Texas 2011

This was an interesting trip to say the least.
First and formost was our 5th grandchild was born. Aiden Micheal came into this world 2 weeks early and pretty effortless...I am sure due to the daily yoga that his momma does. Pregnancy may not be-and is not- easy for her but delivery consists of getting to the hospital in the nick of time!
Here he is only a few hours after he was born.
And with his proud, and very good, daddy.
My biggest regret is having to pack a year's worth of grandparent time into one week...it sucks actually but we have to make the best of the situation so we spent lots of time with Abs. Abigail's middle name happens to be Rose and since she was trotting behind the rose bushes I felt it appropriate to snap a shot of her behind her namesake:)
Abs is a pretty good subject. She has these great facial expressions and loves to explore her environment. And it might be that grandma allows her to explore a bit farther than momma and daddy do.....shhhhhhhhhhh it's our secret.
I couldn't resist manipulating this picture of her peeking out from behind this tree
Abs loves bubbles and I bought her her very own bubble gun...squirt-er...whatever in the heck is the correct terminology. Umm she's a Texas girl so perhaps gun is OK?
And as you can see she had a blast with it
I can't figure it out...both Abs and Julia like to thieve and drink out of whatever water bottle I happen to be drinking out of. I say they are just grandma's girls and that is all that needs sayin about that.
This is a rarity, grandma and grandpa and the grand kids all in one picture together.

Texas is known for many things but a biggy is their blue bonnets. We were lucky enough to be there when many wildflowers were blooming. The most stunning in my opinion are the fields of blue bonnets.
And then there is the BlueBonnet Festival in Chappell Hill Texas. Ry, David, I and Abs went early in the morning (attempting to avoid the heat) hoping to see all of the crafter's stands, food stands etc....blocks of them in fact in this small little town. As it so happened the festival didn't start until noon...go figure we were there at 9am. Ah well we walked through the town and I busied myself taking pictures of the historic homes and buildings.
Porches, wonderful inviting porches


And benches surrounded by plants
The historic Chappell Hill Bank building
And Victorian homes
And on a back route to Ryan's, what is Texas without the Brahmas. No longhorns although I looked for some.
And windmills...I love windmills
The front of a great old building that looks like the inside of our porch with the old barn-board and corrugated tin
An old church that was soon to be torn down. Oh what David could do with that wonderful old wood
To top[ it all off....fleas. Yup I said fleas. Damn..... They do thrive in damp hot weather...it was damp and damned hot while we were there and the grass was infested with fleas. They are a nightmare and despite monthly treatments Peeko became infested scratching himself raw. We bathed him twice in special shampoo, sprayed the camper twice with flea rid spray....washed the bedding more than twice, vacuumed numerous times...blah blah blah. We are hoping just being gone takes care of the problem and of course the cold weather will help, the fleas anyway.
Thanks kids for the southern hospitality.
Texas was the last leg of our snowbird trip and we are currently about 500 miles from home. It was a great winter and we saw a lot and learned a lot but it will be nice to be home again. I am of course anxious to see out Minnesota girls and their new home. Here we come Leonard family.