Day Out With Thomas

Yesterday we went to see Thomas the Tank Engine in Grapevine. That morning, CK and I told the girls that we were going to do something really fun, but that it was a surprise. I picked Sofia up from school and she kept wanting hints for what we were doing. I told her that it was something we'd done before and I really thought she might guess it as we drove closer to Grapevine, but she kept thinking we were going to a play date, going swimming, going to a park, etc. Once we arrived at the parking lot, Sofia said "Where going to see Thomas!!" and both girls got really excited. In the past month or so, Olivia has really gotten into playing with the tiny Thomas trains and loves to read the books. Sofia isn't really that into playing with Thomas much now, but she was very excited and I knew she would have fun. It was a bit of a cool, blustery day and looked like it was going to rain so we brought rain jackets and umbrellas. CK met us there shortly after we arrived and it was a perfect time to go since there was hardly anyone there. Sofia immediately wanted a Thomas tattoo, so both girls got one before we sat down and watched the magic show. I decided to get a picture of the girls and I in front of Thomas since there was no line, but that didn't really go according to plan. Sofia jumped into place and was happy to pose for the photo, but Olivia kept looking behind me at Thomas and saying "He's going to get me!" She wasn't really scared of Thomas, more unsure and unwilling to take her eyes off of him. Needless to say, our photos didn't turn out. After, we spent some time in the train table tent and Olivia played with the trains while Sofia got on one of the iPads and played a Thomas game.

Next, we walked to the end where Olivia and I went into the petting zoo and rode the small train, while Sofia played in the sandbox. We met up with Sofia and CK at the sandbox and both girls played for a bit before we decided to try to get onto Thomas a little early. Our tickets weren't until 5:30pm, but we were able to get onto the 4:45pm. We rode Thomas and both girls loved looking out the windows and enjoyed the ride. Sofia spent most of the ride looking out the window and it reminded me so much of when she was 3 and 4 years old riding Thomas and how much she loved it. After we got off, we got a family picture in front of Thomas, but it didn't end up turning out very well either. The girls each got a balloon from a clown and Sofia almost went crazy from his teasing. The clown kept calling her "Sofa" or "Soppapilla" and she kept talking louder and louder to correct him. It was pretty silly. We returned to the train table tent where the girls played for a bit before they each decided they needed one more tattoo. After, we walked across the street so the girls could ride the ponies. Both girls loved it! From there we headed to Christina's Mexican Restaurant, a regular Friday dinner out for us. It was such a fun afternoon and the girls loved spending a few hours with Thomas.

Ready to see Thomas - rain or shine!

Sofia gets her first tattoo

Thomas!

Olivia at the petting zoo

On the little train

Playing in the sandbox

Watching Thomas return to the station

On the train and ready to go!

Sofia and her Papa

The girls and me

Sofia enjoying the scenery

Watching Thomas depart the station

The very silly clown

Playing with trains

One final tattoo....

Olivia needs one too!

Olivia and her tattoos

Riding ponies!

Olivia loves it!

Sofia is an old hand!

She Ties Her Shoes!

Sofia learned to tie her shoes!!! Until recently she wore a pair of velcro tennis shoes to school every day and showed less than no interest in learning how to tie the two pair of lace up shoes she has. In fact, I when I would tie her shoes I would explain what I was doing and she would look away or close her eyes and say "I don't want to know how to tie my shoes." For a girl who is excited to learn and know how things work, she rebelled again learning about shoes.

However, her velcro shoes wore out about a week ago, so I was sending her to school with her lace-up shoes. Yesterday, CK got her ready for school and apparently showed her how to tie her shoes. I wasn't in the room when he did it, so I'm not sure what he did differently, but she got home from school excited that she could tie her shoes. She untied them and then tied them back up. When I asked her how she learned, she said "Papa showed me this morning and I practiced at school." She's so proud of herself and I'm so glad I don't have to tie her shoes!

Spring Break 2014 Day 1: Exploring West Texas

On Saturday afternoon CK flew us to Alpine, Texas, so we could explore Big Bend National Park and West Texas over Spring Break. Before we headed to the airport, we helped Antonio and Luca celebrate their 3rd and 1st birthdays, ate cake and rode around our neighborhood on the train Marco and Stacy hired for their party. It was a fun celebration! We arrived in Alpine after a two hour flight and got our things loaded into CK's partner's tricked out black Jeep. There was even room for the girls! Since it was later in the afternoon, we decided to grab dinner in Alpine before driving the 30 miles to Marfa, where we stayed Saturday and Sunday night at the Hotel Paisano. Based on Tex's advice, we ate at Reata, one of our favorite restaurants in Fort Worth which actually originated in Alpine. The food, as usual, was excellent and we enjoyed our dinner in the bar area sitting at a high top table (still amazed neither of our girls ended up on the floor). After dinner we drove to Marfa and checked into our hotel, which is not only beautiful but has a great historic charm. The 1956 film "Giant" was filmed near Marfa, and the stars - Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson and James Dean - all stayed at the Hotel. In fact, you can stay in the specific rooms where each of the three stayed. Our room was perfect, with a sitting room and fold out couch as well as a separate bedroom and bathroom. We set up Olivia's pack-n-play and Sofia's fold out couch bed and CK got the girls in bed with stories. Not long after we'd said good night to the girls and were reading in bed, our door opened and little Olivia came in, brushing the hair out of her eyes with a "Hello!" as if it was 8am! She said "sissy got her out" and the girls decided they wanted to sleep together in the couch bed, so CK got Olivia cuddled in with Sofia and they went to sleep.

