Earp Southern Livin'

Cancun!

2011-10-01T17:37:00.015-05:00

As a graduation present Dan's parents helped us afford a vacation to Cancun. It was extremely spur of the moment but it was a lot of fun. This was my first time leaving the country and it was an adventure. The only misstep that we had was that our luggage didn't make it. We had to make some adjustments but luckily it didn't affect our plans too much. We only had 4 days so we jam packed everything that we wanted to get done in those 4 days. Here is the view from our hotel.

The first day that we were there we went to go see some Mayan ruins. This was the top thing that I wanted to do so I was grateful that we were able make it happen. The hotel that we were staying at was giving a tour so we were able to go with a guide which was very helpful. He was Mayan and he was able to give us a lot of insight into the culture. The city that we went to was called Tulum. It was one of the only coastal Mayan cities to be built. It was a port city so it didn't have the same huge temples that the religious cities would have had. Luckily it was filled with lots of other incredible structures. Here are the highlights:

This is a palace where someone important in the community would have lived.

This a small temple that was dedicated to worshiping women. There were people there researching and excavating this building.

This is the main temple in Tulum. I still think it is pretty impressive.

The next day we took a ferry to Isla Mujeras. We rented scooters to get around the island and then had a snorkeling adventure.

I just couldn't believe how blue the water was, it was just incredible!

This was my first time snorkeling and I was pretty excited. We were the only ones at this location so we got to enjoy ourselves without a crowd.

There were so many fish! I will admit at first it was a little overwhelming but once I discovered that they would move once I started swimming it got a lot better.

This was an unknown creature when I discovered it. I thought it was going to come out and eat me! We took a picture of it and showed it to a local. They informed us that it was a lobster. They wanted to know its exact location so that they could go back and catch it for dinner.

The next day was dedicated to the adventure that Dan wanted to have the most while we were there. We went to Playa del Carmen (a city with a beautiful beach). Dan had researched these things called cenotes. They are basically sink holes (huge caves filled with water). You take your snorkeling gear and you get to explore the caves both above you and under the water. There were lots of bats in the caves as well but they avoided us for the most part. The water was a little cold but again we were the only ones there so we got the caves all to ourselves.

This is the entrance into the caves to where the water is.

These are the stalactites that were lining the entire roof of the caves.

These are the stalactites under the water.

While we were there we also found time to relax on the beach, eat some great food, release baby turtles in the ocean, and enjoy the flee market.

Overall we had an absolutely awesome trip. We would have loved for it to have been a little longer but it was still very worth it. I can't wait for our next trip!

Johnson Family Reunion

2011-10-01T16:37:00.010-05:00

At the end of July we had the opportunity to have the first ever Johnson Family Reunion. This was the first time that all of us had been able get together in quite some time. We had the reunion in Island Park, Idaho. It included all 8 kids, spouses, and 28 nieces and nephews. It was slightly chaotic to say the least but it was a lot of fun. Here are some of the highlights:

We started the reunion by going to the West Yellowstone Rodeo. It was more like a pretend rodeo and they didn't actually rope anything. Here is Devon all ready for the rodeo. What a stud.

The best part of the rodeo was when they invited all the kids out into the ring to chase a sheep (for the younger kids) and a baby cow (for the older kids). The first to grab the flag off of the animal's tail won a prize. Sadly to say none of our group actually pulled the flag but at the end they gave everyone a gold dollar for participating. The kids thought this was great.

One of Dan's many hobbies is photography. While in the beautiful outdoors he took advantage of the scenery and was able to take some great photographs of the kids. This particular one he is now turning into a drawing. (It is still a work in progress.)

One of the perks that we were able to enjoy at the ranch that we were staying at was horse rides. We were each able to get 2 rides in the beautiful countryside and let me tell you my sore bum couldn't have taken anymore!

