Summer Recap

I really did want to “unplug” this summer.  Put away the facebook, blogging and TV and just enjoy some good time with the kids.  After all, Avery did graduate from Kindergarten and McClaine was headed there in the fall.  We needed some good quality time to make mudpies and play in the sprinkler.And enjoy the East Texas “beaches.”  Which we really did, this is not a beach at all, but we pretended.  It was really a muddy lake with beach-like quicksand shores.  I am learning that if you really zoom in, people can’t tell if you are in Bermuda or at Lake Tawakoni.Though we didn’t quite make it unplugged, I did give blogging a little break (hence the exhaustive recap) and somehow we are surviving record consecutive days of over 100 degree weather with minimal help from Nick Jr.  And we did manage to get in some good playing in the backyard until the worst drought in Texas history turned our grass into straw.At the beginning of June, I left the kids with Caleb and flew with my brother and sister-in-law, Beth, to Colorado to wish my dad a happy 70th.  My Uncle Tommy picked us up in Denver and we spent the morning there with he and my cousin, Brittny.    Then we drove up to Vail for my dad’s birthday party.  We were going to make the whole thing a surprise, but we had to tell my dad for reasons you will soon find out… but, we did surprise my Aunt Janice and Jimmy Ray.  Check out the surprised looks when we jaunted into their barber shop from TEXAS.

 

We went to Los Amigos for my dad’s birthday party.  Los Amigos is the restaurant that my parents started in the 70’s at the base of Vail Mountain.  There were tons of Vail Pioneers that joined us in the celebration.  Here’s a couple quick family pictures. 

Seems everyone one had a pretty great time, because I had to drive these three kids home after the festivities.  Brandt (Brittny’s husband) asked me if I could drive them home in his truck.  “Sure,” I exclaimed.  And then I met her.  Lord have mercy.  This beast was a PAIN to get out of the parking structure in Vail Village let alone drive up Wildridge!  But I conquered.  Missing a gas pedal, dashboard lights, seatbelts and first gear, made our next challenge of this Colorado trip a breeze.

Meet the Penske.  My dad has been asking me for years to come get some of his cool treasures so he doesn’t have to keep storing them.  So we obliged and rented a moving truck, loaded two storage rooms full of stuff and headed back to Texas- just me, Beth and Ryan and a big ol’ load.It was a lot of fun going through dad’s stuff.  He is so kind and wanted us to enjoy the stuff he has while he is still living.  Thanks dad!  But… we’ll pass on that nasty jar of unidentified product and the O’Johnny port-a-pot! Now would be a good time to tell you how terrifying it is to drive a moving truck through the mountains of Colorado.There’s just no way I can capture the sheer drop-off of this pass that we drove over.  It was so dang scary.  It made me really thankful that my bro has his CDL and knows how to drive the big rigs! It really was gorgeous too.

After conquering Monarch Pass, we went ahead and let Rojo act silly at the local Salida WalMart.  He really did deserve it. When I got home, my big ol’ boy turned FIVE!  And he did not want a Superman, or Spiderman party.  Nope.  He wanted a…

That’s right, purdy darlin’.  My boy had a Rifleman party.  Yeehaw.Later this summer, Caleb and the kids and I spent a great, refreshing weekend in San Antonio on our way out to the West Texas Ft. Davis Mountains.  We go every first week in August for Bloys’ Camp Meeting.This is such a special time for our family and I look forward to the fellowship, worship and eating cookies on the porch while the kids dig in the dirt.The kids are getting big enough that they can help feed the nearly 500 people that go through the Means-Evans cookshed for every meal.  Here Audrey and McClaine are serving up biscuits. We do manage to make it out to dinner in town once during the week.  So here’s a group of us out on the town!   This is a picture of the courageous kids and select parents that venture up the mountain to hike to the bat cave. And here they are in the bat cave!!! This is always such a great way to wrap up the summer, spend time with people we love and relax before…

we put our uniforms on for a new year of the blessing of school!  Thank you, Lord, for a great summer and a new school year on the horizon!