Adios, Julie!

Well, Julie's headed off to Alaska for another summer of fun. . . a little earlier than I'd like!

On Monday we had her official farewell party at the bowling alley. We dressed up in a "decades" theme - well, some of us did. It was a lot of fun. It was not my best bowling day ever. We had some Cici's pizza after that.

Thursday night Julie came over for our weekly dinner, Survivor, and ping pong match party. Julie had won for the last 2 or three weeks - 2 games to my one every time. This time . . .

I was the victor and I did it 2 games to none. I was pretty excited. Julie was NOT! She looks like a murderer in this picture.

Yesterday after a fun day with Kim, Wendy, and Becca, I stopped by Julie's to say my last good-bye before she left. Collette met me there. We just planned to stay for a few minutes, but Julie's dad cooked us some burgers and we ended up eating with the family. This was the girls' table.

The guys were chillin' over in the he man woman haters area over here.

It was pretty chilly by the time we got outside to eat, but Julie's dad offered $20 to anyone who would jump in the pool. Collette said she'd do it, but toward the end of the visit. During dinner, Julie's dad yells for Collette to look. He's got a $20 bill hooked to some sort of weight and he threw it in the pool. That was all the goading she needed. Here she is just seconds prior to the dive.

I videoed after that. You can't really see much, but listen to her reaction. I apologize now for the swear word that you'll hear. She didn't even know she said it. Apparently the water was pretty cold!

Here's poor Collette just after exiting the pool.

She's drying off herself and the money which was actually a $1! Tricky!

Don't worry, he paid up!

I'll sure miss Julie! Hopefully I can make my way up to Alaska for a visit this summer!

Coach Thom

This school year Katherine has been coaching soccer. She's been kind of stingy with the invites to her game, but on Friday I finally got to go to one.

It was her last game and was in Kingwood so it worked out perfectly for me. This was just as they were about to start.

What a happy coach!

Here she is coaching from the sidelines.

I also liked this shot during a time out. Sadly, her girls didn't win, but it was a fun time nonetheless.

Katherine's mom and sister came as did Wendy. Wendy just got a new camera and she got this great shot.

Moving!!!!

Many of my blog readers know that my dad is employed by my Church.

For 24 years, he taught religious education as a "seminary" teacher for the Church Education System. He primarily taught high school age kids M-F in a release time setting. The seminary building was right across from our HS. He was transfered from our home in Joseph City, AZ to San Angelo, TX in 2001.

There he taught Institute which is geared toward college age kids. He has a building just across the street from Angelo State University there.

Aside from being the Institute Director, he also oversees the early morning seminary programs in the area and in lots of surrounding areas in west/central TX.

After almost 9 years, he's being transfered again. He's leaving Texas and heading out to . . .

WASHINGTON! There, he'll be over two large institute programs. I guess they're pretty near Seattle and some other cool areas.

I actually hadn't been to Washington until last October when I went to visit Susannah and Adam. I flew into Spokane, but haven't been to the side of the state where my parents are moving.

It looks like a cool place and I'm excited for them and excited to go see that part of the country. I'm especially glad that my parents and brother will be only 5 hours from Susannah and Adam. I'll be the lone ranger out here in TX!

Brazos Bend

I had a fun little day trip yesterday. I went with Nate and his kids to Brazos Bend State Park just south of Houston.

It was a really pretty area and I brought my nice camera so I started taking pictures of the cute kids. Here's cute little Junior.

Here's Lexie!

I loved Jackson's face in this shot. So did he . . .

Junior had such a dirty face from cotton candy, that I couldn't stop taking pictures of him.

Cotton candy and Funions are sort of a disgusting combination.

Gavin's glasses cracked me up, but I love this picture of him.

I also loved this picture of Madison.

We cooked out some hot dogs for lunch before we went for the main attraction.

We stopped in at the visitors center to see some wildlife we could touch. I actually touched a snake after some begging by the kids. It creeped me out. We all touched this baby alligator too.

Don't look, Susannah! They had a tarantula there. I did not touch it, but Gavin and Junior did!

We saw our first big alligator just down from the visitor's center. he was just relaxing in the water and getting some sun.

Gus, Nate's dog, threw up some nasty stuff just as we were leaving the visitor's center.

We drove to another spot over by the lake and that's where we got to see some BIG alligators up close and personal. This was the first one we saw super up close. It was on the grass right next to the walking path.

Gavin didn't see it and almost ran over it's tail with his bike. He was probably a foot away. It scared me to death! All the kids were a little more careful on their bikes after that near tragedy.

Nate tried to pump Junior on Maddie's bike for awhile, but it didn't really work out.

The trail was so pretty - especially in this little section. We saw several alligators along this path. They were in the grass right next to the path!

I loved this swampy side too. It was so pretty and it was a nice day!

I had the kids stop just past this alligator to show how close we were to them! They never moved when we went by, just their eyes, I guess, but they were enjoying the sun too much.

This was probably the biggest one we saw.

These two were just down from the one in the previous picture.

At the end of the really pretty trail there's a tall tower you can climb up and see for a long way. It was pretty cool. I was up at the top and Jack was posing for some pictures down on the ground. It was a great day.

Last weekend I . . .

Last Saturday Megan invited me to go to a "workshop." Usually I'm not too keen on spending any weekend time on anything having to do with work, but this was one I couldn't pass up. I even paid $10 to go!

A few years ago, I saw this movie, "Freedom Writers." It was really good. It's based on a true story.

There's a book out with the real stories of the kids and the teacher who this was based on.

This is a trailer of the movie just to give you an idea about what her presentation was about.

This is Erin Gruwell. She was a great speaker and I loved every minute of her presentation.

The title of her presentation was "Change." Here's a scene from the movie that this was based on.

I forgot to say that we met Katherine there. We went out to the Olive Garden after that. It was a great morning and afternoon.

Very much unrelated was the ping pong tournament we had that evening. No, I still didn't win, but it was a fun time for sure.

Julie brought a special outfit to increase her odds, but sadly, she didn't win either. It was a new guy that we hadn't met yet, John. Dang it!

Part of the fun included people taking my camera and taking pictures of themselves and others.

Here's a nice shot Nate took of his and Wendy's nostrils. Nice.