I realize it has been nearly a month since we have posted. We have been VERY busy!!! We had a wonderful time of fellowship over the week and a half we were gone from home for our Christmas travels, time spent with both sides of our families. I will try to post pictures from it later, but to keep those informed that are interested in our current activities, I am going to post our Texas trip first.
We arrived home from our Christmas trip on Thursday December 30th and spent the remainder of that day and the next making a few changes in our wardrobe and packing school and activities for our 2 week trip to Texas. We left Friday night about 9PM and drove through the night arriving in Bastrop (near Austin) the following afternoon. We stayed in the guest rooms at our church in Bastrop. We took a couple quick baths and headed out to Dale and Amy Ringgers house (I forgot until now that after our last trip to Texas one of the children had trouble remembering Ringgers and kept referring to them as the Dingy’s! He must have gotten Ring and Ding confused in his mind.) :)
We had a nice evening of fellowship and our boys enjoyed renewing their friendships with the Ringger boys.
Our trip started out on a bad note as Jolene began to complain about an ear ache Friday morning. That isn’t uncommon, so I didn’t worry about it. Most ear infections we’ve dealt with have cleared up after a couple days. So we continued as planned, pain killer within reach. Jolene didn’t sleep well Saturday night and we didn’t have a good day on Sunday. I did enjoy the fellowship I was able to be apart of when the pain killer was working. Sunday night it got so bad even piggy backing the pain killer wasn’t doing much good so we decided to take her in. It has now been a week and she is feeling much better. Thank you to all who have been praying for us.
Sunday afternoon we drove to Corpus Christi where Chad is using a field to run tests on a project he has been working on. We are staying at the Hometown Suites. It has turned out to be a great choice for our lodging. We have two bedrooms each with their own bath, a living room with a pull out couch, and a small kitchen. They serve a hot fresh breakfast daily and a hot supper Monday through Thursday.
This picture is from the entry, the kitchenette is to the left and the living room straight ahead. The doorway to the boys room is on the right just out of sight of the picture. The Master bedroom is to the left on the carpet.
Living room (the couch pulls out into a bed)
Entry and kitchen, there is a full size refrigerator to the right of the table.
Boys bedroom
Boys room again, bathroom behind closet.
Master bedroom, Johanna sleeps in a pack n play near the windows.
Master Bath
We spend our time doing school,
Goofing off,
Taking naps
Sometimes they REALLY crash!
YES! She was really sleeping!
and watching for Daddy.
Tuesday we went to a beach with Phil Baurer, he was here for a few days working with Chad. We got there as the sun was near setting, so we anticipated a short, DRY, visit.
Testing the water
Notice the hoods!
Jonas and Johanna were both asleep when we got there.
Notice the dry area of his pants… It’s smaller than the wet part! They’re CRAZY!
I was awkwardly attempting to take pictures while holding Johanna so Phil volunteered to hold her for me. I tried to upload this to facebook for you Linda but it was taking too long!
Thursday we took a drive that took us on a ferry and ended up at another beach for an hour or so.
TRIP…
Screaming… It is REALLY cold!
Playing on a big pile of sand
Buried in the sand
We were able to drive our van right onto the beach.
I am out of time to post more pictures, they are still in the cameras. Here is a quick idea of the rest of our week.
Saturday we toured the USS Lexington Air Craft Carrier.
Today we enjoyed listening to our home church services online. Then we played some games and spent some time in the Hot Tub (it was the perfect temp for staying in as long as you want and not get overheated). The children jumped in the COLD pool a few times, but we mainly played in the hot tub!
I am really enjoying our stay, this is truly a vacation for me as our living space is quite small, we have very little THINGS to take care of, and I only have to provide lunch for us! Here is a situation that happened and it says it all…
Friday morning at breakfast two of the children bumped into each other and one of them spilled a nearly full cup of milk on the floor. The hostess went to get a mop right away. In the mean time, another child spilled his cup of milk at the table. We had done well all week but when it rains, it pours! I apologized to the hostess for making more work for her and she said “that’s o.k., I have kids.” I said, we’ve been here five days and this is the first spill so we are doing pretty good. She said “and you have to be here with them all alone!” I said “that’s o.k. we homeschool, I always get to have them with me. I’m on vacation, I don’t have to make breakfast or supper, the maids clean my room, and YOU are cleaning up my mess!” Yes sirree, I’m on VACATION! :)
I have to admit, it’s rather hard leaving messes for others to clean up. I have to fight the urge to clean up what others have left on the table for the hostess to clean up. I also fight the urge to clean my kitchen – the maids do that too!
