To my parents....

Dear Mom & Dad,

I want to take this opportunity to thank you for keeping the kids last week. They had a good time.

Apparently, while in your care, they've discovered a new passion. I learned the full extent of their new love when they went barrelling into the living room so that they could watch the big t.v. because 'it's not as good on a little t.v.' They had been watching the clock all evening, just waiting until it was time.

Wanna' know what they're so excited about?

Well, what else could it be but 'wraslin'?

I hear that they watched WWE Monday Night Raw at your house and they couldn't wait to see it last night.

Can you just imagine how my heart swelled with pride as sweet little Addison talked like the 'big mean dude' and tried to reinact some of the best moves? Of course, this was all during commercial break because they couldn't miss any of the action.

Thank you again, Mom & Dad, for helping us to expose our children to the finer things in life. Your efforts are truly appreciated.

Father's Day

We met my parents half way yesterday to get the kids back. It was good that I got to actually see my Dad on Father's Day too. The kids had a good time with the grandparents.

On the way home we stopped and played putt-putt golf. It's an indoor course and it's a black-light course. It was really neat and the kids had a lot of fun.

It's kinda' hard to get good pictures under those circumstances though.

Dax and Abigail helping the gorilla fight the snake.

Addison trying to get the snake away from the gorilla.

Addison riding a whale.

Abigail being attached by a shark.

After that we headed on home.

While dinner was cooking, the kids gave Dax presents they had gotten for him.

Golf balls from Wyatt.....

A tape measure from Addison....

A key chain from Kirsten.......

And a level from Abigail.........

(Did you notice how Addison managed to squeeze into the pictures with Kirsten and Abigail?)

Anyway, I don't know what I got him for Father's Day because he hasn't ordered it yet. I guess it'll be a surprise.

Hope everyone else had a good day, too.

It's party time.....

The kids are gone to their grandparents for a week.


Let the party begin!!


It's been off the hook so far.


After we dropped them off with their grandparents we stopped on the way home and went bowling. We had a lot of fun.


That was on Sunday. Yesterday we worked and then didn't do anything after because we're both too sore from bowling.


Tonight Dax has a meeting.

Party on! Right?

But, tomorrow night we're going out to dinner with some friends!!

I know you're jealous that we're here living 'la vida loca.'

We've got to slow down soon. Don't know how much longer we can keep up at this pace.


Update: When I got home from the office the dog (Rocky) had pooped in his kennel. When I say 'in his kennel' I only mean that HE was in it. He does his level best to make sure that none of it actually gets in his kennel (which must be a sight to see.) So, I had to clean the wall and carpet tonight.  Jealous yet?

Here we go.....

Took Kirsten to the orthodontist yesterday.


She had x-rays and all of that stuff done last week. Yesterday was to see what they found and/or decided to do.


It looks like it's going to be the works at this point.


They put in expanders yesterday. We go back in a couple of weeks for a rapid expansion retainer, then braces on the bottom first, then braces on the top, and thrown somewhere in the mix is the head gear too.


I signed the contract and made the down payment yesterday.


Gaaaahhhhhh! *faint*


That's what went on in my head anyway.

Weekend Getaway - Part 3

Sorry for the delay in getting part 3 posted. I lost misplaced my camera for a few days. Obviously, I've found it again.

Okay, on with the mini vacation.

On Sunday, we decided to go visit the actual fort in Ft. Davis. We had been there a few years before, but the kids wanted to go again.

We looked through the musuem at the front which has a lot of great information and items from when the fort was active.

These are officers' quarters on the fort. They have not yet been restored. It takes a lot of $$ to get the work done and at charging only $3 each for people over 16, they're not getting there very quickly.

The kids had been wanting to go on a hike too, and since there were some trails behind the fort, we decided to hike those.

What in God's name were we thinking?!!

I discovered something about myself.

I prefer to hike where there's a flat surface.....maybe an escolator if it's multi-level. I also like my hikes to have air conditioning, and maybe even a food court, if that's not too much trouble.

I guess it's true what they say. A little time out communing with nature can help you discover yourself.

Abigail did some more rock climbing.

Dax tried to destroy a national park!!

I swear I can't take him anywhere!

We did finally make it to the top, though.

...and it was beautiful.

Once there we took a well deserved break.

Look at me.....I'm on top of the wooooorld......

Okay, maybe, just maybe, we've watched Titanic one too many times.

I was even able to get some shots of the photographer in action.

Once we made it back down the trail (without any rescue efforts I might add) we headed into town to eat at a cute little diner we had seen.

After we ate, we headed back to our room. I'm pretty sure we either collapsed into our beds or had to go watch the kids while they swam in the pool.

Perhaps one is wishful thinking and one is reality?

Seriously, after all of that hiking they still had the energy to go play in the pool!

How is that even possible?

So, there ends the adventure. On Monday morning we loaded up and headed home. Nothing exciting happened on the way home and that's good.

It was a fun getaway for all of us.

Weekend Getaway Part 2

We had hoped to go horseback riding bust once we found out how much it costs now (holy cow!) we decided against that.

After looking around in the Big Bend Museum, we decided to drive the Big Bend Loop.

It certainly has some lovely scenery.

Addison missed most of it, though, because she wasn't feeling well and spent a lot of time doing this:

We stopped in Lajitas to look around but there really wans't much to see. Most of the shops were already closing for the day, so we took pictures instead.

That picture is cropped. It took several tries to even get this one and I had to crop Wyatt out. Here's the original.

Nice, huh?

It started to rain so we got back in the car and headed on down the road.

It was all going great until we got to this road block.

Which was soon followed by this much more serious road block.

When it rains hard in the mountains it causes big problems in those 'usually dry' creeks. I'm just guessing here, but I think it's what is commonly known as a flash flood.

After the water finally went down enough and we made it across, we saw the truck (looks like a snow plow) on it's way to clear the mud off the road.

I would also like to point out that we went and spent three days in the desert and it rained all three days. They should pay us to hang out there so that they can get more rain/water.

I'm just sayin'.

Once we headed on, we did see this.

I did stop here and take this picture for my Dad to honor our 'people.'

And then, of course, there was a lot more scenery as we headed back to the ranch.

To be continued......

Weekend getaway - Part 1

We picked the kids up from their last day of school on Friday and headed out to west Texas to spend a long weekend at Ft. Davis.

It's an interesting get-away because it's in the middle of nowhere. We stayed at the Prude Guest Ranch and there is not t.v., no phones in the rooms, not even any cell phone service. But, it's nice to get away from all of it every now and then.


Our first day there we went to the McDonald Observatory to the Star Party.

While we were waiting for it to get dark enough for the star party to start we bought some space ice cream.

Wyatt wasn't crazy about it.

It was cloudy so they did some things inside first and we went to a lecture on satalites and how to spot them in the sky and even how to find out when they would be coming over. It was really interesting. Then, after the class was over we headed back outside and got to look through the telescopes and see Saturn and some close up views of the moon. The kids really liked that.


The next day we headed into Alpine and went to the Big Bend Museum at Sul Ross State University.


It was pretty interesting.

Waiting on the steps in front of the building while Dax & I finished our coffee.

They even had gargoyles there to protect the building.

Here's Dax learning how to get burn berries hot. (Think of it as higher education.)

It works.

Just ask Kirsten. She still has the spot on her arm where Dax burned her. He didn't know it would actually do that.

Here's Wyatt contemplating attending college here.

It's a really pretty campus.

And believe it or not, Addison and Abigail managed to squeeze in some rock climing too.

To be continued.....