Palo Duro Trip---Part 4

Here's a view from the rim of the canyon. When you drive up to the park, you're riding along in this pretty flat terrain, and then the land just drops down and you see this beautiful striped land. The horseback guide told us it's not usually this green this time of year.



Palo Duro is the second largest canyon in the country, formed in the same way the Grand Canyon was---a river. This river is (wait for this very long name) Prairie Dog Town Fork of the Red River.

This is a good shot of the visitor center to the right. This was about 8:30 at night, so they were already closed.

The next morning we went for our horseback ride. B took this picture of me.

Here's the rest of the group. We're all ready with our jeans! We were fortiunate that it was a cloudy morning with fairly cool temps.

Here's the guy who owns the business, and he gave us our initial instructions. The main thing was to Stay on the Horse. They would take care of us if we were up on the horse!

Palo Duro Canyon---Part 3

Here's some more pictures from our trip. One of the first things we did when we got to camp was cook dinner. Each adult lady was resposible for one cooked meal, along with 2 scouts. This one was my meal. Of course, no one took a picture of me, but here's Ricky and the girls. I am not the best fire starter, but the girls and I got it going just fine. In the end, we decided we needed a lot more wood to get the food all cooked over coals. B is the one in the black shirt, and the other 2 were my helpers.

This is after we pulled them off the fire.

This picture is before the cooking---we cut up potatoes & onions, and had baby carrots, salt and pepper, a little cream of mushroom (or chicken) soup, and our hamburger meat.

The deer were very tame! Firearms are not allowed in the park. We also saw wild turkey going through the campsites.

Up on the rock there, someone had put a wooden cross. I took this picture so we coud zoom in on it and look at it up close on my camera display.

That's the next installment! I may do another one right now.

Saturday Photo Scavenger Hunt---OPEN

This week's photo hunter's theme is Open. Here are a few open-themed photos I took during the past year.

This first one has the kids singing through the open windows of the bus. (You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, from last summer. My kid is the one with the hand in front of his face! ooops!)

This next one is from this summer---an open-air theater in Palo Duro Canyon.

Here we have an open food packet we cooked. I was calling them Hobo Packets, but B made them at Girl Scout Day Camp and called the Silver Turtles. You put in a patty of hamburger meat, onions, potatoes, carrots, salt and pepper to make your delicious meal in a pouch over hot coals. When you opened them up, the smell and warmth was just delicious.

If you're interested in more Open photos, go to TNChick's website. Next week's theme is Free.
I'll be up working at the theater space today and hopefully finishing the interior castle backdrop. The shows start next Friday for J, who is playing Lumiere in Disney's Beauty and the Beast, Jr.
Over 50 kids are involved on stage and backstage. It's going to be a great show! They got some costumes yesterday, and were so excited to try them out. J has gotten his knuckles scraped kinda bad holding his candle hands, so we plan to get some moleskin to cover them.

Have a great weekend!! Please leave a comment---especially if you're from out of town. I love to see where everyone is from.

Palo Duro trip---part 2

We spent the first night in Abilene. WooHoo! Larry and J had just left there the day before. Didn't know that town was such a happening place? I've even got plans to go back the first weekend in August. :-) These girls are hanging out in the lobby while we check in. The highlight of this evening? Swimming in the pool. Lis has the pictures of them jumping in that I'd like. I took my knitting ot the pool. It was "Knitting in Public Week." (I saw it on Facebook, I'm sure it was true.)

That night a terrible storm blew in. It rained very hard, and we all took turns at the window, watching the wind blow the waves of rain across the parking lot to the gas station. I did not sleep well! I was aware of a time that the power went out, and it was really dark.

After breakfast in the hotel, we went north towards Lubbock. This was the first time I'd seen wind energy farms up close. It's hard to tell how large these windmills are, but they are HUGE. There are a lot of them between Interstate 20 and Lubbock. (B took this picture through the car window.)

We ate lunch in Lubbock and picked up a scout who'd been staying at her grandmother's house there. We ate at Rosa's Cafe, which we have right in our own town, so nothing new. It was very crowded.

This picture is pne of the first looks we had of the canyon. I didn't get a good picture of the road winding down into the floor of the canyon, and I should have---it's pretty awesome. The CCC built it in 1933-1934. This state park opened in 1934.

