Keep Austin Weird!

[again, back in August...]

One of the "perks" of being a Region Governor for the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) is attending the "Region Governors Summit." This year's Summit was held in Austin, TX (home of the "Keep Austin Weird" t-shirts...) in August. We stayed at a swanky hotel:
And got to beat the heat (105+ degrees!) by doing some shopping at the mall that was conveniently right across the hot-as-heck-asphalt parking lot! And it was tax-free weekend in Texas, so all of us Governors scored some sweet deals at Macy's on shoes!

The Summit is also conducted jointly with the Collegiate Leadership Forum and I got to meet my new collegiate team members:
I also got to hang out with all of the Society's leaders - the Board of Directors and Board of Trustees as they were being inducted:
Me and some of the big timers - below (and that's my "SWE Boss," Linda on the far right):
Afterward we had a very nice installation ceremony for the new SWE President, Melissa. She received a lot of great gifts from the former SWE Presidents (one at the right and one sitting on the left, in the orange shirt). Melissa is/was a brand-new mommy!
The next day the Governors all had a wonderful dinner together to celebrate the success of the upcoming year:
And then we played and shopped some more!And I've gotta say, this year in SWE HAS been a success! In just a few months, I'll be in Hawaii for a conference with two of the other regions. How many SWE leaders get to say they've been to Hawaii on the SWE dime?!

Keepin' Austin Weird,
Kerrie

Oooooklahoma!

Matt and I made our [seemingly] annual trip to Oklahoma to hang out with some friends and family. We left after we both put in a full day of work and after all of my whining at 1:30AM, I made Matt stop at a hotel in Erick, OK, so I could stretch my legs. You see, Carter's so tall, his little legs dangle off the end of the carseat and therefore, I can't recline in the passenger seat. Add to that the fact that he kept waking up because he couldn't flip over due to the seat buckles, well, unhappy campers were what we were!

Despite the loooong car ride (about 13 hours total), we finally made it to the far eastern side of Oklahoma to Becky's (Matt's sister) house. It was 100+ degrees in the shade, so we were more than content to hang out inside and watch the horses and cows - just like Carter and Becky are here:
I've blogged about these crazy "attack" cows before, so you bet I was a little nervous that they were LICKING my car...
Yeah, LICKING my car. Apparently they like the taste of dust. Okay... Let's just move on, shall we?

We traveled a couple hours away to visit Matt's mom, Sally. She fought off a horrible bout of pneumonia earlier this year and has lost a lot of weight. However, I'm happy to report that she's regaining her strength and is still as feisty as ever! Here's a family shot:
From there, we visited Matt's good buddy, Wes, and had lunch with him and his girlfriend, Laurie. Here's a shot at the restaurant:
Couldn't resist stopping in to see another buddy of Matt's, Clay, and his wife, Jill, and their beautiful daughter, Charlotte (just LOOK at those eyes!!!). The kiddos played nicely together and enjoyed the indoor pool (ha!)!
All the travel wore Carter out and by nightfall, he crashed in the froggie position on his little aerobed:
The next morning Carter and Becky had some play time and a little breakfast while I packed up our gear:
Looks like the two of them had a very meaningful conversation and hopefully he was telling Becky what a wonderful time we had! I also hope he expressed his gratefulness for letting us crash at her place for the weekend!
[And for some reason, I didn't take any photos when Jamie came over for dinner... I MAY have deleted some photos from the memory card recently, because I'm lacking a significant number of photos from June and July. Whoops... Next time!))]

We decided to stay the night in Oklahoma City for the Fourth (and cut our trip home shorter!). We stayed in Bricktown, which is a quaint little area downtown with a lot of hotels, stadiums, restaurants, and even a riverwalk. Too bad it was like 105 degrees or we would have taken more photos of the riverwalk (and maybe actually spent some time ALONG the riverwalk...).

We did visit the Bass Pro Shops and let Carter "drive" the boats for about an hour. He even got a new snazzy life jacket and splashed and splashed and splashed in the pool! I swear, that kid is fearless! He'll get out and jump back in with no qualms about where he'll land. Lucky for him, we're waiting to catch him and won't just let him splat on the concrete!

