River Trip

Yesterday our ward and another ward in the Houston area drove to New Braunfels to float the Comal River. I've floated the Guadelupe before, but this was new for me. I actually didn't take any pictures until the way home, but it was a fun trip.

We got silly and bored on the 3 hour trip home so we broke out the cameras. Brock drove and Megan was sitting shotgun.

Here's the backseat crew. Poor Abraham was wiped out because he's been working night shifts at his jobs, but doing other things during the day, so he's been getting around 3 hours of sleep at the most each day.

He calls Susannah Curly Lion head so we made him a curly lion head with her hair. He woke up right as we were taking the picture.

Visas

We got a little worried that we wouldn't get our visas for Egypt in time. We were lucky enough to have an Egyptian Consulate in Houston, so we just had to drive downtown 3 TIMES to get everything taken care of, but alas - it's done!

We had to take a quick picture outside the door because it looked so cool. We leave for our trip tomorrow (Tuesday) so you may not see posts from me for a couple of weeks (after the other one I'm doing today) unless I end up having time and the means to do it overseas. One thing you can be assured of - there will be PICTURES!!!!!!!

Biking

The other day Susannah and I went biking on trails off of Stuebner Airline and Cypresswood with Adam.

We went all the way to the area right across the street from the temple. I had to use the timer and set it up on a bike seat so that's why this is crooked.

I tried my hand at a reflection shot of the temple.

I also liked this close up one of the steeple. The sky was so pretty with lots of clouds and darker blue since it was overcast.

It was so overcast that it started raining - HARD. We had to seek shelter under the covered parking area of a feed and seed store. You can see water pouring out of the rain gutter behind Susannah.

This shot is facing Stuebner. We got soaked.

Obama

Blueberries

Friday morning I went to pick blueberries with Jen and my Aunt Maylene.

I loved it! This picture shows the various stages of blueberry color. Obviously, you pick them when they're blue!

Jen was great at getting in the bushes and pulling down the tall branches.

Here's my pose. It was REALLY hot out there!

Here's Maylene and Jen. We were almost done at this point.

This is a shot straight down in my bucket. I picked about 3 pounds of berries in a little over an hour. There were lots more when we left too! It's free to get in to the farm and they just charge you $1.50 per pound of blueberries.

I liked this shot of some mostly ripe berries.

We had so much fun picking blueberries, that Jen and I decided to invite our FHE group to do it Monday night. This shot is most of our group that came. I'm missing (obviously) and a couple of others who came a little later. Everyone had a good time.

We had to leave when it got dark. I was trying to take a picture of the moon, but it didn't show up quite like I wanted it too. Oh well!

Slip n Slide

Kelly in our FHE group planned a fabulous activity last weekend. One of the best things there was this huge inflatable slip and slide. I had to take some video of the action.

This was one of the first attempts at the water slide. Megan and Susannah didn't quite make it so they had to crawl commando style to get to the little pool at the end.

Success at last! This was the first time both of them made it all the way through and they did it on the same run. Yahoo!

Here's the final one I took. This time with Susannah and Abraham. Great activity!

Jen's Party

We had an early birthday party for Jen. It was a lot of fun.

Here she is blowing out her candle on the lovely palm tree cake we made her. It was actually a Hawaiian themed party and we had lots of guests dress accordingly.

Here's one of our favorite things from the party - our lovely fruit salad. It was delicious! I got very blessed with fruit selection (especially the cantaloupe)! YUM!

Susannah did a nice job making and presenting all the different kinds of dip we found in our pantry. Also displayed is the fantastic coconut bread. I love that stuff.

Here are our festive favorites with their usual "interesting" poses. Adam was kind enough to wear my dad's old polyester Hawaiian shirt. It really is from the 70s.

Here's a picture that Susana Reyes took. I'm not exactly sure what all they're doing to me, but the picture turned out pretty funny.

The big news of the night is that BRAD IS BACK! He's been gone for 4 years and is now looking for a job down here. We're glad to have him back!

Daciana and Mark even came to the party! I'm glad they're close!

Quads

This family in our area just had QUADRUPLETS!

They really tapped into the right source when they asked the singles ward to help pitch in with feeding and taking care of the babies. We all love babies and don't have any of our own. It works out perfectly! Here's Jen holding Cady.

Here are all 4 babies. They're now about 3 months old and SO CUTE! L-R: Haley, Cady, Nikolas, and Nathan.

