Back from Texas

I just got back from a trip to Flower Mound, Texas to visit my older sister and her family. Where is Flower Mound? It's just outside of Dallas, right by the Dallas-Fort Wort airport. While I was flying high above the southwest on my way to Flower Mound, Kristen and the kids (and Kristen's mom) were driving. After a brief stop in El Paso to drop Kristen's mom off at a friend's home, they finished the last leg of their trip and we all met up at my sister's house last Thursday evening.

We had a very nice visit. On the 4th of July we walked to a local school and watched the fireworks. As we walked we heard TONS of cicadas in the nearby trees. I even saw a few of the empty exoskeletons of the critters that had molted as they climbed up the fences and trees. Neat stuff.

On the 5th we celebrated my brother-in-law's 50th birthday. There was lots of good food, beer and wine. It was nice to meet some of their friends in a casual and relaxing environment.

For most of the rest of the week we just kind of hung out and just enjoyed spending time with the Texas clan. The kids got to do lots of swimming at the next door neighbors' pool. Irene got to try out a snorkel for the first time. Rhys tried it out too. It's amazing how fast Rhys is learning to swim. He's absolutely fearless in the water. That's a good thing since it's helping him learn faster, but it freaks us out because he does some crazy things from time to time.

One of the days we did venture into downtown Dallas where we visited the American Airlines Center (where the Dallas Mavericks play), Victory Park, and the Dallas World Aquarium. The aquarium was way cool. It wasn't just fish. There were tons of birds, monkees, crocodiles, otters, insects, and even a sloth. I've posted tons of photos on our web photo gallery here:

http://gallery.mac.com/kristenirene#100214&bgcolor=black&view=grid

I returned on Thursday and Kristen and the kids started driving back. As I type this, they are still in Southern California. They hit some of the tourist spots on the way back. Unfortunately, Kristen's grandmother passed away the other day due to natural causes. The service will be on Friday down in La Jolla. Since they're already down there, they'll just stay at Kristen's dad's house all week and then I'll fly down for the service. Then we'll all drive back up to Sparks on Saturday and, depending on our progress, maybe Sunday as well.

While Kristen and the kids have been away I've been holding down the fort here in Sparks. I've watched lots of the Tour de France, the MLB All-Star game, gone on lots of bike rides and played lots of Lego Star Wars on the Wii. What could be better? Well, having Kristen and the kids back home would be the best of all.