Well, we dropped him off, and although he seemed really sad to see us go, I could tell he tried to hide it. I know he's having fun, but it was hard to leave him :(If you want to write him letter, his address is:Hermann Sons Youth CampHilltop Colten Brandenberger, Armadillo DormPO Box 629Comfort, TX 78013-0629
Finally got a chance to post these pictures - my laptop's power cord freaked out and I had to get a new one. Anyway, here is a link to the some of mine & mom's pictures from Dayle & Dee's shower and wedding. The wedding was beautiful, of course, and lots of fun. I am so happy for them!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=228942&id=755340907&l=e9dd1c03de
We've been busy with Jill during her visit (well the rest of the family mostly - I've been working). She's going back today already - went by too fast! They did lots of swimming, we all went to NIOF, ate lots of Mexican food, had a BBQ and they went to Sea World yesterday. Busy busy! It was a nice visit, but I didn't get many pictures :(
This weekend, we'll be taking Colten to Hermann Son's camp for the first time. John & I are a little nervous about it b/c he's more of a homebody than Ashlyn was. I know he'll have fun - but hopefully he doesn't miss us too much at night!
We had a great trip - very relaxing. We stayed two nights at Balmorhea State Park where we had a room with a kitchen that connected to the Harwell's room and the kids had a blast with that. We swam in the pool several times and ate lots of yummy food. The kids had fun playing in the stream behind our rooms. They fed the turtles (they named them Cheeto, Chester and Cheeto Jr.) and the fish and made boats out of sticks and leaves to race from one bridge to the next. We saw snakes and crawfish, too. The only bad part about staying here was that our neighbors were smokers and smoked inside their room (they weren't supposed to) and the smoke got into our rooms, too and kept us up at night. Stinky!
The next two nights we stayed at Indian Lodge in Davis Mtns State Park. It wasn't nearly as fun staying there esp since the pool was closed :(, but we did do some fun things - went for a 2 mile long hike up and back down the mountains and had a cookout at one of the picnic areas. The first night there, we drove to the McDonald Observatory to see if the star party was going to happen. They didn't decide until 9:30 (when it was supposed to start) that they would have it so we finally got to go yay! We got to see Saturn, a nebula, two galaxies interacting and a star exploding through their telescopes. Then we started the constellation tour, but by that time it had clouded up and we didn't get to finish it. The next night, we drove to Marfa to eat supper and then check out the Marfa Lights. They weren't tooo exciting, but the fact that no one can explain them made it interesting. We stayed and watched for about 30/45 minutes and saw them several times. Now we can say we saw them :)
Here is a link to an album with lots of pictures:
Ashlyn's Birthday was yesterday, so, since we will probably celebrate her day while Jill's here (possibly a BBQ on the 18th), we let her pick out what to eat for dinner on her special day (spaghetti & meatballs w/ice cream for dessert) and I bought some mini brownies so we'd have something to put all of her candles on. Here's our 14 year old with her birthday brownies:
We've had a busy summer so far. This past weekend we went to Dayle & Dee's wedding shower and are sooo looking forward to their wedding on July 10. Sunday we met our friends, the Harwell's, at the Llano river to discuss menus for our upcoming trip to Balmorhea and Davis Mtns. We went there with them last year, too, but we're getting to stay in the parks this time (since we made early reservations unlike last year) and hopefully will get to have a non-stormy star party at McDonald Observatory. We are all looking forward to getting away for a few days. Then the next week Jill will be here for a week and I'm sure we'll do some fun stuff with her and then at the end of July, Colten will be going to Hermann Sons Camp and John will be going to another fire fighter training in College station, so it will be just Ashlyn & I at home alone that week - she's too old for camp already! Then it's August already - summer flies!
John got a new herd bull for the ranch and we need a name for the big guy. His idea is Big Red. Any other suggestions?
Hope everyone had a good Father's Day. We pampered John a little - made him breakfast and did what he wanted to do - absolutely nothing all day! Wasn't too difficult.
Here he is in his father's day recliner with a beer and the remote and the card that the kids picked out for him - it says tape to stomach - now you have the six pack abs you've always wanted ;)
Jill & Ashlyn at NIOF fanning themselves (the red fuzzy blob is the fan):
We've had a busy summer so far. This past weekend we went to Dayle & Dee's wedding shower and are sooo looking forward to their wedding on July 10. Sunday we met our friends, the Harwell's, at the Llano river to discuss menus for our upcoming trip to Balmorhea and Davis Mtns. We went there with them last year, too, but we're getting to stay in the parks this time (since we made early reservations unlike last year) and hopefully will get to have a non-stormy star party at McDonald Observatory. We are all looking forward to getting away for a few days. Then the next week Jill will be here for a week and I'm sure we'll do some fun stuff with her and then at the end of July, Colten will be going to Hermann Sons Camp and John will be going to another fire fighter training in College station, so it will be just Ashlyn & I at home alone that week - she's too old for camp already! Then it's August already - summer flies!
