Amarillo Weekend

This past weekend Grayson and I flew up to Amarillo to visit my parents.  It's always a little better when I can get out of town the weekend before James has tests at Baylor - that way he's not torn between hanging out with us and studying.  So, we left on Thursday morning and came back Monday night.  As usual, the weekend went by WAY too fast!

Friday we went to the Tri-State Fair and Rodeo.  If you're not from the panhandle, you may not realize, THIS IS BIG! It was awesome! We started out with some corn dogs and a root beer, had a giant pile of spiraled potatoes, some fried pickles, roasted corn, and ended with a funnel cake and some taffy!

It. Was. Delicious. 

I definitely don't think my body could handle eating like that all the time . . . . but you HAVE to eat the fair food while there :)  Grayson had a great time waving at all the people, looking at all the lights and rides, and dancing to the music!

 

 

 

He was getting a little tired at this point

 

I LOVE the Amarillo Sunsets!

 Dick Bivins Stadium is right next to the fair grounds. . . Amarillo High was having their homecoming that night so it was especially crowded!

Saturday, we took a little trip to the nearest park and let Grayson toddle around on some grass.  He loved it! I think it helped that he had on shoes that squeaked every time he took a step (thanks to Aunt Callie and Uncle Andrew) :) he just loved hearing that squeak!

Grayson and Daddy checking out the planes before we left!

Grayson and Granny eating some spaghetti

Grayson playing in the wishing well in the back garden . . . that water was pretty cold!

Saying goodbye to my dad up at his school before we went to the airport

Waiting for our flight at the Amarillo Airport

This was on the first hour of the flight home, he was in my lap facing me. . totally crashed! The last 2 hours of the flight were not quite so peaceful

It was an awesome trip and I'm so glad that Grayson and I went up there.  I love seeing my parents, and it's fun to go back and look at where I grew up.  SO much has changed in Amarillo, but so much is still the same too.  I'm excited for James to be done with this round of tests (tomorrow!!) and to have another block of Med school behind us! The cooler weather up there also made me even more excited to go visit my sister and her husband in a couple of weeks (if its even possible to be MORE excited?!) up in Duncan, Oklahoma!

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Fight Gone Bad 6

We went over to Bayou City Crossfit last Saturday to participate in the Fight Gone Bad 6 workout.  It was totally awesome.  It was a nationwide fundraising event, raising over $2.2 million dollars to benefit Special Operations Warrior Foundation, Crossfit Kids, and Camp Patriot.  It was hard.  I was sore for a few days after.  But it was SO MUCH FUN!!!  I can't wait to do another crossfit event or open Saturday workout.

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September 11

Today is September 11, 2011.  It has been 10 full years since the terrorist attacks of 2001.  When I think back to that morning, I, like everyone else I know, remember exactly where I was when it happened.  It's just one of those major events of history, that if you were alive and even remotely old enough to realize what was happening, you remember it.  I did not personally know a single person that died, or even anyone related to someone that died.  I can only imagine what those families must have felt.

As a student at A&M at the time, I remember feeling so helpless.  I watched in disbelief from the safety of my dorm room hundreds of miles away as Katie Couric and Matt Lauer interrupted their show with breaking news of the first plane, and on live TV, a second plane hit the buildings.  It is crazy when I think that Grayson will not have these memories.  He will only know what we teach him about that day. I can see now what my parents and grandparents must feel when they attempt to describe events like the assassination of JFK, and Pearl Harbor Day.

While I remember the hopelessness and the fear, I also remember the pride I felt when EVERYONE displayed an American flag in the following days.  I wish that had not faded.  I also remember the pride and togetherness I felt when I went to the A&M football game that weekend and stood in my blue t-shirt and looked around the stadium at the other 82,601 fans.  It seems like it took everyone in College Station working 24/7 to print and sell that many t-shirts in such a short amount of time, but it was so worth it.  It was one of the most awesome sites to see. The red, white, and blue out game raised $210,000 to donate to the first responders.

