Trip to Texas

 John passed away in April.  We were able to celebrate his life at a really nice funeral.  

 Paul, my cousin, officiated the ceremony.  

My aunt and cousins came in for the funeral.  There were lots of friends too!  

It was a nice celebration of his life! 

 We were able to stay a few extra days!

The boys enjoyed loving on their Granny.  

Christmas in Dallas

Granny and Papa John!

 I had to make her wait until Christmas Day to open presents!

 Star Wars!

 No stop to Dallas is complete with out a trip to Dave and Busters!

 Nate and I found a playground and took the boys to run around.  

 Granny loved snuggling this little monster.

Sporting their new jammies!  We had a great time in Dallas!  

The theme for this whole trip was IT WAS TOO SHORT!  

I took all the photos from this whole trip on my phone.  Lesson learned: always use the camera!

Christmas in McDade

 Surprise, surprise!  The boys started their trip to Papa's with a ride on the mule!  Dad took them separately because Link is a horrible driver and scares Ethan!

 Ethan is a much better driver!

 This guy loves to pick on his Papa!  Papa taught the boys how to play hearts.  

They loved trying to beat him.  

 Josh bought the boys nerf guns so the fellas had a nerf war in the pasture.  

 We told them at least 10 times to not shoot near the pond.  They only had 5 bullets each.

Lincoln shot one in the pond and 10 seconds later shot another one.  Thankfully, it was windy.  Nate and I went to the other side of the pond and waited.  Nate retrieved them both.  

Gale's mom made TONS of cookies and brought them over to us.  Then Brenda, Gale's sister, brought crafts and Alexis over.  They made crafts and then played frisbee outside!

 The weather was amazing for our whole visit.    

We all loved spending time with Dad and Gale in the country!  

Christmas in Houston

We went to Texas for Christmas and our first stop was Houston.  We went to straight to dinner and had Mexican FOOD!  Yummy!

Sunday morning, we visited the church I went to when I lived in Pasadena.  

Judith took us on a tour.  WOW have things changed since 2001!

 We spent Sunday afternoon with Josh and the family!  The guys played video games all afternoon with Josh and then we surprised my little guys with the Star Wars movie.  We told them that we couldn't go until we got back to Montgomery.  They were SHOCKED when we pulled up to the movie theater!  It was a CRAZY fast trip to Houston, but we had a great visit with everyone!

Geneva and Jay's Wedding

The Leaps made a super fast weekend trip to San Antonio for Geneva and Jay's wedding.   We got in about 1:30 Friday night and left at 10:00 am Sunday morning.

The wedding was a costume wedding.  Love is Timeless.  

 They had a dessert competition for the reception.  This was a great idea!!!

We didn't plan it, but we were both from the 20s!

 We had a mini Our Lady of the Lake reunion!

 For the reception, they had a talent show.  The boys loved watching all the talent.  Their favorite was a Star Wars Song sung to the tune of Bye Bye Miss American Pie.  

 Sally and I talked throughout the talent show.....just like old time!  Talking in class!

 The gorgeous couple!  

 Jaycee telling jokes for her talent!

 Too cool for school!

 Geneva and Jay ended the night with the cutest dance!  I loved it!

Congratulations to you both!  Love you!

San Antonio

Nate and I spent ten days in San Antonio for a conference and school tours.  

 We spent the first four days in a classroom sitting and listening.  On our last conference day, we were able to go to a Basic Training Graduation! 

 This one was special because it was General Rand's last graduation.

 After the graduation, we went and had lunch with six week basic trainees.  

It was one of the coolest experiences!  

 On Monday and Tuesday, Nate and I toured training squadrons all over San Antonio.  It was so neat to see where the basic trainees would be going after graduation.

 On Saturday, Dad and Gale met us and we drove all over San Antonio. We made a quick trip the Our Lady of the Lake to see if anything had changed since 2000.  NOPE!  Everything was still the same!

 We enjoyed breakfast and lunch with Dad and Gale before they headed back to McDade.

 During the weekend, Nate and I also went to the Riverwalk!  It was so HOT

We also met up with my girl, GENEVA!  We were lucky enough to meet her fiancee before we return in a few weeks for her wedding!  

We had such a great ten days, but we were both missing the boys so badly!

Week 2 of Summer Break

 On Friday, we loaded up the truck and drove south to McDade to see Papa and Gale.  Papa took the boys for a ride on the mule almost immediately.  They had been looking forward to the ride all day!

Ethan was persistent that we play baseball in the back yard!  We started bright and early Saturday morning.  It was so hot that my camera immediately fogged up.  

You can see it on Ethan in this picture.

 Papa has been trapping wild hogs.  On Friday, he baited the traps and the boys spied on the trap.  

No luck.

 On Sunday, we went to church and then to eat Mexican food!

 We left Monday morning for Lufkin!

 Marilyn had tons of games planned for the boys.

 It was fun visiting with all the Texas relatives, but we needed to get on the road for Alabama!

 Nate got so good at tying the tarp over our suitcases.  He did have some good help!