California Summer Trip June 2016

We visited the Sequoia park a few years back for a quick day trip on the way to California and everyone fell in love with the majestic Sequoia Trees and we promised we'd come back. So June of 2016 we packed up the truck and headed west. We left Texas in a torrential downpour but as we traveled the skies cleared and our drive was smooth. With 4 drivers, it feels "easy" to make the 1400 mile trek in 2 days.

We spent a few nights with friends Kelly and Mark and their girls in Huntington Beach, walking the beach area. We even rented cruisers and spent a couple hours up and down the beach! We also got to see Grampa Dave and ride around in his fun cars (Nate got to drive the Caddy this time!)

Then off to Sequoia National Park Monday morning. We arrived late afternoon after a full morning of packing and grocery shopping for the week (3 stores!) We settled into our "cabin" which was essentially a hotel room on the inside set in a "campground" setting with a picnic table and wood burning stove on the outside. We enjoyed multiple hikes in and around the area, seeing some famous sights like the Grant Tree, the Sherman Tree, etc. We even hiked up to the top of Moro Rock for a fabulous 360 view of the area. Still snow on the mountains!

Every day we hit a new spot of the park, every day we came home tired and dirty, but enjoyed the beauty of those beautiful Sequoia trees. We saw plenty of wildlife too, including a black bear in a meadow on our drive out!

Kelsey's Graduation!

After 4 years of hard work, Kelsey walked across the stage at the Frank Erwin Center on May 7, 2016 to accept her Bachelors Degree in Kinesiology from St Edwards University. When she left high school, she didn't even know what she wanted to major in. As time went on, she discovered her love for the human body, how it works, exercise and fitness, yoga, nutrition, and healing. Who knows where the wind will take her from here. All we know is we are SUPER proud of her for her accomplishments, her commitment, her sense of adventure and loving heart.

In 4 years, there were times for travel and introspection, and of course, yoga! 

Four years on the St Eds Rowing team... practice started at 5:30am! That's commitment!

 International travels to India 2014!

 Good times with friends.

Being silly-- sometimes for a good cause. Kelsey worked as a camp counselor for MS Champ Camp and did an Alternative Spring Break in Arizona working with the homeless.

Wherever you go from here Kelsey, we know you will succeed!

Family Pictures Spring 2016

27 years together

Tones and I celebrate our 27th wedding anniversary next week. We took a "24 hour staycation" to Georgetown since I needed to stay close for potential clients. Hard to believe we only had 27 hours away-- it felt like a real getaway! We left at noon and drove up to Leander to hike along the San Gabriel River trail and saw the little known dinosaur tracks!





After a great hike and a picnic, we headed to check in at our cabin at Angel Springs in Georgetown. We enjoyed the sitting porch, view of the bluebonnets, read and relaxed. After a quick shower we headed out to eat at El Monumento ($4 happy hour margaritas were delightful) and enjoyed a beautiful evening view of the San Gabriel River. After dinner we walked to the square and hung out at Roots for some live blues. We even got in a few dances!

The next morning after a delicious breakfast at the Monument Cafe we headed out on our bikes... we explored the Blue Hole, the San Gabriel river area, downtown Georgetown and found the famous RED POPPIES in bloom everywhere! We bought pizza and salad at 600 Degrees and took our picnic back to the Blue Hole to enjoy the rest of our afternoon lazily sunning. By the time we got home at 3pm, I felt like I had been away for a whole weekend, not just a day.

Tones, thanks for 27 great years together (we've known each other for almost 29 years). We've built a wonderful life, had two kids who have turned into amazing adults. Who knew when we ran off to Vegas all those years ago this is what we'd be doing now!!! I love you!

Big Bend January 2016

We've always talked about taking a trip to Big Bend but never got "around" to it. Maybe because it's 8 hours away even though it's here in Texas? Well, friends of ours LOVE Big Bend area so we decided to take a combined family vacation our there with the Hagens. Josiah had spent a lot of time out there, so was literally our tour guide, which made my job so much easier. He did all the itinerary work, figured out where we'd stay when, and what we would do/see. All I had to do was show up.