We set up out camp, first thing. This tent was my home for 3 nights. :-)

And this is the view from our camp, looking at a canyon wall. It was awe-inspiring, actually. I kept thinking it was like Niagara Falls, in that you cannot do it justice with photos, and you can't imagine how big it is unless you're there in it.

So that's the next 5 pictures from our trip!! I will keep sharing 5 until I finish.

<>

I will go to "Music Americana" tonight to see J sing and dance. He has parts in "Codfish Ball," "Walking on Sunshine," and Chatanooga Choo Choo.

Have a good evening!

Palo Duro Trip---Part 1

I'm going to do our Girl Scout trip a few pictures at a time. We planned this 5 day trip for a long while and we saw so many cool things!
First stop---the DrPepper museum in Dublin, TX.

They gave us each of us a small bottle of DrPepper at the start of the tour. I'm holding 4 of them for the girls who are going to wait and have it later. B loves DrPepper!! In Dubin, they make DrPepper with the original formula---with Imperial Pure Cane Sugar. No corn syrup in these batches. They have a couple of rooms of DrPepper memorabilia that was a lot of fun to look at.

The guide told us about the machine they use for the rebottling. This is at the end of the process. The bottles are filled with syrup and then carbonated water. The bottles need to turn in a full circle 3 times to mix it, a process they used to have people do by hand, but now the machine will do. This lady was very gracious and helpful!!

One wonderful thing that happened was that we were offered the back room to eat our lunch in. We were planing on our picnic lunch in a park, but they had a room in the back with booths and bathrooms nearby. We ate while we waited for our tour time to begin.

Here we are at the end, posing by the statue outside. We are only beginning our journey, and we hadn't picked up the last scout yet. Lots of adventures still to come for our scouts!

Saturday Photo Scavenger Hunt---SIX

I missed last week, I only realized today! Anyway, today's theme is SIX. I've been camping this week in Palo Duro Canyon State Park with the Girl Scouts. I'm going to just show three of my pictures from the trip.

This is the rock formation everyone wants to see when they go to Palo Duro Canyon. It was named the Lighthouse by the Spanish explorers. The Native Americans who were here before them didn't call it that (they were not sailors like the Spaniards), but they did build signal fires on top. One of the Park Rangers told me that!

If you look closely, this is the lighthouse from another angle. They were right on top of it! There are 6 people in the photo, and it is a 6 mile round trip hike to make it here. That was quite an accomplishment for our scouts! I am sort of kicking myself now that I didn't do the longer hike---I volunteered to do the 3 mile hike and take back the ones who were not going to make it.

This is where I was when I started back. You can see the Lighthouse just over my right shoulder. It was still a long way away! It was already pretty hot by then, even though we got going as fast as we could that morning. My 3 mile hike was just under 2 hours and the longer 6 mile hike was just over 4 hours.

It was a great trip to end our year, and I'll be blogging about it more this week. You can see more Six photos over at TNChick's site. Next week's Photo Hunter's theme is Purple. I bet I have lots of that---it was my high school's color.

Please leave me a comment and have a great week. :-)

food and fun

I finished my knitting and I kinda want to give it to my sister. It's red, white and blue, and her birthday is close to Independence Day. I guess I better get a picture. I am still thinking of doing a dish towel to match.

It has been RAINING! and I love it. Our high today was in the 70s I think. I sure wish it would be this cool for poor little Girl Scouts at Camp Howdy next week! They will be out (in the shade, mostly) from 8 to 3 every day, and it will be a scorching kind of day for them. Our girls will be in the cool Campcraft, which means they will spend the night there one night! Very exciting.

The very next week is our troop's trip and we'll camp out 3 nights. We are so brave.

I went to yoga today!! After having tight shoulders all day yesterday, I was very glad to go stretch out. Whew! I feel better. I walked the neighborhood the day before with Jamie. I plan on walking again tomorrow. I am going to get more fit this summer!

I thought I'd tell about all our dinners we're having lately.

