Texas Trip

We got to visit Texas in August!  We flew in to Austin and drove to Lake Brownwood for a family reunion on my Dad's side of the family.  I hadn't been to that reunion since before I left for Asia, which was in 2003, so I was glad to be able to see a few people on that side of the family and bring Colin and Mavry with me. 

 

Since my parents crashed Colin's family reunion earlier in the summer, Colin's parents joined us in Brownwood.  

 We went back to Austin and got some more family time plus some friend visits. 

 Colin left Austin after the weekend to get back to work, but Mavry and I stayed and went to visit my sister Laura and her family in Burleson.  We went to visit a farm in Cleburne to see the animals and buy some raw milk.  For the rest of my visit, Wesley and Curtis kept asking for "farm milk" to drink since they knew where it came from. 

 

It rained a lot while I was in Burleson!  I love rain and had fun playing in the puddles with my nephews.  My parents came to visit for some more grandkid time since we didn't make it to Abilene.  We enjoyed being treated to some fun restaurants and Mavry really enjoyed all the attention she got from everyone.  She especially loved all the fun times with her cousins.  It's too bad we live so far away!

Arkansas Family Reunion

We took our first plane trip with Mavry at the beginning of June to Colin's family reunion in Arkansas.  We had a great time in green Arkansas with the Thorne and Mills family. 

Colin's family was gracious enough to allow my parents and grandma (Mimi) to crash the reunion.  Grandparents are willing to attend a family reunion that isn't even theirs when a granddaughter is involved and it's within driving distance!  It was Mimi's first time to meet Mavry, so I'm really glad they made it up. 

 We got the required four generation picture of the ladies!

Mavry got to meet both of her great grandmothers on this trip.  Mimi has three great grandchildren, but Grandma Thorne has quite a few more - I think it's 22!

Thankfully Colin made it his business to get some good pictures of Mavry with his family.  We love this one of Aunt Ruth and Mavry.  I wish I'd worked a little harder to get good pictures of my side of the family too!

 Aunt Tess smiling with Mavry.  

 Uncle Jess and Mavry

 Colin invited his friend In Soon from Korea to crash the reunion too.  In Soon is currently doing some training in Oklahoma City.  It was fun to spend some time with a good friend of Colin's from his time in Korea. 

On the last night of the reunion, Larry recruited his twins to be the backup on "Man of Constant Sorrows".  Colin says next year he'll improve on the performance with giant gray beards and more extreme choreography.  :)

Arkansas Instagram Pics

We went to the Crystal Bridges Museum in Bentonville.  Despite the name (which made me think it was going to be an ice sculpture show) and despite being funded by Wal-Mart, it's wonderful.  Really a world class museum in an unlikely place.  All of the permanent collections are wonderful and the current Wonder World exhibition was really great. 

If Colin's dad decides to create an album someday, this can be his cover. 

Boone and baby Valo

Family band practice

Family band at the baby shower

Sunrise the morning we left

Texas Visit

Thanks to a plane ticket from my Dad, I got to go to Texas for a 4 day visit last week. (Colin couldn't come because of work.) Most mornings were spent hanging out with the cute nephews.


Mom brought a coin collection for Wesley to deposit into his piggy bank. When Wesley's attention span dropped, he showed Curtis how to finish the job.


We met up with our cousins Erin and Audra and their families for swimming, a one year robot birthday party, and a Ranger game. We had great seats behind home plate at the game.

I hadn't ever been to the "new" Ranger stadium (and hadn't been to a baseball game since the Astros played their last season at the Astrodome), so it was a treat for me.
My parents wanted to go to the Kimbell on their way back to Abilene, so we made it a family trip.
They were showing a cubist exhibition featuring Picasso and Braque, which was interesting.

Wesley found out that he has hair similar to many of the statues in the permanent collection.

He walked around, looking at the paintings, and especially the sculptures with interest.

It was a nice trip, but I guess I am spoiled by our Southern California temps. It was nice to come back to open windows!

Visitors From Texas, Episode 3!

We welcomed our third and fourth Texas visitors last week: Ryan and Josh Smothers, friends from my home church in Dripping Springs, who are celebrating their last few days of summer.

We've had a great time hanging out at the beach (everyone who comes to visit gets a complimentary beach bonfire experience!), seeing Hollywood, Malibu, the Huntington Gardens (amazing! a first time visit for all of us), Venice, Santa Monica, and more. Good times.