June 2017

Bring the heat!
We actually did a ton of new things this month! Here's a few photos to prove it.

 The Katy Trail

 Six Flags Amusement Park

 Water Park in Grapevine

 Giant Bears in Highland Park

 Getting brave in our pool

 Found a "waterall" in Richardson

 Played at the Klyde Warren Park splash pad again

and explored Fair Park.

This month, the highlight was Gavin's family coming out! We love visitors! Gavin's entire family wasn't able to make it, but we had fun with his parents, sister, and her husband. I'll post about that next!

McClearys Take Dallas

We were so stoked to have my family come visit us in Dallas! I loved giving them a visual for our life here, plus it's always fun to have an excuse to play hard. I did a more formal post on their visit here, so I'll just do a quick photo & info dump on this blog. 

 Owen forcing a smile at the Ranger's baseball game after he got freaked out from the crowd cheering about a game-winning home run!

 Touring the cowboys stadium and me fan-girling in the cheerleader's locker room

We took a day trip up to Turner Falls, Oklahoma. Read more about that here.

More sightseeing...

 Fort Worth Water Gardens

 Arboretum

 Deep Ellum

 Playing & Exercising at the park

 Touring downtown

 Showing my fam where Gavin works

 Playing a "how well do we know each other?" game designed by mom.

Showing off the skyline

 and barbeque.

 And of course just soaking in being together.

Come again!

Birthday and Earth day

Turned 27 this April, which is really weird because last year I turned 19. Hmm. The older you get, the harder it is to party hard for your birthday. Luckily, I had friends and family who didn't just let me waste the weekend away.
That night before my birthday, I coached a lacrosse game (we won!). Then I went with my girl friends to stuff my face with dessert from Chili's. They all pitched in a got me a massive McDonalds gift card as a gift. Hilarious. I don't eat Mcdonald's food, but I get a Diet Coke there every day. Soo... best birthday gift ever!

The day of my birthday, me and Haley and our boys went to Fair park. I've been wanting to see the butterfly garden there! I loved it!

That night, I had another game to coach. Gavin surprised me and came to the game! Then we went up to Knaras's to say happy birthday to Kinley! We played at a park up there and enjoyed a beautiful sunset over Lake Lewisville. Unfortunately I don't have a picture that captures how pretty this night was.

I told Gavin that I would rather do something than get something for my birthday. So, instead of a gift, we planned a day trip to Dinosaur Valley State Park. It was a little less than a two hour drive to get here. I love going places that I've never been before!

The weather was chilly but that didn't stop Owen from wanting to splash in the water. There are fossilized dinosaur footprints in this river, and Texas-style hiking. It was fun to spend the day here. We will definitely be coming back when it's warmer!

Owen's into doing this thing where he will smile and say cheese for the camera, but he won't look at it. Stinker!

We ended the weekend with some good ole' shake shack and a relaxing Sunday. Here's to 27!

Cedar Ridge Preserve

Dallas obviously doesn't have mountains and hiking like Utah does. I really miss it! The closest thing we have to hiking are trails at nature preserves. I am learning to appreciate these.
Kali and I tried to come to Cedar Ridge Nature preserve a few months ago, but turns out these are all closed on Mondays! Weird. So this month when it wasn't a Monday, we drove down there again!
I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of dirt. There was even an incline and scenic lookout on a two mile "hike" we did. Owen did most of the two mile hike himself! I was impressed! I probably only carried him 1/3 of a mile on the way back.

When you find a peak in Dallas, you strike half a yoga pose because you can't do a full one.

Turner Falls

I've been missing hiking and waterfalls and outdoor adventures, especially with the weather getting nicer. There are plenty of cool adventure places in Texas, but almost all of them are about four hours away from us... too much for a day trip with babes! After some intense investigation, I learned of Turner Falls in Oklahoma- only a two hour drive from Dallas! I'm so grateful Kali and Kinley were up for the adventure too!
When we pulled in to the park, the ranger told us that the main waterfall (Turner Falls) was closed due to road reconstruction. We were super bummed but decided to venture in anyways because the drive had already been made. I'm surprised how much fun we had without even going to the main waterfall!
First we "hiked" to a little cave. Hiking here basically means going on a walk surrounded by plants. It's better than nothing! It was kind of funny that no one (not even the rangers) could tell us how long the hike to the cave was. We kept asking because we wanted to know if we could make it with our littles. "How long is the hike? Is it steep? Should we pack my 2 yo or let him walk? How long does it take to get to the cave?" Everyone answered like "It's not too far, maybe a mile. It's a little hard but I bet they could do it. The rocks by the water might be too dangerous." K people, it was like a quarter mile walk to the cave and another .1 miles to the water. It was a little sketchy climbing down the rocks to the water with our kids in tow, but doable. 

 Owen was so scared to crawl in this cave! For a minute I didn't think we'd ever get him in. I didn't want to terrorize him by pushing him too hard, but I knew he'd love it once he figured out it was safe, so we kept trying. Once he finally crawled in and out, he wanted to do it 100 more times. He talked about this "kiv" for the next three days straight!

Like I mentioned, getting down to the water was a little tricky just because there wasn't an actual trail. It would be no problem without kids, but we had to be super careful while carrying the babes. Once we were down, it was perfect! The river wasn't rushing and raging, so I wasn't worried about Owen getting swept away or anything. He loved touching the water and climbing all over the rocks.

When the weather is warmer, they dam up the bottom of the falls so that people can jump in and swim. We'll definitely be coming back to see the real falls and swim in the pools. Who knew Oklahoma had these kinds of gems?!

Cross E Ranch

Apparently there is this cute family owned farm in North Salt Lake that lets visitors come play with their baby animals every spring! It's called Cross E Ranch and it's off Redwood and 3500 North (I didn't know Salt Lake went that far north!). I'm so glad we went! Owen loved it... and I'll admit I loved the baby animals too!

 O petting a baby lamb.

 Our family with a baby chicken!

We had just sat through a windy and snowy lacrosse game, which is why I'm looking so hot! Yes, it was sunny here at the farm, but an hour before these pictures were taken we were all sitting in snow and hail! Gotta love Utah!

 Owen cried when we made him get off the train, even though he rode it twice in a row!

 O stayed amused on the hay ride! Gav was pretty interested too, actually!

 Petting the bunnies.

 I love that this picture shows how excited he was to see new animals.

 O "giving the bunny a hug."