Summer Vacation 2010

We just spent 15 days in Louisiana and Texas where the order of the day is to eat, sleep, fish, and eat again!! We stopped at Sam's first to pick up Granny

and had a wonderful breakfast with Sam, Karen, Sarah, and Dennis. In the afternoon we travelled to Boerne to visit J5. They have a fantastic setting in the hill country. We went to the Alamo - -

it was hot! Then it rained, and you know what happens when you mix the two - a hot and humid Texas Day!! Love it!!
The next day we went fishing and hanging out at the lake.

Don and I could live there, like, right now!!

Then we drove to Galveston to visit with Steve and Rosie. There we saw Julie and Karen and Joey and Mark and Leah! Steve has a new boat - - it's AHH-MAZing. So the guys and girls went tubing!! Don was have a fantastic time even though he doesn't look too happy!


Briana and Karen soaked up some sun and some waves!!


Our next big adventure in Galveston was an off shore fishing trip on the Good News!! Steve is modeling a spade fish.


We caught lots of red snapper; unfortunately, they were out of season, so we tossed them back. We did get to keep the Mangrove Snapper!


Don also caught a ling, a king, and a trigger fish!

Alas, our time in Galveston had to come to an end, and we journeyed on to Welsh. There we spent time at Granny's house along with EATING!! On Friday we had a Celebrate Sarah Day!!

And for our Celebrate Sarah Day, we went on a swamp tour at Lake Martin. We saw lots of wildlife like this Great Blue Heron


And the American Alligator!



We visited with lots of family like Claire and Shawn and the kiddos, and Susan and Rick and Abby. For my birthday, Granny took us all to DI's for dinner. I had some most excellent boiled crabs!



The tail end of out trip was a Sammy's house where we were able to visit with Joey and Sam and spend some much needed down time before out flight home and the ever present busy schedule.

All in all, Don, Briana, and I had a wonderful vacation. We'd like to thank all of you who housed us and fed us and let us relax and enjoy being with family!!
We miss you all so much already,
Dottie

QUILT

I found these vintage bowtie squares at the antique show about 8 days ago, so I decided to put them together for a sweet little quilt. Happy Belated Birthday, Mom!!

Lobelia

I have these planted in all the pots on my patio. Very pretty!

Hydrangeas

My hydrangeas are loving the really cool weather. This is the summer that wasn't. Can you believe that the high today is only 67 degrees?

Flowers in my Yard

My daylilies are out of control! Here's a close up. Imagine two very long solid rows of these on either side of my driveway all the way to the street!!


I also have Black Hollyhocks. The jury is still out on whether or not I like these.

Don's New Boat

Wow!! Don finally bit the bullet and bought the boat!

It's 18.5 ft. of aluminum with a 90 hs 4 stroke Suzuki with a 9.9 hp Susuki kicker. I think Don has named it the Doris Ann!

HOT DOG!!

Even though the high temp here was 59 and it rained for hours and tomorrow doesn't look any better, I have some really good news!! I don't have to see any of those naughty boys and girls in second and fourth periods again except in passing next year! WOOT WOOT!!!! I cannot say that I will miss any of them, and did you notice the date?? Wow!! It is so late in the year to still be having school! Tomorrow I plan to finish grading all the finals that I administered Monday and as many finals as I can administered today; then I'll only have one class set for Thursday and one class set for Friday. It cannot come soon enough - - I am so done. One of my gangsta boys came in today so high on pot it was glaringly obvious!! I just laughed at him and said, "Pablo, you look like you mixed up some cookie dough, put some on a cookie sheet, slid the pan in the oven, and BAKED them!" He was too stoned to get it but the girl next to him said, "She gotcha!!" Who cares - - this was the ABSOLUTE first time he behaved in class all year; I'll take that!
Well, dinner is on Don - - either pancakes or canned soup - - but I'm not complaining!
Dottie