Special Events: Our Horses • House Addition • Mustangs 2008/09 • Mustangs 2007/08 • Mustangs 2006/07 • Summer Vacation 2011 • Family Traditions

During the month Rick and Kelly did several Christmas events around Denver - the Zoo lights, the downtown Christmas Marketplace, ICE at the Gaylord resort (again), and some other things. They are definitely keeping busy in their new area - lots of things to explore.

So we popped by Mia's house for the afternoon to hang out and see their decorations. Good job on the tree and all the other decorations. Mia and I made a trip over to the Holocron store and even Darth Vader was in the holiday spirit! I'm pretty sure, Santa is going to be good to these kids - time will tell.

We drove over the Alexandria last night to attend Haley's Graduation Ceremony from LSUA at the arena in town. It was a cold morning over here and we had to wait in line outside to get a good seat for the show. It was a good ceremony and we got to see Haley walk the stage which was cool. Afterwards, we went to lunch at a local sports bar which was nice. We headed for home in the afternoon, relishing our first grandchild to graduate from college - way to go Haley

Jalen spent a few days with Jacquelyn this week which was great. She brought him over for visit and we played with the Christmas train, and decorations. he visited Grandma at school and got to play with the kids on the playground which he loved. He's a pretty happy kid!

Violet participated in a Broadway musical this week and even got to do a solo! She's been attending practices for months now to prepare and now the show must go on. She did a great job from the videos, and seemed to really enjoy the experience. She's a performer, no doubt - maybe a career on Broadway is in her future? :-)

Caught these off Facebook, some nice picts of Lindsey, Ethan and their dog Wednesday for the holidays - very nice!

The dogs got groomed for the holidays and are up ti their usual hi jinks. They always look good when they come back from the groomers. wish we could have it done more often but I know its hard on them as well.

Today we added some new fish to the tank at home now that Cecil is gone. Due to my stupidity, I used soap to clean some of the items in the tank which resulted in a lack of oxygen in the tank which took Cecil out. :-( Totally my fault. We replaced him with 3 other new fish, a bala shark, a pink tetra, a tiger barb, and a golden nugget molly. We'll see how they do, and note to self - don't wash things in soap any more.

After our Santa visit, we celebrated Haley's birthday with the family as well. Hard to believe she's already 23. Jalen seemed to enjoy the festivities which was nice. Glad they could make it for Santa and this. It was nice having all the family around for this - good times!

Tonight we had our annual visit from Santa at the house. We had a pretty good turnout for the event and the kids had a blast. As usual, Santa spent quite a bit of time with us telling stories and meeting with each of the kids. This marks the 24th year (I believe) that Santa has paid us a visit, and I'm really thankful that he's been willing to stop by for so many years. Santa is a special guy :-)

The kids came over and spent the night to get ready for Santa visit tonight, so we took them over to the Dinner Bell for breakfast to check out the decorations. Always a good time looking at the place all lit up with the Reindeer Games theme this year. I think the kids enjoyed it as always. Its a tradition, I hope we can continue to do this.

I've been working on getting out all the Christmas decorations and setting things up. As usual, this is a multi-day event the get everything out and put up. I've added a couple new things this year, a couple new nutcrackers, and other misc. things. Christmas is a fun time of the year, which the little kids were closer to be able to enjoy the decorations more.

Space X is prepping for this next test flight with static tests and such. This will be the first flight with an upgraded starship I believe. The next two ships have been tagged as Tom and Jerry - note the logos on them. I believe the flight is scheduled for January - we'll see how it goes.

Paula seems to be settling into Grand motherhood very well and spending time with Esben. He's growing and changes every time I see pictures of him. Earlier I thought he really resembled Mitchell quite a bit but I think he's changing some - time will tell who he takes after. Enjoy the moments Paula!

Wicked the movie opened recently so Melody and I went to see it. I was impressed with this, they did a really good job following the story and reflecting the stage play for the big screen. This version only presented the 1st half of the story (just like the play, it covered up to the intermission) which is good. I have to say, I'm not a big Ariana Grande fan but she did a really good job as Glenda - played the part extremely well. Elphaba was also well played. My only disappointment was with Jeff Goldblum's portrayal of the Wizard, I don't think he did such a great job but it will get a passing grade. Looking forward to part 2 next fall - should be good!

Autumn and the kids are getting ready for the holidays it looks like - they are getting so big. We hope to see them later in the month for the annual Santa visit!

This evening we met up with Ken, Hadie, Cassie and Rodie for dinner in Dallas and then went to the Dallas Arboretum for their Holiday festivities. They celebrate the 12 days of Christmas with huge displays and also have a Christmas shopping area patterned after the European Christmas markets - very cool. Unfortunately, it was rainy and cold this evening but it added to the light reflections which was neat. On the way out we stopped by Starbucks and got some hot drinks which helped take the chill off. A good evening to get in the holiday spirit.

