Summer Vacations Part 2

After the waterpark, we ate at the Rainforest Cafe. The kids and Sharon have been there before, while we were at the Cotton Bowl. The last time, Kreek ate a bunch and had lots of a volcano desert and got sick in the middle of the night and it was not fun. So he was not too excited about going, but he shared a pizza with Uncle Coy and had no dessert and did fine.

There is an alligator at the entrance and Kreek was trying to throw a penny into his mouth.

Being silly!

After lunch at the Rainforest Cafe in Grapevine, we headed to Dallas to Medieval Times. Kreek absolutely loved in and Kaegen did after she realized it was not real and they really were not trying to kill eachother.

Our knight we cheered for was the Yellow Knight. He did good, but in the end he was not the winning knight.

After each competition event, the knight is given 3 flowers to give to 3 of his fans. We sat on the 1st row and he rode up to Kaegen and handed it to her.

Kaegen and Kreek with the princess. Can you see how happy Kaegen is? She is with a "real" Princess.

Kaegen and Ashley with the knight who gave Kaegen the flower.

Kreek got all the knights to sing his crown and this was our yellow knight.

We had a great vacation and can't wait till next summer. First day of school post coming soon!!

Oops I forgot

I forgot to include the best pictures. Theses were taken during the big tube rides.

Kreek was sort of scared and was right next to Ashely. I got the joy of going down backwards and hated it.

So the next time with Sharon I made sure I was not seated where I would be backwards. The funny thing is that after this picture was taken, Ashley drank about a gallon of water.

This is the howling tornado ride. Coy, Ashley and Sharon rode it first.

Sharon told Coy and Ashley not to tell me the whole truth about the ride or I probably would not ride it. So I caved in and went to ride the ride. As we got on the tube and were pushed away, Coy said, "Oh there will be a little drop off in a while, but I will tell you when." I said, "Oh Coy you are scaring me", then it went dark and Coy informed me that we were fixing to drop. And then I screamed like a little girl as we went down into a big bowl that swung you back and forth. As you can see in the picture, I was very tense and Coy and Ashley were looking at me laughing. After it was over, it was not that bad, just shocking at first.

Summer Vacations Part 1

Kreek had told Nana that he wanted to ride a train this summer. We found the Texas State Railroad train that went from Palestine to Rusk (in east Texas). On Saturdays, it has a Lone Ranger rides again theme show. So Sharon, Kreek, Kaegen and I left on Friday July 31st and arrived in Palestine about 9:00 pm. The kids swam until 11:00 pm and we finally got to bed around midnight. We headed to the train the next morning. We meet lots of "bandits" before boarding the train that departed at 11:00 am. While on the train, they "robbed" it and explained that all the money is donated to charity. Kaegen also became a Texas millionaire, receiving a million dollar bill with one of the bandits pictures in the middle of it. As the train was moving, each "bandit" would walk around and talk to everyone. Then the Lone Ranger and Tonto came through and met everyone also. About halfway to the next depot, the train stopped and they had a shoot out. We stopped at Rusk and ate lunch and then got back on the train and headed back to Palestine. Once we got to Palestine, we got in the car and headed back home. We got in about 1:30 am. It was really neat and we all enjoyed it.

I began this post on Monday and then I had a melt down. I discovered that I had never downloaded the pictures of the train ride onto my computer and I have already deleted them off my camera. So I have no pictures from the train ride and I almost cried.

So, onto the next vacation. We all went to Avery's 1st birthday party in Midland on Sat., August 8th. She is so precious and is growing up fast. Coy, Ashley, Sharon, Kreek, Kaegen and I headed to the Dallas area after her party. We made it to Weatherford and spent the night. After going to Church, we headed to the Great Wolf Lodge in Grapevine. For those of you who don't know about it, it is a hotel with an indoor and outdoor waterpark. It was a blast and we all had fun.

This is the outside. It has 600 rooms and is beautiful.



The big 4 person tube rides as they come outside and then you end up back inside.




This is what you see when you walk in the waterpark. The bucket at the top will dump 1000 gallons of water on top of you.

There were 3 single slides on the inside and 2 big slides with 4 person tubes.

Kreek riding a wave in the wave pool.

Kaegen and Aunt Ashley in the wave pool.

In the kiddie pool.

These are 2 outside slides with an outside pool.

Kreek loved the lilly pad obstical course and would jump from one to the next.

This was Kaegen's favorite. The wolf would howl a few times and then water would spray out everywhere. Kaegen is in the pink swimsuit.

This is what Kreek's hands looked like after all day of swimming.

Kaegen went to hear Wiley read a bedtime story to all the kids.

There is soooo much to do at the Great Wolf Lodge and we had a blast. I will post a Summer Vacations Part 2 and post pictures of the next few days we spent in the Dallas Area on another day soon hopefully.

New puppy, kittens, and rattlesnakes

The new puppy we inherited over 4th of July is so adorable and the kids love him. He is going to be so big, but hopefully not to overbearing. Here are some cute pictures of him.

