A Saturday with Daddy

As I think everyone knows by now, Douglas' last day at Starbucks was Friday. It was bittersweet, he is thrilled to be starting full-time at the church but he will definitely miss his friends and customers at Starbucks (and the free endless coffee!!).
Kinsey got a very special treat when she woke up Saturday morning and Daddy was here at home! This was a really big deal for her. Except for a handful of mornings, pretty much every Saturday (and every other morning except when he's at church on Sunday) since she's been alive, Daddy has been at work when she wakes up. Despite that, she still has asked nearly every morning "Daddy is not here?" and I always say, "That's right, Daddy is at work today". But this time, Daddy came in and woke her up so she didn't have to wonder. We had an awesome family day, starting with some Daddy jungle-gym time:
Kinsey had kind of a runny nose, so Douglas asked her to go into her room and grab some toilet paper so he could wipe her nose. She brought it back pretty quickly and we didn't think anything of it until we went back to get her dressed for the day. Apparently this is what happens when you ask a 2 1/2 year old to grab "some" toilet paper:Too funny! I couldn't fit it all in one picture! So then Daddy decided that we would go out for the day. First we went to an awesome new burger place at 183 and Burnet called "Mooyah" which Douglas had heard about and was AWESOME!!! Highly recommend the burger, fries and vanilla shake! Then we went down to Buda (my old stomping grounds) to the big Cabela's store. Kinsey was really excited about all of the animals. I guess she's too young for taxidermy'd creatures to freak her out :). Here they are looking at some bears and walking around the store...

And she was way excited about this elephant, especially since we didn't get to see one at the zoo last week. But her favorite part was this guy......because she could push a button and he would start talking about big deer that so-and-so had shot back in 1800 or something. Very impressive. We walked around the whole store and had a great time. On the way out, we grabbed some kettle corn and she chowed on that all the way to..to some of you this may look familiar. This is 404 Bittern Circle in Buda, Texas, more commonly known as the house where I grew up. We were down at Cabela's and didn't want to fight UT football game traffic on the way home, so we decided to go up Mopac and that meant passing right by my old neighborhood. I hadn't been back there in 9 years!!! It was really good to see my old house and the amazing tree in the front yard. This picture doesn't do it full-justice. It's a beautiful, huge oak tree that's basically in pretty good shape. I was telling Douglas how we painted the porch (it's still the same cream with dark green accents), laid the brick walkway (which unfortunately has mostly overgrown due to neglect by stupid new owners), and planted the big bushes that created the fence around the yard. I have so many wonderful memories in that house, it was really good to see it again.
So then it was time to come home and take naps. What a fun day with the family!! I can't wait for many more Saturdays with Daddy here at home with us. And evenings, and sometimes a weekday morning, and bedtimes, and maybe sometimes at lunch - wow, we could end up with Daddy overload :-)

Here are some more fun pics from the last few days:
This is what happens when Daddy runs the "getting dressed" portion of the morning...
This is Kinsey's Halloween Winnie-the-Pooh shirt which she is so proud to own...Here's our taller-by-the-day daughter before church this morning...Here's our turbo little boy spilling out of his swing...As I mentioned last week on vacation, Tag has found his feet. And he really likes them :)
What a happy boy!
Have a great week everyone!