We have a TEENAGER in the HOUSE!

Brighty Rae turned 13 in 2020!

Here's what Brighton loves: 

Harry Potter

Movie nights with her friends

Dutch Bros.

Records

80's music

Performing with her Improv group

Yoga

TikTok

Shopping

Plants

Reading

Her cousins

Bagels

Mountain adventures

The beach

Taking pictures 

Cheese and grapes

For her birthday we had lunch with her friend Georgia and her mom Salina. Then she had two friends, Elle and Autumn over! They painted pottery and then had a sleepover!

Everything's Bigger in Texas!

 For Christmas 2019 we decided to visit Nana and Bampa (my parents) on their mission in Liberty Texas! I planned out all kinds of fun tourist activities for us all week (in true Brooke fashion) and dragged grandma and grandpa along! The only damper on things was that Piper wasn't feeling well for most of the trip. She was sick before we left, then perked up in Galveston, then got a lot worse. We had to take her to the Dr. there and get her on an antibiotic.

For our first day there we went to Galveston Island and visited Moody Gardens Winter Garden a glow! This place was incredible! They have animals, ice skating, Christmas lights and around Christmas time they create an entire world made of ice! It was so cool to see! We also saw a dance troop that got famous on America's Got Talent and Brighton was so star struck!

Everything you see in the next few pictures is made of ice!! Everything!

The next day we visited Bucees and NASA. Bucees is a giant Texas size gas station that my friend Rainie introduced me to when we had a girls trip to her Texas town. I told my parents about it when they moved there and it became a favorite destination! Unless you've been there, it sounds so weird but my kids still talk about Bucees!

Another fun thing we did was Elf the Musical and the Cupcake ATM! They had gluten-free so we HAD to go (even though Piper didn't feel well enough to eat it.) And of course EPIC Texas BBQ!!!

Sunday we had fun visiting their church and going on a nature walk. Then the next day we went to an Alligator Park! They had lots of reptiles and creepy crawly animals.

Christmas Eve we took the kids to a children's museum and then we did our traditional Christmas Eve games and traditions and had a fun night and a fun Christmas day! After opening presents, visiting with their friends and eating yummy food, we spent the rest of the evening at the Kemah Boardwalk!

Here's something amazing; When we looked into going to Houston for Christmas there was a traveling exhibit there called Candytopia. I showed Piper and she was SO excited because she'd seen her favorite YouTubers go there! Anytime we talked about going to Texas for Christmas she brought up Candytopia. Then when I went to buy tickets I realized it was GONE. It had moved on to Phoenix. But WAIT... we had a 12 HOUR layover in Phoenix the day after Christmas!! We went to Candytopia first thing in the morning with Aaron's brother Nate, his wife Katie and their daughter Savannah! It was really cool!! Then we had lunch with the rest of the Flake family at a park before headed back to the airport.