some scary things

Grandpa  participated in his first 5K(3.1 mi.) race (our stake fun run) this morning! 

He came in first in the silver fox division!
Even more scary, I participated with him (my 2nd 5K) and won first in the Women's 40+ division.

 Most scary--(more scary than a silver fox and my neck wrinkles) is how this adorable, cute little Texas nephew of mine started out like this ...

and ended up like this!

And ... just when you think you can't take any more scary things, I'll give you more -- my youngest Texas  brother-in-law Stuart as a teenager many years ago.

Now, so you won't have too many nightmares tonight, I'll end this post with a photo (some of our Texas family) that is more funny than scary. (although things might get scary for me after Donna sees this)

Hank, are you having fun yet?  Donna, better keep a good eye on your boy, Eric--and are you still enjoying life in the country? (photo taken 1981. Emily, Amber, Granny, Lauren-- on the left. Eric-- in front)

Happy Halloween!!

October in my backyard

Between our few "cold" spells, we get summer temperatures, so...

                                                    Summer flowers keep blooming.

Flowering shrubs don't know when to quit.

Our lemons and oranges will be ripening soon and showing their true fall colors of yellow and orange.

In the meantime, my fall garden is struggling not to wilt during the hot weather this week ("cold" front coming the end of this week). I've solved the problem of our pesky resident squirrel digging holes in the garden to hide all the pecans he strips from our tree.  Hanging inside the panty hose in my garden is a bar of Irish Spring deodorant soap. Squirrels don't like the smell.

                                       Meanwhile, Grandpa has fun painting the house.

But not as much fun as he had 20 years ago, when he painted our first home. (He is in front of the 2nd story window that Mark fell out of when he was 4 years old, and miraculously survived with just a tiny compression fracture of one of his verebrae in his back. He was supposed to be taking a nap. Instead he unlocked the window, opened it, and sat on the ledge to watch a swimming pool being built next door. He leaned against the screen, and out he flew.)

AAAAAHHH......

We thought we had died and gone to heaven .....

But in reality, we were in a place very close to Heaven .... hill country in Texas

This past weekend we went camping and tubing on the Frio River with 8 of our little river rats (and their parents)

Aiden loved the wildflowers.

Evan loved the river rocks.

The mommies loved cooking on the camp stove.

And Grandpa loved setting up our tent, using his Boy Scout knots (see the clothesline he put up), and using his  radio to pick up some good old timey country western stations coming out of Leakey and Hondo.

Some projects

Here's a fun project Grandpa completed at the beginning of this summer. He loves to make things out of wood.

This Adirondack chair is so comfy and pretty, painted green.

I prefer to make my projects out of softer material, like this scrappy quilt I am making (almost done)  out of some great Moda fabrics my sister-in-law Beverly gifted me with.
Another project I finally completed   -- the latest installment of family history with photos here!!!!