I hope we never have another event like that.  While it was incredibly devastating, it brought our country together like nothing I've ever seen.  It's sad that it took such a horrible event.  But hopefully on this day we can remember and focus on the hope that came out of that tragedy.  That is what I hope to teach Grayson about one day . . .   

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Galveston 2011

For the Fourth of July this year we packed up and met my parents, sister and brother-in-law, and aunt and uncle at the family beach house in Galveston!  In addition to the beach house, our camp included one RV (that was where James, Grayson, and I stayed), one camper trailer (my aunt and uncle's) and one boat.  Also along for the vacation were 10 dogs in total, my sister's dogs Tater and Ivey were greatly missed!  

While my parents had planned to be there for 2 weeks, we had originally planned on only one week.  But we had such an amazing time, that we stayed another week!! Here are some of my favorite pics that we took.

Grayson is ready to roll out to the beach!

I truly think my dad's favorite part about the beach are all the kites and flags! One of the first things that is included in "setting up camp" is getting the flags flying :) He always flies a Tech/A&M house divided flag, the US flag, the Texas flag, and a super colorful dragon kite.  This year he added a TCU flag and another dragon to his collection of fliers.  It is pretty cool b/c you can always tell which house / camp is ours from a distance.  Grayson thought the flags and kites were just amazing - they were the first thing he looked for in the morning.  He would just sit and stare in awe!

AMAZING!!! Staring at the Flags and Kites on the deck!

A shot of all the flags and kite!

A few days into the trip my dad realized that he had an ingrown toenail that had been bothering him for about a month, and he had had enough of it.  So, we  found a doctor and got it removed - the Dr. was pretty cool, he let me take some pics of the whole ordeal.  This prohibited my dad from being able to get in the sand or water, but it definitely was worth it, he said it felt much better.

Midway through the nail removal! Pretty cool!

The best part of the Galveston trip was being able to just relax and hang out.  The first week when everyone was there, we were busy working on the puzzle (we do one every year), and taking turns going fishing on the boat.  All of the dogs LOVED the beach! Parker (our chocolate lab) really loved being around all of the other dogs - he LOVES to play! His birthday was celebrated with everyone July 5th - he turned 3 :) My sister took her jeep and had the top off - that was really fun to ride around in.  Callie and Andrew also brought a volleyball / badminton set, so we had some pretty competitive tournaments! That was one of my favorite parts of the trip. (my mom has all of those pics)

The Whole Gang at Gaido's!

My parents and sister and I - out flying kites

Andrew chopping like a pro!

Grayson was able to spend LOTS of time with daddy!!  We all liked NOT having to share James with Medical School! 

The second week that we stayed in Galveston it was just us and my parents.  Callie, Andrew, Uncle Mike and Aunt Ann all had to go back to work :( It was really nice to get some time with my parents since we never see them.  We just played around at the beach, shopped at the Strand, explored the area around the A&M Galveston campus, explored SeaWolf park (the peninsula where immigrants with yellow fever were quarantined in the 1800's), and went to Grayson's first EVER movie at the theatre!!  We figured since he is so obsessed with Cars, that he could handle Cars 2 in the theatre even though he's only 10 months old - we were right!! He did awesome!

YUMMY Seafood!!

Shopping!!!

Eating at Shrimp 'N Stuff - a local favorite that we hit up every year

My parents bought Grayson this HUGE Octopus that he is now totally in love with!

 The View from our beach house on the last night we were there - BEAUTIFUL!!

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Crossfit Games

WEEKS FOUR, FIVE, & SIX
Here are some pictures that Bayou City Crossfit had on their website - that I borrowed. :)  They are from the week 3 workout - an AWESOME performance by James! 

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately, I've gotten a little bit behind in my crossfit competition updates.  So here they all are at once! 

Week 4 was a super tough workout - burpees, overhead squats, and muscle ups.  I was so excited for this because James has rings and so he can actually do muscle ups pretty well. Here's a few pics of that workout.  I think he did awesome!  James wasn't too pleased with his performance.  He actually didn't get a muscle up in before the time ran out - he was in the process of doing one when it ended.  But he spent the 4 days before the workout in bed ALL day sick.

