A Fun Vacation

Ken and Lisa asked us to go on a short vacation with them. They were going to New Braunfels for three days. So we decided to go along. We left Monday morning around 9:30 a.m. It is about 4 1/2 hours down there. We stopped along the way at Subway for lunch. It was a very pleasant drive down. When we arrived, we had arranged to rent a small home near Schlitterbahn, which is a water park where we were going to spend Tuesday. The house was very nice. It had 2 bedrooms, a living room, a family room, a kitchen, and a bathroom. While it was small, it was very comfortable and fun. It was an older home. You can see a picture of it below. One shows the house and the other shows Carolyn standing on the porch of the house.













New Braunfels is a german town and so we had to eat out at a German resturant. It was called Oma's Haus (Grandmother's House). I had wurst and potato pancakes and Carolyn had Snitzel. It was a fun experience to relive some of the time in Germany. Then we went shopping to get some groceries for meals on Tuesday and breakfasts for the trip.

Tuesday morning, Lisa and I got up and went running. Then we got ready to go to Schlitterbanh. That is a German word for "Sliding road or track" It is a large water park. We arrived at 9:30 and closed the park down at 8:30. We went home for lunch and rested for a while and then stayed until 8:30 before we went home to have dinner. Below are some pictures of us playing at the park.
















Wednesday we went to San Antonio. We went to the Alamo.














Because they had been to San Antonio several times, they decided to go to a couple of museums? We went to the Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum. We saw some fun things and some unbelievable things. Here are some pictures from the museum.


This shows Morgan, Tanner, and Andrew in the worlds biggest tire.


I had a chance to stand by the Berlin wall again.


This shows Tanner standing next to the tallest man in the world.







After we finished up at Ripley's, we went to a was museum where we had the opportunity to see many famous people.


Morgan visiting with Oprah


Tanner talking to Dr. Phil about how it is he is a cool kid.


This was the Last Supper in Wax.


This was the walk to Golgatha.

The wax people were incredible.



Thursday morning we went to an African Safari where you drive through and animals come up and eat from your hand out the car window.























After our Safari, we went back to the house and packed and headed home. of course we had to stop along the way back for the mandatory "Lizzard" from Dairy Queen. We want to thank Ken and Lisa and the kids for taking us on this little trip with them. It was a very fun time for us.

I Love Summer

I love summer when the children and grandchildren are a little less pressured and have more time to relax. Michelle came down in early June and we have really enjoyed having her here. She has been a great help and is so fun to be around. Amy finished with her summer school teaching and curriculum development a couple of weeks ago and so she is home during the day now. This has given us the chance to go jogging together more than on just the weekend. We went everyday last week except Sunday. We did about an hour each day. It is so relaxing and enjoyable and it gives us a chance to be together.

Friday, Ken and Lisa came down to visit. Ken helped me set up my computer, we ran some errands, played some games, visited and just had a fun day together.

On Saturday morning Bryan and Marika called and asked if they could just come over and hang out for a little while. They came around noon and spent much of the afternoon with us. It was fun to have them around as we don't get to see them as often as we would like. We played Wii and visited and ate and just enjoyed each others company. Satuday night Kevin arrived from BYU-I. He will be with us for about 7 weeks until the next semester starts. He is working for the company he has worked with since he came back from his mission. He must be doing a great job because they find a job for him whenever he is in town. It pays more that jobs at BYU-I so he takes advantage of this to save up some money to help him when he is in school.

On Sunday, Amy and Any came over and visited with us after church. It was fun to have some time with them. We played some games and just talked. It was great. Andy has graduated and is working for a CPA. He really enjoys it. They stayed until around 5:00. Mark and Stevie came down around 4:30 to see Michelle one more time and had dinner and visited with us. We played some games. There seems to be a game theme here. It was nice having them here. They left about 9:00. At church on Sunday I had talked with Bryan and he told us he was going to Roundrock for some training on Monday and that Marika was going to Oklahoma to see her sister on Tuesday. I was telling him we had a car in the shop and he said he was taking a rental car to Round Rock and so his car would be available. He said he would drop it by. I kind of forgot about that until 10:00 when the doorbell rang and it was Bryan and his family. They were just coming back from having dinner with Ken and Lisa and wanted to drop of the car and see Kevin. Well, Kevin and Michelle decided that Austin needed a hair cut. They finally wrestled him into it. So we did the 11:00 Hair Salon. He really looked good when it was done.

