Silver Medal Winners Pumpkinhead Regatta 10/26/13!

Kelsey and her rowing team won a silver medal in their league (women's) at the Pumpkinhead Regatta on Town Lake! This is only her third competition, and their FIRST medal! They were super excited. Tones and I were able to get out and see her second race-- it was a beautiful day, and lots of fun. Schools from all over came to compete (UT was there as well as A&M, LSU and Oklahoma!) St Eds team did great-- GO Hilltoppers!!

First day of first job

It's a milestone for kids and parents alike, the first day of a first "real" job. Nate had pursued several possibilities this summer, but all our vacations made interviews difficult... we heard The Wash Tub was still hiring, and a friend who worked there last summer. Nathan applied, got a recommendation from said friend (who is a manager this year) and got hired!

Ironically, we saw a wonderful day of rain for his first day-- not so good for the car washing business, but great for us! He was still dressed and ready to go... there will be another day of orientation, and another kind of "first day".

Summer vacation #2 in Pagosa Springs Colorado!

After a great time in Destin, we returned home for a mere 10 days before we hit the road again. We stayed a night on the way in Clayton NM where we saw one of the few places where the public can see remarkable dinosaur tracks! We arrived in Aurora and enjoyed an evening with friend Bill and family. They took us to Red Rock Amphitheather which was beautiful, then out to lunch in the quaint mtn town of Morrison.

Said our goodbyes and headed to Westminster, just outside of Denver to see Uncle Mike and their gang. We had a great grill out to celebrate Tones birthday with salmon and shrimp kabobs! Sunday we headed to Eldora for a beautiful hike to the "lost lake". We had some showers during the day, but that didn't dampen spirits. It was actually a beautiful walk in the rain. Headed down to Boulder for a walk along famous Peal Street Mall, then dinner at Efrains for Mex food!

Monday we headed to Pagosa Springs where we had a condo waiting for us. They had some local wildfires going on, but we got lucky that the roads were open for our travels. We settled in and got oriented. Tues morning we awoke to hot air balloons right in our backyard! We decided we'd do a hike that day-- and lined up a Gravity Mtn Bike tour for Wed and a River Rafting Trip for Thurs. There were also some world famous hot springs we hoped to get to.

The hike was great-- we headed up first for a wonderful view, then along the river trail where everyone enjoyed the beautiful scenery and played around the river. When we got home, we rented bikes for Kelsey and me (boys had their own) in anticipation of the next day's ride.Our "tour guide" was a Brit named John, in his 60's -- who drove us 17 miles uphill along a forest road. He dropped us off there to allow us to ride downhill the way back. Kelsey was pretty uncomfortable with the gravel road and the downhill ride, so after about an hour she hopped back into John's van and rode down with him. The boys and I went ahead and did the run- it was beautiful scenery, and quite an adventure!

Thursday we did a rafting trip. With water levels low, we had to bus out to the Rio Grande (yes the same one that runs through Texas) about an hour and half from our pickup. It certainly wasn't whitewater rafting like the kids hoped for, but it was a beautiful and pleasurable trip led by Nate and Jake.  We got our first taste of rafting, and hope for more another time.

We had enjoyed afternoon thunderstorms every evening, which kept us from seeing the Hot Springs, but we got lucky on Thurs- skies looked clear, so we headed over. Wow, that was such an interesting spot! Natural mineral hot springs have been developed into 23 different pools of varying temps- it's kind of like a resort. We brought a picnic dinner and enjoyed exploring the springs. The picture shows the kids walking a "bridge" to get to one of the pools, notice the natural formations from the mineral deposits.The next day we started our road trip home-- back to work, school, and all the demands of life. What a great trip! Love the cool temps, the scenery, the mountains-- we'll definitely plan a return trip.