Some of the other things that we did that we don't have pictures of include: The Johnson Family Cup, which included a series of mini games that every family had to come up with, lots of time in the hot tubs at the cabin, canoeing in the lake, lots of games, and a family golf tournament. We ended the reunion by going into Yellowstone. We saw animals, went on hikes, saw waterfalls, and played in the river. It was a great end to the reunion.

We were able to finish the reunion by getting a picture with all of us in it. Unfortunately it is already out of date because another baby has been added. It was great to see everyone and it will be a long 2 years until our next one!

Dan Graduates!

2011-10-01T16:17:00.007-05:00

So this post is extremely overdue and Dan has been bothering me that I haven't posted about it so here it goes. Dan graduated! For those of you who hadn't heard Dan graduated with his Masters in Recreation from Texas State University. We are so proud of him. It is a great milestone in our lives. He is busy looking for a new job with his new credentials and we are ready to see where life takes us.

Here is Dan walking down the aisle at the beginning of the ceremony.

Here is Dan receiving his diploma.

Dan's parents were able to make it to Texas for the big day. They treated us to some yummy Pappadeaux's for dinner.

CONGRATULATIONS DAN!

Trip to the coast

2011-04-02T12:41:00.004-05:00

Dan had a conference to go to to give a presentation on the need for outdoor education among the community's youth. The conference was in McAllen, TX which is right on the boarder with Mexico. We decided to make a trip out of it and spend a couple days on the coast at South Padre Island and Corpus Christi.

We started out our trip in South Padre Island with a boat ride to see the dolphins. When we arrived on the boat they had just rescued this turtle from exhaustion out in the bay. We were so excited to see the turtle that they ending up naming it after me. So this is Dan and I and the turtle Lizzy.

On South Padre Island they have a turtle rescue that came and got Lizzy from us on the boat. They have a special aquarium where they rehabilitate them and then release them back in the ocean. This is me (in an awful picture) checking up on Lizzy after she had been cleaned up and made comfortable in the aquarium.

Now onto dolphins. We found a guide to take us out into the bay to go on a dolphin watch. It was amazing. The dolphins were all over and they would swim right up to our boat. This is Dan with Rozy the dolphin dog that would bark every time he saw a dolphin. We had a blast.

We ended our trip in Corpus Christi. The main thing that we did when we were there was go to the Aquarium they have there. We watched a dolphin show and looked at all the other animals. This is me with the shark that they had in one of their tanks. Overall we had a really awesome trip. While there are no pictures we had some great food and spent lots of time on the beach. It was a great relaxing vacation.

Squirrel?!?

2011-02-27T15:44:00.002-06:00

Recently Max has been having fascinations regarding bunnies and squirrels. So Dan came up with an idea that he wanted to try. We went and bought a stuffed bunny from the store and decided to put it in one of our trees to make it look like a squirrel. Here is the video of his reaction:) :

SNOW!!!

2011-02-04T09:08:00.004-06:00

We woke up this morning to snow in Kyle! We got about a half an inch but we will take what we can get. We both had work called off today and Dan hasn't had class in 2 days because of this weather. Max obviously hasn't been in the snow much so we were excited to take him out in it. We decided to bust out our sled for the first time in 2 years and had a good time with it on the driveway. Here are some highlights:

Arkansas!

2010-11-27T19:01:00.007-06:00

A few weeks ago Dan and I had the privilege of going to Mountainburg, AR. Since we have moved to Texas Dan has been pretty sad that he hasn't been able to see any fall colors. So we planned our trip the best we could to be in Arkansas for their "peak" fall colors. Dan decided that he wanted to go to the Ozarks. While his first thought was to camp...he soon realized that if he really wanted his wife to come along that a cabin would be better suited for our needs. We found one that let us bring pets so that Max could come too. It was a much needed family vacation. Here is our cabin that we stayed in, the outside and the cozy inside. It sure was nice to come back and start a fire each evening.