Here I am with Nate. They way they have it set up to volunteer is FANTASTIC! I don't know if all wards use this, but if not, pass it along. Click HERE to see the care calendar.

Here are Susannah and I helping out another day. What fun service!

NAM

We had a special combined FHE last Monday. Northwest Assistance Ministries asked our ward to come to their resale store to sort and hang clothing that had been donated to them.

Susannah and I were the ride givers again and we made these 3 jokers sit in the back seat. We thought it was pretty funny.

The best part of volunteering at a resale shop is trying on the clothes. Kelly found this old prom dress that she actually bought. She plans to wear it to church with leggings underneath and a cardigan over the top. I can't wait to see it!

Abraham tried on this lovely jacket. Very flattering, don't you think?

I really like this group shot that was taken by NAM's communications manager (Randy Cypret). He was kind enough to share some of the photos he took!

Make-up & Wrestling

Last weekend we had a little birthday party at our house for Brock. Most of the people left after awhile and that's when things got interesting. I'm not sure why, but it seems like guys will do just about anything when there aren't a lot of other guys around.

For example - I don't know how this happened, but Brock and Nate were both braiding hair. Brock had some experience, but Nate picked it up pretty quickly.

Nate was still pretty manly in his braiding. He didn't have much sympathy for anyone whining about a tender head.

After Brock left, things got even more funny when Nate agreed to put make-up on Jen. We tried to get him to let us put make-up on him, but it didn't work this time.

I think this shot is my favorite. No one should make fun of a woman making faces as she puts on her make-up! It's necessary, people!

Not a cigarette! Don't worry. It's just the mascara bottle.

Here's the almost finished product. We were actually really impressed with Nate's blush skills! It looked very natural, especially factoring in that he had to use lip color.

I think after all the girly stuff, the boys needed to wrestle. We wrestled Abraham first and then had a go with Nate. He was actually a wrestler in HS, I think. We didn't even come close to beating him. This shot is us thinking about our next moves.

Here's a shot of some of the action. I was trying as hard as I could, but I couldn't even budge him. I was surprised with how tough Kelly was too. I wouldn't want to wrestle her! It was a fun night.

Roommate Dinner

Susannah and I have some great roommates. It seems that they've been especially nice to us lately, as well.

We decided to treat them to a fun roommate dinner at "On the Border." It was a fun night. One of my favorite conversations was about having a bunch of clothes we needed to donate to Good Will. Jen said "I've got a bag in the back of my trunk that looks like a dead child." Seana replied, "Well, as long as it doesn't smell like a dead child, you're okay." It doesn't sound that funny now, but we laughed for a good long time about it.

Sidebar

I love Pier 1! I just bought a new sidebar table from there for the dining room.

Here's the before shot with the lovely basket trunks that Dan Wilkinson gave me.

Here's the "after" shot with the new table. I think it looks more like a dining room now!

Here's a closer shot.

Weed Eaters - AAAHHHH!!!!!

One of the house warming presents my parents gave me was a weed eater. It has worked pretty well, but has given us a bit of trouble the past while. My Uncle Darrell and Aunt Maylene have been having weed eater trouble as well. Theirs has been in the shop for repair so they've been borrowing ours.

Sad news. Mine just broke! It's actually pretty funny. My Uncle Darrell was just going along when he heard a crazy noise followed by the craziness in the picture above.

Here's a close up of the line all tangled in the grass. I had to take a picture because I'd never seen anything like it! I think I'm going in for a brand new weed eater. Any suggestions on brands or types you like?

Garden . . . again

I can't resist doing another post on our garden.

We've had lots of little zucchinis growing on our plants. They mostly get sick and die before they fully grow. I walked out the other day and got the garden shock of my life when I saw this giant zucchini! I was pretty excited. I had to run and get the other girls.

We had to take pictures of ourselves with it - for scale and . . . for fun.

The zucchini bottle - perfect for all ages.

Shock and awe!

I had a to snap a quick picture of that zucchini along with other exciting happenings. We've been getting lots of tomatoes, which the birds seem pretty happy about. Our cucumbers are finally starting to grow as well. We'll have tons of those very soon. I picked the biggest one for this picture. Sad news, however. I believe that our zucchini plan is now going the way of all the earth! :( We'll have to check and see what plants fare well being planted in this hot weather. Wish us luck!