Where are the Purcell girls?

Welcome to the first edition of "Where are the Purcell girls?" This starts the beginning of a two week travel extravaganza and we are so excited!

We are happy to report we made it safely to the great state of Texas last night and are loving our time here! Riley and I flew to Austin via two flights...the first one was great...the second one was more of a challenge! The first flight we sat next two a 5 year old little boy who was travling with his uncle to Phoenix...sweetest kid ever! They had already claimed two of the three seats in this row and I saw them and knew this was where we needed to sit because Riley loves older kids and I hoped he could help me entertain her. I was right! He talked to her, played with her, and shared his toys with her. He was quite an insightful little one...his first question was "Did she come from your belly?" and he followed that with "Did you scream real loud when they cut your belly open to get her out?"...his uncle then followed that question with "No I'm sure Riley came down the slide like most babies do and the doctor caught her"...wow! I was laughing hysterically through this conversation and we had a lot of fun with this little one. Riley was great and didn't even know we were on a plane because she just played the whole time. When we landed the little boy hugged Riley and told her he loved her...how sweet! The next flight was not as fun...we took off at 7:30 which is bedtime in Riley's world! She had several tantrums but I managed to get her distracted every now and then with the help of the girl in our row...peanuts became our friend! Luckily it was only a 50 minute flight and we were in Austin! Grammie and JoePa picked us up, we chowed down on some Sonic, and off to the lake we were! Riley fell asleep en route and slept great last night!

I got to tour my parents new lakehouse last night and then again this morning in the daylight and let me say...it is AWESOME! I wish we were going to be living closer so we could come here every weekend!

The living room...

My mom's wonderful kitchen...the cabinets are going up!

The last time I was at the lake the old house was still standing and it was shocking to get here and see how different things are. We had dreamed of what this house would look like long ago when my parents started drafting plans and to see what it has become was really breathtaking! They will start moving in just a few weeks...and then we get to start moving! Lots of moving going on in this family!

Riley had fun playing outside today...she has to have shoes on because she does NOT like the grass on her bare feet! She fell in love with the steps on the back deck and wanted to climb up and down...up and down!

This morning we went to visit Lena...a sweet lady that used to be the neighbor to my parents at the lake but moved into town..she loved seeing Riley and Riley played and played while we caught up!

This afternoon my aunt, uncle, cousin, and her boyfriend came up for a visit and it was great to see them! We took a boat ride and ate some lunch and got to catch up with them!

Here's Kassie, her boyfriend Chad, and her sweet puppy!

Family pic...

Riley got a bath before dinner as she was a dirty girl after playing with the puppies and running around in the grass...there was all kinds of dirt in between her toes...so unladylike! After getting all cleaned up Grammie read her a story!
This evening we went to lunch at a great Italian restaurant and met up with some of my parents friends and Riley got to play with Arielle...another grandbaby who is 2 months younger than her! The girls were mainly interested in swapping binkies and stealing hairbows!

Riley ate a good dinner and then she was ready to get out of the highchair and play...she decided the highchair could be used as a jungle gym and preceded to climb under it over and over!

On the way home from the restaurant I tasked Grammie with keeping Riley awake since she still needed to put her jammies on...well she took that to the extreme and had Riley giggling harder than I've ever heard her before...it was hilarious! When we got home Riley was still wanting to play so she made a few laps in the living room while checking out Jack and Sadie (the cat and dog)! When I put her in her bed she just laid down without a peep...she is a tired girl!

We had a gread day...lots of fun...now we are wiped out!