Sister Angel

This week has been an interesting one on many levels. You know how you have days you're sure you should just go back to bed and try tomorrow? Well that's been my week. Trying to not complain I tried to do everything I could and just couldn't do it all. Today I can home from a long day at work to the smell of corn chowder cooking and a freshly vacuumed/swept floor. My sister/angel had paid a visit and I could have just cried for her gracious service but when i cry it worries noah so i didn't. She is truly wonderful and I am so blessed to have her.

P.S. she is probably cursing me for writing this but I don't care she's amazing and I needed to share it with my world! 

Texas vacation

Sunday 9/15 we loaded our car and headed off to Salt Lake where Aunt Karen let us crash for the night. We had a 6:20 am flight the next day so we really appreciated her letting us crash there. Noah has so much fun playing with her dog Hannah, he has always loved her dog and she tolerates Noah well.

Monday we got on our flight with no trouble and had an airport breakfast of champions, giant muffins!

We spent most of the day at the Dallas airport waiting for our connection to McAllen. We got to meet up with our friend Greg & Nancy for lunch, it was so fun to catch up with them. I forgot to take pictures :(
Dallas is actually not a bad airport to spend the day at. Noah loved riding the train from terminal to terminal watching airplanes out the window.

McDonalds also had a play place he actually enjoyed, video games! He doesn't like the traditional play places so this worked out well.

They also have a blue glass maze type thing that apparently plays music if you run in the correct direction, Mark & Noah never figured it out. Noah did manage to run right into the giant wall of glass, he gets his gracefulness from his mom.

We were worried about getting to McAllen on our because of the hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico which is about an hour from them. Luckily we had no trouble getting on. We made it to McAllen  in good time where Brett picked us up in a rather intense rainstorm and headed back to their house.

It was wonderful to see Brett, Heather and Kayla, such an adorable family. Heather and I met 10 years ago at ISU and were roommates for a few years and I couldn't imagine life without my close friend! 

Stay tunes for day 2 of our trip. 

Homecoming

We started our day out by loading up and heading to Main Street for breakfast with family while waiting for the USU homecoming parade to start. Top left: Noah, grandpa & grandma. Top right: Noah sharing his banana with cousin Lucy. Bottom left: Mark & I enjoying our breakfast. Bottom right: our fun cousins; Katie, Sara, Lisa, Anna and Lee.

We love our Aggies! Noah was all cowboy today for the parade and even got extra candy from a girl who loves cowboys 

Noah was so handsome getting ready for the flag to pass

Even better we WON the game tonight! 

A wonderful word....

VACATION! Today starts a week off from work for both Mark and I. We started of this vacation by heading to the Utah State Fair. 

Noah was so excited to see the goats. I think he would have been content to just pet the goats all day. 

This little boy decided he could hold a goat for Noah to pet it. He was all farm boy and it was fantastic! 

After the goat building we wandered over to the sheep building. The sheep had all be sheared and washed, sheep are much more adorable that way. A lady had a couple of sheep that were super friendly and Noah enjoyed it.

Unlike the Idaho state fair Noah enjoyed the chicken building. Except the giant turkey, he said it was a scary bird. I have to agree, I didn't even want to take a picture of it

While wandering we found a clown making balloon animals. Noah just wanted a green balloon, he didn't care what it was. He finally decided on a sword

Noah lead us into the dept of natural resources building, it was fantastic! They had lots of fun different things. Live animals/reptiles, fish and lots of furs for people to see and touch. 

I told Noah to make a bear face by this sign and this is what he did 

From there we headed off to find some food and maybe avoid the darkening skies. We found a stand that had a sign advertising authentic German food, we got really excited. We both enjoy German food immensely. However when we walked around it they were selling cotton candy and crepes. We were disappointed. We did find a cute little polish lady selling food and had a very delicious polish sausage and some chicken wings for Noah.

To get out of the rain storm that hit we wandered through some buildings. It's always fun to see what people make and display. Like a sculpture out of butter, yep butter! It was titles "beam me up Bessie" and had aliens attacking a farm. 

Grandma H was nice enough to loan us their giant umbrella as we left this morning, it actually kept us dry and covered most of the stroller too!

What would the fair be without some fried food. We had a snack of mini donuts, super yummy!

We found a building full of fun activities for kids. 

Giant bubbles

Floating balls

Balance challenge

Build the shape tables

Giant blocks

A nail wall, don't worry they were plastic and not sharp 

Noah's body imprinted in the nail wall

We wandered the fair grounds a bit more

and found the area "a day on the farm" Noah got to do lots of fun things and collect stuff in his bucket 

Feed and help milk a cow 

Pick apples

Drive tractors 

Brush a sheep 

And make a cow mask 

Before heading of we had to have one more treat, chocolate covered fruit kabobs.....amazing! 

Noah just had to visit the goats on the way out. I still have no idea why but they are his favorite thing.  See he is so happy to be around them. 

As we tried to hurry out the gate Noah informed his dad he had to "talk" to the sheep so we detoured.

It was a great family outing and we even stayed dry in the heavy rain, we actually went prepared! If you have a chance before it's over go visit the fair! 

Saturday is a special day....

It's a day of doing fun things! This morning Noah and I packed a picnic lunch and headed out about noon to pick up Aunt Sylvia. 

First we headed to first dam to feed the ducks and enjoy our lunch. 

Noah would feed throw 1piece of bread to the ducks than eat 3 or 4 pieces before feeding them more.

It was fresh bread, just cheap so it was okay. 

Noah adores Sylvia, she is one of my closest friends therefore she is known as aunt Sylvia around our house. 

After feeding ducks and eating we headed off to see Monsters University. Our failed attempt's at pictures by the movie poster follow:

The sun was extremely bright if you didn't guess. The movie was super cute, Noah even said he enjoyed it, last time we went it was "to loud" so I took this was an improvement. 

 After a few quick errands we found the perfect way to end out day AGGIE ICE CREAM!

Noah was obviously over the picture taking :)

It was a lovely Saturday. Now to rest and get ready for Sunday!