Daddy Daughter Date Night

Our church is hosting a Daddy Daughter Date Night tonight and Steve and Bri are having their first date. I think this was about the cutest thing I’ve seen! Look how excited she is. =D

Domestication

I figure it's about time to teach Brielle womanly things, so what better to teach her than baking! We had some old bananas on hand which make the best banana bread, so that is what we tackled. Here's Bri setting up her set, I mean getting ready for a show, I mean preparing the ingredients for banana bread.

As in my family's tradition, we sample our batter to make sure the end result will be up to snuff. The batter was good so we were able to proceed with baking.

Final product, pretty darn good if I do say so myself. (And I do.) As you can see, Bri enjoyed it too.

Stuck

Well, our flight was cancelled and we are stuck in SC for 2 more days. I had planned on going to Texas Roadhouse Grill only twice while we were here due to the large quantities of delicious rolls I consume everytime, but after hearing about our delayed plans, I asked Steve if we could go one last time. Turns out we made a good choice since we were there on their very first craft night! For kids, not us. I'm not sure if you understand our excitment here... it was effectively FREE BABYSITTING! Just for Bri but we'll take it. 

But enough about dinner, we ate, we laughed, we got a balloon princess (again for Brielle, not us) and left. Nothing else too exciting right? Well... we are in the South, so from what I understand they do not get a lot of rain. Turns out when it does rain, it POURS! It was only 50 yards to the car and sprinkling so I took Bri's artwork she made and put it under my shirt to keep it dry. Steve got the girls. Half way to the car, it dumped on us! I ran the rest of the way to the car, threw the art work inside and ran back to get Adi. We got the girls inside and got soaked (just our backs) in the process. Wow. Then, as in southern California, SC does not seem prepared for rain so I couod not see the lines on the 6 lane freeway. They needed more of those turtle thingies between lanes to reflect the light, but since they didn't,  I ended up driving 40 with everyone else and making Steve get off the phone with his boss to be my second set of eyes! It was crazy! But we made it. Steve dropped us off at the covered entrance of the hotel (where I took the picture) and braved the monsoons all by himself while the girls and I watched the lightening from the safety of the awning.

We all made it mostly unscathed from this natural flood... all but the balloon tinkerbell that is. She lost a wing during the escape to the car. Only left turns from here on out.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy™ S II 4G

Patriots Point

On Saturday, Steve and I decided to do an activity that we would find interesting and drag the girls along. Lucky for us, Bri was just excited about the whole thing as we were. At Patriots Point, there is a retired aircraft carrier: USS Yorktown, destroyer: USS Laffey and submarine: USS Clamagore. Since Steve and I had been on an aircraft carrier before, our main objectives where the sub and destroyer, but fortunately we had enough time to check out the top deck of the aircraft carried before the girls completely lost it. But first on the trip, cannons. Who doesn't love trying to shoot cannons at old retired ships. Here's Bri, Adi and Baby Doll taking their turn to sink the carrier. Fortunately they missed.

Bri, Adi and Steve in front of the sub.

Can you find Bri and Steve in this pic? I was trying to get a full length shot of the sub but it was starting to rain  and we didn't have appropriate rain gear to stay out of cover for long, so this wasn't the best pic. But Bri and Steve, oh and Adi (since she is on Steve's back the whole time) are really in this shot.

Family photo op: Me, Steve Bri and USS Laffey.

They make you work while touring the ship. Here's the crew tying to the dock.

On the aircraft carrier, they had a plane parked inside the kiddos could climb in. No idea what type of plane, but any chance to play in a cockpit is a good one.

Adi is obviously full of excitement over the whole thing.

Look mom, no engine!

Although Bri was done with pictures at this point, we had to get this last shot. Once Bri saw this last plane she pointed to it and said: "That plane has an umbrella!"