Labor Day at Bardwell

I continue to stuggle with the archaic interface of blogger, but here are pictures of our day at Bardwell. Oh what fun it was to ride in a two-person open tube!


Katie, otherwise known as Magoo, and Julie whooping it up
Drew and I bouncing around to songs we made up as we went

Dustin showing us one way NOT to get back on the boat, haha

Jacob is supervising the tubing activity of his cousin and brother

So this was supposed to be a Nestea plunge, but someone chickened out. The water was great!

Jacob and Julie sittin in a tube, the little one's not at all a boob!

Some tubing is safer when the tube is parked :>)

Drew, like his cousin Dustin, have similar aversions to being photographed in any kind of relaxed and normal settings, always the ham...

Finally, King Jacob smiles his approval on the events of the day, particularly the food. This guy can EAT! He's gonna be a whopper!

SHOW LOW, AZ

It was a cool, rainy day when we went to visit Susan's old stompin' grounds--110 in Phoenix, 60 in Show Low! Here are best friends and sisters on the Mogollon Trail
Pretty as a postcard!

Dustin was our sidekick all day. And look, we actually got a smile out of him! Well, that's because he was trying to pull his shirt up over his face...

What a Summer!

Welcome, Charlotte Lauree! Your arrival was the highlight of the summer. Glad you could join us:-)

OKAY, so these are all in reverse chronological order, even though that is not the way I uploaded them...

These are my boys at Monahanas Sandhills State Park, trying out the slopes on the dunes just about sunrise on our way home from AZ

Sweetheart Kinsey jumping over grandpa for the camera!

Kinsey plays fetch with Uncle BJ, Moose and Duke

Katherine trying to avoid the spinklers and...wet dogs--good luck!

No trip to AZ is complete without at least one hike up Camelback Mountain. Dustin and I did it three times!

Howdy, Connor! Is the watermelon good?

This may be the ONLY good picture of Clint I have ever taken. I think he was too tired to pull any faces. Congratulations, pops! Good job with Ms. Charlotte

There is nothing like a good Sunday afternoon meal with family. Susan & Scott stuck around with us for a few days too. I don't have the trip to Show Low pics, but we did it. While it was in the 110 degree range in Phoenix, Show Low was 60! What a nice change.

Try as I might, I did not make any major advances in my efforts to be on Sage's preferred person list, although I must say that list is VERY short (mom, dad, and grandma Shari, and maybe Dustin)

OK, what's on your mind?

BJ and Katherine, so what do you think BJ was thinking?!

Hello Kinsey! Let's play ball!

Kenedi and grandpa had fun in Kinsey's pool!

McKay came to joy in the fun too. These two cousins whooped it up

There isn't another grin like Connors. What a easy going guy. Did I mention that he is pretty much always hungry?

Chance has an idea!

There were no dry eyes at GG's funeral. Very hard to sing

Laurie saying goodbye. This was tough.

So back in July we went to VA and DC

Zac greeting Mr. T-Rex

Doug's family and ours (sans Dustin, who has a serious aversion to being photographed) at the palace gardens in CW

Dustin enjoying the beach, haha

QB Dustin at work

No score and two months ago, Zac acted like a crazy man. Scoot over, ABE!

OK, I'm about to cream my brother Doug in a friendly game of beach football. Actually, it was more like Rugby, or just a free-for-all! But any excuse was good enough to take out some aggression

This ride at Busch Gardens, called Griffon, was exceptional! Zoom in on the front right to see some familiar faces.

Our June high adventure was whitewater kayaking. We spared no luxury when camping!

Well, that's about it. Summer has been loaded. We've seen, felt and experienced a wide variety of experiences and emotions. Thank God for all of it.

Alice Cooper - School's Out!!!

I won't write much, but the fun is on! Since last I wrote, Katie had a dance recital, Drew was baptized, and Zac was ordained a teacher. Zac & Dustin had birthdays, as did Amber and soon Audrie then Chance. Marianne & Clint had their anniversary (on Zac's birthday). Nick has graduated, school is out for summer and already Amber & family have come and gone, both grandmas have come and gone, and Audrie is here for another week or so with her kids, but Craig is gone. Nick has announced that he will be leaving to AZ at the end of this month! Dustin left this morning for scout camp and Zac & mom leave for scout camp and girl's camp respectively next week, followed by Brad to high adventure on the river the week after. OMG! (as they say...)

This beautiful butterfly would not be captured on camera!

Drew was pretty excited as were we all about his baptism & confirmation!

