Labor Day Weeked fun

                            Baby shower for Emily (my oldest daughter), hosted by one of her sweet sister-in-laws.

Among friends who came, was Tamara, who was a high school buddy and who now lives in the same town as Emily.

                                                    Her sisters were there to celebrate.

Lauren is also bursting at the seams, and is due to give birth the same time as Emily (end of Sept, beginning of Oct.) -- give or take a day or two.  It'll be a very exciting time for this Grammy. It'll be like having twins. They both are having girls.

The next day, we joined other family members for a delicious fish fry at Pat and Leslie's house. Here is Grandpa with his Texas siblings, (L-R: Stuart, Donna, Pat, and Sharon).

wrapping up summer

Before school started, we did our annual summer theatre outing with a few of the grandkids (and Jessica --just back from the Carribean). 

We were entertained by a very funny production of "Alice in Wonderland" at Houston's Miller Outdoor Theatre. Jessica for treated us to lunch at a yummy Asian restaurant in the Heights.

We squeezed in one last family outing with all our Texas babies (8 of them), and two baby bumps (Emily and Lauren are due just a few days apart from each other -- last week of Sept. and first week of Oct.)

Toledo Bend Park was a nice respite from the terrible heat and drought we've been having. It even rained the last night and morning we were there. We were hoping those rain clouds would have followed us home to Houston, but no such luck. 

wrap-up of a hot, sweaty June

First of June, we said "good-bye" to Jessica and Lady as they headed off for a fun filled summer in the Carribean with Walter. You can see how much fun they're having here.

Then on Father's Day weekend (Sat.) Grandpa and I participated, along with 2,000 supporters, in the prostate cancer awareness 5k (3 mi.) race in downtown Houston.

Grandpa was awesome, winning a medal for a 3rd place finish in his age division. The triple digit heat really slowed me down, and I missed getting a medal in my age division by one place. I was so thrilled for Grandpa to get a medal; he sure is a winner in my eyes.

After a quick shower and change of clothes, we headed down I-10 to spend the rest of the day celebrating this sweet grandson's 7th birthday. (Love that boy!)

We wrapped up June with Jeremy flying in from Utah for a week's visit.  It had been a long time since he'd been home, and we've been really missing him. It was so good to hang out with him.  We took Jeremy, along with his brother Carl,  to the Jamail Skate boarding park overlooking downtown Houston, and had fun watching all the action.

We spent a day at Schlitterbahn in Galveston, where Jeremy persuaded his Dad to go on the most scary water rides, like the very tall waterslide. I hope Emily and Lauren's blogs have photos of our day on the beach at Galveston, where the grandkids (Jeremy's neices and nephews) had fun playing in the water with him, and throwing beach mud on him.) I had forgotten to bring my camera.

A week with Andy and Kay

It's so nice when  grown-up kids fly in for a visit. This was one last trip to Texas for Andy and KayLynn before moving to California at the end of May. We sure enjoyed hanging out with them and taking a little trip to San Antonio.

In spite of severe drought conditions, there was just enough water in the Guadalupe River for a little tubing.

           My big boys enjoyed the tree growing through the patio of our cabin. (This brought back memories of when Andy was a little boy, and I was always hollering at him to get down from the top of the tall pine tree in back of our house.)

                                              View of the Guadalupe from our cabin.

                                  It was fun to introduce KayLynn to Texas history at the Alamo.

After boat ride down the San Antonio River, we enjoyed lunch at one of the many restaurants on the Riverwalk.

Later on that  week, we joined with our other other Texas kids and grandkids for a day at the beach, Mother's Day, and a fun night at an Astros ballgame.

The grandkids really enjoyed playing with Andy and Kay (Emily's group had already headed for home, and missed getting in this picture.) The girls loved the "princess party" that KayLynn did for them. They will really miss her. Thanks for coming to visit us Andy and KayLynn!

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.

the circus came to town!

The girls spent 6 days with us while their mom, dad and baby brother were in Utah. The heat, humidity, and mosquitos kept us indoors most of the time (except for going swimming), so we really enjoyed it when the circus came to town!

During the "pre-show" the kids got up close and personal with the clowns, and got to try on some clown clothes.

They also got to try out their acrobatic skills.

I missed Kyla's walking the tightrope, because she came across so quickly behind Avery, while I was busy snapping pictures of Avery. So super-acrobat Kyla got to have her picture taken with one of the pretty circus performers.

 The girls got so close, they could have reached out and touched this gentle giant.

   She painted a picture during the "pre-show", using her trunk.

Some of us enjoyed parts (the intermission) of the circus more than others.

But I know we all agree, it was the "greatest show on earth"!

 Grrrrrrr! Grrreat fun for boys and girls of all ages!

summer days in Texas

Philip flew in for a few days of fun in the heat and humidity.

The fish weren't biting, just eating all the worms. Grandpa almost caught the big one -- a 5 foot alligator

who swam away with the hook and worm in his mouth. (There goes my alligator purse.) That gator kept trying to sneak up on the farm dogs who were cooling themselves off in the pond.

Walter caught a little bass.

The guys had better luck in Walter's dad's chicken coop, where they killed two 5 ft. long chicken snakes who had been eating all the eggs. Philip, finished this snake off by slinging it againist the fence post, almost hitting me in the face.  To quote Walter's dad: "Just another day on the farm."

Before flying back to Utah, Philip enjoyed a day at the beach, along with some of his nieces and a nephew and his doggie niece Lady Gaga,who sported a new swimsuit.

starting a new tradition

Grandpa had been wanting us to do this for years. This year,after all my kids are grown, I finally got excited about it. It was fun to make real gingerbread -- found a good recipe on the Internet for that and the royal icing. Graham crackers were used for the roof. The gingerbread was super sturdy, and yet soft enough and very delicious to eat. We gathered for a meal of Cajun shrimp gumbo--a new recipe which everyone, including kids (used half the amount of Cajun seasoning) enjoyed. Christmas music was turned on and the creativity began.
We had a lot of silly laughs.
For home evening night, on the Monday before Christmas, we'll be doing this again and again and again.