While we were there we went to 3 state parks. The first was Devil's Den State Park. They had a bunch of cool caves that were unfortunately closed due to the harm people were causing to the bat population. Here are some highlights from day 1:

The next state park we went to was Lake Fort Smith State Park. The fall colors were much better here and the lake and scenery were beautiful. Here are some highlights from day 2:

On day 2 we also went and checked out Fayetteville, AR. We wanted to see the University of Arkansas and get a nice steak dinner. This was a park that we found with beautiful color.

The last state park we went to was White Rock Mountain State Park. And man did we save the best for last. We were able to hike around the whole mountain and watch a gorgeous sunset to end the day. Here are highlights from day 3 as well as a video:

We had an awesome time in the Ozarks and would love to go back!

Dallas State Fair

2010-11-27T18:34:00.006-06:00

Awhile ago a friend invited Dan and I to go to the Dallas State Fair. While this was sometime ago, (I am a horrible blogger) I still wanted to blog about it because we had so much fun!

Here is Dan and I as well as our friends on the Ferris Wheel. This was our first time riding one.

Here is the view of the city from the top. (It's no Chicago but fairly impressive.)

Playing some carnival games. This trip was definitely not our best showing when it came to winning prizes.

Dan well...being Dan :)

Here is some fried peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. This is not an experience we would like to repeat. We also had fried cookie dough and fried ice cream. The fried ice cream was delicious.

Look past all the yellow and the fact that the picture is slightly blurry but this is me with Bumblebee and I'm pretty pleased about it if you can't tell.
We had a blast at the fair and if we are around next year we would love to go back!

Kayaking!

2010-10-29T19:41:00.006-05:00

Ever since we got Max Dan has been dying to take him kayaking. We finally borrowed a kayak large enough to fit them both and with Dan's new waterproof camera we were able to document the experience. With a little more practice we think they will get the hang of it!

Getting in the kayak

Finally getting the hang of it

I'm sure there will be many more kayaking trips in the future!

Pumpkin Farm

2010-10-03T16:16:00.000-05:00

As a tradition in our family we go every year to a pumpkin farm to get our pumpkins. This year we went a little earlier then we normally do but it was the only free time we have this month. Last year we went and didn't get to do much so this year we took advantage of it not being too crowded and did a few more things. Going to the pumpkin farm was actually the first thing we did when we got Max so it was a happy 1 year anniversary for us. Here are some highlights from our trip:

While Max may be part border collie his herding instincts are practically non existent. This is as close as we could get him to the farm animals. But eventually we didn't blame him for being nervous because the goat kept charging the fence and making him run away.

Went went through a couple of mazes, Max especially like the corn maze.

They also let us take Max on the hayride and we didn't know how he would do but he enjoyed it as far as we could tell.

Here is Dan with the pumpkins.

And finally here is our family with our carefully picked pumpkins. It amazes me how long it actually takes Dan to decide on pumpkin, but we love going to the pumpkin farm!

Resort Weekend

2010-10-03T15:56:00.000-05:00

For those who don't know Dan works at the JW Marriott resort in San Antonio. For the last couple of months they have been having a fitness challenge for the workers there. We found out a couple of weeks ago that Dan's team won! It turns out that the grand prize was a free night stay at his resort. We were pretty excited and this last weekend we went and used it. Here are pictures of the resort and of the pool area.

When we got there we went to dinner at the restaurant that they have at the resort and it was incredible. We used the weekend to relax since we haven't had a relaxing weekend together in a long time. Here is our room and us relaxing at the pool. It was a great weekend!

Photo Contest

2010-10-03T15:50:00.001-05:00

So Dan wanted me to post about a photo contest he entered. He has a band, Boyce Avenue, that he really likes. They posted a photo contest for free concert tickets. We were supposed to take a picture of what we do while we are listening to their music. Dan thought it would be funny to show that he listens to their music to avoid doing chores. We actually won third place and some free concert tickets so Dan is pretty proud of himself.

Visitors!

