Heading for an adventure

We are going to take the grandkids on a camping trip to Abilene State Park starting on Sat. There will be much swimming, bike riding, hiking, and fishing done, so Opie and I need to rest up so we can keep up with them (or maybe they need to rest up to keep up with us, ha ha). We are looking forward to spending some quality time with them with no computer games to distract them or us. I will send pics after we get back. One thing the state parks don't have is internet access for campers. Check in week after next and I'll see how fast I can get a few pics up for you all to see.

Sand Fest

We had a great time with Shell and Jerome at the Sand Fest in Port Aransas this past weekend. Larry and I took a walk Sat. morning on the beach and saw a Jack Ship which is a type of ship that Rena has been on. The three legs sit on the sea floor and anytime the waves get too big they just "jack" the ship up the legs and get the boat out of the water. Rena was out and I thought she might be on the one we saw but she was way out south of Mississippi on a barge. But, seeing the jack ship out there was pretty interesting.

Now on to the sand fest. The sculptures were fantastic and so detailed it was unbelivable. They start on Friday and have to be finished by Sunday noon. I wish I could send more pics, because I took a bunch, especially since we went there Fri., Sat., and Sun. so we saw the works in progress. Here are just a few. I will try to add some more so this may look really long, but I have a few close up ones where you can really see details.

Look at the details. You can see through the "rocks" that are stacked. Some of the scluptures are taller than the people doing the work. There were faces, mushrooms that grow on trees, owls, cats, squirrels. It was amazing.

Anyway, I have lots and lots more because I just could not get over how they do that. I would love to go again. Each year they have different sculptures and I don't know how they come up with the ideas, but they are incredible. Oh yeah, we also ate lots of good seafood and drank lots of cold beer. What a relaxing weekend.

Busy weekend

Wow, what a weekend!!! We had the open house at Rheingold on Saturday so I left the house at 8:15 to start setting up (of course Larry's sub needed off so he was not there until later). We were really surprised at how many people came. We had almost 100 visitors. Some former students came and visited with the members who were also former students. I would bet there were lots of stories told about the things they used to do back then. We were supposed to be open from 10-4, but people were still coming in until 5 and then Larry said we needed to be in Stonewall at 6:30 for casino night at the chamber building. He had bought tickets and I didn't know it until then. So we loaded up two vehicles and hauled it back home and unloaded some of it and got ready and went again. The casino night was fun, but we didn't win any prizes at the end of the evening. Then we got up early on Sunday because Larry had to fix 50 lbs of beans for the Friends BBQ. We left there at 1:00 and went home and crashed and burned. Then we unloaded everything else and cleaned up the mess from the beans and rested some more. Anyway, it was all fun and worth it, but very tiring. This weekend we don't have anything planned until Sunday when Tyler gets confirmed so hopefully we can get some things done at home...hummm home...where is that? Oh yeah it's that place where we sleep and change clothes, as least that is all we are doing there now.

We are going to Mason Thursday evening to watch Colten play baseball so that will be fun. That's all for now. I tired again just thinking about what we did.

Galveston, Galveston

We finally got to go to Galveston this past weekend to see Serena. D'Lynn and the kids went down on Friday and Larry and I went on Sat. We even saw some neighbors when we were down there. The Mohrs from down the road were there with their family.

The kids had a great time at the beach even though it was a little windy and cool. Kids do not care.




Here are Larry and I with our babies.


This is one of the homes Larry and Rena and I toured on Sunday afternoon. They have some really nice Victorian homes there and then we drove around and looked at more and then took a walk that evening around where Rena lives and looked at the outside of a bunch of them. Also had some excitement while we were down there. A riot broke out on the seawall where they were having a concert and 12 people got arrested and the sirens went on and on. Rena lives within walking distance of the wall and we were able to see all kinds of cop cars come and go and try to get cars directed out of the area. It was crazy. First time Larry and I have ever been in a town while a riot was going on. Needless to say Serena was glad we were there and we were glad we were with her, too. This is her first spring break in Galveston and I think she is just going to hunker down for the rest of the week. We did eat at some really good restraunts and enjoyed our visit very much. Now we just need to see when we can go again when there are not so many people there.

We also finally stopped at Bucee's on the way back from Galveston. Man that place has just about anything you want even though it is just a convenience store.

Fun Weekend

We had a great weekend with the kids. We watched Ashlyn play basketball on Sat. morning. You can see her here (in the purple shirt) doing a lay up and she did make another basket that day. She played really well and was more aggressive than she had been so that was good. You need to do that in basketball.



We took them home with us and Colten and Opie went fishing. They caught 14 fish and Colten caught the most. He was so proud and Opie was, too. You can see their catch below. Ashlyn wanted to watch a Harry Potter movie so her and I did that. She has really taken a shine to reading and is on the last book of the Harry Potter series (and these are BIG books). Takes after her Omie in that. I will have to see if I have other books at home that she may like.

After looking at a map of Texas the kids have decided that they want to go to Abilene State Park in stead of Caprock State Park which is almost in the panhandle. We are looking forward to that trip which will be the first week of June. That's all for now.

Getting back on line

Well, it has been a while since I have logged on. There has been a lot going on. Marilyn is finally getting her bone marrow transplant today so keep her in your prayers. She will find out in 1-14 days if it worked. If it works she will hopefully be able to come home in May.

We did go camping to Garner State Park this past weekend. The only bad day was Sat. and we came back into town for a funeral anyway so it did not matter. Larry's uncle, Carlos Young, passed away. Now back to the camping trip. Vicki and Rick went also and Vicki hates the hikes I pick out because they are "uphill both ways". She asked at the front office about an easy hike and they drew on off for her. So Sunday, which was a beautiful day, we set out on this "easy" hike. It took us 2 1/2 hours and we were going up rocky craigs and down washed out gullies and I just laughed because I got to go on my kind of hike, but didn't have to take the blame. It was great. Here are some pics of the vistas we were able to see from the "easy hike". Vicki is never going to hear the end of it.

It was nice to get away. We are planning on taking the grandkids at the beginning of June and we are looking forward to that and I think they are, too.

It is finally going up---the deck that is. We need to get it finished first so that we can get in and out of the bathroom upstairs without schlepping everything through the house. It will still be a while, but it is further than it was.

Rena is doing fine. Not working much right now, but hopefully that will pick up as the weather gets better. Keep your fingers crossed for her, she needs the work.

Until next time.

Nothing much going on

Just wanted to let you all know that we are still kicking. Larry, Marvin and Frances went to see Marilyn and Jerald in Houston on Sat. and Marilyn is doing pretty good considering what she has gone through. She is scheduled for the bone marrow transplant on Feb. 20 with Feb. 14 being the beginning of whatever it is they have to do first. This is only if everything stays stable so keep praying for her so that she can get this done and start on the road to recovery.

We are planning another camping trip on President's Day weekend to Garner State Park. Need to go there before all of San Antonio shows up there like they do in the summertime.

My computer is fixed and working great and I will start to send pics again when I can remember to bring mine to work.

Everybody stay well and I will check in again soon.