trip to El Paso

We just returned home from El Paso yesterday.  We drove 2000+ miles round trip to celebrate my dad's life with friends and family.  I didn't take my big camera, but I thought I'd share a few pictures from our travels.

sisters at our first hotel stop

The second day of traveling we stopped in ABQ, we went to uptown and let Cami burn some energy.

Kaitlyn and Reese having some snuggles while Cami played in the fountain

My friend Michele and her 2 girlies

This was my first time meeting Kaylee as she was born the day after we left Abq

We were not able to see as many people as we wanted due to the last minute nature of our trip.  Also many our of friends were combating illness while we were going through.  We were thankful to get to spend a little time with a few people.  Thanks guys for making time for us.

We made it to El Paso Sunday evening.  We drove right to a family dinner at my dad's favorite mexican food restaurant.  There were 20-30 people there. It was nice to see people (man y of which I hadn't seen since my wedding).


The next day was the service, but it didn't start until 11, Cami kept our mind off of things as she dressed us all up in some of Aunt Arlene's and my nanny's old scarves etc.

Here is Nana

Here is Aunt Arlene

She also dressed up daddy, but I thought it would be better to not take a picture of that.

The service was lovely, it was a beautiful way to remember my dad.  Lots of wonderful stories and pictures of his life.

Matt flew home the night of the service so that he could go back to work on Tuesday.  The girls, my mom and I started the long drive home Tuesday after lunch

Cami and Reese.  Cami asked to hold Reese and soon as she got  up.  She loves her little sis.

We drove to Tucumcari that night.  We tried to break up the drive a lot more on the way back since we weren't in any hurry.  We only drove about 5 hours a day.  We went out to dinner and then did some swimming.

After tucumcari we drove to OKC and spent the night there.

Can you tell RJ was glad to get out of her car seat?

We arrived home Thursday mid afternoon.  We were all glad to be home.

My Dad

Dene Pierce 

February 23, 1930

August 21, 2012

As many of you know, My dad passed away this week.  We are leaving today and heading for the funeral.  I thought I would post a little blog about my dad.  He has been suffering for a long time with cancer, now he is at peace and with no pain, which lessens the sting of him being gone.

I have always said, as I prepared for this moment, that I am so thankful that I had the time that I did with my dad.  Being that I came late in his life he was always "old" compared to my friends dads.  But to me that was okay, my dad was also much more involved in my life than my friends dads. There were times in my life that I wasn't sure he was going to see me graduate from high school, let alone college, a masters degree walk me down the aisle and see me have two babies.

 In my whole volleyball career he only missed 1 game.  I had to finally ask him to stop coming to practices when I was a sophomore in high school.  That was one thing we shared when I was young, our love for Athletics.  Later in my life we shared an interest in cooking and baking, but sports was always first.

Saying that I was close to my dad would be an understatement, especially as a young girl.  Because he was a realtor I was able to tag along with him and his schedule was flexible.  I can't even tell you the countless hours he spent watching me (and friends) swim in our pools.   I can't even begin to tell you all the lessons I learned or how many things he taught me, A LOT!

All I can say is how thankful I am that I had him for as long as I did.  Love you dad and I will think of you, be thankful for you and remember you everyday.

Family Fun Day....3 new parks

Last weekend we had a family fun day on Saturday.  The girls and I had just gotten back from FL and Matt and I are really trying hard to get things back to normal.  So we decided that we would pack a lunch and go explore.  We first thought we would try the zoo, but then for various reasons opted for a few new parks.

The first park we went to was more like a huge play area, there wasn't really the typical grass etc.  It was just these huge play structures with the composite floor underneath....very fun!

Next we went to the Northland Railroad Park.  This was very cool and Cami loved it.  Its this miniature train operated all by volunteers.  The rides are $.50 each and worth all 50 pennies!  Cami loved it so much that she and Daddy rode it twice.

After the train park, we drove to another park by the river and had our picnic lunch!  WHAT A GREAT DAY!

Park Days

After over a month of over 100 degree temps, I am happy to say that the KS I was expecting has arrived.  We are still very driy here in the Midwest (be prepared to pay $$$ for groceries soon), but we are seeing more rain and cooler temps.  On one such cool day, the girls and I walked to the park near our house.

Reese's first time on the slide!  I'm not sure who liked it more Cami or RJ

Remind you of anyone....a little littler hair and she'd be a dead ringer for her mama!  Love that girl

Crown Center

So, I am back tracking a little.  Before we went to Florida, we had a weekend that Matt could do a family activity on Saturday.  He had to do prep work on Sunday, so we took advantage of the time we had with him.  One of the great things about living in a new place is all of the fun and exciting things that are NEW to us.  One of those places is Crown Center.  We got up in the morning, went and had donuts for breakfast and went on our way.  We had a very fun day.  Did I mention everything we did was FREE!

Matt and Cami about to go into the dinosaur exhibit.

Doing rubbings of leaves and fossils

Playing dinosaurs

Riding on a triceratops (or cera from the land before time)

 After the dino exhibit, we went to the hallmark museum (another company based in the KC metro area).  It was very interesting to see how they make cards and all the printing they do.  We were also able to see an exhibit of all the Christmas ornaments.  Cami even enjoyed herself as they gave kids a 'passport' to collect stamps from all the parts of the museum.

Next we went to kaleidoscope. This is a completely wonderful place, and unique.  I can't even compare it to another place I have ever been.  It is a part of hallmark, it is a free place where kids/families can go and do arts and crafts with the leftovers and remnants from the hallmark factory next door.  It was so fun.  My description does not do it justice.  Cami had a ball, we had a hard time keeping up with her in there, which is why I have no pictures of it!  Since then, Cami has asked no less than 10 times if we can go back!  Anyone who comes to visit with kiddos, this is a place we WILL take you.  It was so cool!

Union Station

Last, but not least, Union Station.  What an incredible piece of architecture!  WOW.  We didn't do much but look around, but they had lots of exhibits to go to, but they weren't super kid friendly.  This was and is a working train station built in 1914.  Now Amtrak uses it.  It also serves as a museum type facility for traveling exhibits, right now the titanic exhibit is there.  This might be the most beautiful building I have ever been in.  The intricacies of the marble floors to the details of the painted and sculpted ceilings took my breath away, not to mention the limestone exterior.  We were reading some information on the history of union station.  When it was built  (1914) it cost $6 Million!!!  Can you imagine was it would cost today.  Amazing!

Anyhow, we had a great family outing.  We are enjoying getting to know the wonderful treasures of our new home.

FL Trip

We recently got back from a 10 day trip to FL.  Our main purpose was to spend time with my dad and help my mom.  Dad has declined significantly in the last few weeks.  We weren't ableto do much while we were there as dad sleeps more than he is awake now.  I sent my mom and Cami to the beach one day to get them out of the house while I cleaned the house.  I also took Cami to the beach.  Although my dad really wanted to spend time cooking with dad, he just wasn't able.   He enjoyed watching Cami play and Reese rolling over.  I think they lifted his spirits.

Sweet Reese.  I have many pictures of Cami girl in this same walker

Pretend cooking

craft project

Thankfully Matt was able to come for the first weekend.  He was able to see my dad one more time, talk with him and say goodbye.

Nana and Reese

Mommy and Cami on our way to the beach

Riding the train at the Mall

Both my girls had a very hard time on this trip.  They were both out of sorts. I think they could both sense what was going on and the stress was very hard on them.  So because of that both girls ended up sleeping with me at night.  Here is a picture of how I found Cami as I went to bed.  Needless to say I didn't get great sleep and I am still trying to catch up.

On the plane back home.