2010-06-20T21:22:00.000-05:00

This past month we were able to have our first visitors in our new home. Needless to say we were pretty excited. Dan's parents came, along with my sister and Dan's brother and their two kids (yes weird I know but that's how it goes). They stayed for a week and we had a blast. They spent a lot of time looking at real estate in the area and were very impressed with the prices. We hope that is one point in our favor. We were also able to spend some time on Lake Travis, the San Marcos River, and the River walk. It's hot in Texas and the best places to be are in the water! These are just a few pictures from their stay. The kids really enjoyed their time in the Kayak on the San Marcos River. While Marissa may be giving a thumbs down, she really did have a good time.

Also while they were visiting our dog Max absolutely loved having kids in the house. He and Devon became the best of buds. We would just find Devon lying on him on the floor and Max took it like a pro. Max didn't quite know what to do with a quiet house when they left but we sure did enjoy having them visit!

Dan-Proof!

2010-06-20T21:13:00.001-05:00

So what can I say? This is Dan with his finger stuck in the Clorox wipes jar. Why he didn't think to take off the lid to get another wipe out I do not know. But alas his finger is good and stuck. This is genuine emotion as he tries to free his finger. It took a lot of work and left a pretty good mark. I now joke when I go to the grocery store that I come home with the Dan-proof wipes because he can't get any more out!

Summer Storm

2010-06-02T21:33:00.000-05:00

This storm just came out of nowhere tonight, and it was probably the worst one we've had since we've moved here (as far as wind and that kind of stuff). The wind blew down part of our fence, knocked over garbage cans (which resulted in garbage all down the street) and lots of close and loud lightning. Here are some pictures from the roof before the storm came and then some lightning shots.

Family Photos

2010-05-09T09:16:00.000-05:00

Since our walls have been pretty barren since we moved in we decided to have our own little family photo shoot to help remedy the situation. Dan was the photographer for these pictures. We found a lovely patch of wildflowers just down the street and had our own little family photo shoot. These are some of the highlights.

Texas in the springtime is beautiful!

Garden

2010-05-09T09:05:00.000-05:00

So this year Dan and I made our first attempt at a garden. I know it's nothing like my mom's garden but we are pretty pleased with ourselves. We planted tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, and squash. These are the before pictures...

And in just a few short weeks these are the after pictures...

We think it's pretty good for our first try.

Longhorns

2010-05-09T08:51:00.001-05:00

Even though Texas is famous for its longhorns since we have moved here Dan and I have seen very little of them. We thought this was a little strange. But luckily the other day we saw plenty of them. I let Max out in the morning to do his usual business when he just started going nuts. Barking constantly and really loud. Normally Max never barks so I knew something was up. So I walk out our back door and I see the huge shapes behind our fence. I now understand why Max was so concerned. So Dan grabbed the camera and hopped up on our fence. These are what we found. Who knew we had Texas longhorns living in our back yard!

New Puppy!

2010-03-06T15:46:00.000-06:00

Don't worry we didn't get a new puppy. One day this little guy showed up in our yard and was lost. When we contacted the owner they asked if we could keep him for the day. Max thought that we brought him a present. They got along so well and just had a blast playing all day long!
While this experience solidified in my mind that I have no desire to get a puppy, not a day goes by that Dan doesn't ask for one!

Snow in Kyle!!

2010-03-06T15:34:00.000-06:00

Who would have ever thought it would snow in Kyle?! Certainly not us. But it did! Here is our pitiful amount snow that we got. This is Max's first time in the snow and he had no idea what to think of it.

Max's dark fur definitely helps the snow stand out!

After being outside for just a few minutes Max decided he didn't like the snow so much and all he wanted to do was go back inside. Doesn't he just look so sad!
While the snow may not be much it definitely helped it feel a little more like winter. And even though it was only a small amount I got off work early and Dan's day was canceled all together!

