Texas - Day 5 (Saturday)

On Saturday we piled into the truck and headed for Alvin, three hours away, for a surprise birthday party for Uncle Ireland. Yes, Uncle Ireland lives in California with us, but there we were in Texas for his party. It was perfect, we got to see all sorts of extended family without driving all over the state, with tired kids.

Uncle Ireland walked in to "Happy Birthday To You"...not realizing it was for him. Blowing out the candle on his cake.

Grandpa's band played.

There were a lot of people to meet...

Daddy introduced them to their Great Grandma

Grandpa with his Mom.

Grandpa with his sisters and Mom.

There was dancing with cousins

...and more dancing.

Family!

And I really was there too...not always behind the camera.

Happy Earth Day!

Today was Earth Day and also our local Raley's store's first anniversary. The kids, well the two older ones, got their faces painted, they all got to pot some plants, eat some cookies and we got more reusable grocery totes.

For a shopping trip with kids it was relatively pain free and even fun!

Texas - Day 4 (Friday)

As we had driven from Austin to Gonzales on our first day, I had been astounded by how beautiful it was. The fields were lush and green and full of the most amazing wild flowers. I seriously had not seen anything like it before; fields just full of red, blue, white and yellow flowers. I knew immediately that we would have to make some time to do some photos. Then it hit me, we had no nice clothes with us, the girls had nothing cute, no dresses, we had nothing that would even vaguely match. What had I been thinking? Oh yes - I had been thinking that at $100 a pop for any checked bag, thank you very much American Airlines, we would not check bags but each have a carry-on. It worked fine, we just brought the basics, that was all.

We had to stop at a Wal-Mart to buy nappies/diapers (too much space to pack them) and I found cute $5 dresses for the girls, I was happy, we would be able to make something work.

After breakfast, in town, on Friday morning, Grandma Betty took me to a western store and I got a new dress, we would be able to coordinate...now the photos had to happen!

James' younger sister Canna had told us of a pretty location and drove us out, just before the sun set. It really was beautiful with horses and bluebonnets. The horses were curious and all came trotting over to check us out and see what was going on, unfortunately that sent both our girls into cardiac arrest. Bryttain started screaming and clung to James for dear life, whilst Asia made a dart for safety, heading back to the truck. So much for picture perfect backdrop. The horses got shooed away and we plopped the kids down.

We were cutting it fine, but we worked quickly and got a few shots of the cousins together.

Canna and her little girl.

James and the kids. Then for some reason my sweet little pumpkins refused to all have their photos taken with me together. I was a little frustrated at first, but instead, I now have a wonderful photograph with each of them individually and I will treasure these. Thank you James for taking them for me, I love you.

We were losing light so quickly but we had to at least try to get a family shot, poor Canna was holding her baby and my camera so we only have one that turned out, but we have ONE! I have said it before and I will say it again...I LOVE my little family so much!

Texas - Day 3 (Thursday)

Minners (also known as minnows to those outside of Texas) were the order of the day today. Grandpa was buying them to stock his ponds, allowing them to get established before stocking with bigger fish, who would need something to eat.

We also visited Gonzales Memorial Museum, to learn a little more about Texas history. Apparently the first shot of the Texas revolution was shot there. Grandma was our tour guide and even bought history books for us to bring home to continue our education.

After lunch, it was back to the ranch to stock the ponds. The kids were fascinated and enjoyed 'helping'.

Highlight of the day, however, had to be Uncle Emmy's arrival with his horse! After I had inquired of the horse's name, I had to re-inquire as I was unsure if the answer was Denny, or Dunny. Arran sensing my confusion, excitedly explained to me that cowboys speak their own language. He 'learned that at school!' Uncle Emmy quickly became Arran's hero. A real-life, good-looking, friendly, member-of-his-family, cowboy.

Other than the horse's name I have actually been very happy to not need a translator on this visit. It would seem, also, that everyone has been able to understand me this time around, progress has been made.

Texas - Day 2 (Wednesday)

Today started with the grandparents taking us to the McKenna Children’s Museum. There were all sorts of fun activities and the kids had a blast.

