Tour of Texas....Part 4: Port Aransas

The final stop on our Tour of Texas was Port Aransas. This is a small island beach town just outside of Corpus Christi. There really isn't much in this small town except the fishermen and the beach. When we arrived we decided to visit the Texas State Aquarium in Corpus Christi before going to the island. The aquarium was small but the dolphin training show was a lot of fun and Katelyn enjoyed seeing them. They also had a show with various other rescue animals including an anteater that was really fun.

We only go to spend a couple of hours at the beach before the rain set in. The water was cold and the wind was really windy but we enjoyed picking up sea shells and flying a kite. We also really enjoyed our dinner at Castaways of fried fish and shrimp fresh from the gulf.

Once the rain set in we decided that we were all really tired! It had been a long seven nights aways from home. We decided to head home instead of spending another night in a hotel. Katelyn go to see the beach even though it was a very short stay and we all had a blast on our tour of texas! We are definitely glad to be home though!

Tour of Texas....Part 3: San Antonio

San Antonio was by far the most fun part of the trip. We had originally planned to visit Sea World only to find out that they were closed while we were going to be there. I was able to find a place called Natural Bridge Caverns that also had a rock mine. Katelyn was in heaven! The caverns were beautiful and the rock mining was a blast! We also enjoyed the riverwalk boat tour and the Alamo. And of course, we always love going to the Rainforest Cafe!

Tour of Texas....Part 2: Austin

The second stop on our tour of texas was Austin, the capital of Texas. The bank sent me to a conference there at Barton Creek Resort. This is a beautiful golf resort and I would highly recommend it to any golfers out there. There was also lots of fun things for Justin and Katelyn to do while I stuck inside listening to the various speakers. I did manage to get out and have a little fun as well while we were there.

Justin and Katelyn took a nature hike one day and Katelyn really enjoyed seeing cacti up close and personal, a real teepee, and the other various things on the course. We also enjoyed playing "hut hut" golf a.k.a. put put golf for those that don't speak Katelyneese. We sat on the bat-io at one of the downtown restaraunts in hopes of watching the 1.5 million bats that live in Austin with no luck but got a beatiful pencil sketching done. We visited the capital and the Texas history museum. It was very educational and fun!

Tour of Texas...Part 1: Dallas

The start of our family vacation this year was a short stay in Dallas, TX. We started off at the Nature and Science Museum where they have several different types of exhibits. They have a lot about dinosaurs and animals which thrilled Katelyn. They also have a small children's museum area that is hands on. Katelyn loved milking the cow! That evening we went to Medeival Times to celebrate Mother's Day. Katelyn got her face painted and enjoyed being called princess by everyone! It was a lot of fun and Katelyn was very excited to have started our vacation!

Katelyn's End of Year Program

Ms. Carol and Katelyn...one of the best teachers ever!

Getting in Line

Katelyn and Emma

Alexis and Katelyn

Tonight was the end of the year program for Katelyn's school. It was so neat to see all the different classes perform their songs, see a great slide show of pictures from the year, and to get Katelyn's award. She had fun and so did we. Tomorrow we are going to Emma's Birthday party and then we are off to Texas on Sunday! I'm sure I will have fun pictures to share when we return!

Happy Easter....

Easter is always a fun time for our family. We always enjoy spending the day with Justin's family, eat too much, and get lots of candy. This morning Katelyn got up early and started off the day upset because she didn't get to buy me and Justin a present. There was no fooling my child about a silly easter bunny either. She knew that Justin and I had purchased every bit of her easter basket. She did really like all of her little presents though. After church (in which we had a great lesson) we went to Justin's mom and dad's house for pictures. This is a nice little family tradition in which we take family pictures every Easter.

After pictures we fixed a nice lunch and ate unitl our hearts were content. Of course the kids were way too excited to eat much lunch because they wanted to hunt eggs. Justin, Josh, and Jordan hid the eggs for the girls and then they were off to see who could get the most eggs. I have to say it was actually pretty even until Katelyn did a nose dive in the grass and landed right on top of about five of her real eggs and busted them to pieces. She had eggs smeared all over her new play clothes. Anyway, both Hope and Katelyn had plenty of eggs and were happy to go through and see what kind of candy and goodies they had gotten.

After the Easter fesitivities were over, we celebrated Nana and Papa's 50th wedding anniversary. They never had a real wedding cake so my friend Marlaina made one and I decorated it with flowers. It was really beautiful and delicious. All in all, I have to say it was a great day.

So, another holiday is gone and I find myself wondering where the time has gone. It is really hard to believe that this year is already a quarter over with it. Justin and I are contemplating selling our house so that we can buy a slightly larger one, trying to figure out how to deal with a child with asperger's, etc. Life never turns out how you expect it. It is an endless stream of beginning new feats and yet that is what makes it interesting. So here's to new beginnings....