Austin Zoo

2010-03-06T15:21:00.001-06:00

For my birthday Dan and I went to the Austin Zoo to check it out. The zoo started out as a goat and sheep refuge so they have a lot of those. Part of your visit is taking food around and feeding the goats, sheep, and llamas. Some of the goats were pretty pushy and did not like taking turns.

Along with the farm animals they also have lions, tigers, and other big animals. You can actually get pretty close to the lions and tigers as you can see from these pictures. So this zoo gives you fun feeding time as well as seeing some exotic animals. We had a lot of fun!

Awesome Blossom!

2010-01-16T10:47:00.000-06:00

Dan and I got ourselves a deep fryer for Christmas and we have been trying different things. Here is our attempt at an awesome blossom. It was actually very tasty and we were pleased with ourselves.

Christmas in Illinois

2010-01-16T10:21:00.000-06:00

Dan and I spent the Christmas holiday in Chicago with my family. Here are some of the highlights from our trip.

These are pictures from the nasty ice storm we had right after we got there.

Our niece Natalie.

Every Christmas Eve we do a nativity play with all the kids. Here are Rachel and Ellie our 2 Mary's.

Caleb a wiseman.

Anna an angel.

While in Chicago we also went sledding.

Our nephew Devon absolutely loved Kaela, my sister's Siberian Husky.

After my mother's funeral we took a family picture. I think my parents did a pretty good job.

Our Trip to Dallas

2010-01-16T10:03:00.000-06:00

At Thanksgiving Dan and I drove to Dallas to visit my sister Sara, her husband, and her 4 kids. While we were there we went horseback riding. Here are some of the highlights. We had a really good time.

Here is Myla and Leia riding the horse.

Amidst all the children even Dan and I had a turn riding the horse.

Myla who repeatedly said "do it myself" looks big riding the horse.

Trevor riding the horse.

Leia riding the horse.

Sean riding the horse.

Happy Halloween!

2009-11-01T17:50:00.000-06:00

Here are our Halloween decorations for our first house!

Dan decided to put a skeleton dummy in Max's crate for a decoration. Here is Max trying to figure out who is in his crate. It didn't take him long to think he was okay and to join him.
There are webs in those trees if you can't tell.
Dan painted the front window of our house.

Here is the final product of the skeleton in the crate. We got lots of comments from the little kids.
We used a black light in our front window to make this mask glow. We got a few screams from people on this one.
Here is our candy bowl. We used dry ice in a cauldron and there were a few kids who wouldn't dare reach inside.

This is Dan carving the pumpkin and then the final product.

This is the front door. Dan and I painted this sign. At night we hung orange lights around the door as well.

Here is Max all decked out in his orange bandana.

Pumpkin Farm

2009-10-11T19:35:00.000-05:00

So as tradition in our family we went and found a pumpkin farm to get pumpkins from for Halloween. Luckily we found a pumpkin farm that let us bring Max. He did such a good job and loved to see all the kids and other dogs.

This is Dan with his pumpkin that always takes him a very long time to find. Dan was offended because most of the things at the farm were for little kids and nothing for the big kids to do.

At the farm they were all out of buns so this is our hot dog in a tortilla. Good Texas style hot dogs.

Our New Dog Max!

2009-10-04T20:16:00.000-05:00

So here is our new dog. His name is Max and he is an Australian Shepherd mix. He is 3 years old and we love him. When we got him he was already fully trained so he doesn't tear up my house and he hasn't had any accidents. He loves to play "chuck it" with the tennis ball and he loves to play in the water. We feel very lucky to have found such a good dog!

Botanical Gardens

2009-10-04T18:37:00.001-05:00

We want people to know that Austin is pretty so we are going to post pictures of all the pretty things that we do. These are pictures from the Botanical Gardens about 20 minutes from our house. The pictures aren't the greatest but it is a beautiful place to visit!

Our New House

2009-10-04T14:08:00.000-05:00

We have finally moved everything in and we are ready to show people our new house. It's nothing fancy but we absolutely love having a house!