October Happenings

A lot of new exciting things happened during the month of October for our family.  Our baby girl had her 1st birthday, we found out we are expecting a little boy on March 23rd, and Grandma and Grandpa Wintrode came for a week-long visit.  Most of the pictures are on FB, but for the few of you that don't use FB...here you go!

First time to the pumpkin patch. She didn't really like the pumpkins and kept pushing them away when we handed her one.

Happy One-year-old!

She loved to tear the paper and could have spent a very loooong time doing just that. 

Such a good little mommy....that's one way to carry a baby around. :)

Kinley LOVES her new doll stroller.  You can tell she feels so BIG that she can walk with it and move around more freely.

Happy Halloween!  She did not like wearing the hat at all. This is the best picture we got.

Saturday at the Park

Between General Conference sessions we decided to take a walk to the park. We have not been to the park in months due to the oppressive Texas heat. Today it was a balmy 85 degrees. Still a little too hot for us but far better than 110. Kinley enjoyed viewing the many squirrels foraging in preparation to hibernate. She has never been on a swing so we decided to try it out. At first she was underwhelmed with the whole experience but then ended up enjoying it. I think overall she liked watching the girl next to her swing more than the actual swinging.

Greenbrier Hotel

Last week I had the opportunity to travel to West Virginia for a major event to celebrate and announce several multiple million dollar gifts to build The Summit Bechtel Family National Scout Reserve, which is the new high adventure base being built for the Boy Scouts of America. I have been working to support this project for the past nine months in my current position with the BSA.

I stayed at the Greenbrier Hotel Casino and Resort. This is a great historic hotel and I enjoyed staying there. Unfortunately with the hectic work schedule I was not able to explore as much as I would have liked but I will visit again sometime. This hotel is the location of the once secret government bunker to house Congress in the event of a nuclear attack. I did not get to take the tour but am looking forward to doing it on one of my future trips to West Virginia.

The event included a day at The Summit so donors and potential donors could experience a little taste of the property. The event was held at the overlook site on the property. It rained most of the week because of Tropical Storm Lee. I arrived on Sunday and we got about 7 inches of rain from Sunday to Tuesday. Needless to say the roads were muddy and wet. Thursday was the day of the event and fortunately it did not rain and we were able to get the roads passable by then. There were around 300 people in attendance including Jim Lovell of Apollo 13 fame and several CEO's of large American corporations. Overall the event was a great success and to date 225 million dollars have been raised to build The Summit.

Time Flies When You're Having Fun

This last weekend went by so quickly!  Walter was able to come visit us for the weekend.  It was great to see him again...and he got to meet Kinley for the first time. We started out by "planning" on which delicious places we wanted to eat (Cracker Barrel, Waffle House, Jimmy John's...) and we even made some delicious meals at home with the favorite being cheese fondue.  Needless to say, all calorie counting was halted for the weekend.

Kinley loving Walter

We headed out to the Ray Roberts Lake Isle Dubois state park.  It was an adventure for us all! We've never been before and it was the perfect day for some swimming and relaxation.

Crossing the dam---almost there

Self-explanatory signage on the way

Nice breeze, soft sand, and plenty of sunshine.

Hanging out in the shade.  Kinley didn't want to put her clothes back on after I changed her out of her swimsuit.

 

Matt & Walter swimming. The water was warmer than the Gulf of Mexico.

We drove downtown Dallas to see the sights although we didn't get out of the car for the JFK memorial sights, but you can see them just fine from the car. We did stop at Pioneer Plaza to see the bronze longhorn statues.  The fountain was pretty cool and the attached cemetery was, too.

And speaking of time flying by.....my little girl is already 7 months old.  She is now really into making sounds (razz, sucking noises with lips, and blowing) words (mama, dada, and occasionally a baba) and in one week has gone from rolling everywhere to starting to crawl and pull herself around.  She is getting so fast and insists on finding the laptop cord wherever it may be and daddy's computer tote straps. Today she has really been trying to crawl under the coffee table and just knocks on it and slaps it. Funny girl!

Don't worry, the outlet is covered now.

She is a good little eater, and loves to blow raspberries while eating now. Ohhh, great!

And lastly.....thanks to Walter we have a new family photo:

The Beach

We decided to have a weekend getaway at the nearest beach...Galveston Island.  Matt had good Friday off so we headed out in the morning.  It was pretty uneventful for the first two hours, good weather, nice traffic flow, and then it happened...Kinley tossed her cookies. Poor baby! We got her some fresh air, cleaned her up, and then we were happily on our way again.  When we arrived in Galveston, we noticed that Kinley had poo all over her, her lovey (how were we going to survive 2 nights w/out her blessed lovey to snuggle with), and once again the carseat was destroyed.  Needless to say, our first "family" road trip really broke us in as far as parental duties were concerned.

Kinley loved the sand in her toes

Bolivar Peninsula Lighthouse

 

Kinley's 1st Beach Experience

Galveston is a regular little beach town about 5 hours away with tons of tourist shops and seafood restaurants along the beach.  We ate at Joe's Crab Shack both nights it was SO delicious. Our hotel was right on Seawall Blvd. across the street from the Gulf. The water was kind of a muddy blue but as warm as bath water. We didn't really spend time in the sand on Galveston Island. Instead we hopped a ride on a ferry over to Bolivar Peninsula and spent some time at Crystal Beach.  It was a great weekend and nice to see some other parts of Texas. We're really looking forward to our next family getaway.

Squishy Sand

Portuguese Man o War jellyfish

Lots of Driving In the Car

Riding the Ferry

Bolivar Peninsula

Sam Houston statue along I-35---things in TX really are bigger

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