Mom's Galveston Pics

Here are some more of the pics Mom took in Galveston:




Galveston after Ike

Poor Galveston

To avoid repeating mom, here's a link to her blog about our trip to get Rena's stuff out of Galveston. That poor area will not be in it's pre-Ike state for a long long time!!!

The Lucky Ones

Saturday was the fair appreciation bbq for everyone who volunteered at the fair. They have a bingo game where you can win various prizes so we all got our allotted two cards and played. John, Ashlyn & Colten all won a game which is amazing considering all of the people that were playing. Guess I don't have good bingo karma :) We went home with several koozies, a cap, a t-shirt, a bag of corn and a deer block. Not too bad for a Saturday outing!

Sunday afternoon Noel and Mom & Dad came out and we did some target shooting just for the heck of it. Colten even tried out the 22 a few times and did pretty good. Ashlyn had gone over to Jayde's house so she missed out on the activities. Mom found a rock to sit on and take pictures while the rest of us were testing our aim. We were all a bit rusty :) Guess we'll need some more practice before hunting season!

Randy & Nicki's Wedding

We had a good distraction from worrying about Ike for awhile this weekend since Randy & Nicki got married Saturday! Ashlyn was the cross bearer again for this wedding and again she did great and didn't loose her shoes on the way up :) The wedding was beautiful (with a bit of comedy when Randy got out the pliers to attach her wedding band!) and the reception was tons of fun. We hardly saw the kids during the reception since they were running around having a blast. They got to show off their improved two-stepping skills, too.

Here's a pic of us all dressed up at the reception (poor John - you can tell he was pooped after fixing two water troughs and pulling a calf that morning... long day!)


Once again there were tons of pics taken by my mom & I. Here's a link:

Mason Band Fund Raiser

Ashlyn is selling goodies for the Mason Band fund raiser which has a website, so I thought I'd post it here.

www.funds4kids.info/snowdays

If you are interested in buying anything, let me know and I'll add it to her order form. Ashlyn appreciates it!

Rena's House Is Still There!!!!!!

I did some digging and found some satellite pics that were taken after Ike went over Galveston and I found Rena's house!!! So glad to see it's still there and wasn't still covered with water. Still not sure what damage it has, but at least the roof is intact and no trees fell on it!

See the red circle (I think if you click on the picture you should be able to get a bigger version):

Weekend & Pigs

Ashlyn's friend Jayde started a group called Kids Against Cancer which is a sub-group of the Mason County cancer organization that put on the relay this past year. She got a group of kids together to raise money for the organization and help out at cancer benefits. Saturday evening there was a benefit for a Mason woman and this group was responsible for helping with the auction there and they really did a great job. I'm really proud of Jayde for taking the initiative to start a group like that and I'm proud of the kids that joined it (including Ashlyn, of course). After the auction there was a dance that we stayed at for awhile. I got this shot of the kids dancing together. They're really starting to catch on to two-stepping. Colten even asked another little girl to dance and was twirling her all over the dance floor... too cute!

We got the kids' stockshow piggies this week. This year we have Porky & Oreo:

Labor Day Weekend

Friday night, both kids had sleepovers at friends' houses, so we had a quiet evening alone. We were tempted to go out to eat or something, but I was worried about Colten - it was his first time to sleep over at a friends without any of us with him. Of course I shouldn't have been worried because he was perfectly fine, but that's just how I am!

Saturday we got them both back along with one extra - Ashlyn's friend Emmie wanted to come with us to the Doss Fish Fry (which was insanely crowded - but lots of fun!). She ended up spending the night and going to church and the creek with us the next day. We also convinced Rena to come home Saturday just in case Gustav had a trick up his sleeve and the kids were glad to be able to hang out with her for awhile.

Anyway, here are the kids with Rena at the creek (they had been building a fort out of beach towels):


And here are the other crazy kids ;) in the creek (Emmie had to tell everyone at school how crazy Ashlyn's grandparents and aunt were - I love it!!):

And here's a Colten-ism to sign off with - Colten was showing Omie his new dresser in his room and told her very matter-of-factly, "It was hand-carved by my Daddy." Is he proud or what?