 Kalyn had to go to a conference for work, so I headed over to Fort Worth to help out with the kid for this week.  it was a lot of fun, these kids are easy to take care of.  See what adventures we got into while I was visiting for the week!              

 After watching Mia's Basketball game, we took Nellie and Danny over to the Fort Worth Stockyards for the afternoon to see the sites and have some dinner.  Danny and Nellie got to ride a long horn, and we took a covered wagon tour of the grounds as well. It was a fun afternoon - glad we got to spend some time together and catch up.                  

 Today we headed over to Fort Worth with Danny and Nellie to watch Mia play some basketball at the GO facility.  it's always fun to watch these little ones play the game.  it was a good game, and Kalyn had Jack along as well which was fun.  Nellie and Danny seemed to enjoy watching them as well.  Good  times!                  

Today we picked up Mia and went over to the Gaylord Texan and met up with Danny and Nellie to go see ICE this year. The theme this year was Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. As always, they did a great job on the ice sculptures with the colors, and characters. it was well done. I especially liked the slide area this year - with the different slides, and colored lights and character sculptures around the room - well done. We got to see a sculpture actually working on some small mushrooms while we walked through. And as always, the nativity scene at the end was great - I'm always impressed with this every year. This was a good exhibition, I'm glad we got to go see this one. We walked through the Christmas Emporium store for ICE (and didn't leave empty handed) and walked around the Gaylord some to see the lights and decorations - they always do a good job.

Afterwards, we went over to Grapevine Mills Mall and went to dinner at the Rain Forest Cafe - one of Mia's favorite spots. Kalyn met us there as well so she could take Mia home. it was a good ending to a good day.

Rick and Kelly finished off their Medieval Lego castle this week, it was a big project. I believe the next phase is to build the village to go with it.

So I spent a week up in the Denver area visiting Rick, Kelly and Violet in their new home. Melody didn't get to make the journey due to work, but I was able to get away. This was my first visit to their new house in the Denver area. it was a really busy week with so many things going on. We did a bunch of family things, built some legos, did some sight seeing, etc. Denver is a interesting place, I had a good time getting to know more about the area. See what all we got into for the week!

I caught this on TV today, the Rangers are playing the Oakland A's in Oakland which will be the last A's game played in the Oakland Coliseum. its the end of an era with the A's relocating to Las Vegas in 2 years. Its a crying shame that Oakland has now lost all their pro sports teams to other areas (even the Warriors play in San Francisco now). I have found memories of going to A's games when we lived in the Bay area, back in their hey day. Sorry to see this come to and end and I feel bad for the people in Oakland.

Posted: August 25, 2024

Posted: August 2, 2024

I started building the Lego Mustang car today and got only so far with it. The partially built car sat for about a week and then Mia and Charlie got together to finish it while Mia and Jack were visiting. it's nice to be able to sub-contract out these building projects when necessary! Plus, Mia and Charlie had a good time doing it - that's what counts!

Tonight was the ACPA Acorn Awards for 2024 where they recognize the achievements of all the students for academics and moving onto their next grade level. They especially focus on the seniors given its their last event which is pretty special. It was very special this year, Mr. Niswonger presented all the seniors with carved pens that had a connection to a ACPA teacher (Mr. Taylor) that was tragically killed in an auto accident in the last year. This was a special gift to the seniors - I hope they realize it. School is almost out, only a few more days to go...

April weather has been good and the flowers are starting to bloom around the year. We made our annual trek to Home Depot, Texas Nursery and Hand Nursery in Tyler to pick out plants for the summer growing season. We have some new roses, black eyed susans, and a couple passion vines along with the usual array of hibiscus plants in many colors. We planted some strawberry plants as well to see how they would do - time will tell....

Rick and Kelly made the decision to move to Colorado and went ahead and purchased a house outside of Denver. Its a 3 level house, larger than the one they currently have in Highland Village (which they are selling). Not exactly sure but I think they will be moving up there after school is out. Here's to new adventures in Colorado!

Sean took Mia to the Saint Andrews Daddy Daughter dance tonight. Mia got all gussied up in a dancing dress and Sean did as well. From the pictures, they must have had a good time - I'm sure this was pretty special for Mia!

Jalen is now 13 Months old, walking and starting to gab. I didn't get many pictures of him this month.

I caught this off Facebook - someone has built a custom version of the Big Boy Locomotive 4014 completely in Legos. This is the same engine we saw a couple years ago in Palestine when it was on its tour around the US. This is a pretty impressive build, would love to see it in person some day.

Today we spent the day with Kalyn and her family to help celebrate her birthday. She opened her gifts and we were off to watch Mia play basketball. Mia's team (The Amazons) is pretty good, and they ended up winning the game. Many of the girls on the team are also on Mia's soccer team so they all stick together it seems which is nice to see.

