Mini-trip to Longview and Bye-Bye Paci!

A few weeks ago, Ryan was out of town for business so Pierson and I loaded up and headed to Longview for a few days to visit with my family! My niece Maddie got to stay home from school and play with us while we were there and the girls had a blast together.

We went to the park and got snow cones

Played in the splash park

Pierson loved running through this part over and over again

The little slides were so hot they had to slide down on their towels!

Got to spend some quality time with Gamps and Ganny too!

Little Maddie has been taking dance this year and had her show-off's and was by far the cutest little dancer I have ever seen!

Struttin' her stuff

She definitely made this old dancing aunt very proud!

Maddie and her mommy!

BIG NEWS for little Miss Pierson.....NO MORE PACI! Some of you probably didn't even know she still had the paci, but she did. She used it when she slept and it stayed in her bed. We have put off taking it away for a while now and kept making excuses, but last week we decided to go for it. The first nap without it didn't go very well, but we kept at it and that night she did great! She has done well without it ever since. Ryan and I definitely thought this was going to be WAAAAY worse that it was. She always seems to amaze us :)

Cousins Trip to Lake LBJ

For the past few summers, we have had the wonderful opportunity to go up to Lake LBJ and spend the weekend with Ryan's brother, cousins and their wives. Ryan and his brother, Cody are very close and they have grown up very close with their cousins, Matt and Blake Michelson. They even all ended up at Baylor and all ended up being KOT's.

Here are the boys, all grown up :) They truly are all such outstanding men and it is such a blessing to be part of the family. Ryan is the oldest, then his brother Cody, then Matt and then Blake. Good times are always had when these boys get together. They are all married but Ryan and I have been the only one with a child for the past two visits which means two things.....1. Ryan and I get to realize just how old we are and just how much we can NOT hang with the younger ones, even just by a few years! ....2. Pierson gets spoiled, spoiled, spoiled by all the attention she gets the entire weekend!

Ryan got to show Pierson how to play a crucial KOT game, washers. She didn't quite get the importance of the game, but soon enough she will get the hang of it.

Pierson loved being held by cousin Megan

Cousin Meredith showed her around the lake house and took her down to see the little "fishys". The lakehouse we stay at is Meredith's family's and we are so thankful for them opening it up for us to stay!

We floated in the lake ALOT!

Atleast as long as little Miss wanted to float and then we took turns enteraining.

The wives getting some sun!

Pierson wanted to "walk" on the bottom of the lake and kept thinking it was like her baby pool and wanted to bail off the float

So she would get to swing with daddy

Played a little monkey golf

Got to "drive" the boat

Went out for her first boat ride!

First little life jacket, which she wasn't a huge fan of at all.

Gettin some love from aunt Gretchen

Fun family time!

Laughing, laughing and laughing! There really isn't too many things better than hearing your child laugh.

She was exhausted for all the fun! Despite what I thought would happen, she took great naps and slept fantastic at night.

Daddy even took her out for a little ride on the wave runner by the dock.

We had such a great time with everyone, ate fantastic food, played hard and even got some rest!

Little piece of Daddy's childhood- Schlitterbahn!

On July 26, 2010, Pierson got to experience a place that her daddy holds dear to his heart, the wonderful land of water called Schlitterbahn. It wasn't just Pierson's first visit, but her mommy's as well. Yes, I know, how sad is it that I have never been to Schlitterbahn before until now! Ryan grew up going there with his school, friends, family, etc. and has always talked about how much fun he had going there and I have always talked about wanting to go, but just never made the trip. SO....this summer, we had the opportunity to go with some of our dear cousins, The Wells, and I was soooo excited! Of course, there wasn't a ton of things for a 16 month old to do, but she had a blast in the baby areas and even got to ride on the family tube slide. She wasn't a big fan of the that because she had to wear a life jacket and that was just too confining for her!

Letting the sunscreen soak in and having a little pre-play snack

Checking out the biggest slides she had ever seen!

She wanted to hold our hand anytime she walked through the water. Guess it was a little tough to trudge through with those little legs :)

As you can see, she did not want a picture, she wanted back down to play in the water!

Sadly, I didn't get any more pictures than that. I didn't want to bring my good camera for obvious reasons, but forgot to charge the battery in my old one so we ran out very early. Atleast we got a few!!!

We hit up a few of the newer areas and let the kids play and then went to old part later that afternoon and that was by far my favorite part. Michaella and Evin graciously watched Pierson while Ryan and I went with their kids to ride a few rides. The weather was a little touch and go at times with some rain and thunder which led to some temporary shut downs, but overall we had a wonderful time!!!! It was a great first Schlitterbahn experience for us both!