Past and Future Wildcats and Lots of Weddings...

After our stay in Dallas we headed to Abilene. The girls and I read books to each other in the car. Abby is amazing us with how well she is reading. She is able to figure out some pretty long words. I love that both girls love reading!

We got to ACU in time for lunch but were disappointed that the food court in the campus center was mostly closed. Because we were pressed for time and we wanted to give the girls the experience of eating in The World Famous Bean, yes, we ate in the school cafeteria. If you haven't been in a while, they have remodeled it, and it looks, well - FAMOUS! Seriously it looks a lot nicer than when we were there. The food really wasn't that bad at all. I was impressed that Abby got to eat for free. Woo hoo!

We were also going to go to the Bookstore, but it was closed due to the Fall Break. Bummer!

We purposely got to campus a couple of hours before the wedding so we could show the girls around. We had been there a year ago for our 10 year reunion, but we had not gotten to show them around as much as we had liked. We took them to our old dorms and pointed out the windows to our room. (Amy - Remember "242 me and you"?) When we were at Nelson dorm, we showed them the exact spot where Wes and I had our very first kiss. We replayed the moment for the girls, which of course, tickled them up. We also toured the Bible Building and Business Building. In the Bible Building they were fascinated with the ginormous globe. We also showed them where Grandpa's old office was and where Grandma's desk was.

Posing on a rock at the Jacob's Dream sculpture on ACU's campus.

Jacob's Dream sculpture.

Waiting for Daddy to get changed before the wedding. Sisterly love!

After walking around campus for a bit it was time to change and head to the wedding of one of our past youth group members, Katie Howerton. She was in 6th grade when we first started here. Katie and Stephen's wedding was at Lytle Cove Cottage, right outside of Abilene. It was a gorgeous outdoor wedding and the weather was perfect! Katie's dad, one of our elders, performed the ceremony and did a terrific job! I always like to watch the groom's face as the bride walks down the isle. Stephen was definitely tearing up and cried during the vows as well. It was super sweet!

I think God knew what He was doing when He gave us girls. This wedding was our 6th wedding since April and we have one more in 2 weeks. Wes will have performed 4 of these seven. I am always proud of the job he does making it memorable and personal. He gets lots of compliments. 5 of these weddings were girls who had gone through our youth program which is very special (and make us feel old). It is really neat to have witnessed them mature and grow into godly young women. I am thankful that we got to share in those momentous occasions. We know each of their parents prayed for their future spouse, and to see how God's plan was revealed is pretty special.

Katie and Karla - We sure do love these ladies!

The girls had fun playing with Annabelle and their new friend the flower girl.

I will end this post with two quotes from the girls:

One morning last week while I was brushing Avery's hair she asked, "When do you think Jesus will come back?" I replied that the Bible tells us we don't know when He is coming back. She then said, "It would be cool if He came back while I was alive." It warmed my heart!

At the dinner table the other night Abby starts chanting, "Uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, seis siete, ocho, nueve, DS." Then she proceeded to tell Avery,"You say DS because you have a DS." (As in a Nintendo DS.) Ha!

Is Big Tex Real?

Last weekend we made a trip to the Texas State Fair. Wes had been before, but the girls and I had not, so we decided to make use of their free (you know me) tickets from school.

We enjoyed some fun rides, yummy food (funnel cake is my friend) and petting all the different kinds of animals.

I wanted to go on the HUGE carousel, but at the last minute Avery and Abby changed their mind about going on it. I am not sure if it was because it was incredibly tall or if the thought of waiting in a long line discouraged them. We will definitely have to try it again some time.

The excitement is building! Their poor driver!


Ready to take off!


Brave little girl bouncing around way up high!

Riding the sky ride as a family.

Our favorite part of the fair was the Children's Barnyard area. We bought a few cups of food to feed the animals and really enjoyed petting them and watching them. There were pigs, sheep, yaks, gazelle, camels, miniature horses, dogs, cats, kangaroos, ostriches, donkeys, cows and even a giraffe. We were surprised how many animals they had. Several of them were born during the fair. Avery and Abby learned that baby pigs have squishy hooves. They petted the little piglets for quite a while as they just laid there asleep. I was amazed that all the animals let so many people touch them.

Cute kangaroo!

The sheep were so soft!

I felt sorry for the giraffe being all cooped up there.

When Abby saw Big Tex she asked if he was real. Wes explained that he was not and proceeded to tell her how his social club in college, Galaxy, stole Big Tex and took him all the way to Abilene to be in the homecoming parade as part of the Galaxy float. (This was years before Wes was in the club.) Hopefully, the girls will not get any bright ideas from this lovely story.

That evening we stayed the night in Dallas. When we first entered our room we could hear what sounded like a heard of elephants above us. Keep in mind it was about 10:00. After the girls had showered the noise (or pounding, I should say) had not subsided. Wes called the front desk who let him know other complaints had been called in, and a manager was on his way up. 20 minutes later it had not died down at all. Wes went upstairs to check if out. Turns out, it was a coach staying with 9 players. Not a brilliant idea in the first place!!! The manager was still up there and told Wes we could change rooms. Another family was already moving, too.

We got to move to a large suite plus we got $20 taken off our bill, since we had to move our stuff and tired girls at 11:00 at night. The girls slept in until 8:45 which was quite nice. I love those thick curtains that hotels have that block out the sunlight and keep it nice and dark. I wish we could have hung around for a bit and enjoyed the suite, but we needed to get on the road to Abilene for a wedding after a stop at ACU.