I'll go back a bit and forward.
Sunday---out to lunch (Casa Ole) and then Ovies (we made stuffed mushrooms and mini cupcakes)
Monday---We had a potluck lunch with friends and I made a pasta salad and more of those cupcakes.
Tuesday---Steaks, salad (thanks, Dad, for the Omaha Steaks!)
Wednesday---B's meal: bowtie and shell pasta, corn on the cob and garlic bread. She is not a fan of meat.
Thursday--- breakfast tacos (bacon and egg). Salsa on the side! I used reduced-salt bacon and didn't sat the eggs.
Friday---B's turn again: Betty Crocker Julienne Potatoes with Savory Garlic Pork chops (the recipe she found on the box of potatoes!) I think this will turn out very yummy.
Saturday---TROUPE is doing dinner and a show for $15. I think Hamburgers and chips are on the menu. Larry will be doing some grilling for this event.
Sunday---I have a gift card for Papa Perez we may use (thank you Medina family!)
Monday---The last night we're all together for a while!! I will cook a chicken in a crock pot and we'll have either mashed potatoes or rice, and Mediterranean veggies (carrots, califlower, Italian green beans, zucchini)
Tuesday--my guys will be gone to Dallas!! They will go see Wicked with the TROUPE peeps and then onto Abilene for the Texas Nonprofit Theaters youth conference.
B and I may have chicken tortilla soup.

We have a very busy week, and we will be split up as a family for almost two weeks straight. Boys go together to Abilene the first week, Girls go with scouts to Palo Duro Canyon (stopping one night in Abilene) the next week.

I'm trying to de-clutter and orgaize again. I hope next week when B is gone I can work alone (and not play on Facebook all day!).

Have a good week everyone!

Saturday Photo Scavenger Hunt, May 2nd

Today's PhotoHunters theme is walking. My daughter B reminded me of the pictures we took when we did the Ten Commandments Hike in Houston in February 2008. We walked 5 miles that day! We saw 10 churches along that walk.

Here are the girls at the beginning of the walk, when energy was high and the day was cool.Here are a bunch of girls walking to the next stop. I had the girls take notes along the way about the buildings or the talk that we heard at each stop. Each church had a speaker talk about one of the Ten Commandments.

Here is one of the churches with people walking in front of it. This is an event sponsored by the Boy Scouts, but it is really beneficial for anyone who can go. We tied the walk in with a Junior architecture badge.

Next week's theme is called "In Memory" which sounds like I better get serious. Check out more walking photos at TNChick's website.

Enjoy your weekend! We are going to a Secret Keeper Girls show---B and I, at noon today. Looks to be fun!

A&M vet school and "stuff"

Saturday at 4:16 a.m., I was awake! We had a BIG storm rollling through, and I couldn't sleep until I knew it passed. Our part of the county got 4 to 6 INCHES OF RAIN! It was exactly the kind of rain burst we got when our house flooded two years ago. I was awake from about 3:30 to 5 a.m. that morning. Which made the day that much harder. I was praying at 4:16 a.m.

At 4:16 p.m., I was sitting at the A&M Vet School, waiting on parents to pick up their scouts. We had ten of our Girl Scouts attend this event from 8 a.m. to 3. I enjoyed seeing the room full of animal bones, the Large Animal Clinic (and the giant rooms and equipment for bovines and equines), and the petting zoo.

This is Teddy Bear Surgery. B's bear is there, getting his bottom sewed up after he fell on his roller blades. B left to go to an Aggie softball game where their team was hosted by the Aggie team, so she couldn't miss that. But her friend took in her bear, who had an actual tear in his bottom. :-)

Blue Bell Ice cream sandwich after watching the milking demonstration.

Here, B is feeling actual lungs inflate. Kinda cool and weird and yucky at the same time, all the girls agreed.

Sunday at 4:16 I was driving up to the library and we took Flat Ethan's picture by the big bell. It's a treat for kids to ring that bell when they come to the library, and they're welcome to anytime. It is LOUD, and B chose not to.

Today at 4:16, I was driving in my neighborhood toward home. It was raining lightly, and we had just come home with bacon especially for the TAKS test morning tomorrow.

Yes, the TAKS test is this week, and my kids are taking the same ones as each other again: Math tomorrow and Reading Wednesday.

B can wear a pair of my dressy Sunday shoes. How can this be possible? They fit perfectly.

