Dad Mota's 70th Birthday

July 10th we celebrated Steve's dads 70th birthday! We celebrated on his birthday with dinner at Ernesto's and then we went back to Steph and Gene's for pecan pie and gifts. We had coordinated with the family to get pictures of everyone in a T-shirt telling Mr. Mota "Happy Birthday!" We had the pics hanging at the house when they got there, so even though our family is all around, it felt like everyone was there. It was pretty special. He opened some gifts, but his main gift was a trip to Beaver Bend in OK.

We all loaded up on Friday the 12th and headed to Beaver's bend as a family. It was a beautiful cabin with an incredible view! We got there and had Mr. Mota go upstairs while we got everything decorated. We decided to make it a birthday weekend for his 70th, so we made it a Chess theme, complete with a chess board cake! It was fun! We celebrated and opened a few more "chess" gifts. We ended the evening sitting by the campfire and chatting as a family.

Saturday we relaxed throughout the day and enjoyed being at the cabin. The BBQ was delicious and the company was wonderful! That evening we went over to the river to skip some rocks and watch the sunset. It was beautiful! Definitely felt that God was with us that evening as we all just enjoyed our time together and embraced nature. We roasted marshmallows when we got home and listened to music ans we all fell into a trance at the firepit.
It was a wonderful weekend celebrating someone we all love dearly! Here's to many more wonderful years!

4th of July 2013

We had a lot of fun this past 4th of July. We were lucky enough to have Nana (my mom), Shelly, Kaylin and Kinley come in for a fun visit! We had the day off Thursday and we relaxed at the house, played in the pool and BBQ'd. It was a fun day with the fam. That night we went to watch fireworks in McKinney. We didn't realize it, but we set up camp right behind where they were shooting off the fireworks! I'm not sure we've ever sat that close to a major show before. It was a lot of fun, even with the falling debri. Later we came home and the kids played with sparklers in the backyard. Friday I took the day off and we took the kids to Build A Bear, ate at PF Changs and took a much needed nap (rough day off)! ;) That night we took them to Gatti Town (the kids had a blast) and then went home, raosted marshmallows and built a fort for Preston and Kaylin to sleep in. They played in there for a while and then Steve and I ended up passing out in the fort with Preston. Good times all around. Love having family around to share in fun holidays! We missed sharing it with Riley and Drew, next time!

Preston waiting for the fireworks show

Sweet cousins

This is how close we were...debri from the show!

Fun with sparklers!

Carrying his bear and Riley's (Big boy)

Time for Smores!

Awesome fort!

Good times at Gatti Town