Camping on the Guadalupe River

Last weekend we finally got to try out our new pop up camper. We headed about 75 miles south to the Guadalupe river at a campground just outside of New Braunfels. The place had full hookups so we had running water and electricity which was awesome. The river was flowing and people were tubing and rafting with their coolers in tow. We need to invest in some tubes for next time. We had nice weather and a cold front came in on Saturday and kept the temps down in the low 80's which kept the bugs away. We had some really cool neighbors who invited us over for a real Louisiana style crawfish boil on Saturday night. We had a great time. On Sunday we packed up and headed home. The new camper worked perfectly and the ole Rodeo hauled it without issue. This is the first of many trips for out new rig! Here are some pics.

Love,

BJC

Claire found the neighbors stash!

Caught with her hand in the chip bag! haha

Our neighbors and the Crawfish...38 lbs total!!

Our new favorite picture of Claire...she looks so grown up!

That is quite the mischievous look on her face...

Inside the pop up

Havin fun on the river

Our site

The rig!

Houston Rodeo

While I was working in Houston last month, Jess and Claire came out and stayed with me for a few days. We hooked up with Jessica's cousins and went to the Houston rodeo! We had so much fun and will definitely go back next year. Claire loved all of the animals as you will see in the pictures below! Click on the play button and enjoy!

Love,
BJC

Easter 2010

We had all kinds of stuff going on for Easter this year. Claire went to several easter egg hunts. We went to Betsi's dad's farm which is about an hour east of us. He has 800+ acres which we took a tour of in an old jeep. We had a great time and did not want to leave! Check out the pictures and video of Claire opening her Curious George book from grandma. She is so funny! We hope everyone had a great Easter! Love you all. BJC

Claire's first hockey game

We took Claire to her first hockey game on Friday night. There is a new AHL team called the Texas Stars who play in a new arena the city of Cedar Park built a little while back. It's about 10 minutes or so from us. Claire had a great time as we knew she would. Can't wait to go to another game!! Here are some pictures...

Love, BJC

Christmas 2009

We drove to Colorado Springs for 2 weeks over Christmas as we have done for the past 2 years. We stayed with Mom and Bob and had a very relaxing vacation....well...I did at least. I ended up with Pneumonia a few days into our trip and spent a large portion of it laying on the couch. That was a real bummer, but otherwise we had a nice time!

We had a night out with a group of our good friends and brought Claire so everyone could see how much she has grown in a year! We visited with Grandpa at his home. We went to the cabin for Christmas and had a great time opening presents and eating like it was going out of style. Everything was soooo good!

A new annual tradition has been developing with our friends Megan and Freeman. Once again we went up to Denver to do some wine tasting at Balisteri. Then for dinner we went to the Vesta dipping grill. The food is really good and it's a cool place to hang out and have a drink. We spent New Years with Megan and Freeman at their house. We had a great time!

After New Years we headed east to Witchita,KS to visit with the other Jessica and her kids Cheyenne and Tyler. We had a great time visiting and shooting nerf darts around the house. Claire and Tyler had so much fun playing together. I need one of those nerf dart guns!

It was great seeing everyone. Sorry it took me so long to get these pictures uploaded! We hope everyone had a great holiday season!

Love,

BJC

Claire wanted to say Merry Christmas to all of our friends and family. Click play on the video below.

Untitled from Brett Shug on Vimeo.

Halloween 2009

We had a great halloween this year! Jess took Claire out to a Halloween festival put on by the city of Round Rock. They had a bunch of games with prizes and gave out candy. Then Claire had a party at school that we were able to attend. They decorated their own pumpkins, ate cupcakes, and wore their costumes. She is having so much fun at school! Here are some pictures.

Pumpkin Patch

Here are a bunch of the pictures we took at the pumpkin patch this year. Claire picked out the pumpkin she decorated at school!

End of Summer

Here are more pics from the end of the summer including our ACL adventure!! Check it.

More Summer '09

Sorry it took me awhile to get these posted. Here are more pictures from this summer. We spent time on Galveston Island with our friends Stephen and Espy. We stayed a night in Houston on the way back with TJ and Yulie, Jessica's cousins, and had a great time. Jessica and Claire drove to Wichita, KS to visit the other Jessica and her kids. There are some good pictures of the zoo they visited.

We had a great summer! Check out the pics.

Summer '09

We've had a great summer so far. It has been hot down here in Texas (not quite Havasu hot) but still!! We've been getting out to the pool and enjoying it though. We had our 9th anniversary on the 4th of July and had an excellent evening out on the town. Had a great dinner and watched the fireworks go off downtown over the lake.

Jessica's birthday was on the 8th and we headed down once again with a group of our friends. We went to a Tapas restaurant and had some great food and excellent Sangria. Our next door neighbors and good friends Giri and Zelinda came with us and Naveen and Claire stayed with Zelinda's Mom. It was nice to go out with just the adults for once...then again!