We drove out to Big Bend on a cold day- it had been in the 30's overnight and we expected pretty chilly temps on our first night camping out. However as we drove into the park it also started to rain... and we decided camping out wasn't such a great idea. So we called the Chisos Mountain Lodge and they had room! We headed there for the night and made "taco soup" in our motel room before we all crashed from a long day of travel.

The next day was warmer (40's, still chilly) but the big boys went on a bike ride while Lauren and I took the kids (big and small) to see some dinosaur fossils and eat lunch. We eventually made it to our "meet up spot" at Ernst Tinaja and the dads literally pulled in 5 minutes after our arrival! We took a beautiful walk to see the tinaja (waterhole). Dinner was back at the lodge, delicious!

The next day was still cool and very foggy so we decided to skip the "view" hikes and instead headed to the Santa Elena Canyon. Beautiful walk and scenery. We packed up and moved to the small town of Terlingua in an old rustic home just outside the Big Bend National Park. We enjoyed a day of sight seeing and hiking-then dinner at the famous Starlight Theater where Nathan ate a whole DIEGO burger (1 lb of meat, 3 eggs, bacon, etc) it was HUGE. Josiah said he couldn't even finish one!

After Terlingua we took a road trip to the Big Bend State Park (quite a drive, we stopped at Closed Canyon on the way where we saw some mountain lion tracks!) and then over 20 miles on a dirt road to our primitive camping spot. Not another person in sight, other than our party of 8. We set up tents and Josiah cooked us a wonderful camp dinner. Day came and we headed our on yet another hike.



By afternoon, the little ones (Bear and Veda) were tired so mom and dad took them back to camp for some quiet time while Tones and I took the big kids to Cinco Tinajas Trail (the 5 pools) and saw more beautiful scenery. It was our last day hiking around and we were sad to head back, but Josiah was working on salmon and steaks for dinner, so we couldn't miss that.

We headed out the next day-- quick breakfast and packed up, with a long day's drive ahead of us. Dirty and tired, but we had a really amazing time!

Reflections 2015

I'm actually a little "ahead" of the game this year. 2015 isn't even over and I'm sitting down to reflect. I'm looking forward to the holidays a little more this year- partly because I just attended my last birth for the year and won't be on call til Feb 2016 (a welcome break!) and partly because I'm just looking forward to spending some time with family and friends.

So what happened this past year?

In my "semi-retirement" I attended over 20 births and assisted multiple families through their postpartum journey. I will never tire of this. What an honor to be a part of such an intimate and beautiful life experience. I'm teaching... a lot. I celebrated 10 years teaching for St Davids Healthcare! I mentored 3 new childbirth educators this year. What fun helping others do what I've been so passionate about for 20 years!

AJ (Tones, Tony) celebrated 18 years at the state. He's in a new position now (another re-org) and is now doing Risk Management. It's a new challenge for him and he seems to have taken to it. In his free time he's creating stuff around the house/yard, surfing the web, and riding his bike along Brushy Creek trail.

Kelsey is in her senior year at St Eds. She's graduating in May with a BA in Kinesiology. Where did the time go? It's hard to me to imagine I have a daughter who is about to finish college. Where is she off to afterwards? Time will tell. She's into yoga, healing, nutrition. She's done some exploration into yoga therapy so I'm guessing she'll eventually take a yoga teacher training... she may travel...it's exciting to see her become so mature and beautiful.

Nathan is in his 2nd year at UTSA. He's doing some soul searching, as he approaches 20. What does he want to do with is life, where is he headed? Where does he want to be? 2016 will be a year of big decisions for him as he really enters his "adult" life. SO exciting! We are so proud of both of those kids.

Other "big" events this year:







We said goodbye to Honey, our adopted canine family member, whom we only enjoyed for 18 months before she left us for Doggie Heaven. She was such a sweet soul in our lives. I still miss her.

Our college friends the Madlers came down and we watched their daughter Briel win the state champs for women's soccer!



