Winter Beach

There's nothing better than the beach in the winter, although the weather wasn't too winterish this past week. The kids took it upon themselves to gather wood along the shore and build their own "fort". It was actually quite impressive and got many praises from passing beachcombers. They weren't at all too happy when we made them take it down before we left.

We headed back to Houston Wednesday to spend Thanksgiving with Grandma Gerrie and Papa. Maddy is nearly as tall as Grandma Gerrie. Yikes. Ate too much, stayed up too late, put up most of our Christmas decorations, did no shopping, well, maybe a little online. Winter weather arrives tomorrow. And the sprint to Christmas begins...

Hear Ye Hear Ye

Once again took the crew to the Texas Renaissance Festival this weekend. The weather was perfect.... Unfortunately, it seems everybody else along the Gulf Coast had the same idea. Soooo crowded. We didn't dress up this year, too warm, and really didn't even take any pictures, too crowded. We watched the jousting, ate some empanadas, and the kids did a few of the kid things, and that was about it. We didn't really even see the "all out" costumes that we've seen in the past. The Dragon above was the best we saw yesterday, and actually, one that we hadn't seen before. The guy below is one of our favorites, but he was nowhere to be found yesterday.

Haunted Halloween Weekend

Just returned home from a fabulous Haunted Weekend in San Marcos. Maddy took a friend from school with her so she made sure the entire weekend was well planned out. We kicked off with a bonfire (thank goodness it finally rained in Central Texas) and hotdog roast in the woods. Perfect weather for it, we even needed a jacket!

Saturday for me was spent "haunting" the train. The kids stayed at the ranch and made jack o lanterns.

We had all sorts of ghosts and goblins come to the party... here are a few samples....

And a few pics of the party car...

After a yummy dinner of Dave's ribs and cajun boil, we played a few games, did a few crafts, and then moved on to the summoning of the trains resident ghosts.

After a chilling tale of how the railcar "Colton County" came upon the ghosts of an old trainwreck, the kids were a little tentative about actually walking through the car... Last year I made one cry, this year, 3. And that was before they even walked through!

And now I'll introduce you to this years resident ghosts...

First we have Haunted Hannah and her pal skinny skelly in the blacklight room.

Next we have "Byron". I call him that because that's whose shirt he is wearing. We aren't sure who Byron is, or was, but his shirt (with his name in it) and we believe size 11 Nike's were left in a closet on the train. Nobody can remember anybody named Byron ever staying on the train....

Don't really have a name for this guy...

Or this guy...

But I do know this guy...

All in all it was a great weekend. Already have some ideas for next year, although it may take us more than 1 day to decorate. Until next year....

Regan's First USA Swim Meet

Regan did great in her first and only 8 and under USA swim meet. She placed 6th in the 50 free, 2nd in 25 fly, 5th in 25 back, and 12th in 50 breast. Sadly, she'll age up on her birthday and have to swim with the 9 and 10 year olds. She's right on Maddy's tail time wise. Needless to say, Maddy has decided that she wants to begin swimming when volleyball is done. Not about to be outdone by her little sister. Regan, ever the perfectionist, is mad that she didn't place first in everything. Geez...

We, or should I say I, am busily preparing for our fourth annual Haunted Train Party in San Marcos. I have plans to really pump up the "scare" factor this year. My big problem is deciding how scary is too scary. I can deal with bad dreams for one night, but I don't want to scar the kids for life. It's ok to make one of your own kids, or nieces or nephews cry, but you feel a little bad when y0u make someone elses kid cry. Amazing how many people out there really, really get into Halloween. Lots of websites and blogs to get ideas from. A really good one to check out is pumpkinrot.com. This guy goes all out. Did you know that soaking or washing clothes in woolite, or almost any other detergent makes it glow in black light? Fabulous weather here for a change! Low 70's and clear sky!!! We don't get many of these days. Think I'll get out and enjoy it!

Enough Already!

Sombody forgot to tell Mother Nature that the temps were supposed to level off, and maybe even fall a little once we got into October! Heat index yesterday was well over 100 degrees. Much the same today. The weather men keep teasing us with lower temps in the long range forecast, but somehow, when the long range becomes the present, those lower temps disappear! The humidity has been so high that the windows are completely fogged in the morning. Even the door knobs are dripping with condensation. Ugh! Supposedly only the Gulf Coast is enveloped in this heat dome. We have a three day weekend this weekend, I'm considering a road trip anywhere NORTH!!!!! On a different note, Vampire Diaries is on tomorrow night. Watch It, Love It.

Just Call Us Venus and Serena!!!