We have discovered that rattlesnakes like our place. People have told us that with all the destruction and construction we have done around the ranch that we have disturbed the dens and probably will see lots of rattlesnakes. Tim and Kreek have killed 6 so far and we are still counting. When we lived at our other ranch we always had lots of cats around and we never saw a rattlesnake near the house. When we moved here we brought 2 with us (that was all we could catch). Tim ran over one of them and the other we think was killed by a raccoon. So we were on the hunt for cats. We got three kittens from Neva (which have all been killed by some animal or Tim with the pickup again oops) and three kittens from Lanora Watts (two are still with us for now). We are trying to get them big enough to keep the snakes away, but the kids are spoiling them rotten. Who knows if they will or not?

A few Sundays ago we were in Sheffield all day at church and got in late that night. I went to feed the dogs and discovered out our border collie, Gringo, looked like this.

He had been bitten by a rattlesnake somewhere on the mouth. I am sure he was protecting a curious puppy. After a few days of swelling, blood and lots of drool he was back to normal.

Sharon and I got back from our recent trip (more on that later) at 1:00 am. Tim was in Iraan doing a little work so we carried the kids into the house. I went out to feed the animals and was filling up the cats water. I turned around and heard the rattlesnake about 3 feet away from me. I am deathly afraid of snakes and I ran so fast into the house. I yelled, "Sharon, RATTLESNAKE!!" Her and Kreek came running with guns. Between the both of them it was dead in no time. Kreek had to cut the rattles off and it had 13 and a button. I hope to never get that close again to one.

new dog pen and rock patio

Well I will try to catch up on all that has gone on since the last post. After we got back from Cisco camp, Tim and I got busy building things. We started with making a new pen for the dogs and then built a rock patio. We had dug up lots of flat rock buried at least 4 inches deep with dirt that was once a walkway around the house. We called my Uncle Ricky and he told us how to lay a rock patio. We had a dump truck of sand delivered and got right on it. About 3/4 of the way thru we ran out of rock and had to go look in the pasture to find more rock. Lastly, we poured the mortar and we were done. Then 2 hours later, we got 3 1/2 inches of rain. It washed a little of the mortar out, but held up fairly well and we will always take rain.

New dog pen

Beginning

Middle

Finally finished

It is a little uneven, but for first time rock layers, I say we did a good job. Since Tim helped me with the patio, we then began redoing fences and building feed troughs for calves. We got most of it done, but still have not finished it.

4th of July & Cisco Church Camp

Well once again I am apologizing for taking so long to post. My computer was freezing up so it is with the Geek Squad in San Angelo, so I have borrowed Tim's laptop. I forget how much I love my computer until it is gone.

So back to where I left off, 4th of July at Kerrville. There were 29 people there and it was lots of fun. We played washers, played games, had water balloon fights, and did lots of swimming. We had to feed the perch before we jumped in the water or they would peck you to death.

The crazy family.

The family showing their college signs.

Swimming in the creek.

Uncle Tyson and the kids watching TV ready for bed.

My nephew, Ty.

Some family friends, Mark and Vera Lee, brought 8 yellow lab puppies with them. 5 of them were spoken for and they had 1 male and 2 females left. The kids called Tim and begged him to let them have one. Tim drove down on Friday night to join us. So on Saturday night, Tim had given in and let the kids have the male. His name is Major and he is adorable. This is a picture of Kreek holding him.

We drove home from Kerrville Sunday morning and feed all the dogs, cats, and other animals and headed to Cisco for another church camp. Michael Light was the preacher at the Pecos River Encampment this year and he is in charge of the Cisco camp. He was short handed on staff and needed our help. Tim was a counsler for the 8th grade boys and I helped in the kitchen. It was really a neat camp and we had lots of fun.

Kreek stayed in the dorm with Tim and the campers really took Kreek under their wing. Tim and Kreek were involved in the talent show with the boys.

Kreek and Kaegen got to sing a song.

They had lots of activities for the campers and Kreek got to be one of the helpers. They had to pull him on top of the sleeping bag to the other end. He loved it.

Kaegen and her daddy and Kreek and one of the campers.

They had an amazing arts and craft center. The little kids got to go there every morning while the bigger campers were in bible classes.

Well that is all for today. More to come on the new puppy, rattlesnakes, new rock patio, my birthday, and vacations.

Sheffield Church camp

It seems like I am always apologizing for it taking me so long to blog, but we have been very busy. We had our Church camp at Sheffield June 20th - June 28th. The kids had a blast (and Tim and I did also) and it was HOT!!!

Kreek on the big slip-n-slide to cool off.

Painting the bell.

Jennifer Holmsley made us ladies these shirts that say Cook Shack Widows. All of our spouses are at the cook shack cooking all week and we rarely see them so it feels like we are widows for the week. The dominoe shack is also close to the cook shack so I am not for sure which shack they are really in more.

We got home on Sunday the 28th and I got right to doing a million loads of laundry and getting the camper all put back together. Tim got one night in our bed and then he had a farm bureau meeting in New Braunsfel on Monday and Tuesday. Then we were all suppose to to go to Memaw's house in Kerrville on Thursday the 2nd. Tim and Kreek were dayworking all say. They finally got home aboyt 4:30 and Kaegen and I were packed and ready to go. Tim went to unsaddle the horses and discovered that another one of our horses had been bit by a rattlesnake. It's leg was very swollen, so Tim headed to the vet's office. He called me about 5:30 and said to go without him that he had to stay and doctor the bite mark. So the kids and I headed to Kerrville. We had a blast swimming in the creek, playing washers, and lots of visiting. I will post pictures from this trip and more on our busy life on the next post.