Anniversaries and Memories

We were in Ballinger last week

and by "we", I mean David, Cindy, Lin, their dad ( Grandad ), Jaxon and myself.

The sky was dark and gloomy with fog all around us when we started our journey, but that all soon burned off once we got to Ballinger.

We were there for a couple of reasons, one of which was to visit Granny Franny's grave.

The boys left some flowers at the stone and we went off to look at some property the family owned, and hopefully have some adventures. :)

The little boy fell asleep so we decided to drive around before finding a place to have lunch.

One of the places that we stopped at was The Cross, a 100 foot tall metal, well, cross.

Once the little boy woke up, lunch was at a local sandwich shop, the Main Street Soda Fountain, which was also where we ate when we were here last year.

Cindy, Jaxon and I decided to do a little exploring while waiting for our food

and then went across the street with David to run around a little bit.

A happy little reindeer hitched a ride with us on the way home,

and everything was right in the world. :)

Family Time

Happy Birthday, James :)

We had spaghetti and much fun over at Judith's last weekend complete with Buzz Lightyear and toddlers in PJs!!

Mama's Little Helper

The Little Man tried to help me put stuff away

Christmas at the Campgrounds

Cindy gave her grand kids an adventure

at Abilene State Park over the Christmas holidays. As we had our Texas State Parks annual pass, we were more than thrilled to get to go out there too.

Cindy, her daughter Frances and her 2 grandkids, Allen and Anastasia were there for 3 nights, where they stayed in a yurt, and we were out there just about every day.

Jaxon had lots of fun playing with his cousins and Aunt Cindy

as well as exploring and playing with all the leaves that had fallen on the ground.

While we were visiting the second day, Charles and Joy showed up, and the whole gang bundled up to do a little hiking.

Our first stop was the bird blind. There weren't any birds out and about, but it was a cold day.

Then, we walked through the woods, and back out to the clearing where the yurts were.

A few of us took off exploring on our own, and went off over to where the ( closed for the season ) swimming pool was,

and Allen got to play at the playground for a little bit.

The third day dawned bright and sunny and much warmer.

After brunch with Grandad, we drove him out to the park as well.

It was great to get to sit outside and enjoy the warmth of the sun streaming down in patches through the trees. Jaxon continued his quest for the perfect leaf pile.

I'm sure years from now, the kids will remember and treasure this Christmas with Teta at the Campgrounds. Allen will remember all the deer they managed to spot - which were so close they could almost touch them, and who they suspect ate the cobs of corn that were left out, and Anastasia will remember all the hikes and the time when she spotted an armadillo!

I have an excuse, really

for being blog-post-deficient for the new year

*Please disregard the 4th phantom member of the family as depicted in the above pic...

The whole family is down with coughs and colds and have been in this sick cycle for quite a while now. I really DO have legitimate blog posts lined up, but for now, I have neither the strength, stamina, nor the mental fortitude to do anything that requires me to break out of this brain fuzz I'm in the middle of right now.

BLEH!