July 2004 Pictures
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With all of the hard rains, the frogs have come out in droves, or whatever it is you call a large number of frogs. I hold here an example of the tiniest of frogs. Look at your thumbnail and picture how small that stinking frog was. | ||
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Ginger attended her second cousin's, Wesley Eugene's, second birthday party thrown by my niece Sarah and her husband Adam. The party was a total success except for the end when Wesley thought Ginger's treat was her treat. Wesley growled and snapped at Ginger which startled her, and then Sarah instinctively jerked Wesley's leash back, launching the tiny dog over her shoulder. Notice the birthday hats in the first picture. | ||
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Devin's friend, Peyton, had a wild and crazy birthday party
with a traveling animal petting zoo. Here are some pictures from the
festivities. Devin gets freaked out by a tarantula.
Caitlin is tempted to add a third snake to her neck, but two will do.
Devin cuddles with a fluffy. |
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The July 4th weekend wiped us out with 5 parties/socials to attend. Here we are along with Tiffany and Christopher Lemoine (left), and the Crosses with their mom, getting ready for the fireworks display at Lonestar Park in Grand Prairie. | ||
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Dad was asked to represent the Air Force in our church's Fourth of July patriotic service. He was envied by other servicemen his age since he could still fit into his uniform after all of these years. Dad retired in 1971. | ||
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The church handed out hundreds of these American flags for us to waive during the service. To our great consternation, they were...you guessed it..."Made in China." | ||
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Devin just loves to fish. Angela takes him out to Joe Pool Lake sometimes. | ||
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At his birthday swim party, poor Christopher Lemoine seems
a bit confused about whether he's supposed to hug a girl in a bathing suit
after receiving a gift from her. It is a part of etiquette that I must
confess I myself don't know the answer to. It's a question for
Reader's Digest I suppose.
Caitlin and Bailey shimmer under one of the pool waterfalls. |
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Another one of Caitlin's Ginger makeovers. | ||
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Each Sunday, Devin and I collect the trash and recyclables and cart them out to the street. He uses the wagon, usually making several trips, while I push the recycle bins train-style down the drive. | ||
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Angela's birthday party. | ||
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We had some excitement when this Rottweiler dog showed up on our front porch and wouldn't leave. He didn't like men, but Angela was able to take care of him and get him into the kennel until Animal Control showed up. We had a sign in our front yard for a week for the owner to see, but there weren't any takers. | ||
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We had our old friend Jorge, who graded our land before our
house was built, to build us a lovely and spacious back patio. There
is a sidewalk from the driveway to the patio and it wraps around to our
outside storage closet. Angela built a Koi pond within the patio area.
We'll get some pictures of that for next month. We also had them put in 150' x 9' of Grasstone all along our driveway so that we would have somewhere for guests to park. Grasstone is Pavestone that has holes in it which allow grass to grow up through so you end up with a strong foundation while not hurting the natural beauty of the area. Anyway, after they were done, he and a worker of his regaled us with Spanish music. I learned some Freddy Fender from Jorge and then I played some standards from my repertoire. |
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We had a surprise 70th birthday party for Mom. Here
she acts surprised, even though she knew it was coming since no one sent her
birthday cards in the mail! There just aren't that many birthday cards explicitly for 70 year olds. So, it happened that she received two cards which were exactly the same. |
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We took our summer family vacation just before school
started back. We went to Kemah, TX, just northeast of Galveston, along
with the Crosses. Angela and I get ready to chomp down on some crab legs. I just couldn't feel macho wearing that bib. But it didn't last long anyway, because I redoubled my previous opinion of crab which is, I don't like it. |
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One of the big attractions in Kemah is the boardwalk with stores, restaurants, a carnival, and more. There is a large open area with a design in the walkway with water sprayers that shoot up in a seemingly random pattern (although I'm sure there is a pattern to it). Here Reagan Cross and I try to figure out which spray will come up next. | ||
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Devin enjoys some Marble Slab ice cream in the 90-something, Houstonesque humidity, which supposedly adds 15 degrees to the heat. He's a mess, but by-gosh he's still got his etiquette, notice the outstretched pinky. | ||
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The weekend we were there, Kemah staged the "Blessing of
the Boats." It was a really crazy event where they decorate all of the
boats as floats (makes sense), then drive them by a particular area of the
boardwalk where a priest blesses the boat, throwing holy water out from a
second floor of the boardwalk. Luckily we were on the first floor
allowing us to stay cooler from the sprinkled water with the added benefit of being super-blessed. Entry 90 was a cool number with the top down. I swear Angela took this, not me. My favorite was the Elvish shrimper. There he was, Elvis in the flesh, belting out one of his more popular tunes of "Glory, Glory, Hallelujah (An American Trilogy)" to the accompaniment of a skipping CD player. That rocked! |
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My
absolute favorite part of the trip was this place that I can't remember the
name of. But it was a huge seawater tank full of stingrays. They
come up out of the water to eat small fish you purchase, and they let you
pet them. It was just so surreal. Their mouths look too much
like human mouths, with teeth, too!
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Devin and I feed dogfood to the seagulls. | ||
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We spent a day at the beach where we chilled out and also got to ride a jet ski. Here Angela and I share a headphone each as we listen to some tunes. | ||
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Sorry for the bad picture, the Sun was behind us. But we got to go parasailing. That was a once in a lifetime experience. Caitlin and I went together, Angela and Devin, and Stephanie and Reagan. I won't say I was scared, but I just preferred not to look directly down. | ||
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After boldly approaching this group of young ladies to ask if I could take their picture with Devin, I quietly told Devin, "You better thank me for making you popular for the rest of your years in elementary school." All he has to do is show this for show-and-tell each year and he'll be a hit. Charles whispered to me, "You're my hero." |