First Days of Spring....

It generally isn't supposed to snow in spring but we were in for a big surprise this morning! It started sleeting here around 3:30 yesterday and then just kept snowing. In fact, as I look out the window right now it is still coming down. We have lost our satellite signal and have resorted to playing in the snow, taking warm baths, and having some good old fashion family fun! Anyway, here are some pics from our time outside this morning. Luckily Katelyn is feeling much better after a very long week.

Kansas City

I have been working A LOT lately....and when I'm not working Justin is working to make up for the time's that I have been. So needless to say we were both very stressed out and in much need of a getaway. Neither one of us had ever been to Kansas City other than to fly through so we decided that it would be a nice little road trip. I discovered that there are a ton of things to do with kids in Kansas City so we set off on Friday afternoon to spend some time up there. Katelyn was so excited about spending the night in a hotel that she didn't sleep at all on the way there. She has stayed in a hotel before but for some reason she thought that it was sooooo cool! On Saturday morning we went to the Hallmark home office and went to the Kaleidoscope art studio. This is an awesome thing for kids and it's free! Basically you get an hour to make whatever arts and crafts your kid wants to make and as many as they want to make. There were party hats, crowns, bookmarks, puzzles, painting stations, boxes, books, etc. Of course, Katelyn loved the painting and she did a really good job. Mom and dad thought that the puzzle making was really cool too and even got to make Katelyn one.

Afterwards, we went to the Crayola store and the Hallmark store. Then we went to T-Rex which is one of the coolest restaraunts I have ever been to. We have wanted to take her to a Rainforest Cafe for some time but this was definitely the next best thing. The whole restaraunt is decorated with life size dinosaurs. The one right inside the entrance scarred her a bit but the Build-a-dinasaur definitely made up for it. Afterwards, we went to Cabela's and Bass Pro Shop since th rain cancelled our trip to the zoo. Katelyn wasn't too thrilled with all the sharping a.k.a. shopping so we decided to find something that she would really enjoy before making the trip back home. We found a place called Paradise Park which is really one of the neatest places for kids that we have seen. Similar theory as Chuck E. Cheese but not totally centered around arcade games. There was a ball pit (just so those of you who know me well don't freak out...the balls were cleaned at least once a day but a really cool ball cleaning machine. The kids would through the balls into the bullseye and it would suck them into the cleaning machine and then spit them out!) with tunnels and slides, a block building room, a cooking station, an art room, an outdoor playground, a face painting station, a water room, a tv room, a puppet stage, a pretend room equipped with a real bank vault and grocery store register, a foam ball fight room, indoor bumper cars, etc. It was awesome for both Katelyn and us. It was also the perfect way to end a great trip to KC.

On a side note. We have been put on the waiting list at Schmeiding Developmental Center. They say that we will get an appointment time in 6-8 months to have Katelyn tested for Asperger's syndrome. She is continuing to have a lot of emotional trouble at school and home. In the meantime we will be seeing a behavioral therapist. Please pray that she is able to work through these issues...

Parrot

The following conversation took place today on our way home from build-a-bear and I thought it was worth sharing....

Justin: We are going to have to start watching what we say around Katelyn because she has turned into a parrot.

Katelyn: Who?

Justin: You

Katelyn: No I'm not!

Tarah: Katelyn wanna cracker?

Katelyn: Yeah! Yeah!

I guess Justin was right in more ways than one!

Long Time No See

Wow! I got a facebook message from my mom the other day asking why I never update my blog anymore. I hate to say that I kind of shrugged it off because it didn't seem like it had been that long but I decided to post something today since I had some pics to share and realized it has been since October! Sorry for the long delay and lack of updates!

Well since October we have been through way too many things to try to recant what all has happened but the short of it is that Katelyn had a wonderful birthday, we had a great visit with my mom over the Thanksgiving break, we had a joyous Christmas holiday, and are starting off another wonderful year at Ledbetter household. And like always things are crazy!

This week we received about 6-8 inches of snow and ice in Northwest Arkansas. We are usually hesitant to let Katelyn play in the snow because of all of her illnesses. She is on antibiotics right now as well but couldn't resist the pleas to build a snow girl. Justin took her outside and they ended up having a snow ball fight instead after a failed attempt at the snow girl. She looked like she had a lot of fun and wasn't ready to come inside.

Katelyn and her Dora hat (Grandpa Pardy made it for her when she was little and it still fits!)

Katelyn getting Justin in the face with a mini snow ball!

Isn't this a sad attempt at the snow girl? Justin said the snow kept taking up the leaves so they gave up. I bet that I could have made a better snow girl than that!