This weekend Lynn and I played in our first official tennis tournament. Last night we played our teammates in what can only be called "a blood and guts" game, clawing and praying for every point. Yes, that is a wrap on my leg. Pulled a quad muscle early in the first set last night, which we lost 1-6. Yikes. Hats off to my partner who really picked up the slack as every step felt like a knife in my thigh. I felt like I could only stand there and get what was within an arms reach. Kind of difficult to serve off of one leg. 2nd set we won 7-6 in a tiebreak. (7 of 8 of our last matches have required a tiebreak somewhere!). We took the third set. 2 1/2 hours later... Don't know how these pros can play 4 hour matches! I was really worried about my leg for the match today, which was at 10am. Iced it, heated it, wrapped it. The leg ended up feeling fine as long as I didn't have to really run to get a ball. We won in 2 sets. Yeah us! Which meant that we won the tournament. Again, yeah us! And our teammates came in 2nd. Yeah Team! Now we've all got the tournament bug and can't wait for our next one!

More pics from Heidelberg

We Love Heidelberg!

We spent labor day at Heidelberg Lodges in New Braunsfels. Very fun. Another family went with us that has kids similar ages as ours. They had a blast jumping off the rock (even though the river was down about 24 inches), canoeing, and fishing. In this picture the boys were towing the girls raft back from down the river. The boys were none too happy about the girls interrupting their fishing. And so it begins...

The Most Wonderful Time.... Of the Year!!!!!!

Yes, you guessed it! Parents everywhere are jumping for joy! Back to school!!!!! Not that the kids are at all happy about it, but it will sure be nice to be back on some sort of schedule. Just the usual grumblings the first week... Boring classes, mean teachers, yada yada yada. "Why can't you homeschool us?" "Because you don't listen to me when I ask you to put away your clothes, what makes you think you'll listen to me when I try to teach you algebra?"

Tennis starts TOMORROW!!! Yeah for the tennis MOMS!!!!! The weather has finally cooled off a little here. By cooled off I mean mid 90's and 95% humidity. It sure feels good though! I heard a rumor, although I haven't checked it out yet, that a few cold fronts are making their way towards us and may bring 70degree weather for the weekend. I'll believe it when I see it.

We are coming up on the 1 year anniversary of Ike. I think we all watch the weather with a wary eye this time of year. It's been soooo quiet out there. Almost too quiet... The anniversary of Ike also means the anniversary of Bear. He has been with us for a year now. I think I realized we were keeping him when he snuggled down with us in the closet under the stairs during the storm. For the longest time we always wondered if he would just up and decide to leave one day. I think we are now pretty confident that he's decided to stay. He does have it good here. Even Daisy gets bed priviledges only rarely. He has his choice. He is also the perfect bed partner for the child (or mom) that can't get to sleep. Works better than a glass of warm milk! (ugh, never really understood that one) How about better than a tylenol p.m.

One more day before we can put the first week to bed. Regan begins swimming next Tuesday four days a week. Maddy starts volleyball after labor day. And Christmas is next week! (or might as well be as fast as this year is going to go)

Colorado Trip

Just got back from our trip to Estes Park, Colorado and the Rocky Mountain National Park. Beautiful place! We hiked the trails, drove up the mountain, (I hated that part), and just enjoyed the cooler weather! The girls were happy as long as there were rocks and water to play around. We found our "favorite" waterfall and went back several times. The weather was perfect. 60's during the day and 40's at night. It usually started out clear and sunny, and by midafternoon clouded up and rained a little. The weather changes quickly in the mountains!

We toured the historic and "haunted" Stanley Hotel, which is the hotel Stephen King based The Shining on. It was pretty creepy. In the picture our tour guide is singing trying to get the "ghost children" to come out and play. She said they liked it when kids sang to them. I offered Maddy and Regan $20 a piece to do it, but they wouldn't. They say that the white "orbs" you get in the pictures are the ghosts. Personally I think they are just reflections of the lights or other peoples flashes, but Regan and I did smell roses when we were upstairs and supposedly that is the head housekeeper that haunts the place. She always wore rose oil.

We took a day and went rafting down a river. We were at the very end of the rafting season so there wasn't a lot of "white water" but it was perfect for the kids and still very fun. Our 24 year old river guide has been doing this for 6 years. What a life. We all even went swimming in the freezing cold water.

Our trip was now complete. It seems we spent the whole week looking for the elusive but plentiful wildlife. Never even saw any driving up the single lane dirt road to the top of the mountain. Finally, on our last night, while we were driving through town, there they were. A whole herd of elk. They just wander into town and eat for awhile before they head back up to the mountains. They really don't care about people at all. We saw another herd right in the middle of downtown this morning as we were leaving. No bears, mountain lions or moose though.