Fridays off!

Can I tell you how much I love my job?  We added a new physician, so I now take call every third week.  Additionally, I will be getting every other Friday OFF!  Yep.  Off.  That means I have a L-O-N-G weekend.  Same salary.  This is AWESOME!
How did I spend that first extra day off, you ask?
in Galvaston!
We drove down Thursday night and stayed at a hotel. (Yep, a real hotel)
Then spent time walking along the beach . . .

riding bikes along the boardwalk. . .

 visiting the beautiful mansions . . .

and eating ice cream and sauerkraut sandwiches on the strand.

I'm a happy camper!

Visiting the Nashville Cats

July 4 may have been hot and sticky in Texas, but it certainly wasn't in Nashville.  Although it rained most of the time, we still were able to have some fun.

We went to the park . . .

did some fireworks . . .

went jogging . . .

while Caroline and Devin rode their bikes . . .

ate pizza in the park while mom and dad were on a date . . .

and - being the wonderful grandparents that we are, bought them sponge dart guns to play with outside (although somebody may have gotten in trouble for shooting in the house - not mentioning names - )

The kids were SO good, and Bex and I had a great time shopping (well, I did) and baking (we both did.)  Dad was a good sport and played with the kids while we baked and shopped.
We took everyone to a Churrascaria and got the evil eye when we walked in with three little kids.  They asked us if we knew what kind of restaurant it was.  I assured them we were well aware.  They were pretty surprised when the kids sat quietly at the table, were darn good at using the tongs to pick their meat up, and took turns at the salad bar.  And we were there for quite awhile, as we were waiting for Shawn to join us.  Several of the staff commented on how polite they were.
Love these kids!  Love their awesome parents, too!

The Big Apple - (aka Ashley's home away from home)

 We had a great time visiting Ashley in New York City last weekend.  She has a lovely apartment in Manhattan which is beautifully decorated and cozy.  She had our weekend scheduled with tons of adventures.

We started off on Friday with breakfast at Sara Beth's, an upscale restaurant in Manhattan.  I highly recommend the lemon truffle pancakes.

Ashley had to work that day so dad and I were on our own figuring out the metro system and navigating  the crowds.   We started off at the icon of NYC - the Empire State Building.  

We then headed to the Met (Metropolitan Museum of Art.)   This is a state-of-the-arts museum that would take the more cultured socialites a day or two to completely browse.  We were done in about an hour.  (So much to see, so little time.)

 Dad really liked this statue.  Sometimes I think he's still in Jr. High.

 Many things in NYC reminded me of Mexico.  This display in the middle of a glorietta  (Columbus Circle) was one of them.  Also, the people were amazingly friendly.  We had technical difficulties with our I-phones and cameras, which constantly needed refueling, and had plenty of people offer their services.

 Friday evening we took the subway over to Met Stadium with Ashley to enjoy a game.  Actually, the game turned out pretty boring, but the chicken strips and cracker jack were stellar!

Just like Mexico, the best food in the city is on the street.   Saturday we started our day with my personal favorite -  waffles-  from a food truck.    They were by far the best I've ever had.  I tried mine with fresh raspberries and ice cream.  Ashley went for the nutella.  AMAZING!

 
And who can visit NYC without seeing the Statue of Liberty.  Thanks to the 911 bomber jerks, no one is allowed inside her majesty, and for now, Ellis Island is still closed.  But we took a nice tour boat and got pretty darn close.  She is a beautiful sight!



Washington Square is another icon, very close to NYU, in the heart of  New York City.

 Another place that reminded me of Mexico City.

Probably the most moving site in the city is the 911 Memorial.  Situated on the previous site of the Twin Towers, it houses memorials of the two buildings, with names of each of the victims engraved on the side of the memorial.

 Freedom Tower

 If you like crazy, and I do,  this is the place to be - Time Square!  Can you believe, the only building I actually entered was the M&M store.

 We also visited the Tennement Museum, which was very interesting, but they didn't allow photos.

And for our anniversary, dad and I attended the ballet Romeo and Juliet at the Metropolitan Opera Theater at the Lincoln Center. Yeah, lucky him.  In case anyone is wondering where the Lincoln center is, it is across the street from Julliard School of Music.  Yep.  We're pretty cultured.

And the Theater is pretty much across the street from the LDS Temple, which doubles as a Stake Center.  Ashley let me sit in on her Primary class, since I was too shy to go to Relief Society.  It was tons of fun!

Mabel's recital

Mabel is definitely a performer!  She walked up to the stage with all the confidence of a seasoned pianist, sat at the piano and played beautifully!  She then took a graceful bow.  So proud!

Gymnastics

Asher and Atley invited us to their gymnastics event.

 We missed Atley's "mayfest," but she gave us a demonstration anyway.

 Asher showed great form.  He loves gymnastics!

 Asher with his "team."

 I captured Atley jumping off the wall into the foam blocks.  That girl has no fear.

 Asher LOVED his trophy.  Atley got a trophy at hers, which she called her "Congratulation."
"Congratulations" to both of them!  They did great!

Here is papa with Ainsley after the event.

Birthdays

 Beautiful flowers for my birthday - from  DTB.

Annie turns five!  Happy Birthday, Annie!

Easter 2013

I'm a little late, but Easter was great this year.

I woke up with this on my pillow:

 The Katy grandkids had a blast together.

 with an indoor Easter Egg Hunt (because of rain)

 The funnest part, however, was the new tradition that we started.  An ADULT easter egg hunt.  Much more interesting - and fun.  They were even more excited than the kids.  At least they were after I outlined the rules.
Each person was allowed to fine four eggs.  These eggs had a variety of treasures - candy, booby prize (chocolate-covered peanuts that look like rabbit droppings) and various amounts of cash, including a cache treasure of a $100.00 bill.   This is where it got interesting, and everyone was trying to figure out which eggs contained loot.  (I was pretty clever about disguising them)   To add excitement, every time  the bell rang each person had to swap one egg with someone else.  Much more fun than the kid version!

It was great to have some fun family time!  We missed our kids who are not living in Houston.

Rock 'n' Roll in Washington D.C.

Last weekend we flew to Washington D.C to visit Poodle.

(Oh yeah, and run 13.1 miles with 30,000 of my closest friends)

First stop was the "Expo" where we justified our paying $100 per person to run 26.2/13.1 miles by stashing away free samples of Gu Chomps, Power bars, and packs of Gu.

Maintaining tradition, we took pictures of the clothing we were to wear the next day. 

(although I changed my mind and wore something else)

 The weather prediction was temperatures in the 30's and rain throughout the race.  Luckily, they were wrong.  Although the temperatures were brisk, (in the 30-40 range) and we stood in the cold for 2 hours waiting for the race to start, there was little to no rain.  Perfect weather for a great race.

Dad brought his Garmin, as did Poodle.  They both clocked the race as 27 miles for the marathon and 13.5 for the half.

Which makes Poodle's 3 hr 55 min even MORE impressive!

Note the great quality (ignoring the alignment) of the only photo I didn't have to pay for.

The quality of the others that I paid $79.00 to download was abysmal.

After the race we ate gobbled up calories at some great restaurants in D. C. and enjoyed being with Poodle!

Thanks for a great weekend!