Spring Break in Victoria part II

After we left The Boiling Pot, we went to a small beach around the way. The water was shallow several hundread feet out. Patrick liked this ocean much better than the last one he was at. He played and played and played!! And Papa J napped.

This is Paul, Patrick & Josh. They made up a game where they would each throw in the same direction and then go look for it. When you don't plan on going to a beach, you gotta improvise, but Patrick LOVED this game. And was very good at it.

We hadn't really packed to play in the water so we just let him play in his pull-up - that's why it's so saggy. We were pretty white trash. Some nice Red Raiders gave us a real swim diaper. And then we sent Uncle Josh to the store to get more pull-ups and more beer, of coures.
This is me and mom with our rolled up pants. We weren't prepared for the ocean either. We just liked oozing our toes into the sand.

Spring Break in Victoria

We took a short family vacation with my folks to see Josh and his girlfriend in Victoria. Josh knew Mom and Dad were coming but it was a late birthday surprise that Paul, Patrick & I were coming down.

Paul was stationed in Port O'Connor back in 1999, so he knew some places to go down there. The one thing he really wanted to do was to go eat at The Boiling Pot in Rockport. We CHOWED on crab, crawfish, shrimp, potatoes and corn. Patrick liked the mallets. He was collecting them from ALL the tables - not just ours.

Here's the carnage from our table.
This was Patrick and Papa J building a sand dune off the patio at The Boilng Pot.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JENN!

We cannot tell the precise moment when a friendship is formed. As in filling a vessell drop by drop, there is at last one drop which makes it run over. So in a series of memories there is at last one which makes the heart run over.
~James Boswell

Cheers, my dear friend. Thanks for all the memories and the ones we've yet to make. Not that we will "remember" our memories, but they will surely be made.

5 things I want to do in my lifetime

Katie, this DANNY the MANNY pic is for you! And relates to #3

1. Bake a cake without it caving in. I consider myself to be an above average cook, but a pretty terrible baker. I think it’s because I don’t follow recipes to the tee. Katie Marshall is the best baker I know! She makes the best strawberry and hummingbird cakes!
2. Get back in single-digit sized pants. Just when I think I can’t eat another bowl of Special K, I look back at old pictures of myself.
3. Be in the stadium when Tech wins a Bowl game. Could have been there this year. But someday Paul & I will be there!
4. See Patrick as Raider Red. This would be a huge rush for both me and Paul to know that Patrick was in the Red costume. Let’s just hope no more Tech folks stick their nose in Saddle Tramp bidness and that the Tramps stay out of trouble!
5. Rock my grandchildren to sleep. I have seen how my parents have loved being grandparents and I want to have the same bond with my grandchildren. And I want to feed them coffee brownies and send them home to my kids! Wink wink, Doodah!
6. Work on a PhD - although I don't know what field I would pursue. . . Public Administration? And the thought of dissertation research petrifies me! This will probably be a mid-life crisis pursuit. I don’t want to sacrifice potential tee ball games, weekends in the blow-up pool and RED RAIDER football to work on a PhD.

Happy Birthday, STACY!
You're so pretty with a fro!

Cheers to recent happy times and many more memories to come!
Paul said he's pick your nose for your present!

Happy 29th Birthday, Josh!

HAPPY BIRHTDAY JOSH!
Enjoy the next 366 days (2008 is a leap year) before you turn 30!!!

There were too many FUNNY & memorable pictures to choose from to commemorate Josh's 29th birthday!
The first one is Josh's famous "monkey dance" - only this time he added Patrick's little cowboy hat. Funny thing is, I think he was pretty sober when he posed for this.
Middle one was one of the only pictures where I might have looked a little less dorky than Josh. Looks like he has a thing for cowboy hats. This was one picture Paul & I put in our wedding slide show.
The last one was from December at my Dad's 60th birthday party with beers in tow.
I love my brother and miss hanging out with him since he is lives in Victoria! He is by far one of the best dancers I have ever danced with. And a pretty mean cook - if you like sauteed onions.
I love ya, Bud. CHEERS! Drink one for me!

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens. .. These are a few of my favorite things. . .

I can’t really buy you any of these things, but they are some of my favorite things.

Random smell – Clean cotton. Especially blankets. There is s certain smell that my blankets have and I could just sniff it all the time. Paul thinks I am crazy.

Condiment – Paul thinks this is really gross. . . I LOVE warm mayonnaise. Especially on leftover turkey sandwiches at Thanksgiving. But I’ll warm up ham sandwiches or hamburgers to get the mayo to warm up. I also like it when my peanut butter melts on my toast. This isn’t as weird as the mayo.

Music to listen to while cleaning house or kicking back on a Saturday– Anything Robert Earl Keen. My brother-in-law made us several Robert Earl Keen cds and I just love every song on it. I really enjoy his stories before and during songs. And the fact that he doesn’t have that great of a voice, but his songs are still fun and timeless. I think my favorite REK song is “The Front Porch Song.”

Random words – rigmarole, shenanigans, kismet, rendezvous, “Chaos and Mayhem”

Children’s book/poem – “Casey at the Bat.” I did a school competition in 6th grade and we used this poem. I have had it memorized ever since. I found a great copy for Patrick with great vintage-esque pictures. He loves to read it. The other day he was playing baseball and told me was “The Might Casey.” And “Snuggle Puppy,” of course. This was the first book I started reading to Patrick and I have since gotten a cd of Sandra Boynton songs. I love listening to Patrick sing “OOOO snuggle puppy of mine, everything about you is especially fine. . .”

$20 purchase – a blow-up pool for the backyard. Paul, Patrick and I have spent countless hours and had more fun just kicking back in our $20 blow-up pool. It’s nothing fancy, but it provides for some quality family time out in the sun. It was definitely the best summertime investment we’ve made. And we listen to REK. And drink beer. (I guess I could buy y’all one of these pools, but it’s more about the memories made in the pool than the pool itself.)