The Alamo and More

Of course I took my parents to The Alamo! What San Antonio experience is complete without a visit to The Alamo? Besides, my dad is a history junkie.

Here is Gabriel teaching Papa about the significance of The Battle of The Alamo in Texas history - and frankly, that of the entire United States.

I love this picture.

My kids - trying to figure out how to fire the darn thing....

Papa and the boys at the well.

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We also went to see Shrek 4 and then went to McDonalds for hot fudge sundaes and Shrek toys.

They don't have Ross stores up north so I took my parents there. Here is Ethan in the cart modeling Papa's hat and glasses.

Ethan and Lucy

Papa reading to the boys.

More from the cool part of the River Walk

I copied the pictures off my mom's memory card before she left. These are pics she took with her camera - edited by moi.

Basking in the sun with my newly repaired camera and fresh loaf of bread from the market...

Visit From The Folks

Is this a blog or a scrapbook? Mostly its a scrapbook.

My mom and dad came to visit the second week of June and here are some pictures! This is the first post of a series of pictures from this visit...

My 3 kids watching tv.

Gabriel reading to Papa and Lucy (my "sister")

Lucy

For one of our outings, I took them down to The Pearl Brewery and Farmer's Market. Then we went for a stroll on the new, super cool, less crowded part of the River Walk.

Its really hard for these kids to act normal for a camera. But isn't my dad handsome?

There is a cool cave area and this fountain is hiding in there.


I still don't know what they were so fascinated with.

More pics to come...

Do You Remember What You Did Last Memorial Day?

I remember what I did because I only just got around to going through the photos. This was the fateful day that my camera broke and I had to take it in for repair. It was this day that I held that broken little piece of plastic that snapped off my camera, rendering it inoperable, and nearly wept as I packed it back into my camera bag. But I happened to land a few memorable shots before that.

We went to our friend's pool. There were smoked ribs, baked beans and a watermelon. And a LOT of swimming.

Lovely flowers displayed by our hosts

Elvis lives

He's getting so big.

I love this picture of Duke bc he's a Blue Lacy and here he is with the blue water reflecting on him.
Ethan is thinking of diving and taking Duke down with him.

Gabriel trying to relax already!


Duke was so adorable; he kept fishing this raft out of the water - with or without people on it!

Here's Duncan again.

Gabriel, Daddy and Stella Artois

Ethan, mommy and big giant sunglasses


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When you were a teenager and you complained about going with your family somewhere, did your mother ever snap at you that "you will go and you will enjoy yourself." As though enjoying oneself was the punishment - not the family outing.

Great Danes, generally, do not care for the water. Surely there are exceptions - but our Great Dane is not one of those water loving Great Danes. We are the kind of family who chooses to spend a good deal of time in and around water. A few times this summer we have tried to condition him to like water, to MAKE HIM ENJOY water.

Thus far, we have not succeeded. We tried coaxing him gently. And we tried this approach:

"HELP!!!!"

"Oh for shame..."
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