This is a shot of Caroline riding in the back of the truck as we left the lease. There are 3 gates, and riding in the back ensures she gets first crack at opening them for us.

Fun weekend at the deer lease

We had a big time in South Texas this weekend. Deer season officially opened last weekend, but Caroline attended Taylor Swift's concert and Daddy went duck hunting. So we moved the opening of our deer season to 11/12/11-no problem.

Cousin John was off duck hunting with his father, so Caroline and cousin Adelyn had a girl's weekend of adventuring. Rumor has it they have planned a whole TV series to cover this and future trips.

Here are a few pics. The better ones are on the other camera. With any luck we'll get them loaded soon.

At one point, we couldn't find Caroline until we heard her giggling....and looked up on the roof. She had climbed an oak tree beside the house and dropped onto the roof to harvest moss for the fire.

TAYLOR SWIFT!!!!!

Taylor Swift played in Houston last night and Caroline attended the concert for her best friend Maddy's birthday.

Story as told by C.
The four girls and two parents left at 2:30 from Tiki and went to the Grotto downtown for a pre concert dinner. I had a small spaghetti with a HUGE meatball. Awesome.

After dinner we went to Minute Maid Park where we found a really long line outside.

The other girls got cotton candy ( I don't like cotton candy) and we went down to the field to find our seats. There was a little store right down on the floor where the other girls got tshirts and I got a poster. Then I got a blue straw snowcone from the roving snowcone man.

We could see the stage where Taylor Swift would be perfectly. There were about 10 people between me and the stage. My new concert friend gave me a glowstick.

Need to Breathe came out and played before Taylor Swift. Miss. Nicki took a picture of us and emailed it to TaylorSwift and they put it up on the big board for everyone to see.

After Need to Breathe sang six songs, Taylor Swift came out. We waved our glow sticks and yelled "Taylor Swift you rock". We even threw glitter up to the stage.

Her first song was "The Story of Us." After that she said "I really like being with you guys. When a singer thinks about where they want to go to sing their first choice is Houston, TX. There are 44,000 people out there all with their own stories. IF it would be okay with ya'll I would like to stand up here and tell you some of my own stories." Everyone yelled "yes". Then she said, "I just have one more question for you. Are you ready?" The crowd went crazy!

Then she said, "There is this boy who thought I shouldn't win an award last year. So I wrote a song about him. He was so... what is that word?" We all shouted "mean." And then she sang "mean".

The pictures on the board weren't about the mean boy they were funny pictures of her being tied to a train track.

She sang the rest of the album speak now. I really thought Speak Now was the best song she sang. The band members got to act like they were at a wedding. Some played wedding music so it was really cool.

When the show ended we had to go back to the car but it was too far for us to walk so we got a bicycle rickshaw to take us back. 1 adult and 2 kids in each. We raced all the way back to the car. Maddy, Mr. Charlie and I won the race. They were really cool I had not been on one before. The wind was on our face and it cooled us off because it was really hot inside there.

When we got into the car Miss. Nikki and Uncle Charlie said "we have a surprise for you" and we started to guess. Maddy was the first to guess Charlie's surprise. I was the one to guess Miss Nikki's surprise. Uncle Charlie had 4 guitar picks that he got from Taylor Swift's dad who was sitting in front of us at the concert. Miss Nikki had 4 autographs and books.

It was a pretty exciting trip. I wish you could have been there.

Amy Note: C arrived back home at 11:30. She made it into the house but collapsed in the hall on to the stairs. I had to carry her to bed and pull off her boots. She slept soundly through all the motorcycles and dog barkings (It is Lone Star Biker Rally weekend in Galveston). She has not stopped dancing all morning.

Happy Halloween

Caroline spent 364 days planning her flying fox costume and Mom (aka Mrs. Frizzle) made it happen as always.

We had a delightful one hour stroll through the neighborhood.

Big weekend

This weekend Caroline got new boots for an upcoming school dance. She showed them off at a local charity event we attended where she also got some temporary (thank goodness) body art.

April 2011 skating pics

What does a good weekend look like?

I submit the photo above as evidence of a great weekend at the lease.

Many thanks to Papa for hosting and cousin John for providing the entertainment. Caroline and her parents had a number of ideas and specific plans on what we might do over the weekend. All that worry and preparation was wasted, as the kids pretty much did their own thing!

We arrived 09:37 Saturday. John John the Girly Mon was still asleep and received a full pounce and nag from cousin C. At 09:44 they were on the golf car rolling out for an adventure. We saw them approximately every hour throughout the day for about 15 minutes. They'd get a drink, cool off, tell us about the cool new thing they found, then charge back out-sometimes by foot, sometimes by car. What a treat for the parents and grandparent!

We sent the unutilized cookie dough home with John and made our usual stop at Buccee's for junk food on the way back to Tiki. C was mighty tired and finally gave in after her hot dog and fries.

Check "wildflower trip to deer lease" off the list. Next up, fishing season.