Em & Dave's Excellent Adventure: June 2009

Photo issues

For some reason, we're able to click and magnify the first picture in every post I've written today, but not the rest of the photos. We'll fix the tags when we get a chance. I'm not sure what went wonky, since I uploaded them all the same way. If anyone has ideas about what might've happened, leave a comment.

Memorial Day in Texas

We took our usual Memorial Day weekend trip to Texas. This year we spent a few days at the ranch and then headed back to Dallas. Calvin's dad built a nice new dock this year out at the roost lake, so the kids had a great time fishing. Calvin even let Ben borrow a pole (okay, and the fish pictured above), and we made sure he didn't start chewing on either, even though he really wanted to.

Feeding Ben a bottle in a shady spot while the rest of the gang got the fishing gear ready to go:

The girls checking out a fish that Lindsay caught:

Bobby & Hannah playing with Ben. Bobby was so sweet in trying to comfort Ben by patting his head or trying to bounce him in his bouncer when Ben started getting fussy.

We headed back to Dallas on Sunday and Howard & Sarah hosted a cookout. While the food was being prepared, the bigger kids played in the swing and the bounce house. Bobby was having such a great time on the swing:

Still to come: a post about the colorfully-named streets of rural Texas, and baptism pictures.

Visit from Sarah, Dana, and Leanne

In mid-April, two of my college roommates and one of their daughters came out to meet Ben. They insisted on babysitting while Dave & I had a date night, and cooking some large-scale meals so we could freeze the leftovers for future meals. It was great to spend time with them, and we are looking forward to seeing Sarah & her family next weekend, and venturing to the opposite side of the state at some point to visit see Dana's new home.

Dana & her daughter Leanne cooking. They made parmesan egg drop soup and spinach-and-cheese stuffed shells.

Dana & Ben:

Sarah & Ben:

We also went to a kite festival out at Longview Community College. There were some beautiful kites, and it was kind of mesmerizing to watch them spin and twirl. Leanne got her face painted and bought a kite. Ben wasn't quite sure what to make of the whole thing, but it's something he might enjoy in a few years.

Catching up...again!

Okay, so he's almost six months old now. We have had a busy few months and are way behind on posting photos. Now that I have my new iMac, which runs about 500x faster than my well-loved but steadily slowing 10-yr-old iMac, sorting through our pics and posting will be a lot easier. It's got a webcam, so we also got to have video chats with my parents & brother last week.

Ben will be six months next Friday and will be heading off to visit friends & family in Ohio & Michigan to celebrate. He will also be meeting his great-grandma Toni for the first time, and she is very excited about that.

We have had many visitors, plus a trip to Texas in the last few months. We had a wonderful visit from Uncle Tony and Jen the first weekend in April. They spent lots of time getting to know Ben and we introduced them to Kansas City barbeque.

Tony and Jen also stopped by Tony Packo's in Toledo and picked Ben up a cute onesie and bib. The food will still be too spicy for him for a few years, but we'll make sure he gets initiated once he's old enough! Tony also later sent an "I love my uncle" bib.