Alice Cooper - School's Out!!!

I won't write much, but the fun is on! Since last I wrote, Katie had a dance recital, Drew was baptized, and Zac was ordained a teacher. Zac & Dustin had birthdays, as did Amber and soon Audrie then Chance. Marianne & Clint had their anniversary (on Zac's birthday). Nick has graduated, school is out for summer and already Amber & family have come and gone, both grandmas have come and gone, and Audrie is here for another week or so with her kids, but Craig is gone. Nick has announced that he will be leaving to AZ at the end of this month! Dustin left this morning for scout camp and Zac & mom leave for scout camp and girl's camp respectively next week, followed by Brad to high adventure on the river the week after. OMG! (as they say...)

This beautiful butterfly would not be captured on camera!

Drew was pretty excited as were we all about his baptism & confirmation!

Gma Y hosted a fine birthday party!

The birthday person wears the birthday hat

Paintball warriors Z & D (Z has new gun--unfair advantage, according to D). Craig & Trav were in a war too. The primary injury was to Craig's ring finger--he couldn't put his wedding ring on the next day, haha

"What is my line??"

"Free at last!"

Kinsey & Grandpa on Blackie

Madagascar is on!

Chance is learning the rudiments of snake handling from his Uncle Zac

Kenedi's opinion of the snake, facial rendition

Lunch Time

It's the case of the mysterious nutritious lunch! Who dares eat such a meal?

Could it be Cosmo?

What about Dakota?

See if you can decide which of these it is, so hard to tell!

29 YEARS

Laurie and I had a great weekend celebrating 29 years together. How did I get so lucky? Here's what we did. We started by going to the temple, the place where it all began on April 18, 1980 in Mesa, AZ. Of course, we went to the Dallas Temple:

This time, I had planned everything in advance and even had reservations. We ate at Saltgrass at LBJ & Midway (leftover gift card from our 2007 datebook...), then on to the Omni Mandolay in Las Colinas where we had a corner suite, watched "Taken" in bed, and slept in late as the rain pounded around outside. Ahh, the life!

Here we are in the living room of the hotel:

Nice, huh!

After a scrumptious buffet breakfast (we both ate a couple meals since they were so good), we had to go back and prostrate ourselves since we were too full to move, and since our next event required NO RAIN (it was still raining). After another movie, the rain finally quit so we took off across town to Billy Bobs and then to the Main Street Arts Festival in downtown Ft. Worth. Yes, that sounds very out of caracter for us. Us and crowds? No, not often. But we got in the groove for this one:

It was a really neat event. This is one of the stages they rotated live musical performers on throughout the day.

Much of the art was fine; some of it was not so fine. Overall, it was a mind-broadening experience for a couple of small timers like us.

The last vestige of our celebration was another meal, this time we split one, at our old Arlington hangout, Mac's American Grill for some blackened orange roughy and a goldbrick ice cream dessert. And lest we arrive home before everyone else was in bed, we hit another movie (another gift card leftover from the 2007 datebook), pretty good, "State of Play". Reminds me of politics.

We got one late congratulations this Wednesday night when we got home, our dear dear friends had decorated the yard! Dustin thanks them (you know who you are!) for letting him have the job of cleaning it up. We did leave it all for a day:0) Can you read the "29" spelled out in forks? Yes, new meaning to "stick a fork in it", almost as good as Amber's baked potatoes (haha)

Last, here's a photo of the most awesome new stadium around (at $1.1 billion, it should be, right!), the new Cowboys stadium in Arlington next to the Ballpark. It is scheduled to open with a George Strait concert on June 6. Come and party with us!

EASTER

K-Kai Kahu Elli E Bailey (OK, someone help me out on the spelling?)

We had a great big celebration at our home for Easter. After all, this is the MOST significant event in Christianity. Even though we make a bigger deal out of Christmas, it is really Easter that has all the significance. Before diving into the wonderful food, we had a family spiritual experience, mom telling about a YW event, then Terrell sharing her testimony of the improvement in her life and her relationship with the Savior since she was baptized, exactly one year ago to the day! It was moving. A few more of us spoke and there was a wonderful spirit with us, a very nice Easter gift from the Lord.

We had 22 of us there. For us, it was mom, me, Nick w/ Hannah, Zac & Dustin. Then we had David and Terrell, Sarah, Carrie & Kai along with Debbie (yeah--finally got her back, way to go Dave!). We had both grandmas, Thelma and Mary. Then we had all of Ora and Troy's family, with Chadler, Sierra, Hayden & Zoee as well as Troy's mom Betty and her husband Arlo Young (great name). Here are pictures, hope you enjoy them. We enjoyed making them happen!

Dakota and David became good friends (David the canine, not David the human) And the only pictures of Dave and Terrell are here, unfortunately without their heads...

Zac & his cousin Sierra--NO CHIPPED TEETH! (private joke)

Sierra is getting pretty nice looking!

My sis and me

Troy, Ora and mom (grandma)

Hanna decided to tape Nick's face hahaha

Sarah, Kai and Carrie

Zac & Chandler waiting for dessert

OK, it's hard to get Debbie's picture, but this was her birthday too, so here's the cake 54 yrs

Arlo & Betty Johnson Young, grandma Thelma Young!

Zoee & Sierra, crazy sisters

My favorite one of all! Grandma says "Laurrrie!"

,

DAKOTA IS AT IT AGAIN

This is an alert! I will have a new post with pictures very soon. Stay tuned.

This was the Happy Easter Card Dakota and I sent out. See you soon

Spring Get Away

It seems to get more and more difficult to get a post in once you get out of the habit. Katherine, how have you managed to keep it up? I know it was a NY res, but congrats, you have done it!

Life has been pretty full. We've had missionaries in our home on Monday nights to teach a young lady and her mom. We've been to Colorado, on some of its slopes and back, all over the state on business, down to Austin to testify on eminent domain--all in all, very diverse and very fulfilling. Here are some pictures:

Sounds like, from Julie's blog, that aquarium visits were a popular item! We found it so too. This is in Denver:



I think the shark is running from Kenedi...they both have their mouths open baring their teeth...
We have learned that running from her is the best course some times, right toot?!



They have great parks in Denver and surrounds. The weather is beautiful most of the time. Ahh, lunch at the park!


Here we are at Winter Park, what a studly group!




We had the good fortune to have Dennis & Suzanne along with Brandon and Jessica come up to Audrie's for a few hours. We had a great time. Chance and Tristan became fast four year old friends too!



Monday Zac Dustin and I went to Copper Mountain. What a place! More trails with more variety than anywhere I've ever been. It got up to about 50 degrees! What fun. Of course, watch out for the yellow snow...





We pulled off a slope, pulled out the food from my camelback, and had fun putzing around in the snow!



All good things must change venue, so we brought the crew (except Craig...) back to Texas. We love the road trips in the van! Oh what fun it is to ride in a 300 HP van. Really, we did not suffer any of Scott and Julie's fun. We enjoyed the ride!