Banana Boy

There is a simple answer to what you do with all the bananas that you cut up...

Announcing our newest member to the family...

Macy! She's a very sweet dog.


After Sarah's soccer game, we headed to the shelter to "check it out"... We often go there to just see the animals. We ran into a family that was leaving and she mentioned to me that if we were looking for a dog, there is a sweet 9 month old blond puppy. She said she would have adopted her, but her husband didn't like dogs... We met Macy, a very cute dog. She is a retreiver/shepherd mix.

She was a stray puppy at the shelter at the beginning of the year and adopted by a family. She was returned to the shelter because the family lost their home. Then she was adopted by a second family and returned again because their current dog was beating Macy up. We are Macy's third family. The lady at the shelter was very pleased that Macy was going to her "three times a charm" family.


Here is Macy riding home with the kids in the car.


Then in the morning, Sarah and Ben gave Macy her first bath! Good thing it was warm outside! I think it was 76 at 9am. Currently at 6:45 it's 105.

It's been great! The kids absolutely adore her and she is great with the kids. Here are some pics... Enjoy!

It's the most wonderful time, of the year ;)

It's Back to School Time!!!

Yep, they started earlier this year... Sarah starts 5th grade, Ben will start 3rd, and Emily will start Pre-K. I'll only have Brandon home in the mornings.


Here are Ben and Sarah with Heeli and Monique on the playground!


Emily didn't have class today, but they had an Open House/Parent Meeting. Emily was very excited to see her friend Cici. They will be in the same class together.

The Road Home...

Ben and Matt got up and went back to Grasshopper Ranch. Ben really wanted to stay and play for a bit.


Then we headed to Aunt Mary Jane's house to say our goodbye's. Matt took a lot of pictures of Aunt Mary Jane's photo albums.

There was a pic of Matt (age 5) that looks just like Sarah and Emma.

Then it was time for lunch and the airport. We stopped and had some pizza then returned the rental car.


After driving 1224 miles around Texas, it was time to say goodbye and fly home.

We arrived in LA around 9pm and it was only 87 degrees... compared to 100+ temperatures of Texas. We had a great time and loved visiting with all the family.
Thanks so much!!! When you come out to CA, you have a place to stay!!! (hint, hint)

Grasshopper Ranch

We said our goodbyes to Aunt Anita, cousin Mary and Tim, and cousin Jamie, David, and Michael. Thank you so much for all of your hospitality and all the fun events that we did!!! We really enjoyed visiting and seeing all the great home movies.


We stopped in Waco on the way back for a lunch break. We ate at Whataburger. It was a cross between Frank's and In & Out. They are EVERYWHERE.

We took the kids to the Dr Pepper soda fountain and got ice cream... Here is Sarah and Emily with the old fashioned delivery truck.


We drove by Grasshopper Ranch. That is the name given to Frank's one acre lot in DeSoto, Texas. Matt, John, and Ben got out and checked it out and took lots of pictures.

Here are some panorama views of the lot...this one is from the street looking at the back of the lot.
This is from the back of the lot looking at the street.



Then we met up with Julie and Andrea for dinner at Chuy's. It was like Chevy's in LA.

We got back to the hotel and the kids went swimming until we got kicked out of the pool. Off to bed...

The State Capitol of Texas

Today, we went to state capitol. We tried taking the tour, but the kids wouldn't have it. We walked around and checked things out ourselves.


The capitol building itself is HUGE. Here are two shots, the top is the building... You can see the family on the steps... the second is zoomed in.


Here are Matt, Brandon, and Sarah heading into the building and Emily by the front sign.




There were also these really neat hinges on the doors. Everything was very detailed. Lots of carved wood, etched windows, and marble floors. When the building was built, they traded Texas land to the builder in exchange for the fine details.


Here is a picture of the view up at the dome. The star at the top is eight feet across.

Here is the floor from the third level.

The legislature is on the second floor and here is the family in the State Senate.


Outside on the grounds, they had cannons, other statues, and artesian water fountains.

There are natural springs underground in Austin and there is so much pressure that it bubbles up to the surface.

We had lunch at the capitol commissary and then headed to the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum. This museum told the history of Texas. It was interesting, but the kids were "done" with museums...

Here is my only "illegal" shot. Brandon wanted his picture in front of the conquistador and then a security guy told me that cameras were not allowed... oops.

Hanging Out, Chillin' Austin Style...

Today, we just hung out around the house and pool. We spent the morning with Aunt Anita and the kids watched a movie.


Joe and Carol arrived from Houston with their grandson Kehlan.


And the boys instantly clicked! They were playing all sorts of made up games.


We spent the afternoon at the local country club pool. They were having a customer appreciation day and Emily got a balloon animal. A swan.

Then we went over to cousin Mary's house and had a cook out and just visited with everyone.


The kids went on a nature walk around Mary's house and Brandon found a really neat shell fossil.

He later fell asleep on Matt's shoulders. Yep, he's actually asleep!


After the nature walk, the kids had some ice cream. Here is cousin Michael and Sarah.

When it got dark enough, we watched old family home movies. They were really neat to watch. A pretty nice day... By night's end, everyone was really tired and a little sunburned.

Lake Travis

Today was a very easy day. We got up and got ready for the lake.

Jaime and David rented a boat and took the kids tubing.
Here is Emma with David.

Here are Sarah and then Sarah and Ben... They LOVED it! They kept asking to go again, go faster, and laughing the whole time!





Then we went to lunch at County Line BBQ.

After lunch, the kids fed the turtles.

We just relaxed around the house today. It was nice not to be running around.

The Alamo in San Antonio, Texas

This morning started off really slow. We slept in and had a nice breakfast and then woke the kids up around 9am. We finally got out of the house around 11.

We headed to San Antonio to check out the Alamo and the Riverwalk. We were not expecting much, but it was amazing! We could have spent more time there!



After the Alamo, we headed downtown to the Riverwalk. It is the San Antonio River that runs through the center of town in a large oval. There are 40+ restaurants along the edge of the river.

This was under one of the street bridges where there was a waterfall...


We ate at Lone Star because that's what the kids wanted. It was not good for the adults... oh well... Here is Ben with his Texan Alamo money.


We then took the river boat ride around the downtown. It was very interesting. We learned a lot about some of the buildings that tower over the town. This building is an optical illusion. It is triangular, but when you look up at it, it looks like a flat knife... It is a hospital. Also, one of the hotels was not allowed to be built over 16 floors high, because you cannot have a shadow on a war memorial at sunset. This hotel over looks the Alamo.



We also learned that many old bridges were put together by rosettes. There are only seven remaining in the US and five are in San Antonio. Here are the kids in front of the rosettes.


After the boat ride, we did more walking around the Riverwalk. Brandon and I ran across this really neat lizard, gecko, chameleon reptile... When it burped like a frog, it's throat turned bright orange. Brandon really liked it.


Then the kids found Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream. Here it was called the Alamoo! Hahahaha!


Then our final stop on the way home was Cabela's.