Galveston Fun

the whole gang

the small gang

We had a short, sweet, fun trip to Galveston. The girls and I left on Wednesday morning and got into Galveston at the same time as Nana, Jodi, and Avery. We took the ferry over to Crystal Beach where Kara and the kids were waiting so we could hit the beach. Wednesday was great weather and pretty water. We played until dinner, walked back to the house, ate, and then went back to the beach until dark. Thursday's weather was not so nice. Very overcast all morning with strong winds and very chocolaty water. The kids did not notice. They played all morning and then we went to the house for lunch and it started raining and did not stop until we left on Friday. That did not dampen the kids fun one bit. Rain or shine, the beach is a blast. Nana patrolled the shoreline keeping the kids from going too deep, Zach caught fish for the kids to play with, and Kara, Jodi and I enjoyed it all from our lounge chairs. It was relaxing and fun to watch the kids have so much fun together. The car trip home was very uneventful, thank goodness, and we stopped in West End for some Spaghetti Warehouse where Mat came and picked up his family and we all went our separate ways. All in all a really nice trip.

reese jumping the waves

wyatt kisses his fish

soren and reese on the ferry over to Crystal Beach

reese shows me her beach treasures

me and my girls

parker shows off his toad

zach catches fish for the kids to play with

Great Friends and Great Fellowship

Last night we had the privilege of spending time with our good friends, Sam and Ann Gonzalez. We met at Abilene Mission Church while we were at ACU and have stayed friends through the years. They have been missionaries in Morelia, Mexico for the past 3 years and so now we only see them when they are here on furlough. They are the kind of friends that you just fall right back in with, as if you had not been apart. Even our kids acted like they play together all of the time. It was a short and sweet visit; we cherish their friendship and every precious moment that we get to see them.

the Gonzalez 's and the Underwoods

reese, sophia, soren, vistoria, and olivia

And with that, the girls and I are off to Galveston with the cousins. Pete will have to fend for himself for a few days. I am sure his bike and running shoes will get quite the workout.

A busy weekend

We had a wonderful, busy, tiring, exciting weekend. Saturday we went to Pops and Nana's house to celebrate Pop's 55th birthday. It was a great day of swimming, cooking, playing and of course, EATING! It was relaxing and fun. We left there around 7:30 pm to get Soren to bed at a decent time because we had to get up at 4:30 am Sunday to make it over to the North Dallas YMCA for a triathlon. She did awesome. She took 1st place of all girls 10 and under by 50 seconds! That is her biggest win yet. She was 5th overall (four 10 year old boys beat her, go figure). We left the tri, went to IHOP for some grub, came home and showered and were ON TIME for church! Amazing. That is how early those stinkin triathlons are. It was 55 miles away!

After church I walked in the door and literally fell on the couch. The next thing I remember is waking up and the end credits to a movie were on. Apparently the girls watched an entire movie and Pete was out on his bike and I was oblivious to any of it. It is a good thing I have good kids.

So another great weekend has passed. This week we look forward to going to Galveston with Kara and her kids, Jodi and Avery and Nana. It should be a fun trip.


On another note, all of the bunnies are dead. I do not understand what happened. They all died the same way, one day at a time. They would eat well and hop around in the evening and then the next morning they would be lieing on their side with eyes open barely breathing and be dead in a couple of hours. It was so sad! I guess I am not a good mother bunny. What can ya do.

Down to Two

The bunnies are not thriving. We are down to two. These two are good eaters, so maybe they will make it. It is sad when they die. They seem to die slowly and it is pretty pathetic.


We had a fun visit with our friends Sara, Hollyn, and Noah today. This was the first time our kids have met, so that was fun. I love how kids can meet and be instant friends; if only adults were so accepting of new people.


Tomorrow we celebrate Pop's __th birthday (I would have to do the math to know how old he is, and it is late). Should be a good time with good food and good dessert. I am going to make sure I eat all of my food so I can have as much dessert as I want. That is how it works, right?! Reese helped me make a chocolate cake to take with us and it is all I can do not to eat a piece tonight.

Bunny update

The morning after we discovered the bunnies, Soren discovered that they were on an ant bed and three of them were already dead. We dug a new home just a few feet away and waited until the next day to see if the mother would come back; she did not. So we made a trip to PetSmart and bought some milk and tiny bottles and they seem to be doing really well. Tonight one of them opened her eyes. The other three still have not but they still wander around. Soren and Katy are keeping them in a doll cradle. The girls and I were away from the house all day and when we got home we could only find 3 bunnies. The fourth one had gotten out of the cradle and snuggled in a blanket on the floor in my room. He ventured pretty far considering how small he is. It is a fun adventure! I sure hope they make it; they are adorable!