We took an amazing family vacation to Yellowstone which included a quick visit with my brother and his family in Colorado (see previous post)









AJ and I took a short anniversary trip to Gruene where we met some new friends (Tony and Julie) who feel like old friends.








We also took a "long weekend" to Huntington Beach for my 30 year High School Reunion where we hung out with long time friends Kelly and Mark, and spent some quality time with my Dad. (It was like a little honeymoon, our first big getaway just us!)

 We celebrated Labor Day with friends and neighbors (17th annual!) Kelsey and I enjoyed spending time with my mom on her 70th birthday just "the girls".

We gave away the kids playscape that Tones built himself to good friends Lauren and Josiah so that their kids can enjoy hours of play like ours did. It was a year of fun, friends, and family.


What do I have to look forward to for next year? More of the same. No big changes ahead. I'm really lucky to have all the blessings in my life that I do. Thanks to all of you who are a part of my life.

Summer Road Trip 2015... Yellowstone!

As the kids get older we realize the odds they will want to vacation with mom and dad may decrease, so Tones and I decided if we went to some really COOL places they'd still want to go with us. Kelsey and Nate both love the outdoors, hiking, and the mountains, so when I suggested Yellowstone, they answered with a resounding YES!

We decided to drive because 1) that's what we do, a la Chevy Chase Vacation style 2) it's way cheaper 3) surprisingly enough the kids prefer to drive over fly. We broke the trip a little by stopping at Uncle Mike's in Colorado for a quick visit with the fam... then off to Wyoming. We rented a VRBO "basement apartment" from a retired couple who has a beautiful lodge just east of the Yellowstone entrance. It came fully equipped with 2bd/2ba/kitchen/laundry, beautiful views, porch swings etc. Owners John and Verna Hamilton could not have been more gracious or adorable. We stocked up on groceries in the nearby town of Cody, WY, Buffalo Bill's namesake.

Day 1 We explored the "Grand Canyon of Yellowstone" with a 4.5 mile hike around the south rim... beautiful waterfalls, overlooks, and scenery along the way. It was a chilly day-- stayed in the 50's most of the day, so we had fewer crowds than normal. On the way back we encountered Bison, Elk and a Grizzly off the road in the brush!

Day 2 We headed to Old Faithful and saw various geysers, steaming caverns, stinky mud pits and more! There is constant volcanic activity there-- amazing. After we tired of the tourists, we headed to Biscuit Basin and took a beautiful hike up to Mystic Falls. On the way, more steaming pools, bubbling pits, it was like a scene out of a movie! More Elk and Bison... lots of birds including the Trumpet Swan. We also saw a Mama Grizzly and her cub off the side of the road... amazing!

It's a HUGE park-- we had a full 2 hour drive back to our lodge so opted to stay closer to the east side on Day 3-- We heard from some other hikers that Avalanche Peak trail was a favorite, so we headed there. Small details-- a rise from 8,400 elevation to 10,500 elevation in a mere 2 miles. And we are clearly off the tourist loop, so bring your bear spray! It took us 2.5 hours to make it up, but WOW the views were amazing! We literally felt like we were on top of the world!

Yes, this is my hippie girl doing yoga on top of a mountain!
The way down was a lot less breathing and I was able to enjoy the scenery a bit more. Really beautiful country....

Day 4 we were TIRED and SORE from our previous day so decided some R&R sounded good. Tones and I headed into Cody for a few errands and to check email/make some calls (no internet/wifi/cell reception) and then all of us headed to an easy nature walk trail called Pelican Creek around the lake. Even this short walk to the lake was beautiful... the lake was peaceful and clear. We saw lots of pelicans and a Bald Eagle!

On the way home we stopped at Lake Butte for a gorgeous overlook of the lake and easily spotted the Grand Tetons off in the distance! Stunning, breathtaking, truly awesome views...It was hard to say goodbye. We truly enjoyed our time, although short-- taking in the beauty, history, and geologic finds of Yellowstone National Park.