Barcelona

I had a business trip to Barcelona - one of my favorite cities - April 11-17. The Tuesday before I left, I called Anna, my sister-in-law, to see if she wanted to join me - and she DID! She was able to jump-seat to Barcelona and I found a great deal with AA miles to get her a ticket back home. I arrived on Sunday and Anna arrived on Monday. I worked most of the week, but she and I were able to have dinner together on Monday evening and then we spent Thursday afternoon and evening together before we left on Friday morning. Anna was so fun to travel with and she was very adventurous during the day and did hiking, a bike tour and went to Montserrat. Our hotel, the Renaissance Barcelona, was in a great location and Anna walked all over the city.

On Thursday we visited Park Guell (I was disappointed because they charge for it now and it used to be free), did some shopping, toured Casa Batllo and ate a yummy dinner. The Casa Batllo tour was cooler than expected and included handheld technology that allowed us to view what the house looked like before it was a museum. Anna was so patient and let me shop for the kiddos at Zara Home (such a fun store) and she humored me with lots of selfies! We stayed out way too late on Thursday night laughing at dinner and I hope we get to travel together again.

My work meetings went well and on Wed. afternoon we went on a group tour on a double-decker Barcelona City Tour bus. We did a Sagrada Familia tour, beach stop, drive-by of Olympic village, appetizers at Hotel Miramar and then dinner at La Barceloneta.

Anna was a little nervous about the balcony picture (it was very high), but she humored me!

Amy Walsh, Sinead Newman and me - our BIS Communications team!

La Sagrada Familia is simply amazing.

Beautiful day for a tour with an open roof.

My good friend Scott Smith. He and I have worked together for almost 15 years.

 

Indian Princesses Daddy/Daughter Campout

I don't know much about the campout, but looks like they had a great time!

Backyard Wars!

Courtney visited us in Dallas from April 8-24 and she TRANSFORMED out backyard. She worked SO hard. It all started on April 10th when Austin was watching the kids and he and Courtney decided that they would each take one of the little garden plots and make it a girls vs. boys competition. Cadie and Sutton really got into the spirit of the competition and even Colton took digging in the mud very seriously. We now have cucumbers, strawberries, watermelon, flowers and I am not totally sure what else!

Scarborough Faire

On the Saturday before Easter we made our annual family outing to Scarborough Faire to celebrate Big John's birthday. It was the most beautiful day! Sunny, not too hot, light breeze - it couldn't have possibly been better. Cadie and Ranger enjoyed some of the silly clown shows and Colton enjoyed running all over the place and being chased by his Mom and Uncle Ace.

Cadie rode to Scarborough Faire with DD and Big John after the Day of Giving at our church where over 700 people packed 100,000 meals for the poor. Grant and I let the boys finish their naps at home and then we met the group. We didn't leave the Faire until the very end when the cannon sounded!

Ranger, Colton, Grant, Erin, Big John, Candace, Austin (Uncle Ace), Dawna (DD), Cadie, Preston, Amanda and baby Parker.

He is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!

Low Key Easter Morning

Our Easter morning was low key with a few Easter items for the kiddos and eggs in the backyard. Cadie got a new dress, pink sparkle Toms, gum, water bottle and a few little prank toys (ice cubs with bugs inside). Jack Ranger got new shorts and polo shirt, water bottle, gum and tweezers game. Colton got a toy camera and hot wheels. They were all kind and grateful which is so nice to see as a parent.

It had rained, pretty hard, after the Easter bunny had already put out the eggs in the backyard. They got on their rain boots and got the eggs and then wiped them off inside before they opened them. I think Colton loved the chocolate kisses the most of all. 

Then we watched a Sesame Street and got ready for church. It was a really nice morning.