Monday Ken and Lisa, Amy and Michelle helped us with some organizing. We went through lots of things and threw out stuff and organized other things. It is something we needed to do. Monday night I went on splits with the missionaries. While I was gone, Amy and Andy came by and spent some time and Lori and Doug and their family called and every one went to Dairy Queen for our favorite treats (Blizzards). About 8:30 Marika and her children came by and Austin and Kendall spent the night with us before they left for Oklahoma.

I am so happy to have this type of contact with our children and grandchildren and love summers when we can do it.

How time flies!

The last couple of weeks have been busy weeks with lots of fun with our grandchildren. On June 29th we welcomed our 19th grandchild. We received a call early Sunday morning that Stevie was in labor. So we threw on our close and headed for Denton. Sarah was born around 10:30. We went to see her that evening.

During the week after the baby was born, we went up to Stevie and Mark's in Denton to help with the three little boys while they got accustomed to the new baby. It was really fun (but tiring. We know why people have children when they are you are young.) to be with the boys. They were fun to be around and played well and were great little helpers. They love to watch Little Einstein and Dora and they love to read books. We went for picnics, took walks, napped, and just had a good time. One day we brought them down to Lori and Doug's and took them swimming. It was a good time for us to be with the boys and have a good time with them.

The next week we spent a few parts of days up in Denton just to give Stevie a little help but she has pretty much taken over and is back to handling four kids. We are grateful for the time we had with them.

On Friday, Lori and Doug took Taylor to Boston for his 16th birthday. He wanted to go to a Red Sox game. So we had the opportunity of staying with their kids. We started on Friday and were with the kids until kids until Monday evening. Again, we are so grateful for the time we have to spend with our grandchildren. Lori's kids are great helpers and we had a good time with them. Megan is working at Chili's so we hardly saw her. The other kids spent a lot of time swimming, playing on the computer, helping with jobs and running around.

On Saturday we had Mark and Stevie's kids come down and stay with us at Lori's. Matthew had a birthday party that day and it was a swim party so the hosts wanted each child to have a parent there. So I was the parent stand it. It was a very interesting cultural experience. The party was for a young Hispanic boy. The party was scheduled from 12:30 to 3:30. We were running late from having the kids swim at Lori and Doug's and so we didn't arrive until 12:45. When we got there, we were the first to arrive. The father said that I must not know about MMST. I asked him what that was and he said "Mexican Mormon Standard Time." He said the people just show up when they get there. It appeared that this was really true. The first group to arrive after we got there arrived at about 1:15. The last group we saw arriving arrived at around 3:15 just as we were leaving. The father said that the party would probably go until around 8:00 in the evening. It was really a fun time and the food was great. But MMST was an interesting concept.

That day was also Morgan's 11th birthday. She had a Hawaiian party. The cousins her age were all invited and so we took Lori's kids up and had a great time at the party. I am going to try and get some pictures from Lisa to put here. They had a lot of games that they made Hawaiian. For example, they played "Pin the Coconut on the Palm Tree.) They also divided into groups and each group made up a dance to Hawaiian music. Michelle helped choreograph the dances. The kids then did them and they video taped them and showed them to the kids. It was hilareous. Sunday was very relaxing and Monday we just swam and relaxed. Lori, Doug and Taylor arrived back around 9:00 on Monday evening. We went home tired but really grateful to have most of our children close to them and really enjoy spending time with time.

That kind of ended our two weeks of baby sitting. We are so thankful to have

Another Language Story

Because of my love of language, I am always amused by stories that I hear about my grandchildren involving language. Nicole called last night and told me a story about Weston. He is working on being "Potty Trained". Last night he came into Nicole after going to the potty and said he was "on the potty train." I immediately told Nicole he had been watching to much "So You Think You Can Dance" (Guess who has really been watching to much of that?" But Nicole had the explanation of why he said it. They are always talking about having him toilet trained. Thus he is on the "toilet train". Aren't multiple meaning words wonderful? How often do you think young kids wonder what we are talking about when we are using one meaning and they only have the other one. Well so much for a cute story.