Derek and I just returned from a trip to England. We had a fun time together exploring London and seeing the English countryside. Here are some highlights from our trip.
Saw Windsor Castle

The crooked House in Windsor

Some fish and Chips

Rode the tube

 Ate and Ate
And met up with our friends, Lauren and Tyler for drinks and dinner.  So fun!

Sticky toffee pudding- yum!

Did lots of typical touristy things like riding in a double decker bus, seeing the red phone booth, Harrods, macaroons, tea, and tried to figure out how to get where we needed to go...

Even saw one of these-

Big Ben

Talking in a famous red telephone booth. I had to- my service got turned off

 Relaxed and walked through several parks

Saw the Tower bridge and went to the top

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Traitors Gate at the Tower

Went to Westminster Abbey. It was right after the royal wedding and the flowers were still in the church.  It was very cool. Lots of really old tombs.

Saw the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace

Went to many pubs

We had a great time together and can't wait for our next getaway.  Thanks to everyone that watched the kids for us, it made everything possible!

Catching Up

This spring has flown by.  I can't believe it is already mid May!  Where does the time go?  Here's a recap of what we have been up to...

Easter -

We usually have my parents in town for Easter, but this year it was just us. We had an egg hunt in the neighborhood that was great fun for the kids.  Though, neither got the golden egg and were a little bummed!   The Easter bunny dropped off goodies.

Made Resurrection biscuits.

We went to church and had a great time of worship.

We went to lunch at our friends, the Walker's house.  It was a great time of visiting and yummy food.

 The kids hunted eggs

Cracked confetti eggs on each other

I love that these kids are all such big buds!  We really are going to miss the Walker's when they move.
 Sniff Sniff!!

We are still in baseball season.  We have been having fun and Barrett is really improving.

Brooklyn had a program at school where.  She was really cute!

We had our freshman huddle retreat.  We spent the night out in the hill country with 22 freshman. We had a great time, though not much sleep!

We also had a retirement party for my mom.  She is FINALLY retiring.  It was fun to see so many faces from my youth.  I love that about Northland it is like a family. There were also several friends from along the way.  It was a nice time and I am so glad she is retiring.

I tagged along to London with Derek right after that.  More to come on that.


Mother's day was low key and perfect.  We went to church, ate at one of my favorite places, went to the pool and got together with our friends for our care group. And I didn't do any housework or cooking!! I am so blessed to be the mommy of my kids.  I feel so lucky that God chose me to raise them.

You can't ever hear these words enough

Beautiful by Mercy Me

The days will come when you don't have the strength 

When all you hear is you're not worth anything 

Wondering if you ever could be loved 

And if they truly saw your heart they'd see too much 

You're beautiful 

You're beautiful 

You are made so much more than all of this 

You're beautiful 

You're beautiful 

You are treasured, You are sacred, You are His 

You're beautiful 

I'm praying that you have the heart to find 

Cause you are more than what is hurting you tonight 

For all the lies you've held inside so long 

And they are nothing in the shadow of the cross 

You're beautiful 

You're beautiful 

You are made so much more than all of this 

You're beautiful 

You're beautiful 

You are treasured, You are sacred, You are His 

You're beautiful 

Before you ever took a breath 

Long before the world began 

Of all the wonders He possessed 

There was one more precious 

Of all the earth and skies above 

You're the one He madly loves 

Enough to die 

You're beautiful 

You're beautiful 

In His eyes 

You're beautiful 

You were meant for so much more than all of this 

You're beautiful 

You are treasured, You are sacred, You are His 

You're beautiful 

You're beautiful 

You're meant for so much more than all of this 

You're beautiful 

You're beautiful 

You are treasured, You are sacred, You are His

May you feel this way today and everyday!  

Date night!

Our church had a Daddy/daughter date night last week.  When Derek first asked Brooklyn to go on a date with him, she said"Gross! I don't want to go on a date with you like mommy!"  He was crushed! But, she was happy to go once she realized it was just a night out together with no kissing!  They had a fun time.  They ate, danced a little, rode in a limo and enjoyed being together.  Here are some pics of them before they left for the big date.

While Brooklyn and Derek were out, Barrett and I went on out own date.  When I asked B what he wanted to do, his first choice was to go to a LA Lakers game.  That wasn't really possible, so we settled on putt putt at Peter Pan.

Then burgers, fries and shakes at P. Terry's

 And then we headed home to watch some basketball.  Barrett enjoyed quizzing me on various players and who they play for.  Though, I did stump him when i asked who Larry Bird played for!

Nana and Teddy came to visit us.  They were able to see Barrett play baseball.  We went to eat at some local Austin places and had a great time hanging out with them and letting them love on the kids.