The next morning Sofia announced that she was never going to sleep with Olivia again! She said Olivia moved and kicked her all night long! We got ready and ate at Memo's Cafe, which was good even if the pace of service wasn't quite what we're used to in North Texas. We waited an hour between our order and food and we were all starving when our food arrived. Once full, we loaded into the Jeep and headed out. We decided to return and explore Alpine and visit the Museum of the Big Bend. Alpine is a medium-sized town that is set in the West Texas hills and has a great feel to it. The Sul Ross State University is there and is a beautiful classic college campus. The Museum of Big Bend is actually on the University's campus. It is a very interesting museum with the history of the area and stories of early exploration of the area and settlement. It's such a rugged and arid area, it's hard to imagine early explorers were able to survive, but apparently they did. Sofia loved figuring out where we were in relationship to Marfa and where we'd be going to Marathon on their map. Olivia, who was getting sleeping, mainly ran around and I tried to keep her quiet. That didn't work out as well as planned, so I didn't see much of the museum and Olivia and I ended up running around outside. CK and Sofia were soon done and we all headed out to drive toward Ft. Davis and the McDonald Observatory. We figured we should explore as much of the area as we could before heading toward Big Bend National Park.

Olivia soon fell asleep and we drove through the town of Ft. Davis, which looked like a small, cute touristy town. We also passed the actual Fort and decided not to stop since we knew Olivia would wake up. We drove through the David Mountains State Park to McDonald Observatory, where we took the last tour of the afternoon. The tour included a slideshow on the history of the observatory, what the scientists do and why the Davis mountain location is ideal for an observatory. After, we were taken to one of the telescopes and our guide described how it works and allowed Sofia to operate it! It was so cool and moved so quietly and smoothly!

After the tour, we loaded up and headed back to Marfa where we had dinner at the Hotel Paisano's restaurant, which turned out to be excellent. We weren't able to get in right away, so we hung out in their courtyard and waited. CK built a fire so we could stay warm while the girls played and ran around. The end of a very fun day!

Some sort of West Texas sheep!

Entering Alpine

Greetings from Alpine!

CK and the girls clowning around

At the observatory

Such a spectacular view!

CK and the girls

Me and the girls

Olivia and I by the telescope

Sofia moving the telescope around with the controller

At the highest road in Texas!

At the visitor's center

Olivia wandering around...

Such beautiful landscape

Hanging out in the Hotel Paisano's courtyard while waiting for dinner

Sweet girls

Keeping warm

Spring Break Day 2: Driving Pinto Canyon

We woke up and got an early start on Monday morning. CK's partner, Tex, who loaned us his black Jeep grew up in Alpine, still has a home there and knows West Texas inside and out, which means we had a lot of inside knowledge during our trip on what to do and where to go. Tex told us to drive the Pinto Canyon Road from Marfa down to the Mexico-border town of Presidio. Over 20 miles of Pinto Canyon Road is unpaved and on private land but it is open for driving. We loaded up the girls and set the huge bag of books we brought between their car seats so they could both reach books. Just before we left on our trip, we bought the "Original Thomas Train" story book that includes all of the original Rev. W. Awdry stories and drawings. Sofia has recently gotten back into Thomas and devoured the stories as we drove. Olivia, our little princess fan, loves her musical Princess book that her Grandparents got her at Christmas. It plays four little songs and she knows each one of them and loves to sing along. We probably heard each song 100 times as we drove that day! But, both girls love to read and completely entertain themselves during the long time in the car, which is great!

We made it to Pinto Canyon Road and it was an amazing drive! The landscape is breathtaking and I wanted to take another photo every mile! It was beautiful. We drove along the dirt road which was mainly smooth with a few rough spots, and enjoyed the journey. Since arriving on Saturday, Sofia has only wanted to go hiking. Each morning when we climb into the car she asks if we can hike, so we figured we'd stop and stretch our legs. Meanwhile, after driving nearly the entire Pinto Canyon Road, we'd only seen one other car - a white van full of folks that were stopped to take photos. We pulled off the road and CK and Sofia hoped out and headed down the valley. Olivia decided she wanted to join them, so I got her out of her car seat and we headed after them. They already looked so far away on the landscape. Olivia and I picked our way through the arid landscape, avoiding cactus and all the other spiny desert plants. Sofia and CK turned back toward the car to meet up with Olivia and Sofia ended up getting a huge thorn stuck in the side of her leg that CK was able to yank out! We climbed back in the car and continued driving to find another good hiking location.

Breakfast in the Hotel Paisano's restaurant

Girls are loaded up and ready to go!

CK, the cool Jeep in front of the Hotel Paisano

On the road....

Sofia reading her "Original Thomas Train" story book

Olivia relaxing and sucking her thumb

Pinto Canyon begins

Such beautiful scenery

CK and Sofia set off on a hike

cactus

Olivia wants to join them

CK and his girls

Love the views!