Fortunately for us, our best pals (Chris and Renae) live just a few miles away from Bricktown and therefore, met us for lunch by our hotel. After snarfing some tasty pizza, we came back and let the kids (Hannah, Micah, and Carter) run amok inside our room. The closet was a HUGE hit with the gang and Hannah and Carter took turns shutting each other in:
The adults had some catching up to do, so we all just lounged and took it easy:
More closet fun:
Hannah surprises me every time with her adorableness:
And yes, we kept Carter locked in the cabinet under the sink when we stayed at the Marriott (I kid, I kid):
On the night of the Fourth, we walked along the riverwalk and stopped to feed the ducks some of our leftover bread from our BBQ dinner. Carter LOVED it and had a blast when one of the ducks jumped right up beside him (scary!):
Matt tried to snap a photo from the other bank, but it was pretty hard to see:
From there, we headed back toward our hotel and set up our lawnchairs right along the bank. They shot fireworks off right in front of our hotel, so we couldn't have asked for a better view! Carter's STILL talking about the fireworks and how they looked like "stars!"

Hope you, too, had a wonderful Independence Day and I hope you didn't melt in the 100+ degree temps!
~kerrie

Easter in Kansas

This may be my most photo-laden post ever...just a heads-up!

The Greenies took a little road trip to Kansas to see the family for Easter. While sitting in the car for ~13 hours (each way!) isn't necessarily my most ideal vacation, it was nice to just hang with the boys and listen to some tunes. Carter did WONDERFULLY in the car (except he only napped for about 30 minutes each way) and we got a kick out of his love of seeing semi trucks, trains, and
A LOT (you have to scream it!) cows along the way to Kansas.

Even better was being able to spend a little time with my folks ("Grandma and Grandpa C" in this blog) and my brother (Jason), his wife (Katrina), and my nephew (Daniel). We took a ton of photos and I wanted to put them up here for posterity.

[Not sure if I've mentioned, but I had our blog published in two volumes - 2009 and 2010 - and gifted a copy to Grandma and Grandpa C for Mother's and Father's Day gifts. I had a second set made for me and I consider it my own little way of scrap-booking...minus the glue, stickers, and tape...]

So let me move on to the photo show... Up first, is a shot of the fam playing in the backyard - some badminton, some soccer, some stick hauling, etc. Remember you can click on any of these to make them bigger.
Some short soccer videos - playing with Grandpa C:





Carter's "big kick" (or something like that):




The net we brought for badminton was a total piece of poo, so we pretty much played without it...

Grandpa C showing off his badminton skills:
Not quite as awesome as me:
Carter tried to fix up the net:
"Sorry, Mommy, broken..."
Daniel played very well with Carter, too. This next pic cracks me up - sort of a "nu uh" look :)
My brother, Jason, and Daniel:
The boys had a fantastic time hunting for plastic Easter eggs (which Carter talked about afterward for about two weeks straight...):
Daniel received a sweet monster truck setup from his cousin, Carter:
Daniel even "shared" the egg finding with Carter (which was adorable - "Look, Carter, what's that?"):
Daniel found the "special golden egg" and was QUITE proud of his find:
Daniel gave Carter a fun basket of loot, including a fun football-shaped egg:
...and yes, there was A LOT of candy (chocolate-covered Peeps, blech):
The boys then had a second egg hunt outside:
Katrina and Carter (LOVE this pic!):
[complete with soccer balls and sticks...]
Some more badminton - family style:

Whoops, net down...again:

Not only was the net a hunk of junk, the rackets were also crappy. We broke about 3 of them, but Grandpa C was able to "fix" them with some sticks and duct tape:
We then moved inside to eat a tasty, tasty Easter meal. My mom sets the prettiest table for EVERY holiday, so I wanted to snap a couple photos to prove it:
...and every relish plate needs a goofy, tiny silver fork, right Jason?
Ellie (the Basset Hound) enjoyed feeding off of Carter's fingers, spills, etc. (Carter also talked ALL about Ellie all of the way home...maybe it's time for the Greenies to get a doggy?!):
The boys played a little piano (my old piano. *sigh Someday it will end up in MY house and I'll have to learn to play it all over again...):
We then took some family photos. Every time I look at these, they crack me up! Trying to get the entire gang to A) look at the camera, B) sit still, and C) smile at the same time was nearly impossible. And to prove it, I decided to put ALL of the shots here so you can have a chuckle too.

So let's start with Katrina and Jason:
Grandpa C:
The boys:
The girls and the boys (Carter is CLEARLY enjoying photo time, eh?):
Katrina gnawing on Daniel's toes...
And Carter's done...
...cuz, you know, he's got a string to play with...
The siblings:
And just a few more random shots:
And that's all folks! I hope you made it through this crazy long post! We had a great, great time in Kansas and when I look back at these, it makes me smile and be sad all at the same time. Sure wish we had more family nearby, but by having them so far away, it just makes it all the sweeter when we get to see them, eh?

Hope you had a fantastic Easter, too, and I hope you are finally off of your Easter candy high!
~kerrie