B-Y-ZOO

So every two years, BYU comes to play its inter-conference rival, TCU, here in Texas. As both Rachael and I are BYU grads, and we both loved going to the games in Provo, we were not going to miss the opportunity to watch our team play when the game was only 3 hours away in Ft. Worth. So we found a few friends that wanted to go, we all loaded up our kids, and we made the short trip to watch the #8 ranked Cougars take on the Horned Frogs. We had a great time too. The weather was beautiful (in the mid 60's), we had a great time with our friends and even saw some friends from Provo that we hadn't seen or spoken with in a couple of years, and just enjoyed being in a college atmosphere again. The only thing that would have made the night complete was if BYU had won the game! For those of you that weren't paying attention, the Cougs got a good Texas whoopin', losing 32-7. But it was fun regardless.

As the game was an evening game, we spent the night in Ft. Worth and on Friday we went to the Ft. Worth Zoo, which is actually one of the best zoos in the country. It was a lot of fun, especially with Connor. He loves animals and was literally running from one exhibit to another. Connor really wanted to see the hippos, so we went and...they were asleep in the water and you couldn't really see much. My favorite part however was in the eagle pen. At one point as we were all walking underneath the chicken wire enclosure, this huge eagle soared down from its perch and landed right above us. With it's wings spread wide and while staring down directly at us, it let out a loud scream. It was really neat, but I actually think it was trying to get to Cody and the other little kids because it kept following us!

Feast with the Beasts

Tyler and I spent Friday night at the Houston Zoo working an event for Fountains of Chocolate. For those of you who don't know, my mom is the owner. Being in the catering/wedding industry does have it's perks. Feast with the Beasts is a fun night for food sampling, live music, dancing and seeing animals. We were able to invite some friends to help out with the rush of people to the chocolate table. You can imagine how busy we were with chocolate covered strawberries being served. It was a blast even though Tyler didn't dance with me :(

Baby Shoes

I have been sewing these darling baby shoes to make extra money. It gives me something to do while Tyler is at class Monday and Wednesday nights. For more photos go to http://www.miajoie.etsy.com/

Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure

Yesterday we did the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. The Susan G. Komen foundation is one of the largest non-profit organizations dedicated to raising money for a variety of programs related to breast cancer research, prevention, and awareness. As many of you know, Rachael's mother was diagnosed with breast cancer a little over two years ago. She is now in remission, but because of her experience, our family still finds it important to support those that are leading the fight against breast cancer.

Our day started early, (about 6:30) as we made the 45 minute drive to downtown Houston. There we gathered with 32,000 other supporters to run in the 5k. It was really neat to see the community come together for such a great cause. I was even more touched to see all the survivors of breast cancer and to realize just how prevalent this disease really is (all the survivors got a special pink t-shirt, as you can see in the picture.) Our race started about 8:30 and both Rachael and I ran about 3/4 of the way (2.5 miles). While we didn't make it the entire distance, it was great. The best part though was getting to watch Rachael's mom run in the "Survivors Path", a lane marked out with pink ballons and dedicated to those that had beaten breast cancer. Anne did run the entire distance. She is an inspiration to us all.

Ice Cream Mania

A few weeks back, we ventured out to Brennam, Texas to visit the Blue Bell Ice Cream factory with some friends of ours. We had gotten wind of a crazy rumor that Blue Bell, which is the best ice cream you have ever had, was giving ice cream away on account that many of the stores affected by Hurricane Ike were unable to accept any cold produce and Blue Bell was running out of storage space. Needless to say, we were not disappointed. The tour was interesting, but the fun started when we got to the end of the tour and the guide annouced that we were free to try as much ice cream as we wanted, free of charge. So we ate...and ate...and ate. I think I personally had 3 or 4 bowls (small bowls) and I know that I saw some people in our group eat more than I did. It was a lot of fun, and a lot of really good ice cream.