BURPEES - you basically get down flat on the ground like a pushup, then jump up and clap your hands above your head - thats 1 burpee

OVERHEAD SQUATS

OVERHEAD SQUATS

Week 5 was power clean, toes to bar, and wall balls.  He did really great this week and made up a little bit of ground that he lost the previous week in the rankings!

WALL BALLS - you throw the weighted ball up to the top x or higher (girls hit the bottom x or higher)

TOES TO BAR

Week 6 included thrusters and chest to bar pull ups.  Again, James did amazing!

CHEST TO BAR PULL UPS

THRUSTERS

I'm so glad that they held the open sectionals for this year's crossfit games.  It gave a lot of competitors a chance to enter the competition and just see where they stood compared to everyone else.  It was a really fun experience to go watch James every weekend and the people that we've met the past 6 weeks are all incredibly nice and supportive.  That says a lot about crossfit and what a tight nit "community" it creates.  The people in that Bayou City gym had never seen us before, but every week they cheered James on and were friendly with Grayson and me - very cool.

I am SO proud to say that James finished the 6 week open sectionals in 213th place in our Region (which  had 788 competitors at the start) and 3,088th place in the WORLD!! (which had a total of 11,225 competitors at the start).  That is amazing to me considering that James hasn't even been doing this a year, AND he doesn't train anywhere.  He just looks up the workouts online and does them on his own.  I will say that some of his classmates have taken an interest in crossfit, and they have started doing the workouts with him up at the Baylor gym - I can tell a huge difference in how much FUN James has when other people work out with him.  Of course he loves crossfit, but working out with friends adds so much to it!


The Regionals are June 17-19 in Tomball and we will definitely be going to cheer on the crossfitters that we met at Bayou City Crossfit that qualified (top 60 in the open sectionals).  Hopefully, some of them will be able to qualify for the Final Crossfit Games being held in July in Pasadena, California.  The owner of the Bayou City box (gym) went to the finals last year. 

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Happy Birthday Casey

May 1st is my sister's wedding anniversary - it's also Casey's birthday.  Casey is my now 8 year old dog. She's half black lab, half english pointer.  I got her when I was in College at A&M.  I saw an ad in the College Station paper and my friend Tyan drove out with me into the country to look at the puppies.  The directions I was given were kinda crazy, luckily Tyan was brave enough to go with me so I wouldn't be alone.  I specifically remember being told to turn at the "big row of mailboxes where there should also be a cow standing."

Amazingly, we found the place.  I specifically hadn't taken ANY money. . . I didn't want to buy on impulse.  Every puppy in that litter was absolutely adorable.  They were all solid black.  But the little runt stood out to Tyan and I.  I remember Tyan saying, "Shelby, you've GOT to have some money somewhere in this car?! We need to get that runt!!"  But we didn't, so we left and since it was already dark, I went back the next day and bought the runt.  

I can honestly say, that was the BEST money I've ever spent in my life. Casey got me through the rest of college, many boyfriend breakups, my first real job, and now all the way into marriage and a baby.  She is my best friend.  I realize this sounds totally crazy and weird to most people. Before James and I got married, Casey and I lived in a 3 bedroom duplex for 3 years, just the two of us.  If Casey needed a lung - and it were possible - I would give her one of mine.  I love her THAT much, and I guess I'm just THAT crazy.  She has been there in my darkest times as well as my happiest times.  So, since I'm big on birthdays, we always make hers special. 

And, following a tradition that my grandparents did for my sister and I, we always give the other dog an "unbirthday" present too :)  We are totally crazy for our dogs like that in this house!

Here's Casey - napping on our bed like a little old lady

Casey's present - a BIG scoop of ice cream from Sonic, canned food for dinner, and a stuffed Squirrel that squeaks - since she is ALWAYS watching squirrels from the living room windows

And here's Parker's "unbirthday" present - same things, except he has a big 'ole fat stuffed elephant that squeaks 

mmmm - EVERYONE likes a big blog of ice cream on their birthday! 

Casey 

Parker

Parker - enjoying BOTH stuffed animals.  Casey wasn't really interested in her squirrel until Parker tried to like it, THEN she was all over it

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