Ice! featuring Merry Madagascar

Our Christmas season kicked off with a visit to the Gaylord Texan resort, for the Ice! exhibit.  The theme this year was Merry Madagascar, and it is just amazing that artists can carve and color ice to look like all of these characters.  The boys enjoyed the art but mostly loved the ice slide (of course!), and also enjoyed seeing the life-sized Gingerbread house inside the hotel, along with the stilt-walkers and all the other festivities. 

 

 

Donning the parkas in order to enter the freezing ice hall:

 

Alex the Lion:

 

Josh, Lucas, and King Julian:

 

Marty:

 

Gloria:

 

The penguins!

 

 

 

 

Lucas on the ice slide:

 

Josh on the slide:

 

Ice nativity scene:

Other festivities at the resort:

 

This gingerbread man photo is one of my favorites!  I love the happy faces on my boys!

 

 

Santa!

We finally made it to see Santa.  Josh and Lucas were very excited and gave a lot of thought to their wish lists this year. 

 

 

Josh even helped Santa read Lucas's list.  (Lucas has learned to write letters but has not learned to spell.  Reading his list is a real skill.)

Jingle Bell Jog 2012

It's that time of year again!  This morning we ran the Jingle Bell Jog, and as always, we had a great time. 

 

The morning started with a visit with Santa:

 

 

Then it was time to line up for the race.

 

 

Josh ran alone, because none of us are fast enough to keep up with him.  John got a picture of him recovering after crossing the finish line.  Josh came in 6th overall with a 7:15 mile, right up at the front of the pack!

 

 

Lucas ran the whole way (and in fact had to leave me at around the halfway point, but I could stay close enough to keep an eye on him as he ran ahead and finished).  He finished 61st overall with a 10:09 mile, which was in the top third at least.  He was ahead of a lot of people. 

 

Lucas with his finisher's ribbon:

 

And Lucas with his BLUE ribbon for winning the kindergarten division!

Josh won a blue ribbon too -- his fourth in two years, after finishing first in his division in consecutive Turkey Trots and consecutive Jingle Bell Jogs!

 

My fast runners!

TCU Football

We went to the TCU football game today to root on the Horned Frogs.  They have a great tradition of allowing children to run onto the field with the team when it makes its entrance at the start of the game.  And they give you a jersey too! 

 

 

 

The boys were fast!  As we had to run the whole 100 yards to the other end zone to exit.  John and I really had to run to keep up with them.  It was a lot of fun and definitely a highlight of the day. 

 

Despite the cold temps and occasional misty rain, we had a great time!

 

 

A Model Child

Josh participated in summer camp at the First Tee for two weeks this summer -- the first week in July and the first week in August.  The golfers had photos taken and made available for purchase in each session. 

 

In the first session, Josh's photo order form showed his picture in the "proof" portion of the form, and also used his photo as the example for Item D, the fleece blanket.  We thought that was weird -- they don't usually import your child's image into the products on the form (nor did they insert his photo into any of the other items for sale -- just the blanket).  We checked Lucas's form, and sure enough, Lucas was in the "proof" photo, but Josh was on the fleece blanket (and yellow-shirt kid was on everything else). 

 

Fast-forward a month, when Josh returns for another week of camp and has another photo taken.  The order form comes home, and his first photo (from the July session) is still the exemplar for Item D, Fleece Blanket.  Check it out:

 

 

close-up:

 

Looks like Josh landed his first (unremunerated) modeling gig!

 

A visit from the Isolas!!

John's friends Kevin and Eileen came to visit us in May.  They've all known each other close to THIRTY years.  Pretty amazing.  Like us, they have two boys, close in age to our own.  It was lots of fun seeing the boys bond. 

Of course we had to take them to see the famous Fort Worth Stockyards.

After we saw the longhorns pass by, it was time to goof around on the saddles and carousels.

Jack and Cam were ready for a challenge, so it was on to the mechanical bull.  Josh went first and showed off his one-hand cowboy moves. 

Cam wasn't intimidated at all.  He loved it!

The operator took it a bit easier on the smaller boys, but he gave Cam a good dip and some spins by the end!

Next up was Jack:

He got a few more twists and bucks, but he held on! 

Yee haw!!

Finally, it was Lucas's turn. 

Sometimes Lucas loves riding the bull, sometimes he hates it.  Today, he loved it!

Yee haw for Lucas too!

Our bull riders earned a nice cold sno-cone treat.

It was so nice to spend time with Kevin and Eileen.  We are all remarkably similar and got along as though we see each other all the time (even though it had been several years since we last met up).  It was particularly fun to see the boys get along so well.  The visit flew by and we are eager to make our way to their house soon!