Wendy & Lilly: December 2023

Capturing Lilly being brave and climbing all the way to the top of a rock wall!

We had to stop going on bike rides because we had a summer of mostly 100+ days from July-September but this was one of the last ones and Lilly is in alllll her kitty gear!

Taking the kiddos to a new indoor playground!

Wendy is pretty obsessed with ice cream and PJ won't pay for the ice cream truck. So, he became the ice cream truck.

He came into the cul-de-sac playing ice cream truck music and handed the girls ice cream (that he bought from HEB)

Family bike ride!

For one of our craft days, the girls made things from this sewing kit.

Lilly made a head band.

And Wendy made a squishy!

Trying out a new indoor inflatable place!

And Lilly found her Halloween costume... in July...

Taking the girls to Barton Springs for the first time!

The water stays in the 60 degree range year round. Wendy loved it!

Lilly kept asking why was it so cold?!

Eventually we got her to jump off the diving board into the water.

The things we find around our house....

Did I mention we had a crazy hot summer? So I tried to take the girls out to a local Middle School running track early one morning to get some energy out. We each picked a different exercise to do down a leg of the track. We never did it again....

PJ installed some over head storage for the garage and wanted to make sure it would hold...

The girls were happy to assist!

And Disney found photos from one of our favorite rides!

PJ and I were able to sneak away for a bike ride

Wendy participated in a cheer camp!

She loved it!

For a belated family birthday celebration, we took Lilly to a local cat lounge. You pay per hour to play and pet cats. She was in heaven!

She was showing the kitties she even wore her kitty shoes.

Wendy thought the cats were pretty funny too.

Other things we find randomly around the house. I have an inspiration board above my desk and one day I saw this smily face made out of push pins. It made me smile too.

AAAAnd we found Christmas! In July....

We started off summer vacation with a fun day at Six Flags!

It was so hot...

Lilly got some courage to ride a really big ride. We went all through the line and then, right as we were about to board, the workers said she was too short. So, we got a picture of her in a seat outside of the ride.

She revisited the bus ride she loved so much and realized- it wasn't that much fun to a big kid!

Lilly finally got to show her courage when we all rode the Ring of Fire. She loved it!

Continuing to cook with the kids, Lilly chose donuts (again).

I made three different glazes for the donuts: Vanilla Bean, Orange, and chocolate.

Trying to entice the kids to read over the summer, I told them when they finished a (chapter) book, I would get them ice cream. Their first cash in was a sweet success!

Our next adventure was a new water park close-by. We all loved it!

Pool day with friends!

We even chased down the ice cream truck.

Once PJ and I booked our Disney trip, we knew we needed to prepare the girls for what it would be like to walk long distances in the heat. So, we started going on 4-5 mile hikes with fans, water bottles, and plenty of snacks.

Lilly cooking again: sheet pan pancakes!

Urban Air! (We had a free Slushee coupon from a birthday party)

Playdate at a friend's pool where the girls put their mermaid tails to good use!

I taught Wendy the beauty of a pizza bagel. We had many pizza bagels over the summer.

Wendy finished her Panda pillow!

Lilly had a go at this Panda embroidery craft

Park day!

Lilly got soaking wet in the splash pad. This is pretty much how summer was structured. We had general days every week: Prep Day, Outing Day, Park Day, Pool Day, Craft Day. And there were plenty of iPad days too...

On another steamy morning walk- being sweet.

Then, one day we started off with church (where Wendy gave a talk in Primary).

And ended the day in Disney World!

We were able to score rooms in the Riverside Resort and even had Tiana Suites (where the head boards light up and shoot off "fireworks")

It was a beautiful resort but we were ready to hit the parks!

The rest of the pictures might be out of order but we did start off with Hollywood Studios. One of the last rides we rode was Rockin' Roller Coaster and Lilly LOVED it!

In Magic Kingdom we braved Thunder Mountain.

The line was always too long to meet Pooh Bear but we got this picture with his statue.

Waiting in line isn't so bad!

Right after we snapped this pictures, the attendant to the right asked the girls how old they were. Apparently you can't ride by yourself until you're 7? So Lilly's birthday became a bigger deal...

Eating at Beast's Castle!

The dessert was super yummy and the kids got this kit where they could paint their chip cup before eating it.

We sat in the West Wing with the rose. Beast would come out and wave every 45 minutes.

It was lovely to sit down in the air conditioning!

Wendy met Peter! He freaked out when he learned her name.

He loved Lilly's name too. They posed as Tiger Lilly would have.

Since we were in Magic Kingdom 30 minutes before the park opened (and we wanted to stay until the fireworks at 9:00 p.m.), we took a dinner break from the park and rode the monorail to the Polynesian.