Badlands Trip

Today Keeley had a very spontaneous desire...she wanted to go
to the Badlands. So after getting Kendall in the carseat, and
getting in a quick conversation with Mark and Andy via
conference about other stuff, we loaded up the Environment-
Friendly Matrix and headed off to the BADlands. We encountered
lots of various things including alive TREX that roared
(see facebook video), and DOZENS! of Germans, Francs, Brits,
and Aussies sharing the outdoor experience with us. We could
only understand the Englishspeaking ones (naturally), when
they came and admired our 2 week old young one.And thank
goodness she didn't get sunburnt. I was afraid she would,
but so far so good. And the British lady said: "She's on
her first Holiday!" Yah I know. Sweet right. Anyways, we ended
up the trip with some french fries at Keeley's Step-mom's
diner at the foot of the badlands. And now we're all tired
so I think we'll try to go to bed.

Summer Survival Camp

Last weekend we went on our Summer Survival Camp put on by Richard. Although the numbers were few...the hearts were, um, big. We roasted hot dogs, made smores, played in the river, told scary stories, played in the fire, played in the fire some more, burned stuff, threw things in the fire, and played in the fire. The following morning we went on a hike to the Wind Caves. Richard and his friend Aaron had a good time as long as they didn't think about how much their legs hurt!

Picture Slideshow

PhotoShop - Wednesday Morning

Bored this morning...so I decided to make a cool little ditto.

Suction Power 5000zT Series

Our Latest Adventures today included the horde of old ladies crowded around
us at the grocery store, as well Kendall Growing to her 7 lbs. mark.

Also, while some friends were over we demonstrated Kendall's newly
acquired trick of the trade: Bottle Balancing. And is she a Pro or What?

Family Searching

A few weeks ago I went record searching for records of Don's
real Parents...Well, after much dead ends I just ended up with
some lousy marriage and death records. I guess if I want to
continue my search, I'll have to move to San Diego and search
their hospital where he was born. The image above shows the
record of Mom and Don getting married. Thought it was kinda cool.

Español del día

After my 3 years of high school French has let me down, I decided to enroll in a summer Spanish 101 class. 5 days a week. 9:00-12:20. I may be practicing my Spanish on this blog from time to time. Here's my first:

¿De dondé son los todos otros hermanos?

Mark? Sarah? Es Matt aqui?

Katie had her ballet class yesterday and has been told she's doing very well by her teacher. She has class two days a week for an hour at a time. Yesterday they warmed up at the bar and then did jumps and tumbles. Richard also has a ballet class he loves attending.

My Wordle Week!

Our Family week at a glance, in wordle

Battling the Summer Heat!

While Texas definitely has its advantages over the winters in the mountain west, summers can be real nasty. Most days are over 100 degrees by noon and by 3 or 4 pm, the heat has become intolerable. Our most recent attempt to battle the heat is our neighborhood pool. Once Howie got used to all the splashing and cannonballs he had a really enjoyable time. In fact, by the end of our outing, he was contributing to the splashes.

We spent the holiday cooking a beef brisket, making rootbeer floats, and touring San Antonio in our car. We figured that soy dogs and grilled squash just wouldn't have the same effect as a nice fat piece of meat for the Fourth of July.

July 4th at Central Park

Mark and his family came out to visit us for the July 4th weekend. Mark and Andrew went to the Cruise-In, stopped by Andrew's research project, and got hamburgers (thanks Mark) for the families to eat while we watched the fireworks. We spent Saturday at Central Park playing in the water, eating food and waiting for the wives to finished comparing how old each other was. We returned back to the apartment to go swimming for a couple hours before dinner. Tacos were on the menu which were delicious (thanks Jessica) and then we bid farewell to Mark's family as they left for Orem.

Wordle!!!

Just found this wedsite:
http://www.wordle.net

So much fun!!!

Cousin's Birthday Party

Today was the last of the heel pokes at the hospital. Kendall
is all healthy with little to no Jaundice so that is good. I'm
not sure why they call it Jaundice, but I know most babies get it.

Keeley Loves being a Mom. There isn't a second that goes by that
she isn't begging to hold Kendall after I feed her. (which is good)

And we finished our evening off with a trip to the in-laws for a cousin's
birthday party. Nothin' like Icecream and Cake.

Little Feet

Just organized all of our important files finally. Trying to find a good way store sensitive documents/bills/etc. Any Ideas. Anyways, thought this baby feet poem was a good one. Not sure if the rest of you had a similar thing for your kids, but here's Kendall's.

Visit to the water tank

I took my motorcycle to the shop yesterday so Jessica had to drive me to work. That was the first time she was able to see my water tank research study. It was neat to be able to show her 'my other life' that takes so much of my time. Even though I tried to explain what I was doing there, I think I might have gotten carried away. Solar radiation is just so exciting!