Labor Day Vacation - Day 2 at Enchanted Rock State Park

the family! :))

classic!

this is a GREAT one!

we did it!

flying?

fire power! :)

I wonder what is so funny?

my 3 girls :)

set on timer - different - I like it

I can't believe they climbed up there!!

the girls climbed (conquered) down that.....

Well, the second day of our labor day vacation near Friedericksburg we went to Enchanted Rock. The 3 girls have all been there (at different times), but Bret and I had not. It was really awesome to go on a Sunday morning and witness God's creation and beauty. We had a fun time just being together. I think we took a nap in the afternoon and enjoyed the river some more! It was a fabulous weekend. On our way home Monday, we stopped in San Antonio to shop at the Mexican Market - it is always fun to look around there!
Shelly

New Chicks!

Well, today Alydar Stables has expanded by 20 baby chicks. We got the call from the post office at 7:10 this morning and drove right over to pick them up. They are so adorable! In addition to our usual Buff Orpingtons, we bought 2 new kinds this time, - Black Giants and White Rocks. So, we will see how we like the new ones. Around the clock feedings have begun!
Shelly

Labor Day Vacation - Day 1 at River

coffee on the front porch - what more could you ask for?

donuts - traditional camping breakfast

we played pool - kinda :)

rope swing!

something was funny!

Erica caught me watching everyone!

cool pose....

canoe wars!

she is a Texas fan!!

another mysterious pose....

dinner - YUM!

Our pretty much only family vacation this year was during Labor Day weekend. We rented a house on the Guadaloupe River near Friedericksburg. It was lots of fun to be together as a family and to just relax. Hope you enjoy some of our pictures!
Shelly

Kayla's 1st Calf Show

arriving

exciting day for both of them.....

another bath??

all clean and blow dried :)

show time!

who looks better, the calf or Kayla?

the competition

getting some pointers

nice smile and fun day!

Kayla ventured out to her first calf show on Saturday, August 14th. We left our house at 6:25am! After loading the truck, loading Alec and preparing (NOT eating) breakfast. It was at Woodville, about 1 hour North at the fairgrounds. After we arrived, Kayla gave Alec another bath (Alec had been bathed everyday the previous 5 days!) Then it was on to blow drying. When she was finished, Alec was beautiful! She had just been shaved and trimed the day before. Kayla changed clothes in the bathroom with all the other girls before it was time to begin the heifer show. We waited impatiently in the stands! :)) Kayla and Alec both looked great - but I'm biased. She won 1st place in her division! Then reserve champion overall! We were all very elated! Enjoy the pictures.....
Next show coming up in mid-September.

My favorite family picture!

This picture was taken by a very nice lady on the ferry to Galveston on our way to the island for our cruise! Lovely! :))

Part 2 of Cruise!

Finally. Here is part dos. Sorry folks!

After we explored ancient Mayan ruins at Progreso, we got to go to the beach at Cozumel. Which means we got to swim in the Caribbean. :) It was absolutely gorgeous! We snorkeled and swam around, and tanned, and climbed an iceberg thingy, and it was sooooo much fun!! Then after our dream beach stop, and some shopping, we had one last day at sea, then home Thursday morning. Boy howdy, it was hard coming home after all that pampering! Haha




Mom, Kayla, and Claire in the beautiful water snorkeling. We saw a lionfish! Now granted, it was tiny, but still! We saw it. And lots of other little cute fish. And they weren't shy at all, but I shouldn't be surprised about that. When they saw me, fish #1 probably told fish #2: "Look, there's tourist number 1000. I win." Haha or something like that. And then fish #2 replied "Darn. I was at 986, and we weren't even allowed to use each other's tourists!" But this dialogue has absolutely no meaning. So I'm going to move on. :)




This is one of the best one I could get of the water, but it still doesn't really convey how pretty the water and the sand was.




This is the iceberg thingy I was talking about. It was super hard to climb up. Major ab work out. Haha and it was hard because I have none. Dad and Kayla, however, had a breeze climbing up. Of course.




This is the one I hoped to use to show y'all how blue the water was.




This is our waiter, Victorio. He served us every night for dinner. And he was awesome! Haha he was hilarious all the time, and we love him very much. :)



Grandma and grandkids. :) We took family pics the last night of the cruise.




The family pic. We grabbed some random waiter to take it, and he laughingly took it for us. He did pretty good. :)


Thanks for bearing with me through this. And I put up a new playlist. There are lots on it, so feel free to skip through some, and find other ones. Hopefully there's something on there that you'll like!

Cruise! Part 1... only of 2 though so don't worry. :)

For those of you who don't know, we went on a cruise last Saturday through last Thursday. :) It was amazing fun! The 5 of us joined Dad's side of the family, which included Grandma, and Dad's brother and sister and their families. If you still follow, that made 13 total.

Progreso and Cozumel were our two stops, and they were a blast! I'll show you pics of Progreso this post, and the next post will be pics of Cozumel. :)




This is the ship we were on for 5 days. :) It was absolutely huge, and was soooo much fun! I think one of the best parts was that the food there was free! AAhhhh! We all stuffed ourselves silly. Then we all had to jog after. Haha




Another fun thing was that every day, the dudes who cleaned our rooms (they were awesome guys! they could clean our messy rooms in like 15 min flat! and they were always so polite) made us little towel animals. :) They were always so cute! And there was a class on the boat that taught us how to make them, so Kayla is making us little animals all the time now. :)





This is my cousin Claire. :) We all had lots of fun together!




The water was absolutely beautiful! :) Crystal clear, and very very blue. It was a weird sensation to look all around you and see nothing but water.




We played lots of cards and dominoes. Cause that's just what we hags do. :) 42 and Mafia mostly though. Mafia was the bomb.com the whole time. :) It was a blast!




Progreso's main attraction were Mayan ruins. We went to one called Uxmal (obviously haha). It was really cool! It was huge! And the Mayans we really good at building these stuff. Goodness gracious. :) But in this pic is Grandma and all the grandkids.




This was the tallest building. I don't remember the name of it, but it was hugeeeeee. And even though it may look like those steps are steps, they really aren't. They're too narrow to support someone. Well, a normal person. :)




And this was the view when we climbed a different Mayan structure. The climb was really long, and the steps were steep, so I'm thinking the Mayans always stayed in pretty good shape! The one on the left were like 4 building all squared up (i don't know if that's described well...) so there was a big courtyard in the middle. It was pretty cool.

So that's the first half. Next time I'll post the family and Cozumel pics. We went to the beach there, and it was gorgeous! And we went shopping. :)