Summer vacation #1- Destin Florida

We had some timeshare points to use and decided to head somewhere we had never been before.All four of us decided Florida was it! We chose Destin-- a "short" 12 hour drive from home and came highly recommended from friends and family who had been there. We had a nice 1 bdrm condo at the Majestic Sun right on the beach. We arrived Sat evening, ate a simple dinner and crashed. I was so ready for sun and beach the next day, but what did we find? RAIN! Seriously- it was cloudy and stormy all day. We scoped out the resort and went to a movie instead. Hoping for sun on Monday, but awoke again to ... RAIN. Seriously, my tan is fading as I type. It was a little broken by later in the day so we braved it-- just as we unpacked our beach gear it started raining again. dang! Finally by 3pm the sun was breaking through. Nathan was all ready with boogie board in arms to hit the waves leftover by the storms. But just as we got out there, sun out... the lifeguards closed the water... apparently there had been some strong riptides and several deaths... so the sun is out, the water is closed. It's really not my day. We rented beach cruisers for the rest of the week and took a ride down the road to the local "Winn Dixie" for reinforcements.

Tuesday morning-- we finally had sun, and the water was re-opened. I hit the beach early, before anyone else was ready just to make sure I got some "sun" time in... the rest joined me by lunchtime. The sands are a beautiful white and the water literally emerald green and clear. Tones flew a few kites, we all enjoyed the sun, water, and people watching. We headed down to the Harborwalk for dinner and shopping and enjoyed the "Mardi Gras" parade. Kids and Tones did a "7D" movie too-- quite expensive but fun.

Wednesday was another beautiful day! Hooray, I'll never take the sun for granted again! We packed up early and headed to Ookaloosa Island for a Catamaran day trip. Although the rest of the boat was filled with intoxicated ladies from Dallas who didn't want to get their hair messed up, we enjoyed the bay tour, stopped and snorkeled offshore to check out wildlife, and then went Dolphin searching. It was a wonderful day. I also booked a parasail trip for the kids and Tones-- so we headed over there after a refreshing smoothie to keep our energy up. It was an evening "sunset" trip-- a great crew, fun time, and beautiful scenery. 

Thursday- sunny and hot again. Everyone took their time getting to the beach, working out, bike rides, etc. We did make our way down there by lunchtime-- The kids had been eager to try paddleboards, so we rented them from our beach location-- it was quite rough but they did awesome! Tones really wanted to do a "sunset cruise" so we bought tickets to ride the "Sea Blaster"-- the largest speed boat in the Gulf. We enjoyed the 2 hrs out-- toured the bay, went dolphin searching again, saw LOTS this time, they loved swimming right in front of the boat! Watched a beautiful sunset, then headed back in time for dinner locally and fireworks! Enjoyed delicious local seafood and a lovely evening.

Friday- last full day. Everyone had plenty of sun, so we did some bike riding, some souvenier shopping, and got pre-packed up to head home. We hit the beach late afternoon to enjoy a few last moments of the ocean. Nate enjoyed a few last boogie board rides til his board broke. :( We had saved our last dinner for Capt Dave's right on the beach, where we enjoyed more FRESH fish and beautiful views! 

At the F1 Track, Dinner at Iron Cactus, and homeward bound on the train! Happy not to be in traffic!

Birthday Celebrations...

I had an awesome birthday celebration! We received free tickets to the Circuit of the America's Australian V-8 Races from a friend at AJ's work-- thanks Jerry! Had a great day checking out the track, watching a few races, getting a good rush of adrenaline right along the start line and turn 1.

Later, we boarded the MetroRail train from Cedar Park to downtown Austin with a group of friends-- thanks for joining us Karina, Michael, Gina, Dave, Linda, Tommie and Richard! It was a short walk to the Iron Cactus for a delightful rooftop patio dinner with tasty margaritas and guacamole!

After dinner, we strolled down 6th street and headed to the Cedar Street Courtyard, an outside/patio venue, enjoying the evening's entertainment, the Graceland Ninjaz ... check out this video for serious entertainment... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPzk6UqcodE

I was lucky enough to be recognized as a serious fan and received his scarf as a gift and kiss from the King of Rock and Roll himself. We danced til we were exhausted, and Tones dragged me out of there in time to catch the 11:30pm train back to Cedar Park, which was awesome, considering the traffic at that point in downtown was nuts from UT graduation! We relaxed on an air conditioned ride home, sharing pictures and stories, laughter and memories of a seriously fun evening!

Nate getting his honors award at school!

Well worth going to school early...

