Outer Banks Trip Part 1-Beach Babes

We had such a wonderful time in North Carolina with Ryan and his family and Derek and the Applewhites. It was really spectacular and definately somewhere we would love to go again. We discovered that the girls are not only mountain, arctic, and swamp girls, but they are quite naturally beach babes as well. We wished Bryan was there to join in the fun, but this gives us an excuse to return!

We did so much while we there-we took a tour of the Currituck Sound Lighthouse, we took a wild horse tour, we had many many hours of beach time, and did lots and lots of relaxing. These are just a few pictures of the girls...I will have to make this a 2 (or 3) part series to get all these pictures uploaded...

Morgan was having the time of her life digging in the sand

Skylar and Morgan knee deep in it

Our Little Mermaid

Uncle Derek playing in the sand with Stella, Skylar and Morgan

Morgan and Uncle Derek taking Ace for his beach walk

Skylar watering...the beach

Morgan loving the waves of the ocean

SISTERS!!

Anytime, anywhere-it's naptime!

Mud girl-she got the biggest kick out of covering herself with mud.

Some of our Colorado Trip

We had the best 2 1/2 weeks ever! The girls had a blast, I had a blast and I hope everyone we saw enjoyed our company too. It was a long trip, but we had so much fun the time just flew by!!
We headed up to Red Rocks one Saturday for an awesome burnin' workout with Jumpin' Joe! Whew! What a fun time and the best landscape anyone could ask for! Perfect!

After 2 hours of extreme fitness in the foothills of Colorado we still had smiles on our faces...

We spent a few days at Grandma and Papa's house and the girls LOVED riding Hugs! Skylar was ready to saddle up and ride this time. Last time she was a little more hesitant, but there was no stopping this cowgirl! She could have done this all day if Papa would have let her!

Morgan loved it too! Hugs is such a sweet horse and Cowboy Dick and Papa were so nice to let the girls ride. They haven't stopped talking about it yet and they can't wait to go back and get back up on that horse!

The girls are anxious to do their "chores." Chores were fun to them. Morgan and Skylar went out every morning and helped Papa feed the horses their hay and grain. We skipped cleaning the stalls this summer, but maybe next summer we will get them a pair of boots and let 'em loose in there to really get their hands dirty. Until then, Skylar will put on her best dress and lipstick for the occassion...

We headed up to Greeley one Saturday for the UNC alumni match. All of my former teammates were there and some of us met up early at a local park to meet all the kiddos and enjoy a little slower pace before the festivities began. What an amazing day it was! It was so much fun meeting all the kiddos, playing at the park, getting to know the husbands a little more and just all-in-all catching up on life with my girls. It was truly heartwarming and fun!

Jessica, Kelly, Teale, Me, Cara and Kara soaking in some love!

All of the alumnus after the game. What a fun experience! I hope I get to do this again some day!

The best ending to the day is that we all managed to WALK out of the gym on our own free will. No one was injured-not even our egos. We played great and had even more fun!

One of our last nights in Colorado we spent at Coors Field watching the Rockies beat the Braves 5-4. It was fun to go watch my Rockies in action and the girls loved it too!

San Antonio

The girls were so excited to see the Shamu show! I am not sure they knew just how big these orcas are! They loved the show and took home their own Shamu stuffed animals. I was like a giddy little girl waiting for the show myself! I wanted to be a marinebiologist when I grew up...

waiting for the show to start

Morgan LOVED feeding the dolphins and touching their noses. She even fed the dolphin a fish!

Skylar would not touch the dead fish, but enjoyed watching the dolphins eat them.

The Applewhite homestead is located in La Vernia, TX just outside of San Antonio. We made a special trip out to see the remains of it and so we could take a picture with the girls at the historical family landmark.

Bryan and the girls at the Applewhite Homestead.

4 generations

Bryan's mother and grandmother are in town visiting for Morgan's birthday and Mother's Day, so we took the opportunity to get a few pictures of the generations-you just can't pass up an opportunity like that. Here are three generations.

