Marathon Shopping, Date Night, & Attacking Goats

All in a weekend for us!  Last weekend Dee Dee arrived from Alabama for a weekend of marathon shopping for JB's upcoming June wedding.  Her dress being the main objective plus all the extra goodies for me and her too.  On Saturday morning Justin went for a bike ride so we attempted to visit the first place with the kiddos while we waited on him.  FAIL.  #1 the people were so incredibly rude when we walked in that even if we had found THE DRESS we wouldn't have bought it anyway.  The boys were so precious.  The sales people were not happy to see them come in and made several rude comments to me while we were looking.  We got them in a dressing room and sweet Eli kept peeking out and telling us "the bad guys are coming"!  He kept saying he wanted to show us something.  He was determined.  We almost just rushed him out in an effort to avoid the sales women but we gave in.  Do you know what his sweet little heart wanted to show us?  A beautiful red dress that he said Dee Dee would LOVE!

See Dee Dee.. You LOVE red!

Beckett wanted in too

We made a quick stop into their favorite toy store where Beckett chose a treat from Dee Dee.  Eli wanted to go by his favorite store for a treat.. the candy store!  The cutest little candy store shopper I have ever seen.  He walked right in and got his basket.  After a few careful selections he looked at us and said "I think I have enough" and took it to the counter.   

Even picked out a few treats for brother Beckett.

We made the trade off and headed to the Galleria.  After so much Houston traffic we finally made it and got started. Nordstrom here we come!

Not exactly finding the wow factor we were looking for we headed over to Neiman Marcus "just to see".  And we found it!  Didn't know it on the hanger but as soon as she put it on, we both knew it.  Winner!  Yeah.  So exciting!

How were my boys doing? Apparently just fine.  They were hanging out at mine and Justin's hotel for the night and eating ice cream by the indoor pool.  Justin said they swam for 3 hours!

While Dee Dee (aka free babysitter) was in town Justin and I took advantage and planned a night out with some new friends.  We had a great time, stayed out too late, but enjoyed sleeping all night without any tiny little interruptions.

just a little excited about date night!

and my hubby is so skinny people

New momma Kat on the town for the first time since baby

 Fun times.  We get home Sunday morning with a little surprise for the boys.  Now I have to say my boys know their momma.  I asked Justin to go by Crave our absolute favorite cupcake place and get the boys (ok and me) a treat.  We show up and they don't open for 10 minutes.  Justin says "oh well" and I say "oh no.  It's 10 minutes. We are waiting".  Then when we get home, Justin grabs the cupcake box and sprints to the door to show the boys what "he" brought them.  Ha!  My Eli took one look at those cupcakes and said "Mommy.  You brought me a pink one 'cuz you love me" Yep.  That's right baby.

A lot more fun memories on Sunday.  More shopping for mom & me.  More ice cream with friends and Daddy for the boys.

visiting friends with daddy

love my new purse (thanks Dee Dee)

Here is a picture that shows you how successful the weekend was at wearing all of us out.. Sunday night.  8pm. And I went straight to bed after this photo.  (because Beckett fell asleep on the couch at 6!) 

sweet tired babies

On Monday we thought about taking it easy but no.  That's not our style at all!  The Houston Live Stock Show and Rodeo is in town and we have been every year for 4 years now. We thought we might get rained out since it was overcast and rainy most of the morning.  Dee Dee was still able to get in a little gardening help for us.

What better place to take Dee Dee than the rodeo.  And it turned out to be a great idea.  The best we have had yet in terms of the rodeo.  First Monday.  No crowds.  Seriously.  There was no one there.  We had all the rides, games, animals, and fun without all the madness of the past years.  The skies cleared and it was a gorgeous beautiful afternoon.  We had a blast!

First stop.  Pig races.  We thought they were cute and funny but the boys were not impressed.  Even when they got picked to cheer them on.  

I really think they were just hungry though because after that they chowed down on some roasted corn.  It was so good!

Then it was time to hit the rides.  Eli and Dee Dee have a long running joke about the color orange.  She says its "stinky" because of football preferences and she loves red.  Eli loves to drive her crazy and he LOVES orange :-)  Notice the color he chose on every ride.

orange car for Eli 

Blue car for Beckett

So excited about MONSTER TRUCKS!

throwing a fit because Dee Dee chose red

sneaking kisses

LOVING the orange monster truck ride

and the orange tractor

so happy to drive his blue tractor and honk the horn 

Can't go to the rodeo and not see all the animals.  

camels.  you could pay to ride of course

in the bag, that's a real baby kangaroo

the lamb scared them by coming right up to them and baaaa right in their face 

Then we went into the petting zoo and it got really fun.  Especially for Dee Dee. So before we went in the lady asked that Dee Dee and I carry the cones of food because the animals could be a little aggressive about the treats. I'll say!  I handed my cone to Dee Dee to protect the little ones and she got attacked.  They backed her into the corner and I could not stop laughing.  Or taking pictures.  Finally I convinced her to throw the treat cones over the fence into the garbage and they backed off. Probably the highlight of my day. 

little nervouse

the goats wanted those treats

I love her face in this one 

help help help. Beckett said "I'm a power ranger. I'll save you!"

deer would not stop eating my shirt. It was soaking wet when we left

Eli would not go near this guy

One of their favorite things was the hatchery.  It was amazing to see all the eggs in various forms of hatching and the baby chicks.  They stayed and watched forever.  Giggling.  And are still talking about it.  Well and Dee Dee's goats of course!

high five to Mrs. Moo

All that animal fun made us hungry again.  

one of my favorite photos of the day. Serious conversation 

about this delicious funnel cake

yummy 

A few more rides on our way out.  Dee Dee was not a fan of letting us go on the slide.  I didn't tell her they even went last year too :-) They loved it!

My favorite photo of the day.  Both of us having so much fun 

I didn't think we would ever get them through Survivor Island.

Then we started to melt down.  Such a long day. It was super windy and way past nap time.  My little guys wanted to ride the ferris wheel so bad.  We went to 2 different ones and both were closed because of the wind.  In fact, the thought of pushing the strollers the what seemed like 5 miles to the car was overwhelming so I ran to get the car and pull as close as I could to pick them up.  Looks like they had a great day when I pulled back up to get them they were O-U-T and they slept all the way home.  

Tuesday morning came way to fast and Dee Dee headed back to Alabama.  I don't think we wasted a single second together but it's never long enough.  We love our Dee Dee!  

Love,
The Riley's