Yesterday I got an email from Soren's swim coach asking if we could run up to the pool for an interview. Burleson is getting a new magazine and wanted to do an article on the swim team. Soren has been wanting to go to that pool during open swim so that she could go off of the high dive, so I thought this was a great opportunity. While Soren was charming the reporter Reese was begging me to let her go off of the little diving board. They have a hard rule that you must jump off the board and swim to the ladder completely unassisted; no life jacket, floaties, parents in the water. I know Reese has made great improvements in her swimming, but I was very uneasy with the idea. She is very convincing, though. So I decided that I would let her try and if she has to get rescued then, well, she has to get rescued. She went off that board at least 50 times. I could not believe it. She ran from the back of the board and jumped way out in the water and swam with absolutely no problem back to the ladder, even coming up for a breath. I only had my cell phone and I don't know how to get the pictures off of it yet, but it was SO CUTE! Then, next to her on the high dive was Soren. She can't be happy just jumping, she had to dive. I still won't dive from a high dive. They had a blast. I was pretty impressed. It's sad when your kids are braver than you are. I am glad, though, because I am a pretty big scardy cat about things like that.

Baby bunnies

When I was mowing this weekend I uncovered these...

I was not sure what they were at first because they are so small and have not opened their eyes. They are baby bunnies! Soren wanted to rescue them but I convinced her that they do not need to be rescued and that we should just watch and make sure that the mommy is still coming around. Soren was asking me all kinds of baby bunny questions and I told her that I had absolutely no knowledge about them. She disappeared into the computer room and came out with a print out all about what to do if you find them. She followed the instructions and covered up the hole with grass. Then she took some string and made an X over the top. If the X was disturbed the next morning and the babies had bulging bellies then you knew the mother had been there. Sure enough, she came, and their bellies were obviously full! The only problem is the ants. Fire ants had killed three of the babies that were alive just the day before. So Soren is out there now digging them a new home away from the ant bed in hopes that the mother will not object. If she does then I guess we will be raising some baby bunnies.

Random thoughts from the week

Another summer week has flown by us. We had a pretty average week with swim team and playing. We did get to see Pete's sister, Sarah, and her two kids for a short visit. My backyard finally dried out enough for me to mow; it only took SIX hours! The next day I went to Home Depot and invested in some round up and killed most of it. The house is 3 years old and apparently the backyard was never sodded, so it is all weeds. With the rain, those weeds were knee high and very thick and the lawn mower could barely push through them. I thought I was in pretty good shape, but that yard kicked my butt. Speaking of kicking butt, Pete and Soren both had races this weekend. I totally lost the battle to get to go to Pete's race and just have Soren miss hers. I cannot think of another time in our marriage when Pete has really told me no like that. Yes Sir. Anyway, I took Soren to the regional swim meet in Keller and Pete went to Joe Pool lake to do an olympic triathlon. Soren did GREAT! We will not be making a trip to Austin for the state meet but she is the 5th fastest 6-9 year old swimmer in the region and I am so proud of her. They only send the top 4 on to state; talk about a close one! She was 5th place in both freestyle races and 8th place in the backstroke. There were 577 swimmers at this meet. It was a mad house. I did not even get to watch her swim because the stands were completely packed and if you did not have a seat they sent you outside due to the fire code. I was sick about that. I had to wait and watch the timers. No pictures, can you believe that I do not have any pictures!!!

Pete did awesome, too. His race was a 1500 meter swim, 26 mile bike, and a 6 mile run. That is a hard distance because it is too long to sprint, but too short to really pace yourself. He was 6th in his age group. His goal was to be in the top 15 because of the athletes that were there. He was very happy with his standing.

I learned something new this week. There is no leash law in the country. Pete and I ride out on country roads to avoid traffic, and dogs can be a real problem. Lately I have been a regular dog magnet and I had started noting addresses with the intention of calling animal control to come pick up the dogs. This week I was approached by 5 dogs while their owner was standing in the road talking to someone in a truck. I stopped my bike (the dogs were surrounding me) and one of them bit me on the leg. I was furious. The lady was just standing there talking while her dogs were going crazy. I yelled "your dog just bit me!" and she shrugged her shoulders and kept talking. I walked my bike over to her and yelled it again. She replies "well, next time bring a gun." I really could not believe it. I immediately grabbed my phone and called 911 and explained that this was not an emergency but told them what was going on. "I'll show her! I will get the cops to come out here and give her a ticket for having her dogs out!" I was feeling so righteous in my anger. When the cops arrived I was quickly humbled. There is no leash law and she has every right to let her dogs chase me. What rights do I have? To defend myself. I did report the bite, but there was no physical evidence so it will not amount to anything. When I told Pete about it and explained where I was he told me that everyone knows about her dogs. Her house is on a route that is used for a local bike tour every year and if you look on the road near her house someone spray painted "watch out for dogs". I am resigned to the fact that dogs are going to be a part of the biking experience, but I am not happy about it.

In other news, remember how I had my sister's kids last weekend? She and Mat were down at a second interview with a church on lake Travis in Austin. Mat has accepted the worship ministry position. I am SO happy for them. As long as I have known Mat, one of his most obvious traits is delayed gratification (I don't think I worded that sentence correctly, but you know what I mean). If he wants something new he will save up from birthday to Christmas to get it. This is no different. His heart is in the music ministry and a long time dream of his has been to be the worship minister at a church. He has many years of experience being on worship teams, but this one will be his. It is so bitter sweet because it will mean a move, and we have not ever been that far apart, but I cannot help rejoicing with them for this opportunity. We are going to have a family work day on Saturday to help them get their house market ready. Thanks to Pops for sacrificing big time (Saturday is his birthday!).

