Jackson, WY (aka Jackson Hole)

Brent and I recently (like on Sunday) got back from almost a week long trip to Jackson, WY with NO KIDS! I have to say, this is the FIRST TIME we have done this since we have had Ezra. Ezra is THREE!!  Even though it took us  a while to finally do it, it was well worth the wait!
I have never been to Jackson, but have heard many times that it is such a great place to go. Well, now that we have been, I can officially say, it is one of my FAVORITE places we have been. There was so much to do. The little town is filled with great shops (not just the tourist t-shirt shops) and SO MANY great places to eat! We had two favorite places to eat, 1. Sweetwater (thank you Jennifer) and 2. The Silver Dollar. We had lunch at Sweetwater two times. We went to the Sliver Dollar for a date night and had the BEST FOOD in I don't know how long! It was so good I finished my whole plate even though I was so full. Brent even said it was his favorite day because the food was so good. I am sure he meant to say because it was a great date night with ME, however, I will let it slide because I agree!
We were up in Jackson for Brent and a work conference. We stayed at Snow King Resort, which is one of three snow resorts in Jackson. The resort was at the base of a mountain and about a 1/2 mile walking distance to the town square. When Brent was at the conference, I would walk to town, get a smoothie or iced coffee, go window shopping and then sit in the square park and read. The weather was so nice. It was in the high 60's/low 70's during the day and 30-40 at night. So nice!!
We rented a car for a day and drove up to Yellowstone National Park. We drove through the park (well, some of it. It's a really big park) saw some bison, elk and a wolf. We also saw some falls, basins and Old Faithful. It was really pretty. I think it would be fun to go back to Yellowstone and stay a couple days in the park to be able see everything. One thing we didn't see, and really wanted to, was a moose. They are really hard to see in the summer because it is too hot for them. Near Jackson, they have an Elk Refuge that consists of 2500 acres that is FULL of elk and moose in the winter. I bet that is a site to see!!
We also did some fun things around the resort. They run the chair lifts during the summer so you can take a scenic chair lift ride up the the top of the mountain and enjoy the views, so we did that. We also rode on the Alpine Slide. It is this huge slide (like a bobsled track) that you take a chair lift up to the top of the mountain and get on this seat with wheels and a brake and ride it down the slide which goes down the whole mountain. It was fun! My slide was so slow. You can control how fast or slow you want to go and I guess I wasn't pushing on the handle hard enough to go fast. Brent and I were supposed to "race" down, but he was already down the mountain, off his seat thing and recording me coming down before I made it down. SLOW POKE!!
Anyway, we had a really good time. The day we were leaving, They were setting up a stage at the bottom of the mountain for the Bob Dylan concert that evening. So, we got to go "back stage" while they were setting up and walk by Bob Dylan's tour bus. We never saw him though. It was still pretty neat. Oh ya, the airport was such a small airport (4 gates) and you got off the plane onto stairs that took you down on the tarmac right next to the plane. So neat. I hadn't done that since I was a little girl in California.
So, Jackson, I loved it and want to go back!

Town Square (ark made of REAL Elk Antlers that are shed and found by boy scouts)

Town

going up the scenic chair lift ride

view going up

from the top

Yellow Stone National Park (in the 50's this day)

Old Faithful Geyser (goes off every 60-90 min. that's why its called old faithful)

Our lone wolf spotting (recently reintroduced into the park)

Bison 

Elk

One of the Hot basin's running into the river

Grand Teton Mountains

Creek in the Elk Refuge (we were able to walk around in there)

Million Dollar Bar (seats were horse saddles)

Part of the Alpine Slide

Alpine Slide

Brent getting ready

At this point I thought I had a chance at beating him down the slide (HA!)

Bob Dylan (his bus is on the right)

Our airplane

Llano River

Llano River

Every year since 1999, The Lindig family has been heading to the Llano River and staying in the same cabin during the first weekend of August. I have been able to enjoy this fun weekend for a few years now, but this year was a little different. Most of the family, which usually consists of about 30 people, was narrowed down to about 10 of us this year. It didn't work out for most everyone to go, but we went anyway. It was such a good time. It was probably one of the most relaxing times I have had at the river. We had good converstation, good time to read, naps, canoe time and swimming/"tubing" in the river. We had enough food for all 30 of us, but there were only 10 of us!! We had great fish fry of fresh fish that Ezra and Brent caught on the throw lines. Yes, Ezra went out late the first night with Brent in the canoe (first time in a canoe) and threw out the throw lines. They both got up early the next morning, loaded up in the canoe again and went to check the lines. They came back with 3 big catfish that weighed a total of 12 lbs. The biggest fish was 5 1/2 lbs! Ezra was in heaven. He even went out on the river with us in the tubes to the rapids. Granted, these "rapids" were slow flowin' but you could still somewhat tube down them, and he thought that was fun. Emersyn on the other hand, did not think this a fun thing to do! Saturday night we stayed up late playing Chicken Foot, a dominoes game. On sunday morning, Brent and I got to go out in the canoe and check the lines one more time. We did not catch any catfish, but our lines were definitely NOT EMPTY. We caught TWO ALLIGATOR GAR! Now, if you are not familiar with this type of fish, they look like regular fish, but have a really long mouth full SHARP TEETH. Very crazy looking. One was not that big and when Brent put it behind him to take it back (so he could get the hook out of it) it tried biting his shirt. The other Gar, was HUGE! It was trying it's hardest to get off the line when we were coming up to it. It jumped out of the water like a Marline, right by ME!! I screamed! I thought it was going to jump in my lap. It did this several times. Brent ended up having to put it to sleep to get the hook out. I was not opposed. It was a fun morning. Brent and I haven't gone on the canoe by ourselves in a long time. We used to do this a lot before we had kids. So, it was a nice "date". Sunday afternoon we hung out, rode our mini bikes and went swimming. We loaded up that afternoon and headed home. We had two tired adults, two kids and a do passed out in the back of the car. It was a really good weekend!