We hope you all are well. Here are some pics from this summer.

Cabo Trip

We got home safe and sound from Cabo last night and had a great time. This was our first trip to Cabo and it is a beautiful place. This was our first trip out of the country with Claire and she was great. The flight from Houston is 2 and 1/2 hours. We flew out of Austin and changed planes with a layover which made for a long day. I think next time we will just drive to Houston and fly out of there as we can avoid the layovers.

We stayed at the Riu Santa Fe which is a new all inclusive resort. We have stayed at 2 other Riu hotels before and been very happy with them. This one did not disappoint. Claire loved the beach and the pools. She was very happy floating around in her new life jacket and was upset every time we took her out of the pool. She even got a nice tan even through the SPF 50 sunscreen that she was constantly being covered in!

Here are some pics. Hope everyone is well.

Love,

Brett, Jess, and Claire

Easter Pictures

I know the video will be tough to top but here are some pictures from Easter and a few other random shots.

Ok, trying to post a vimeo link here. See if this works.

We took some video tonight of Claire walking!! This has been really fun to watch her get better and better. Enjoy!


Claire Walks from Brett S on Vimeo.

Happy Easter

Our neighborhood HOA held its annual Easter egg hunt last weekend and Claire had a great time! It was a little cool and windy out but she didn't mind. She is getting so big. We had a big day yesterday. While on the web cam with Grandma and Grandpa Vine, Claire took her first un-assisted steps! It was very exciting. Soon she'll be running all over the house. She still doesn't have any teeth. Should be any day now! They say the longer they stay up in there the better anyway. The cutest thing she is saying right now is "Thank you". She says "gang que". It cracks me up. Check out the video of her Dance moves. She is such a little rockstar!

Hope everyone has a great Easter! (I'm makin a turkey....yum!!)

Love,

Brett, Jess, and Claire

Claire's 1st birthday

Last night we celebrated Claire's first birthday! We had a party at the house with our new friends and neighbors. Jess made a heart shaped cake for Claire and cupcakes for everyone else. Claire made quite a mess out of her cake and herself, but seemed to enjoy every minute of it! She had a great time opening presents and seemed to get a little sugar rush going which kept her up past 9 PM! After that the adults had some drinks and played some games. We had a great time.

We can't believe how fast this year as gone. She is growing up way too fast! We wish you all could have been there to celebrate with us. Check out the pictures below.

Love,

Brett, Jess, and the birthday girl...Claire

Walkie video

Our friend Megan came out for a business conference in downtown Austin and spent a couple of days with us. We took a walk down the nature trail in our neighborhood and hit the playground at the end of it. Claire was loving the swings!! She is a natural.





We went to a superbowl party and rocked our NFL gear. The baby looks awesome in her Packers cheerleader outfit.



So Claire is loving her Walkie toy (that's what I call it) that Brooke got her for Christmas! I got some video of her cruising around with it today.



We hope everyone is doing well.

Love,
Brett, Jess, and Claire

Video

Got some video of Claire who learned how to climb the stairs the other day! Check it out!

Christmas 2008

(Part 1) We had an early Christmas at home before our trip to Colorado this year. Jessica made blueberry coffee cake for breakfast which was awesome and we opened our presents from each other. Claire had a blast! She was mostly trying to eat the wrapping paper as it came off the gifts, but she certainly seemed to be having a good time doing it!

(Part 2) We've been in Colorado since the 17th of December staying at Mom and Bob's house. We've had a great vacation so far. Claire spent her first Christmas at the cabin and loved it. We had a great time too. We did some gambling in Cripple Creek, built a ginger bread house, played some games, and ate lots of great food. Christmas is always so much fun at the cabin and this year was great. We will head to Kansas to visit Jessica's friend Jessica on our way home to Texas next week. Check out the pictures. The first set is from our house, and the rest are from Colorado. We hope everyone had a great holiday!

Love,

Brett, Jess, and Claire

Thanksgiving

I realized after I posted the Christmas pictures that I forgot to post Thanksgiving pictures!! So here they are. We spent Thanksgiving in Glamis a couple hours outside San Diego riding motorcylces and ATVs in the sand. It was a blast! We stayed with Dad and Elaine at their house in SD and trailer in the dunes. Cindy and Doug were there too with Ciarra, Shyla, and her boyfriend Steven. I had not been on a motorcyle in the sand in about 15 years so I was a bit rusty. I went over the bars in the first half hour of riding. Fortunately the sand is very forgiving! Anyway, Claire had a great time on her first camping trip, and loved sitting on the quad with Mommy (parked of course!). When we got back we took a short trip north to San Clemente to meet our good friends the Becks and their kids for dinner. We had a great time visiting and got some great pictures of the kids! Check out the pics below.

Love,

Brett, Jess, and Claire