A Cool Day in the Gardens

Yesterday Reese and I met my friend, Janna, and her daughter, Kaylee, at the Arboretum. It ended up being a cloudy, cool day, but we had fun anyway. Kaylee is about the same age as Reese (she's only 1 month younger, and was actually due the same day as Reese), so they had fun playing with each other.

We arrived just in time for the Kindermusik concert. Reese and Kaylee chased each other in the grass.

From Blogger Pictures

Then we walked around the gardens and took a few pics.



I had Reese's silhouette done while we were there!


George doesn't think it looks a lot like Reese, but he does think it looks like a silhouette of himself that's hanging in his parents' house. We're going to have to look at it a little more closely the next time we're there.

I'm surprised at how different the gardens look at the Arboretum each time I go. I just went less than 2 weeks ago, but some of the flowers have been changed out already. This week the "water wise" flowerbed caught my eye. I love cactus plants and want our flowerbeds to look like this:




On a separate note, I am beginning to HATE Blogger. This post took me FOREVER today and it would not load any of my pictures for a while. Anyone else have trouble with Blogger?

11 Months

Bedtime Reading

"Dad, where are the pictures?"

Wordless Wednesday

St. Patrick's Day Tradition

Three years ago today George and I spent a cool and dreary St. Patrick's Day in Toledo, Spain. We spent the day touring the town's huge cathedral and visiting little shops that sold Toledo's famous swords and damascene goods.

We did not know photos were not allowed in the cathedral, until I tried to snap one and a guard yelled, "Noooooooo fotooooooos!" That was okay with us, because it was the last day of our 5 days in Spain, and we had seen so many cathedrals that they were all starting to look alike.

Here's the photo I wasn't supposed to take.

We had a difficult time finding a place to eat lunch that day, as most restaurants in the town served typical Spanish fare, which is heavy on the meat. We stumbled upon a little Irish pub, of all places, and ended up having a good lunch. We dined on cheddar peppers, peanuts, nachos, and of course, Fanta limon.

The Irish pub

Our St. Patrick's Day lunch

Ever since that day, we've made it our St. Patrick's Day tradition to eat cheddar peppers to celebrate the day. Sonic's are pretty good, especially with their ranch sauce. Now if I could only find some lemon Fanta in the States to go with the cheddar peppers, I'd be one happy girl.

George walks up one of the quaint streets of Toledo.


Here I am walking up a huge hill to get to the older
part of Toledo.

The view of Toledo from the top of the hill.

Me and Cervantes, author of Don Quixote

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Walk!

This is what you call an over-dramatic dog. He finally got his walk.

Rain

Strike Three, You're Out

The weather has been rainy and cold for the past few days, so our beloved Rudy hasn't gotten a walk in three days now. I've written before about the shenanigans that result when Rudy doesn't get a morning walk.

He's been at it again.

Wednesday morning Rudy ate Reese's favorite bath toy. It was a little rubber starfish that squirted water. I tried to get it from him by giving him a treat. He dropped the toy between his front two feet, ate the treat, and promptly picked the toy back up. He ate every single piece of it.

Thursday morning he got a frisbee and chewed it up. Now, I can't exactly blame him fully for that one, because when he was a puppy we let him play with a frisbee a few times. Still, he knew what he was doing was wrong. I managed to get the frisbee from him by knocking on the front door. He barked and ran to the door, and I scooped up the frisbee.

This morning he tore up a roll of paper towels I accidentally left out when I was cleaning. If he were smarter, he would have chewed up George's shoes, which were sitting right next to the paper towels.

He loves to destroy paper products.

Rudy, dreaming of a nice, long walk around the neighborhood.

God, please let it stop raining just long enough for Rudy to get a walk tomorrow morning, before he eats one of the cats.

Welcoming Spring

One of our Christmas gifts from George's parents this year was a family membership to the Arboretum. On Sunday we made our second trip of the year there in order to enjoy Dallas Blooms. We invited Steve and Sarah Bagby to come with us and we had a picnic together after church. Though not officially spring yet, it turned out to be a beautiful, warm (almost hot) day, and we all decided we need to do outdoorsy things more often.

Here are a few pictures from the day. I have 2 trips planned to the Arboretum next week, so I hope you don't get tired of the pictures!

Reese slept during our entire walk around the gardens.

Steve had fun touring the early Texas homes.


25 years of Dallas Blooms


Steve and Sarah explore one of the storybook
houses currently on display.

Wordless Wednesday