getting ready to check the lines

all ready

our fisherman

good looking and tastin catfish

getting ready for the fish fry

looks so cute!, but did't care to be in the river

Chicken foot

uncle johnny on the mini bike

Jill taking a turn

some campers

emersyn's turn ( to pretend)

ezra loves going for rides

Summer Fun

We have had such a good summer this summer. We have been to California, Colorado, Two family reuniouns, the Llano River, many swim playdates, and the cowboy's training camp. Brent and I leave on Tuesday for our FIRST trip with just the two of us (since Ezra was born) to Jacksonhole. In September, I get to go to Chicago with two great girl friends for some fun and a Beth Moore Conference!!
Here are some cute pictures of the kids eating some summertime watermelon and pictures of the Cowboy's Training Camp.

this is her "cheese" face

Ezra, Brent and our friend Rob went on a boys morning to the camp

Hello Termites, Goodbye TV Stand

Well, it's a sad day at the Eilers household. We had this great piece of furniture that we had gotten at a shop on main in Fredericksburg. I LOVED IT! It was huge, stained and antique looking. It was what we used upstairs for our storage and "entertainment center". Most of you know the piece I am talking about. It was probably my favorite piece in my house! Well, little did we know that 4 years ago when we bought it at the store, it had TERMITES!! We had never seen any sign of termites and the piece just looked "antique". This year the termites decided to make their appearance. A couple of months ago I was by myself one night and Brent was at a work dinner. I noticed a bug thing crawling around by the window. I called Brent right away because I just knew they were termites. Well, THEY WERE! Praise God they were just wood termites and they had plenty of wood to eat with that one piece of furniture. That night started our endless days of fumigation and wrapping the piece up to try and kill off the termites. We even tried to call a "termite expert" but there was only ONE guy in town that dealt with this big of furniture and he never called us back! So, after months of trying to fumigate it on our own, we had to call it quits. Brent tore it apart this evening and it is no longer a great piece of furniture in our house! There is a bright side to the story. My husband is a very skillful and talented man. He kept all the doors to the furniture and the pieces of wood that were termite free. He is going to recreate the piece for us! I trust that he can do it!! So, as teary eyed as I was to say goodbye, I am hopeful for a new and improved beautiful piece of furniture!

can you see the termite trails!?! GROSS!

Ezra turned 3!

Three fingers are a little harder than 2!

My sweet Ezra is three! I still cannot believe it! We have had such a great three years. He seems like such a big boy with the way he acts and talks, that I often have to remind myself, he is still a little boy. He is smart, funny, active, athletic, sweet, inquisitive and big into the "why" questions. Sometimes, we will go round and round with "why" that I will finally say, "why do you think?" and he will repeat everything I told him. I often have to remind myself that he is learning and wanting to know more and that is WHY everything is "why?"!
For his birthday we had a Toy Story party at The Little Gym. It was a lot of fun. Before his actual birthday, for about a week, when we would be talking about his birthday and where we were having it, he got so upset that it was at a  "little gym" because he wanted a BIG PARTY at his house. My good Allison suggested calling it The BIG gym to see if that would help. I think that he remembered having Emersyn's birthday at our house with all the cousins and how much fun it was and wanted the same thing. So, at first, I was feeling bad we were having the party at The Little Gym, but it was GREAT! All the kids had so much fun and the staff of Little Gym did a great job. Ezra loved every minute of it. Now we have Toy Story figurines, I don't know what to do with myself. He is in Toy Story Heaven. I just can't believe he is three! I am excited for this year. He starts pre-school at Oakhills Church in September going 2 or 3 days a week. He is very ready for it. It is such a great program and I am excited about helping in his class and watching him grow. Makes me a little teary, but very excited for the next stage!
Here are some pictures from the party.

What he woke up to

Emersyn in the trampoline he got from my dad and Joanne

party room at The Little Gym

Getting started with names and ages

he was pretty good at the balance beam

Parachute 

balls and bubbles

Emersyn loved the bubbles

this was a big hit

Emersyn even tried it

Happy Birthday Ezra!

blew out all three candles!

PRESENTS! 

Slinky dog!

4th of July

After our trip back from Colorado, the next day, Sunday, we got BACK IN the car and headed to Fredericksburg. We were invited to a cook-out and fireworks show by my good friend Jamie Bryant and her family. It was good times, good food and good fellowship. The kids had a lot of fun. Jamie's dad is a Vet and he mainly sees horses, so we got to see all of the horses at his clinic and even saddled a horse for the kids to ride! Ezra was a little timid at first, but, after seeing his friends ride, he was ready. He did such a good job. Emersyn sat on the horse, cried, then got off and laughing as she pet the horse. She kept walking over to the horses and bending down to see them. She was kind of saying "neigh" with a growl added to it. Watching the fireworks was fun. You could see the fireworks show from the clinic that the LBJ park puts on. Ezra and Emersyn liked them at first, then it was time to move on. Ezra even did his first Sparkler! It was fun evening. Thank you Kings and Bryants!!

sitting on the rail like little country kids

Ezra sizing up the horse, Rosey

Brynlee in her fourth of July outfit!

Ezra rode the horse a couple of times and loved it

Emersyn sat on the horse and DIDN'T like it

She preferred petting the horse. Maybe she didn't want to mess up her hair while riding in the wind ;)