Texas part 1

We had such a fantastic time in Texas! We were lucky enough to have 2 whole weeks with family on this trip and it honestly flew by! We hit a few museums, saw the historic stock yards, but other than that just hung out with David's parents, siblings and grandma. It was wonderful to have time to talk and catch up. David's parents were so awesome! I will always remember the perfect time that we had with them in their home. David's mom is a wealth of knowledge! A few of the things she taught us about: how to can meat (it is seriously yummy, but looks a bit strange), make green smoothies, make cheese from yogurt and milk (we learned this together at an enrichment activity) and she even watched the girls for us so we could go to the temple and out on a date. She is such a great woman. David's dad took great care of us. He fixed the things I broke (too embarrassing to blog about but ask me sometime if you want to hear a good story), took the girls out, cleaned our car and went with us to the temple just to name a few. David's sister Elle had us down for a weekend(more about that in the next post). Here are some random pictures from our trip:

We went to the Fort Worth children's museum and the Dallas Children's museum- most of these pictures are from the museum:

Gigi and I had fun riding these trikes around until we got in trouble. Yea I guess I'm not the best example for my girls.

I suppose it's rather obvious why Gigi is the way that she is.

Thank you Don for capturing this moment :)

Beautiful Madeline

Good going Gigi!

I have to share this classic story: One night we went to visit David's brother Michael at his home. Don wanted to come. When we got there Don said hello and then disappeared. A few hours later while we were taking a tour of his amazing home we found him in this chair enjoying a foot and back rub and watching a home improvement show on a giant flat screen. Love it!!

Stick 'em up! Gigi got a pop gun and ever since has wanted to be a cowgirl! It is going on 4 months now. I think that is the longest she has stuck with wanting to be something.

Gigi and Madeline had so much rocking out on this chair at their Great Grandma Leithead's home. It was great to spend some time with her before she passed.

Don got this awesome action shot of David. I know it's mean, but it's just so funny. I'm sure David will repay me shortly!

I love this video. It catches how peaceful and wonderful our time was in Texas. We were all sitting around eating popcorn on a Sunday night. David's family has a tradition of having a big lunch on Sunday and then having popcorn and root beer floats for dessert. Sounds good to me :)

Girls tricks

Madeline has started talking! We took away her binkie about a week ago and she has started talking quite a bit. Her favorite words are car and ball, which she says over and over :) She still gets her binkie at nighttime for a while and it is so funny how excited she gets to go to sleep. She sort of swims in all of ther binkies.


I love this video not only because it displays Gigi's love of music, but because you get to see the world from her perspective. Gigi seriously loves to sing and dance and fills our home with mostly beautiful sounds :)

Enjoying Illinois

After Eph's graduation we stayed in Champaign, Il for a few more days.
We had dinner a few times at my brother Alex's home, visited Alex, Katie and Quinn at their labs on campus, and saw the new business building. When David was getting his MBA they were building a beautiful new building that was completed just around the time we left so David was able to fully enjoy the breathtaking abspestos ceilings, cramped rooms and the enjoyable smell of a really old musty building and didn't have to bother with a new modern layout :)
Our friends the Petersons were so nice to let us all stay with them. Not only did they cook and clean for us, but they even gave up their bed. They also found a baysitter so we could go on a double date. Seriously awesome!! Thank you guys! We miss you and can't wait to visit again (if you'll have us)!

Enjoying the new Business building. Madeline LOVED running around making noise in this previously quiet building.

Beautiful Daphne. We bonded during graduation when I let her use my camera to take pictures, I wish I had room to post them all. Hilarious :)

Speaks for itself

I love this shot of Hazel and Grandma. It was so wonderful to have so much of our family together.

Cute cousins. I guess Hazel really liked that chicken :)

Tony and Asher color coordinated

The famous carousel. It has become tradition to go here with the Peterson's every time we visit Champaign.

Visiting Alex's lab. It was extremely fascinating.

Crazy chemistry language! Can anyone decipher this? Even the author of it has trouble I think :)

Visiting Katie at her animal clinic. It was really neat to see some of the equipment they use to take care of sick animals including the operating room.

Clarissa and Gigi. It was so fun watching them play together.

Madeline has David wrapped around her finger. She apparently wasn't content with riding the car on the ground so David let her ride it through the air. Too funny!!


Clarissa, Gigi, Madeline and Clayton
We had a little down time to enjoy Winfield at the Peterson's home. I sure miss the peacefulness of that place although now with 2 kids it wasn't quite as peaceful.

Eph's graduation

Thanks to Gigi we listen to a lot of Broadway and so when I decided to finally start writing about our trip in May I naturally put it to a tune from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Not wanting to bask in my cleverness all alone I took the song to David. He looked at me with a "am I seriously married to you" look and then asked me to sing it again so he could remember the tune. I started singing it and then realized that he had his blackberry strangely positioned on me. Yes folks my husband was attempting to blackmail me for my dorkiness. I will save you all the trouble of hearing the song, but these are the lyrics for your enjoyment and my humiliation:

way way back many weeks ago
not long after the summer began
the payne family took a trip across the nation
to visit a lot of family, friends and neighbors


Okay so I guess I know where Gigi gets her singing and dancing from. Sorry kid!

On to the actual post:

Our first stop on our trip was to Champaign, Illinois to see my brother Ephraim graduate from medical school (he also completed his PhD, which I think makes a total of 10 years of school in that little town! Wow!!!)
We were scheduled to go to his new home in St. Louis first, but our apartment flooded yet again so we had to postpone our trip for a day and go straight to the commencement exercises. (Why do they call it exercises anyway? The only real exercise you get is practicing sleeping with your eyes open until your family members name is called and commencement, um hello it's the end not the beginning. I'm sure someone out there is much smarter than me and can explain this, but to me it seems a bit backwards)


Eph graduating. I am so proud of him and all of the hard work that he has put into his career. He and his family are an amazing example of hard work and diligence. Way to go guys!!!!


Eph and his beautiful family (His wife Amy, Hazel 5, Asher 4, Daphne 2)

The Siblings


Hazel and Gigi had such a fantastic time playing together. It stinks that we live so far away!


Unfortunately the parent dork gene has passed on...sigh