Some Misplaced Okies

Wildflower Pics 04/03/10

2010-04-11T20:07:00.000-07:00

Deacon and I sitting in the flowers... with Donkey.

Deacon and Donkey running through the Bluebonnets.

What looks like Xena with a mouthful of Bluebonnet... is actually just Xena behind a Bluebonnet.

This is a field behind a TDOT building at 35th and Bull Creek somewhere.

A pink primrose. Pretty!

Xena was sure someone else was out there in the field, but she couldn't see over the flowers unless she stood on her back legs.

A kind of funny pic of Deacon chasing Xena who was trying to find the large brown dog in the background.

My all time favorite pic!! A little white Easter bunny hopping through the flowers.

Very nice cloud like yellow weed.

Del Rio February 6th and 7th, 2010.

2010-04-07T20:04:00.000-07:00

Chris surprised me this year for Valentine's Day. Well, technically it was the weekend before, but it was fun all the same. We left after work on Friday and drove down to Del Rio, Texas. Neither of us had been in that area before, but it had some interesting things nearby. It took me totally by surprise because Chris called me when I was going to pick up Deacon from daycare and told me to not pick him up but drive straight home. When I got home, no one was there. A few minutes later Chris comes in and says, "Okay, let's go." I'm like, "Where's Deacon and Xena?" He says, "They're at grandma's." He tells me we are going to go on a hike like we used to every Valentine's Day. I asked him if I needed to put my sneakers on, and he says, "Oh, they're already packed." I was very confused. I asked if I needed to pack any clothes, and he told me he already packed everything. So we drove 5 hours, and were in a completely different part of the state terrain-wise. Very scrubby, and very desolate. I can't imagine sneaking into the U.S. over there, because you'd have to crawl in on your belly to not be seen. The largest plant/tree was less than waist height.

A pier on Amistad Lake. From this direction, you are looking into Mexico. Approximately half the lake is in Texas, and half is in Mexico.

Amistad Lake is the clearest lake I've seen in some time. You could easily see the bottom from the shore, and it was the most beautiful turquoise blue color. I didn't know it was possible for a lake to be this color.

Just thought this was a really cool stretch of road that they carved through the hills.

Okay, this was our first experience with Border Patrol. It was like what you see in the movies pretty much. Except the border patrol guys all have heavy Mexican accents. It's hard not to laugh when they ask if you're a U.S. citizen and you can barely understand them.

It seemed like every third vehicle we saw on the road was a Border Patrol truck.

This is us climbing down into the Seminole Canyon.

A really cool old tree stump in the canyon. Can you see the dragon head?

It's hard to make anything out, but there were really really old cave paintings in here. The dark reds are part of them. It's been around for about 10,000 years, they say.

This was a sport at the Archeolympics. That's what they called it. You had to try and get the plastic deer with a really long arrow. They didn't have a bow, you used something they used back in the hunter-gatherer days. The comment after the current participant got these three arrows off was, "Great, well, at least now you've got him pinned down."

This is a early settler's wife of this area. This is why they say, "Don't mess with Texas."

This is a bridge over the Pecos River. They were doing road construction on it while were there. The early settlers had a tough time building a bridge long enough to span this river.

This is the west side of the Pecos River.

Clearly not a law-abiding citizen.

Like I said, every third car...

We drove through most of the town of Del Rio, and found this interesting fence. There weren't any structures on the other side that we could see.

To give you some idea of the scale of this fence. Also, it had six padlocks on it.

The first time we came across one of these signs, we could not stop laughing. All ticks, hop off here.

Come on, how often do you see a turquoise blue grocery store?? I wasn't able to get the tangerine orange section in the picture.

You can't really make it out from this picture, but there was a bunch of cactus growing on these people's carport.

It's a real shame, but unfortunately you can't see that the house next to and further back from the one in the forefront is an approximately 8,000 square foot Mediterranean style mansion. We figured this has to be the greatest difference in real estate values in the U.S. on one street.

Snow Day!!

2010-04-07T19:30:00.000-07:00

Real snow is not a common occurrence in the Austin, Texas area, as you might have guessed. We were very fortunate to get some on February 23rd or thereabouts. This was the most snow this area has gotten in recent years. They say, a good snow only comes around every ten years or so. With almost every house in our neighborhood sporting a snowman, I believe it.

The snow flakes were really large, wet, and fluffy. Perfect for making snow men and snow angels and such.

