Williams' Family Vacation 2011

This year we went to Vail, Colorado. It was SO nice to get away from the Texas heat for a week. It was also beautiful; you just don't get views like this in Texas.

We played at the park...

And went hiking... (I got a nice sunburn on my face from this hike)

 Kaylee and Brooke LOVED playing with their cousins.

Vail Village was cute. It looks very European.

We went on a gondola ride to the top of the mountain where we took family pictures and had dinner.

 I don't have any copies of our family pictures yet... but I did take one of Sage and Kaylee. They were best friends the whole trip.

This hike to hanging lake was intense. It was steep and Jake and I are not used to high elevation. Thank goodness my great sister-in-law April and brother-in-law Spencer took turns carrying and helping Kaylee up- I barley made it myself and Jake had Brooke in the backpack. 

The hike was so intense Brooke fell asleep...

It was beautiful at the end.

 

Trip highlights

• Spending time with family- we hadn't been all together in 2 years.
• Kaylee and Brooke adore their cousins
• Hiking- (it was a little harder being pregnant)
• Jake got to mountain bike- he loves biking
• LOTS of really good food
• Perfect weather
• Letting the kids stay stay up late to play (we're paying for it now they are all off schedule)

It's a BOY!

I had my ultrasound today. We are having a boy!! I'm not sure what to do with boys yet... everything we have is pink/princess/girly so we'll have some shopping to do. I am very excited though! The little man was doing his best to hide his gender from us but after some poking by the tech we got a peak. He is sucking his thumb in the top picture.

 Kaylee was upset when I told her she was going to have a brother. "But I wanted a baby sister, a Mulan." I told her maybe next time. Brooke is deciding between the names Austin and Shang. It changes every time I ask. I'd much rather go with Austin.

We've been going a little crazy around here lately. It's too hot to play outside. I don't even like going anywhere when it is this hot. I hate getting into a super hot car. It is 108 degrees right now as I write this (and still climbing)... record high again. It is now the second most consecutive days of 100 degree (or over) weather on record.

We've been trying to stay entertained. I found some preschool packs on homeschoolcreations.com so we've been practicing writing, numbers, and shapes.

 ... or just coloring. Page protectors and dry erase markers are great!

 We also made play dough...

Saturday we went to Chuck E Cheese. Kaylee requests to go there every weekend. We buy Chuck E Cheese string cheese at Walmart and they have a coupon for $3 of free tokens on back. We had a few of them so it was a good FREE family outing...

 I like this one... checking herself out in the mirror.

This morning Kaylee told me "I don't want to stay inside all day."  So we went to church parking lot down the street to ride bikes. Brooke just got a new helmet ($4 Target clearance!)  and she loves it.

Kaylee wasn't very impressed with our outing... we only lasted about  20 min. We got there at 8:30 but it was already getting too hot to be fun. We headed home and then went to the pet store instead.

Our Williams' family vacation is coming up next week and I can't wait!! Colorado is going to feel so nice! In fact I think we might be cold there.

Also next week is our ultra sound... Brooke tells me the baby is a boy -"baby Austin". We'll see if she's right.