Today is my daughter's BFF's birthday. She caught up to her again---they're both 10. Happy B-day A! and M.A., and Barbara W. :-)

Volunteerism

I sometimes have felt guilty for not "volunteering" to a cause like homeless soup kitchens or at-risk youth or something like that. But I already volunteer quite a bit. I just had never felt like it was volunteering because it was for events my kids were involved in.

This cookie season has had me volunteering at an all time high. Friday I worked 4 hours for the Girl Scouts (banking, math, booth sales, carrying boxes). Saturday I worked another 2 and a half hours. I guess I got a break today with only a couple of phone calls.

My mental time is being taken up on this also, though. Last night I went to bed thinking about it, and I woke up this morning thinking about it. There are not even any problems going on---I'm trying to figure out how to shift cookies around to other girls or how to make a few more sales (we're not quite to that goal!) or whatever.

I ought to be thinking more about my job, maybe! or my marriage!

Lar and I did go out on Valentine's night. We were going out about 6, and the restaurants were all very crowded. We ended up getting Mexican food at a new location, which was a second choice. For some reason, I think Italian food is more romantic! The parking lot where I wanted to go was all full, though, so I suggested the second place. It didn't have "atmosphere" and we were in the middle of a crowd of tables, but it was Delicious and we had a nice time.

Friday night was the Not So new Newlywed game at church. This is usually kind of romantic---we do think about our coupledom a lot through the course of the evening, adn we don't have kids with us! ;-)

J (and Larry) think it really was my fault we missed 2 questions! One involved my thinking I'm a little more risk taking than Larry thinks. The other question we missed was about what Larry was like in high school----is he more of a "Mac" or a "PC" in character? (Like the guys on the TV commercial---was he more hip and trendy or more traditional and stodgy?) If you knew him then, you can leave me a comment.

Well, it's the end of a weekend, and we're back to the ol' jobs tomorrow. It kind of bums me out!

Saturday Photo Scavenger Hunt, September 13th

Today's theme word is wild. We had a fabulous time looking at wild animals at Fossil Rim Wildlife Center on our Girl Scout end-of-year trip last spring. These zebras were so fun to watch.
Later, a zebra snapped at my hand as we were feeding them! No doubt they are still actually wild. And another wild moment---

At the end of our driving tour, we had a bag of animal food, and this wild ostrich came into the car with his head and neck. The girls went wild---with screaming and laughter. Te ostrich grabbed the bag and left with the bag on his head. wooHoo! That was so funny. :-)

Hope you are having a safe and wonderful weekend. I am writing this Thursday morning, because the hurricane may come early saturday morning to the Texas coast. Although I am pretty far inland, we may get some wind and have power out.

Next week's theme---road. May have to break out the college road trip pics! That would be a fun journey down memory lane.

Scouting Out A&M

Statue of Lawrence Sullivan Ross---president of Texas A&M and governor of Texas----B's namesake----she would have been Lawrence Sullivan (insert our last name here) if she'd been a boy! Our almost Sully A.!

Today I took B and her fellow scout friend MG to A&M for a badgefest put on by Aggie Girl Scouts. They got to earn two badges. Here they are making a bracelet.

Here are the girls in Sbisa, the dining hall I ate in when I was a student.
The front of Sbisa. The girls are over on the left.
By the Chemistry building fountain
MG and B with the yell leaders---the juniors for next fall. They said they hadn't been thrown in the Fish Pond but were looking forward to it. (The Aggies have to win a home football game for the freshmen to get a chance to catch the yell leaders and carry them to the Fish Pond, so it's really a good thing.)
Here's a large picture of the Yell Leaders taking questions form the scouts. You can see B--over on the right! (Look hard!)
The Yell leaders signed the back of the girls' name tags.
B is posing in the foreground, but the Century tree is in the background. I got engaged under that tree.
The Academic building is my favorite on campus. The guide was telling the girls about the tradition of leaving pennies at Sul Ross's feet for good luck in exams (he tutored students for tips when he was alive).
The tour took us to the end of Kyle Field, where they bury the school mascots. This is where all the Reveille's are buried, with a scoreboard over here so they can keep up with the games.
This is a statue of the original 12th man, E. King Gill. He was at the ready in a tough game with a lot of injuries. We stand during games "at the ready" to go down and play if we are needed. That's B in the foreground.
We had fun at Scouting Out A&M!