Gma Y hosted a fine birthday party!

The birthday person wears the birthday hat

Paintball warriors Z & D (Z has new gun--unfair advantage, according to D). Craig & Trav were in a war too. The primary injury was to Craig's ring finger--he couldn't put his wedding ring on the next day, haha

"What is my line??"

"Free at last!"

Kinsey & Grandpa on Blackie

Madagascar is on!

Chance is learning the rudiments of snake handling from his Uncle Zac

Kenedi's opinion of the snake, facial rendition

Lunch Time

It's the case of the mysterious nutritious lunch! Who dares eat such a meal?

Could it be Cosmo?

What about Dakota?

See if you can decide which of these it is, so hard to tell!

29 YEARS

Laurie and I had a great weekend celebrating 29 years together. How did I get so lucky? Here's what we did. We started by going to the temple, the place where it all began on April 18, 1980 in Mesa, AZ. Of course, we went to the Dallas Temple:

This time, I had planned everything in advance and even had reservations. We ate at Saltgrass at LBJ & Midway (leftover gift card from our 2007 datebook...), then on to the Omni Mandolay in Las Colinas where we had a corner suite, watched "Taken" in bed, and slept in late as the rain pounded around outside. Ahh, the life!

Here we are in the living room of the hotel:

Nice, huh!

After a scrumptious buffet breakfast (we both ate a couple meals since they were so good), we had to go back and prostrate ourselves since we were too full to move, and since our next event required NO RAIN (it was still raining). After another movie, the rain finally quit so we took off across town to Billy Bobs and then to the Main Street Arts Festival in downtown Ft. Worth. Yes, that sounds very out of caracter for us. Us and crowds? No, not often. But we got in the groove for this one:

It was a really neat event. This is one of the stages they rotated live musical performers on throughout the day.

Much of the art was fine; some of it was not so fine. Overall, it was a mind-broadening experience for a couple of small timers like us.

The last vestige of our celebration was another meal, this time we split one, at our old Arlington hangout, Mac's American Grill for some blackened orange roughy and a goldbrick ice cream dessert. And lest we arrive home before everyone else was in bed, we hit another movie (another gift card leftover from the 2007 datebook), pretty good, "State of Play". Reminds me of politics.

We got one late congratulations this Wednesday night when we got home, our dear dear friends had decorated the yard! Dustin thanks them (you know who you are!) for letting him have the job of cleaning it up. We did leave it all for a day:0) Can you read the "29" spelled out in forks? Yes, new meaning to "stick a fork in it", almost as good as Amber's baked potatoes (haha)

Last, here's a photo of the most awesome new stadium around (at $1.1 billion, it should be, right!), the new Cowboys stadium in Arlington next to the Ballpark. It is scheduled to open with a George Strait concert on June 6. Come and party with us!

EASTER

K-Kai Kahu Elli E Bailey (OK, someone help me out on the spelling?)

We had a great big celebration at our home for Easter. After all, this is the MOST significant event in Christianity. Even though we make a bigger deal out of Christmas, it is really Easter that has all the significance. Before diving into the wonderful food, we had a family spiritual experience, mom telling about a YW event, then Terrell sharing her testimony of the improvement in her life and her relationship with the Savior since she was baptized, exactly one year ago to the day! It was moving. A few more of us spoke and there was a wonderful spirit with us, a very nice Easter gift from the Lord.

We had 22 of us there. For us, it was mom, me, Nick w/ Hannah, Zac & Dustin. Then we had David and Terrell, Sarah, Carrie & Kai along with Debbie (yeah--finally got her back, way to go Dave!). We had both grandmas, Thelma and Mary. Then we had all of Ora and Troy's family, with Chadler, Sierra, Hayden & Zoee as well as Troy's mom Betty and her husband Arlo Young (great name). Here are pictures, hope you enjoy them. We enjoyed making them happen!

Dakota and David became good friends (David the canine, not David the human) And the only pictures of Dave and Terrell are here, unfortunately without their heads...

Zac & his cousin Sierra--NO CHIPPED TEETH! (private joke)

Sierra is getting pretty nice looking!

My sis and me

Troy, Ora and mom (grandma)

Hanna decided to tape Nick's face hahaha

Sarah, Kai and Carrie

Zac & Chandler waiting for dessert

OK, it's hard to get Debbie's picture, but this was her birthday too, so here's the cake 54 yrs

Arlo & Betty Johnson Young, grandma Thelma Young!

Zoee & Sierra, crazy sisters

My favorite one of all! Grandma says "Laurrrie!"

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