Where the Action Is!

We have been in Houston for Jacob's baptism.  What a great day!

And Jacob is a great kid.  You know his type -- real calm. 

Sammie and Boo joined us.

Boo had a lot of fun with Nate.

Boo loved his cousins' toys and took to driving as though he was a champion!

Sammie liked the cousins' toys, too.

I have to admit that I didn't see this coming.  Dave also drives a pickup.

We celebrated Carolyn's 26th birthday.  I don't know which one she had, but that's the one we celebrated.

Julia knew exactly what to do with the scary doll.

Actually, she found Ben and me to be scary, but she warmed up to Papa pretty quickly.

Nate and I had a lot of fun together.  I asked him how old he was, and he said "Nine" every time.  I asked him how many kids are in his family, and he said, "All of them."

Some of these kids have an eyebrow gene.

Mel is a master with her eyebrow.  Wicked!

Matt's inflection is subtle.

And then I learned where this gene came from:  the other Grandma!  Meet Grammy.

No to be outdone by her cousins, Melanie played the piano for me.

Sirius is still a wonderful dog.

So is Phoebe.  But together, well, they were like 2 squabbling kids...

And if there wasn't enough going on, Will caught a snake by the front door.  This prompted comments such as, "NO ONE USE THE BATHROOM.  I'M DEFROSTING A MOUSE IN THE SINK!"

I volunteered to be the chauffeur one day for Tae Kwon Do lessons.

We ate very well!

Of course, this was my contribution.

No mention of a visit to Dave is complete without talking about his salt water tanks.  This lively fellow has been on a search and destroy mission since he arrived, ultimately leading to the demise of all of Dave's marvelous fish.  He seemed indestructible and was a master of escape.  During our visit, Dave adjusted the trap and the shrimp literally took the bait while we watched.  He was moved to his own tank where he can live out his life in a safer, if not a little more boring, environment.  All's well that ends well!