For Wyatt and Ashton, today is the first day of school.
Wyatt began 3rd grade and has a young but very sweet teacher (she still has braces for goodness’ sake.) Ashton started first grade and has the same teacher that Wyatt had when he was a first grader.
It’s hard to believe that our little kids are growing so fast. We are proud parents.
For my dad’s birthday, we decided to give him some tickets to go see the Texas Rangers. Despite their recent woes, he is still a die-hard fan. Me, not so much, but taking him and a few of his grand kids out there would make for a fun night.
The date we chose was Tuesday, August 19th. Coincidentally, on Sunday, some good friends at church offered Kara and me two tickets to the game that night. They even volunteered to watch the kids. So, of course, we took them up on the offer.
The seats were good ones just down the first base line. The game, not so much…the Rangers got beat 7 - 4 for their 9th loss in their last 11 games.
We had a fun date.
Then, Tuesday, we went to the game with my dad.
This was the kid’s first Ranger’s game and they had a blast. Even though the Rangers lost badly, 11 - 3, the game was an experience to remember.
Looking out the back of the ballpark, I was in awe of the size of the new Cowboys stadium.
That thing is massive.
Our two nights with the Rangers were a lot of fun. The baseball may not have been top notch but time with family always is.
Time flies when you are having fun and the incredibly fun twelve years with my beautiful wife has been a flash! It is hard to believe that its been well over a decade since I made one of the best decisions of my life and said “I do” to the one God sent me. Several jobs, four houses, one weenie dog, and three incredible kids later, we are still going strong…by the grace of God.
I could not have asked for a better person to share my life with and I tell her that often.
To celebrate, we got to escape on an extended weekend to what is becoming a favorite spot in Galveston. And thanks to Mom and Jim, we were kid free. (not that they would not have been fun to have along…but you married-with-children people know what I am talking about.)
For Kara and I, the road trip is part of the fun. We listen to music (I created our very own playlist with lots of They Might Be Giants), laugh at each other, stop for Blizzards, and even stop for Disc Golf when I can talk her into it.
To get to Crystal Beach where we stay, we take a ferry across the Galveston shipping channel. This is such a unique and fun experience. We even got to see more bottle nosed dolphins arching out of the water on our ferry ride across.
Here is my lovely bride taking in the sites…she’s my beautiful girl.
I could not pass up this sunset behind the ferry’s Texas flag.
While we were at the beach, we splashed in the large waves, sat and read magazines and fought the wind. (I have pictures on my other camera to share later.) We also spent some time in the house…watching the Olympics, of course.
As you can see, the wind was in our faces as we went back across to Galveston to end the trip. But the gales could not put a damper on our relaxing and fun trip…and such is life: we have had our share of “windy days” but the sun keeps shining and God keeps taking good care of us. I cannot wait for many more years!
This past weekend was full of fun times.
I played in a disc golf tourney in Cedar Hill.
The course is very challenging with thick trees and a pond that comes into play.
There is actually a family of beavers that have build a house in the pond. See the white mound in the picture above.
Unfortunately, I did not shoot well and ended up way down the list.
Despite some frustration, I did have a fun time.
Saturday evening, we had a party for my good friend Jeremy Haile. He recently graduated from Law school…quite an accomplishment after years of very hard work. Here are some pictures from the party.
A great time was had by all. Congrats Jeremy!
This was our view from the lakehouse that we recently rented on Lake Travis near Austin for the Parker family’s summer trip. An absolute blast was had by all.
We spent much time on a rented deck boat which was perfect for cruising, swimming and even dragging the kids around on the tube and the knee board.
Ashton got into the knee boarding action and was happy as could be.
Even Parker braved the waves and took a spin behind the boat. Thank you to Uncle Pete for coaching Parker on the proper technique.
Reese and Parker also had fun just riding along on the boat.
Then, of course, there was the fishing. Zach brought his fishing boat and was nice enough to take me along on a couple of fishing trips. I did actually catch some fish which is a welcome change for me.
The kids had their fill of Perch fishing around the dock as well. (Somehow I didn’t get any pictures of that…might been all the worms I was putting on and all the fish I was taking off.)
In all, we had a safe, smooth and very fun trip with the Parkers. BIG thank you to Grandad and Granny and Pops and Nana for making the trip possible for us all.