So here we are, ready to start a new week. No 7 am swim team. I can handle that! Bring on the fun.

Cousin Camp pictures

Pops took 192 pictures at cousin camp. There were a lot of really great ones. Here are a couple that I loved...

the whole gang

pirates of highview circle

I love Parker's "cheese" face

the famous swing

pops' grandkids don't like him at all

flava Ave

Cousins!

Ashton and Soren force Wyatt to play cheer

settled down for a movie

the boss man

eating lunch outside (in the garage for the shade)

Soren, Wyatt, Ashton, and our neighbor, Ethan

Reese and Parker voted for inside eating

Mat and Kara went to Austin and loaned us their kids...and their dog. We got out the water slide yesterday (yea for some sunshine!!!) and the kids were able to play rain free all afternoon. After dinner we went down to the pool and then over to the park. We did not come home until 8:30. The kids are having a great time. They enjoy each other so much; it is such a blessing to have family like this. I know so many people who do not have a realtionship with their siblings and their children do not know their cousins. I am grateful for my wonderful family!

Parker found Reese asleep and thought she needed...

a kiss!

Grandma Freda!

Tonya can't be the only one with pictures of GMF on her blog. The girls and I rode with Pops and Nana to Crosbyton for the 4th. We had a great visit. It is always fun to go, I wish I could go more often. It just seems so far! We tried to get her to come home with us, but she is taking care of a friend's plant right now :)

After work and Austin and Crosbyton I am ready to stay home for a while. We will get to have Kara's kids this weekend while she and Mat go out of town; the girls are so excited! I have a deli ma; the regional swim meet is scheduled for the same day as Pete's Olympic triathlon. I want to go watch the triathlon. Soren has done so many races and will do MANY more. I have yet to watch Pete race. All he has done is the little mini sprint that we both did last summer. He says I need to take Soren to the meet. What to do...

A Great Weekend

Friday was my monthly work day, but I left at noon to go get Soren from camp. I was SO anxious to see her. Saturday morning was the triathlon for the kids and their parents, so Nana came along to watch Reese while I raced. Our trip consisted of many stops around Austin and I was afraid that I would get lost, but we had no problems and the traffic was not bad considering it was Friday. After going to packet pickup near downtown and checking into our hotel we headed to the campus for the awards ceremony. Soren was awarded the "mountain goat" award because she was the strongest at climbing hills on her bike. She had so much fun that she did not want to leave. The kids as well as the counselors were completely exhausted from their week of swimming, biking and running. Soren had more scabs and bruises, which is no surprise. I commented on them and she said that if you fall when biking that means that you are a true biker. I guess. We packed up all of her dirty, wet clothes and headed back to the hotel.

Soren and Coach Richard from Tri Camp




Saturday morning we left at 6:00 am to go to the race. You go to packet pickup the day before a triathlon so that you do not have to stand in line at 6:00 am to check in the morning of the race. This one was different. They still wanted us to stand in line. After 30 minutes in line, and the start time of the race already past, they decided that if we did packet pickup and had our timing chips, we did not have to stand in line. Yea! That was frustrating. I took Soren over to the pool so she could warm up and then we waited. The race was scheduled to start at 7:30 and they finally got going at 8:20. That is also unusual. These things are usually very structured and start exactly on time. This was the first time they have tried having a kids race and then an adult race and asked us to bear with them as they worked out all of the kinks. Soren was in the first group to go; girls 6-9 years old. She was the 10th person in the water and the 1st person to cross the finish line. It was very exciting. She was first by over 3 minutes.


Soren ready to start her race



exiting the water headed for transition 1




leaving transition 1 heading out on the bike




passing by on the bike course




finished!


She was finished by 9:00 and the first heat of adults did not get in the water until 11:00. That was a long wait. It could have been terrible, but the race was held in a private neighborhood recreation area with a park and 3 pools. The lifeguards were so nice to let us play in the other two pools while we waited. We had a blast.


playing at the park while we waited for the adult race




I was about ready to go home when it was finally time for my heat to go. It was noon and it was very hot. I am glad I stayed, though! I got first place in my age group as well! That was cool. I was 10th overall, 4th overall woman. I still cannot believe it. The best part was getting to go fall into the pool after I crossed the finish line. Water has never felt so good.

finishing the bike, headed to transition 2 for the run

finished!

I wish someone had told me that my hat was crooked and I looked like a dork! That could have been a great picture!

Because of how well we both did, Soren and I decided that we wanted to stick around for the awards ceremony. That meant waiting until the last person was off of the course. We did not leave until 2:30. It was such a fun day and I am so grateful to my mom for coming. I could not have done the race without her and I am so glad I did! We are back now and I am glad to have Soren with me again. I think she grew another foot while she was gone. She is changing so fast; I don't want to miss a minute!