Kelly, Rick and Violet went to Medieval Times in Dallas this evening for dinner. Violet was all decked out in her Princess dress, very appropriate for the castle and knight theme at this restaurant. From the pictures, it looks like she got to interact with some of the characters which is nice. Its a fun place to have dinner.

Mia and Jack are doing their thing as always, keeping busy. Mia has been playing basketball and finished the season this month - She even got a trophy! Imagine that. Jack continues to grow and developing a personality. He's now pulling himself up on things.

Tonight was Senior Night at the ACPA basketball games and all the seniors for boys and girls were recognized in ceremonies before each game. Jacquelyn and Erik escorted Charlie on the court for his turn, and Coach Brown gave him a nice acknowledgment. Hard to believe we're already at this stage, seems like just yesterday he was playing Little Dribbler's. Congratulations Charlie on your senior night!

We stop by to say Happy Birthday to Mickey at Applebee's today - Ericka and her family took him out for lunch. We couldn't stay long due to a dog grooming appointment, but it seemed like Mickey enjoyed his lunch. Happy Birthday Mickey!

In the evening, we went to see the Mavericks take on the Milwaukee Bucks. This is the first time I've seen the Dirk statue they put in Victory plaza - it turned out really good. Gianis Antetukumpo and his crew are really tough competition. He is hard to stop. The game was pretty good but in the end, the Bucks prevailed and won the game.

We finally got the old Macromedia crew together for lunch in Dallas. We went to a place called Rise, a French themed menu which was really good. it was a blast hanging out with these guys again, miss the old days working with them. Everyone seems to be doing good which is great to see.

We went to Saint Andrews Catholic School today to attend Grandparents Day. Soutara and Mike were also there. The different grades put on skits and performances and then we all got escorted to our different destinations within the school. This was highly organized. We spent some time in Mia's class, then we went to the Book Fair, and finally we got to play Bingo. Our group ended up winning a couple Bingos and Mia got some prizes to take home. it was a neat event, i think the school did a good job on this one.

Afterwards, we and Soutara took Mia over to the Fort Worth Stock Show to see the animals. We sat in on a horsemanship competition, and then walked through the barns to see the different animals - it was pretty neat. Mia got her face painted and we spent time at the amusement area so she could ride a few rides. We ended up at her house in the afternoon. It was a fun day all around.

Things are moving fast at the California Science Museum in Los Angeles - they are standing up and assembling a full stack of the space shuttle Endeavor They plan to stand things up in a launch position, then build the actual building to house it around it over the next 1-2 years. We visited the museum about a year ago and saw the plans for this, its good to see it happening. It will be cool to actually see up close what this all looked like on the launch pad.

We made the trip down to Haley's to help celebrate Jalen's 1st Birthday. We met Kalyn to pick up Mia and headed south yesterday afternoon. Haley and Tank decorated with a underwater Nemo theme with balloons a cool cake. Of course, he made out like a bandit with a electric car and other fun toys. They tried to get him to dig into a cup cake which was tough - he wasn't really sure about it but once he got a taste of the frosting, I think he liked it :-) After the party, we went to Logan's Roadhouse for Dinner which was fun. It was a really good trip - Happy Birthday Jalen!

Mia and Jack keep themselves busy as usual. Jack sure seems to like Mia and Mia is the same about Jack - they do well together...

Jalen is closing in on the 1 year mark and is developing a personality. He's a pretty happy baby and is getting really close to walking - won't be long. He also got his first haircut recently - look at that! His birthday is in about a week and we plan to go down there to help celebrate it.

We got an arctic blast last night combined with some moisture from the south and viola - we have snow! We got about 2 inches I think but it won't last long with temperatures going up in the next day or so. At least there was enough snow for the kids to play, and Lily really liked it as well - its her kind of weather.

We got as many of the family as possible together to celebrate birthdays from Dec and January this weekend (Melody, Charlie). We met at Uncle Julio's in Arlington for this event. The weather was starting to change and get really cold this day. It was a good dinner, and Charlie and Mia got to smash open the Chocolate Piñata which was fun. Jack got passed around as well and spent time with everyone around the table - he's getting so big. It was a fun evening with everyone - Happy Birthday!

The basketball season rolls on for the Storm with multiple games this season. The team is doing ok but the competition is tough. Charlie still suffers from a wrist issue which I think is affecting his shot. We'll see how the rest of the season goes here, looks like it could be a tough season.

We spent a quiet New Years Day at home watching the Rose parade and some football. Nothing too special. The College Football Playoffs included Texas so we had a horse in the race to follow. unfortunately, they fell short to Washington and didn't make it to the Championship game. Looks like the championship will pit Michigan vs. Washington this year.