Then on we went to a real-life cattle auction. Certainly not a regular activity in our day to day life back in California. Yup, you cannot just go to Safeway when you want to buy a cow, and now our children have (kind of) experienced what is involved, up close and personal. I swear the auctioneer was not speaking real words and just rolling his tongue and speaking gobbledygook. They loved it for a while, but Arran soon announced that he was bored and ready for the next experience.

During lunch at Chili's Bryttain managed to spill her whole cup of water on herself and wailed at the top of her lungs about how uncomfortable she was and how wet. Fortunately I had a long sleeve shirt for her to change into, but she was not happy. It was then that Grandma pulled a classic grandma move...off she went to find a store and came back ten minutes later with a new outfit!

Texas - Day 1 (Tuesday)

After a breakfast at IHOP, a stop at Wal-Mart and an hour's drive, we arrived at the ranch, just outside of Gonzales, Texas. We had driven by cattle but up by the house we met a couple of horses, some dogs, a rabbit, many roosters, some chickens and even some wild, but captive, pigs.

Asia was all over the dogs, particularly Nina who she has been petting and hugging and loving at every opportunity. Every spare moment, she loves to go outside and hang out with the dogs and is continually begging for somebody to go outside with her.

Arran was quick to inform Grandma Betty, as she fixed dinner, that his mom ‘The Expert Cook’ would be happy to assist with any needs she might have.  Grandma Betty was ‘tickled’ by that I think, because she had a good chuckle. He went on to inform her that although he was not an expert cook, he was an expert mixer, so if she needed any help making cookies or cake, he would be happy to oblige. Well how could she refuse an invitation like that? Off she went to the pantry and returned with a mix for brownies, which she had the kids whip up for dessert. They were in seventh heaven, because as we all know, the best part of baking is licking the spoons afterwards.

Texas bound

None of the children have been to Texas. The last time Arran met his grandparents, on James’ side, he was a baby, only six months old and the girls have never met them before. It is so hard when family is far away…our poor kids have grandparents they barely know, while friends all around them are surrounded by doting family.

This has been a long overdue trip, on Monday we headed to the airport for a new adventure. We flew into Austin, Texas close to midnight and exhaustedly arrived at our hotel and fell into our beds, finally, at 12:40am. Grandpa Jim and Grandma Betty would be driving to pick us up the next morning and a few hours of sleep were needed before then.

Easter Weekend

I have always felt a little cheated over Easter, since moving to the U.S. In England, both Good Friday and Monday are holidays, yet here there are no public holidays over the Easter period. Sure you can celebrate on Easter Sunday, but you are given no extra time to really enjoy  Easter. It is such an important part of our  year, a time to remember why we have the life we have, that we totally do not deserve. It came at a price, and somebody, Jesus, paid that price for us. Sometimes the words ‘celebrate’ or ‘enjoy’, don’t seem quite appropriate, there was a gruesome death and heartbreak involved…but there was a wonderful, happy ending and so we do celebrate and remember with gratitude.

‘The cousins’ came over for a play date on Friday afternoon and we colored eggs and talked about Easter and it’s true meaning. If we don’t talk about these things, then it would be all about the eggs and egg hunts and chocolate and candy, those are the easy things for children this age to remember.

We had fun, getting messy and dying our eggs, but it was short-lived…there was much playing to do.

On Saturday we continued with our tradition of coloring eggs and filling plastic eggs with some friends, for our church’s annual egg hunt. It is amazing that it only takes a time or two of doing something and in a child’s mind it is expected, it has already become tradition. I was unsure if this was happening this year and the disappointment for Arran was tangible. He fully expected to go to the Busch’s house and do eggs, that is what we do at Easter and thankfully that is what we did. Asia was napping at the time, so I do not have photos this year, but it happened and they loved it.

On Sunday we had church and our first ever egg hunt IN THE RAIN!

The kids did not care, they ran around eagerly hunting for eggs, then returned to us like little drowned rats.

Some of us watched from under the eaves and a few brave souls ventured out with the children. I had the excuse of a camera I did not want to get wet, so was able to stay dry myself, but James was a fearless leader, a loving father who happily joined the fun.