a very special sacrament meeting; we got to listen to Jason give a talk and Mindi sing in a beautiful duet, then visit with the sweet members of their branch.
After Church, we ate lasagna, then opened tree gifts.

"I got worms" (for Travis; we giggle every time we say that ;)):

Bethany gave Grace a beanie baby horse:

Travis gave me a new game, which we played later on with Jason and Mindi. Super fun!

Travis also gave me a Kindle Fire e-reader. I was SO happy!! Thanks again love!

And since we couldn't bring it to Texas, after we got home, Grace opened her big Christmas gift: an art table. Grace's all-time favorite activity is coloring. She does it several times every day, and when I saw this table on Craigslist for only $10, I had to get it for her. (We threw in some new crayons, pencils, and coloring books that we got on sale too for some added fun :) .)

As you can tell, it was a big hit, and she now colors at it every day.

It was a wonderful Christmas!

Texas Trip Part 4: Bell County Museum & Christmas Eve

On Friday, we visited the Bell County Museum in nearby Belton.


They were featuring a great exhibit on toys, and it was neat to reminisce about toys from our childhood and learn about different toys through the ages.

Some toys from our parents era:

They also had a little playhouse set up for the kids to play in...

...as well as a table full of toys, which the kids all enjoyed.

Travis teaching Grace the ways of the Jack in the Box:

Brandon, Kaden, and Spencer:

They even had an Atari game you could play. Here's Travis trying his hand at it:

After Toyland, we explored the rest of the museum.
Kaden and Grace with the electronic magnifier...

...and playing tag outside.

It was quite the cool little museum! And later that night, we played some more Ticket to Ride.

On Saturday (Christmas Eve), Travis and his brothers went for an early morning trail run, then Jason and Mindi and their family came over, and we hung out for most of the day, talking and playing Worms and Just Dance.
A few random pictures from the day:
Grace coloring with her cousins:

Bethany with her cousin Coralee, who's a month older than her:

Bethany just loved looking at her!

In the evening, we had a nice Christmas Eve ham dinner (thanks to Rachel and Mindi) and played Christmas Scattergories.

After dinner, the kids acted out the Christmas story, then Grace and some of her cousins opened one gift. Her gift (from us) was some new pjs (a recent family tradition).

And Bethany just watched it all and gave us some smiles. :)