February Is My Favorite

I know this month is short a few days, but February has gone by exceptionally fast this year!

We returned home from all the audition craziness and hit the road running!

I celebrated Valentine's Day with my Papa at his memory care facility. Being far away made me remember how important family truly is.

Ty's cousin, Meghan, came to visit, and we enjoyed canoeing and ice cream with the fam!
Brooklyn even went on her first canoe trip, but there is no photo evidence.

(Would you have taken your phone in a canoe with a crazy Weimaraner? Didn't think so.)

The very next day, our Japanese exchange student arrived!

Meet Moe!

(Pronounced Mo-eh)

Brooklyn is already quite attached.

Okay, so the main reason February is my favorite is because it's my birthday month. And the way I was raised was to celebrate all month long. (As I've aged, the celebrations have shortened to about a week. Growing up stinks sometimes, doesn't it?)

Birthday mail from Laos!

Check out how much Brooklyn has grown since my last birthday!

Did you know just how many free things you can get on your birthday? It's amazing, really. I ran out of time trying to do them all!

The morning began with a free breakfast (with my fab parents!) and continued with a free car wash, free smoothie, and a free sub! Ty was the lucky beneficiary of my free sub from Firehouse.

Then it was onto the happiest place on earth on my happy day!

(And yes, for free! My favorite cast member is awesome!)

EARS!

Please notice Ty's button.

It doesn't get any better than this, folks!

Ty's very first time on Small World!

We both maxed out the points on Buzz Lightyear!
In all honesty, the ride broke down in the middle, so we had a little extra time. :)

The main event for the day was dinner at Be Our Guest. I love this restaurant at lunch time, but I had never been for dinner due to the fact that reservations are so limited.

I was slightly disappointed with our seats, but I blame myself for not specifying.

Overall I loved the food and atmosphere. This is definitely one of my favorite places to eat at Disney.

Per Disney protocol, the chef came to our table and listed out my numerous gluten-free options. He even brought me GF dinner rolls to enjoy before the meal! I highly recommend the potato soup.

When your reservation is called, you are handed a Lumiere to help guide you to your seats.

Tale as old as time...

One of the features of this restaurant during dinner hours is that the Master of the House is present.
He is dramatically announced and shown through the dinning rooms to his study where he later greets guests.

We met him post-dinner!

Moe's homestay group just happened to be at Magic Kingdom on my birthday, so we planned to meet up with her after dinner and stay at the park late.

We may or may not have had some sweet fast-passes from our favorite cast member...

In line for Big Thunder 

Space time!

So fun to share in Moe's Disney visit!

It seems I always have soaring expectations for my birthday and then wind up disappointed.

Not so this year!

I could not have imagined a more wonderful day.

We we arrived home, Moe gave me this:

My new favorite morning mug!

Several families from our church are also hosting, so we have tried to organize events together with our students. Of course we had to introduce them to Tijuana Flats!

In the midst of the celebrations and get-togethers, there has also been some sweet time of rest.

We've needed it! Big decisions are ahead, but for now it's soaking in the sun and pestering our families as much as possible!

 

Farewell, February! You are one fine month!

My Funny Valentine

We celebrated Valentine's Day last night.

Our festivities included a trail run, spaghetti (hey, sauce is red!), chocolate, and Lord of the Rings.
A fun and frugal night, I'm happy to report.

Post Run

I always give Ty a card and peanut butter chocolate candies (his favorite!).
I told him not to get me anything.

I'm still loving my gift from last year. It's the best gift I've ever been given.

Happy Adoption Day, Brooklyn!

Feb. 14, 2013

Feb. 2014

Post 18-degree run. Note heater placement.

My Valentines!

And just for fun...

Valentine's Day 2009!

My handmade candleholder gift!

Dallas Days

Lots of pictures for the Mamas!

We're in Texas!

Of course, there was a lot of driving between Point A and Point B.

Point A? Our driveway, 8:15PM.

Brooklyn even got a tiny taste of snow somewhere in Louisiana. And I DO mean taste! Notice how she's eating it?

We spent many hours doing this:

This photo cracks me up! Ty was tired of my snapping photos and so stuck a cheese stick in front of the lens. A certain nose instinctively followed the path of the cheese stick. The result? This gem of a photo.

 

Overall, our drive went quite well. I had a bit of a nasty stint driving through Louisiana, but Ty did all the driving except for my handful of hours. By the end of the trip, we were joking that there was no life before the car.

It took Brooklyn about an hour to settle down in the backseat. Once she realized we weren't arriving at our destination anytime soon, she snuggled up and made herself comfy. In one crazy moment, she jumped up into the front seat and into my lap. Apparently the sunroof on our new car makes a frightening sound when opened.

Once we arrived, we settled in at our host home, walked Brooklyn, took quick showers, and got right back into the car. Both of us wanted to nap for hours, but we decided to make it to bed time (which turned out to be 7:30PM, by the way.)

Our destination that Friday afternoon? White Rock Lake Park!

It's a 10-mile loop around the lake! Where was this when I was marathon training?!

You can drive to most sides of the lake. Some places have picnic areas and boat rentals.

Next stop: Taco Joint.

As I mentioned, we hit the hay before 8PM. Needless to say, Brooklyn was ready to wake up the next morning...

Ty and Brooklyn dropped me off at school for my audition on Saturday morning. They are the best support team! I think quite a bit of this happened while I was busy...

Audition went great! But it was the rest of the day that made Saturday just plain awesome!

We picked up our friends, Matt and Hannah, and headed to...

...the dog park!

                                       White Rock Lake Park has a dog park connected to it!

Have I mentioned I love this park?

Especially with good friends.

Even if it was freezing!

I need to mention just how wonderful our stay at the Hudgins' has been. Mrs. H was our Mexico trip mom way back in 2008. She is also the real mama of one of our dear friends from home. She and her husband have made our stay delightful. They feed us, love on our doggie, give us directions, and even let us throw parties!

Hannah and Matt are also teammates from that same Mexico trip, so you could say this was a mini-reunion. And yes, we had Mexican food for dinner!

Love these friends!

On Sunday we went to The Village Church. It was freezing. Even with the heated seats in our car.

The wait time for the shuttle to the satellite campus was a little long.

Wait, what?

You read that right! We couldn't help but feel like we were momentarily at Disney. Church was wonderful in many ways, but we are just not accustomed to droves of people on a Sunday morning!

Sunday afternoon included a fire in the fireplace and lots of relaxing. A rainy day was the perfect excuse to sit on the couch and toast our feet. (Or our paws.)

Another sweet friend here, Sarita, kindly arranged her church piano as my practice instrument this week!

We are thankful for God's family here, who has been present and active throughout our trip!

Monday lunch was a treat, because we met up with Ty's great-aunt Sharry and her son, Cal! They are so much fun and availed themselves to us regarding anything Dallas! Cal even escorted us to the arts district in Fort Worth and pointed out all the best places to visit.

Aunt Sharry insisted this photo be edited to say she looks way to young to be Cal's mom!

After our adventure in Fort Worth, we picked up the doggie and hit a (mostly) nearby dog park. This place was awesome! It backed up into the woods, while still being fenced.

Again, we returned back "home" to find a hot meal and great company! Like I said, we are being spoiled!

Today is our last full day in Dallas. Sometime tomorrow we'll head to our next destination. Looking forward to seeing more dear ones!