You might recall that last summer Brynne and I went to Mexico on the church mission trip. It was such an amazing experience and we hope to repeat it this year. The "amazing" part that is! We are fortunate to be plain ol' repeating it! We will be gone the 2nd week of July to return on my birthday. There is one significant difference this summer...Jacob desired to join us! He is very excited about this prospect and has been soaking up every detail that comes his way. I thought it would be appropriate for him to fill out his own paperwork, of which there was much, and he was diligent about completing it. Our team meets 1x a month and has various fundraising opportunities. He is a great particpant and is excited about his role once we get there this summer. It is always hard to leave the folks that remain in Colleyville, but Gregg will help Lacey stick with her busy routine (swimming and drivers ed.) and I am certain they will do some neat father /daughter things. Can you say Cheesecake Factory?

I despise change!! Allow me to vent a bit , if you don't mind. This blog thing used to be so easy. I loved it for that fact alone. For some reason I was forced to change and now I struggle to figure it out. I admit I am a -1 on the scale of tech savvy, patient, quick learner etc. Just know that if I didn't adore you all so much, and desire to share our "what's new" I would just not bother. For example, I do not want these words in blue and I certainly don't want them underlined. However, I am terribly fearful of losing the pictures I finally uploaded/posted after 20 mins. Consequently, I cannot risk moving away from it to have Gregg give it a whirl!! I really want the old way back...it was "so easy a caveman" or suburban housewife could do it!

Big sigh...can you see that the letters are now black and NOT underlined?? I didn't do a thing!!
I promise!! It is Blogger magic I presume! So now to the photos at hand...Lacey had her swim banquet on Tuesday night. She had been looking so forward to this evening. She gave it great thought down to the smallest detail. She looked fabulous and we can't wait to share the photos from Brynne's theater banquet in May.

Lacey received an award that night and we were sorry Gregg had to miss the dinner due to a track meet (I use that term loosely) with Jacob. Having said that the banquet was a bit drawn out and he may have been just as happy with the photos, verbal recap and earlier bedtime!
Here are some of the other freshman girls with Lacey from the Varsity team. They look mighty different without their caps on!!

It is really hard to believe all of the mail Brynne has been getting these days. She took the PSAT a few months ago and each week she receives info from far flung colleges asking her to take a look. In light of the fact that she is nearly 1/2 way done with high school we are contemplating not only where to look, but how to pay! This afternoon she hit about 6 local businesses for summer job applications. We were really proud of her hustling!!

Another perk to the al fresco dinner at the McCaff home was MiMi was in town.
I won't speak for anyyone else, but clearly a little lip color and some hair product is in order for the gal in green! The ziplock baggie gig really puts a damper on your packing if you want to carry on!!

We had plans to visit another community in North Carolina for some afternoon shopping (we can sniff out an outlet mall in any state!) and dinner. However, those plans were dashed by a fire that prohibited us from getting up the mountain. About that time Debbie called and invited us to come their way this time. We accepted the invite and proving you are never too old to play dress-up Brynne and Lauren both donned their tiaras.

Brian was able to do some business on the way and this is now his business casual!

My sister Debbie, her husband, Brian, along with their two children, Lauren and Matthew, came for lunch. They were anxious to take a dip in the hot tub after hiking up and down the mountain.

The home we were staying in had a ping pong table. It was truly one of the most enjoyed aspects of the trip. The player combos varied with every game and shhhh...don't tell a soul, but I think I heard that Jacob smacked Lacey down in a game!

We found a comfortable house about 2 hours away from the CLT airport.
We enjoyed a nice view, great weather, plenty of space to spread out and we were truly happy to enjoy this family time for a few days.

We were so pleased that we were able to head out of town this spring break!
We flew to Charlotte, our destination for 2006, that fell flat due to heavy loads on AA. One of the minor kinks in the trip was we were ready to roll to the North Carolina mountains, but our rental car was not. Our patience allowed for parking lot entertainment and a tank of free gas!

The rodeo is started and concludes with bull riding. I have two new observations from the evening. First, the riders are now able to wear helmets and vests for their protection. Best case they are hurled and heaved while hanging on for dear life to a braided rope. They must accomplish this for 8 seconds. One hand must remain free for the duration of the ride. The second thing I noticed last night, not sure how I have missed it in the past, is that the bulls don't just naturally buck. They are bucking because their...well let's just say many men folk would buck if their...you get the point. Post ride cowboys on horseback saddle up next to the bull and untie them and waaalaaaahhhh, no more bucking!

 

Jacob is Longhorn fan through and through!

 

Brynne and her friend Layne wanted to go to a concert in Fort Worth last night. This was a new venue for our consideration. It is called The Door and the FW Star-Telegram describes it this way..."All-ages, no booze, pro-God club planted in the middle of the FW Stockyards." Some of the kids from the high school were participating in a Battle of the Bands. However, we were not comfortable with the notion of the girls being alone in the city so Jacob and I hit the Stockyards with them for the Saturday night rodeo.

 

Happy Spring Break from Texas! We kicked it off Friday with a movie. Have you seen this? It is a family friendly movie that will generate positive discussion. You will need to initially get past the B-grade acting, but that doesn't take long. Some of the themes include giving your best, attempting the impossible, perseverance amidst defeat, criticism vs encouragement etc. It is positive to see something so atypical from standard Hollywood fare in the theaters.

 

As we get ready to spring forward this evening we are able to see signs of spring all over the place. This mommy and daddy duck have enjoyed some pool time. We are hoping that it was just a quick dip and that they prefer a neighbor's pool, or better yet the canal behind our home. Last year this fine couple, or another that looked an awful lot like them set up house under the big evergreen tree. One day we were entertained to see their many babies swimming behind them. The challenge was to get them out. The babies cannot get out on their own and scooping them into the pool net required a high level of patience. As Gregg would scoop they would dive under water, but eventually Gregg won and he replaced them in the canal. The most bizarre aspect of all was that the nest was right next to the spot under the tree where our two dogs hang out. They never disturbed the nest or the eggs. It was a peaceful coexistence in the yard! 

Chaos is good! Good enough to win 2nd place in their division this past basketball season. They are enjoying a couple of weeks off and then they will resume practice before the next league starts up.