And four generations! Isn't that amazing!? WOW! More amazing is the fact that both of my children are smiling at the camera...at the same time. Yes, I did tie their hands behind their backs and tell them their feet were next, but hey, whatever it takes to get a good photo-sign me up!

Four generations of women-truly a Mother's Day gift! See, it can't hurt that bad...they are still smiling.And the Louisiana Applewhite's on a beautiful Louisiana Saturday Night! See what happens when you untie them-they lose sight of the goal...and the camera. Lesson learned.

Night of Champions

Getting all dressed up in the name of ULM

Turned out to be a great evening and lots of $$ raised for our student athletes.

Warhawk Weekend

The weather was amazing, the scrimmage was fun, the crawfish were boiling and the baseball game was great! All in all it was a jam-packed, rootin' tootin' Louisiana Saturday night!

The girls were all ready and geared up in their new ULM dresses to cheer on the Warhawks.

Bryan gettin' his game on.

Rock on Soul sister!

Not interested in the paparazzi...hmm...that's unusual.

There's Baby Gaga loving the camera!

After the scrimmage...thought we may as well take advantage of our coordinating outfits. Cheese!

And after all was said and done the girls had seen all that they could see.

Monroe Zoo Boat Ride

Skylar and Morgan LOVE the new Disney movie The Princess and the Frog. They have only watched it a few times but the music is fantastic and extremely catchy. We went to the zoo the other day while Bryan had a spring vacation day and they have a little boat ride you can take at the zoo. The girls absolutely love it and Skylar sang, "Going down the Bayou" from the movie for at least the first 5 minutes. Just that line...over and over...and over.While it doesn't look as though she is having any fun at all I asure you she is. She is just thinking about what she is going to sing, say, shout, or whisper next. Chances are it won't be a whisper. Not with Skylar. And I am pretty sure after 5 minutes of "Going down the Bayou" it was 5 minutes of her own rendition of "Puff the Magic Dragon."And Morgan loves the island monkeys that put on a show for you if you clap and hoot and hollar for them! They are pretty cute!

Easter

New Orleans

Last week we took at trip to NOLA with my Dad, Mo and Jana and had a great time touring The French Quarter, took a boat ride down the Mighty Mississippi and our family friend Gaynell was kind enough to give us a tour of the city and give us a glimpse of all of the regrowth and past devastation in NOLA. We also stayed in Ann's cousin Teri's condo and it was fabulous. We had a great view of the Bayou right behind us and a great park that the girls enjoyed one day. We had a wonderful time!

Our new Crib!

Hey Y'all! Well, I am happy to report that we have a stylin' new crib! It has been a crazy month for the Applewhites, but we are happy to say that Bryan got a new job coaching for ULM (U. of Louisiana at Monroe), we found a new house, put it under contract, and are happily packing for our cross country move down south. I have never lived outside of the Rocky Mountains and I really have never been to the south (I don't count Florida as the south and 24 hours for a football game doesn't really count either). I spent the last week in Monroe and I am totally impressed! Our realtor was amazing, the area is fantastic and we are so excited to get good and settled. Here are a few pictures of the new house.

Here is the outside of the house-front and back. And it has a screened in porch in the back-woot woot!! Killer bugs and gators can't get us in there-LOL! There are lots of trees in the back to block that HOT afternoon sun.

The living space-kitchen, nook, dining room, butler pantry and family room. I love that we have a fireplace. It kinda makes me laugh. We live in Montana where it didn't get about freezing for over a month (or above -10 for a week) and we didn't have a fireplace. Ever single house we looked at in Monroe had a fireplace.

The bedrooms. The master is nice and BIG and we will have a bathroom all to ourselves again-woot woot! Sharing a bathroom with 2 toddler girls kinda cramped my style. The girls will share a bedroom again and may even graduate to some bigger beds. We are going to have the 2 blue bedrooms painted before we get there.