Quick stop by the state capital

We're on our way back to the hotel and decided to stop by the capital building and see it at night. It is quite a sight.

Dinner in Austin wasa great!!!

The dinner was a success! Jason had a pizza. Jon had macaroni and cheese. Josh had grilled chicken and broccoli. We were proud of him for picking good food. They all shared what they had. Jason stated,"This was the best Italian food I've ever had ...uh ... Except for mom's" (as an after thought). Then we had Krispy Kreme donuts for desert.

We learned that when you go to a Krispy Kreme and the red "Hot Donuts: light is lit, each person that walks into KK gets a free glazed donut. They give you one hot off the grill. They are soooo good like that.

Jason in Austin

Well, we made it to Austin. First order of business after getting to our hotel room was to find food. We found a Macaroni Grill. That was Karen's favorite restaurant while we lived in Houston. Hopefully, the boys will find something on the menu they can endure.

Jason Writings - The Funky Uncle

Jason wrote a few stories while attending school at Taylor Elementary. Here is one of those stories. The story is presented here exactly as it was on the paper.


THE FUNKY UNCLE
Who’s the funkiest uncle? Do you know? Well, I can tell you right here and now. It’s my uncle! I think.
Um, well, It all started like this. I met him when I was 1. But I didn’t have much to do with him till I was 5. Then I stated to play a game with him called yu-gi-oh. I’ve been playing the game for 4 years! The game is simple. Wipe out your opponent’s life points starting, at 8000. Well, after I learned yu-gi-oh, he taught me about gaming and graphics. Then after about a year, me and him played video games all the time. But then, came the move. My uncle moved all the way to Houston. I wasn’t happy for a whole day. But one day, my mom and dad agreed that we could go visit him!!!!! For a week I was planning what we’d do. Then when we got there (after 8 hours of driving). I tried to spend as much time with him as possible. Well, I guess its time to tell you his name, Uncle Derek. But I will tell you one thing. He is the funniest funkiest uncle, who ever lived. P.S. When I’m around him, he gets the funky mojo going in me to.

Birthday Pool Party

We spent the day at Uncle Mike's and Aunt Robin's house. The reason for the party was Kaitlyn's 15th birthday. All the usual suspects were there: Ma-maw, Pa-paw, Uncle Andy, Jamie, Jane, all of us, and, of course, Makenzie. As the saying goes, "The cake and ice cream flowed like wine." Or something like that. And there were some good brownies.

After treats came the gifts. Kaitlyn mostly received gift cards but got some clothes. Finally, it came down to pool time. The kids are in the pool right now playing Marco Polo. I think the kids had a good time. Thanks Mike and Robin for a good party.

An Evening at Willow Creek Golf Course

Lord knows, we try! We took the boys out to Willow Creek Golf Course. It is a par-3, nine hole course here in Abilene. We managed to lose something like 6 balls, most of them in the water. Anyhow, the boys had a good time for the most part. We need to work on two areas: their golf safety, being defined as not walking up to someone who is swinging a golf club and being courteous, being defined as not rushing to be the first one to hit off the tee box. There were some really good hits. And then there was number 9. Did you know there are 3,246,547 blades of grass between the number 9 tee box and the green? Well, we had plenty of time to count them. The boys got tired around this point of the evening. Every hit was 2 - 3 inches behind the ball and when they hit the ball, it would travel 10 yards.

We were all tired and thirsty at the end so we went to Sonic and had cool drink.

My First Drawer

This may look like a simple drawer to the untrained eye. But, it is not. It is, in fact, the first drawer I have ever built myself. It is, therfore, an achievement equal to if not greater than the building of the pyramids or one of the other great wonders of the world. And, just in case you are wondering, it fits and works perfectly. On to the next drawer!

Vacation 2007 - Hiking on a Mountain

We spent the morning hiking on the Fort Davis Historic Site in ... Uh ... Fort Davis. It was a cloudy day so the trip was very comfortable. The hike at the fort is about 2 miles and involves going up the side of the mountain, across it and back down.

We are all hungry so we're headed into town for lunch.

Vacation 2007 - Rock Hunting

We spent a majority of the day on a ranch about 15 miles south of Alpine. On this ranch, one can search for and collect agate rocks. Particularly, there is a rock called Red Plum Agate that cannot be found anywhere else in the world. Karen actually found one of these rocks in very good condition. The boys also found some very nice rocks.

After the rock hunt, we went to Alpine to eat at a good little restaurant called La Casita. The food was very tasty.

After that, we returned to the cabin for a swim.

Right now, the boys and I are in town (Fort Davis, of course) having ice cream at The Caboose.

That's it for today.

Vacation 2007 - Time on the Range

We spent time on the driving range, not the open range, yesterday. Jason and Joshua hit golf balls at the flags. I made a deal with them: if they made it within a few feet of the red flag, I would buy them a new game for their Game Boy. I still have my money. But there are two more days for them to try. I really hope they make it.