What you see here is a bonafide snow wolf. Very rare in these parts. See how it tries to stare you down? That's what it does before it eats you.

After using up most of the snow making snow men and dragging the wagon around the yard, there wasn't a whole lot of snow for snow angels. Ah, well. From the look on Deacon's face, it's pretty painful.

It's great fun drag a wagon through the snow apparently. Personally, I think he just liked seeing the tracks that the wagon left behind...

Our Very Spoiled Child

2010-01-11T17:57:00.000-08:00

This is Deacon's big gift from Santa. It's much nicer than anything I ever got as a child, but I wasn't an only child. That blur is Deacon jumping in it. Now Deacon just needs a sibling to share it with!

New Door

2010-01-11T17:52:00.000-08:00

This is our new-ish front door. It spent a good deal of time on our garage floor waiting to be stained and sealed. It replaced a solid white steel door. We had it custom made and spent less than if we'd bought one at Home Depot/Lowe's. Yay, for Susan and Steve's suggestion to go to Door Outlet. Oh, and the child gate is for the dog. Ha.

Now that we're past Thanksgiving, let's get some Halloween pics on here!

2009-11-28T12:19:00.001-08:00

Deacon, as you can see, was Mr. Incredible. He was actually supposed to be Dash, but I don't believe Dash has muscles that big. Anyway, I thought he was pretty cute. The whole superhero theme with his cousins was totally unplanned. But they looked really cute together!

First sign of Halloween.

Dog with glow-in-the-dark bandana. Cool... and creepy!

There's a reason they call him Dash!

And he's super strong!!

Superman likes horses. :)

Watch out Georgetown, here they come!

The Pumpkin Farm

2009-10-19T17:21:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday, 10/17/09, we took Deacon to Sweet Berry Farms right outside Marble Falls, TX. It was a BEAUTIFUL day, and apparently everyone thought so since the place was very crowded. They had face paintings (not a good idea since Deacon rubs his nose a lot,) pumpkin painting, corn mazes, pony rides, goats, donkeys, delicious strawberry popsicles and strawberry lemonades, and a hayride.

Deacon and some very large pumpkins.

A cool old truck.

Deacon creating his masterpiece.

Deacon and another little boy running while their parents held their place in the ridiculously long pony ride line. It took an hour and 20 minutes before he got to ride.

Deacon doing what he does best... running!!

I guess it was worth the wait since this was his favorite part.

Deacon hauling in the harvest!

Deacon's First Game

2009-10-19T17:00:00.000-07:00

These are a couple shots from Deacon's first game on 10/02/09. Not that anyone is keeping track, but his team won 3 - 0 or 3 - 1. Don't worry, I'm not going to post pics from every game. I just wanted people to see his uniform, and see him getting into the game.

Deacon "willing" the ball to move?

Awaiting instruction from the coach.

Go Deacon!

St. Louis Trip

2009-10-19T16:40:00.000-07:00

On Friday, September 25th, we left right after work to drive to St. Louis. We figured we had to go to the Rams' game on the 27th because they were retiring David "Deacon" Jones' number, our son's namesake. Yes, we are crazy, but in my defense when I agreed to go the game I was thinking "No problem, it's only a 6 hour drive." Yah, from TULSA! And I do not live in Tulsa anymore. So, really it was a 14 hour drive. Yikes! But it was worth it. We met my sister, Stephanie, and my brother-in-law, Robert there on Saturday afternoon. We had a great time!! If you get the chance to go, definitely stop by Goody Goody Diner. That place is awesome. Good food, reasonable prices, and best breakfast in St. Louis.

When we got to our room, we discovered it came with free pizza! Unfortunately, it had been laying out for about 12 hours and had some pieces missing.

We don't have TV at home, can you tell?

What was this expression?

The reason we were there.

The guy in all white is David "Deacon" Jones. We don't have enough zoom on our camera obviously.

Sisters at the Arch National Monument.

Chris' awesome photography skills.

Deacon's foot after his shoe got stuck in the revolving door.

First Practice

2009-09-19T12:53:00.000-07:00

These are a couple pics from Deacon's first soccer practice. He's on the maroon team, although they don't have their team shirts yet. It's a recreational team with the Georgetown Parks Department. Deacon loved being with all the other kids and running around with them.

Going for the ball.

Lots of expression.

A blurry action shot. Having a great time!

Tough guy sporting a red mark on the cheek from getting hit in the face with the ball.