Nate was recognized this morning for outstanding academic achievement for maintaining a 4.0 or higher on a 5.0 GPA scale... along with a large number of other current Juniors and Sophomores. We are so proud of him! And for showing up-- ALL the Juniors received a FREE parking spot for next year at school (normally a $30 fee) as a thank you for their dedication and performance! Even Nate admitted "I guess that was worth going for". Now if only we can actually finish that driver's license...

The College Search

Kelsey's college search consisted of a few casual visits to local colleges- (UT Austin, Texas State, UTSA) before she discovered her "place" at St Eds- (a recommendation made by our college funding specialist Ryan Thomson) http://www.collegefundingspecialiststx.com/Home_Page.html . 
She took one look at that campus and said "This is it!".  Less decided on a major, she is enjoying life on a small liberal arts college.

Two years later, we are taking a similar journey with Nathan. He knows he wants to pursue Mechanical Engineering-- possibly Architectural Engineering-- so that makes the college search a little different. We took a casual look at Texas A & M (visited a friend who goes there) and took a walk through UT Dallas. Yesterday, we spent the day in San Antonio at UTSA Open House Day-- checking out the campus, housing, and got to find out details about the Engineering department, even taking to the Director of Admissions for the department! He's really excited-- and torn. All the schools have a different feel, while offering outstanding academic opportunities. I guess we'll know more once he applies, and see where he gets in, and we'll go from there.

What a journey as a mom -- experiencing this process, anticipating him leaving home and pursuing his degree...It has seemed relatively easy for Kelsey (except the monthly installments, cough) since she's only 30 minutes away. I know it will be harder for me since the closest school he's considering is almost 2 hours away! Hard to believe in only 16 months we might be packing him up and driving him off to University!

The Convenience Camping Trip

We decided to do something different this Spring Break so made reservations at Bastrop Lake Park South Shore- a wonderful LCRA park that has mini-cabins for rent as well as traditional campsites. Tones has had his share of "working" camping trips-- shopping for food, hours of packing, setting up camp, then doing the whole clean up, take down, etc. I vowed to make this trip easy and "convenient".

As the days got closer, Mother Nature looked like she was going to play a cruel joke on my plans-- hardly any rain for 2 years, now the storm of the season coming the days we have reservations! Too late to get a refund, so we decided to wait and see how things would pan out.

Saturday came -- looked like the bad weather would be just a small window overnight that night, so we headed out for the day- dropped off our stuff and enjoyed a day hike with Nate and Shadow. (Literally a couple sleeping bags, stove, and some food) We left that evening, after traditional taco soup dinner, to get him home in time for a friends birthday party and for us to settle at home to "weather the storm". We did get rain-- an inch, with lots of thunder and lightening, however we awoke Sunday to clear skies and cool temps. Nate wanted to stay home to get stuff done, so Tones and I headed out alone. We arrived back at our campsite about 1pm and enjoyed a nice 8 mile hike (round trip) along the lake, almost making it to the North Shore Park. (No work setting up camp, see, we had this nice cabin with beds instead). We had an easy "boil in a bag" Indian food dinner- literally no dishes. Delicious! (Thanks Trader Joe's) And the finale-- a Duraflame log for our campfire-- easy to light, lasted a couple of hours, perfect! No work hauling wood, starting the fire, etc. By nightfall, stretched out in our sleeping bags in our "heated" cabin- it had gotten chilly outside.

Monday morning-- a easy no-cook breakfast of granola and yogurt- we heated water for coffee, that's it. It was a beautiful and calm morning- quiet still despite that it was Spring Break! We enjoyed our little getaway-- connecting with Nature, without the work. It was truly a Convenient Camping Trip!

17...

What matters to a 17 year old? A cool bass guitar-- fretless 5 strings... I know that means something to someone... he's a musician, an honor roll student... a future engineer... a junior in high school today, a college student down the road... he loves his dog, his video games, food, and his mom. :) Today we celebrate the 17th anniversary of when Nathan joined our family! Happy Birthday to my sweet "baby" boy... We are eating Thundercloud for dinner, and now he can't decide if he wants to go see an R rated movie or stay at home and try out the new bass...