A Day in our Lives with Dylin

Dylin last spent the night on the fourth of July and had been wanting to have another sleepover. This was a good weekend for us so we arranged to take her with us after her basketball game on Saturday. After the game while the team was having a snack, the coach passed out stars and Dylin received a gold one for sportsmanship. She looked so surprised and happy when he gave it to her.
After a quick trip to Borders Bookstore so Sneed could spend his Christmas gift card, we had lunch at McDonald's. Then we drove up the road to Cinco Ranch and home. Dylin unpacked her bag and was happy to see that Daddy had packed her favorite blanket and Lucky her bear. I knew that she was learning to read in Kindergarten. I had a book that had been written by a 9 year old about her baby sister and the text was repetitive and fun. Dylin tried it out and read the whole book. I had her read it to Papa Sneed.



She was a bit tired so went to 'her' bedroom, laid down on the bed, and played with the Ginny dolls. She was entertaining herself so I thought I would check my e-mail. About 10 minutes later, Sneed walked into my office.
Sneed: "Where is Dylin?"
Me: "She's in the bedroom playing with dolls."
Sneed: "No she's not."
Me: "OMG, we've lost her already?"
We started calling her name...nothing. Went downstairs and there she was in the bathroom. Whew, close call.

Next, she wanted to watch the DVD "Fraggle Rock" so she and I sat down to be entertained. After dinner, we went to the mall and rode on the carousel.



The store, Justice Clothing for Girls, was right in front of us as we departed the carousel area. We went in and to the back of the store to the sale area. Dylin pulled out a blue shirt and pink capri leggings and said, "This is an outfit." I had to hold back my laughter as I suggested she find some blue bottoms instead as the pink and blue didn't quite match. Darned if she didn't find some blue ones! A quick try on and the outfit looked good.
When we got home, she had a bath, brushed her teeth, and we read a few stories before she went to bed at....8PM!! Woo Hoo, that was a lot easier than when she was a baby and toddler and would spend the night. And she slept until 7AM!!
Here she is in her new outfit before going home in the morning. She's a real fashionista = )

Where has all the golden hair gone?

Erika called today and said "Look at your e-mail." I looked, nothing there. She said, "Oops, it didn't go through. I'll send again and call you back." Well, the e-mail came and I got the biggest shock - my beautiful angelic grandson had his lovely golden locks cut off today. It was for a good cause though. Some little child will appreciate that Olsin grew his hair for Locks of Love.

Taking the long way home...

When we checked in yesterday, the concierge told us that the hotel was full. He continued, "If you want to take advantage of the complimentary cooked to order breakfast on Sunday, arrive early. Breakfast starts at 7". Ever mindful of this, we arose early, packed the car, and proceeded to the dining room. Already, some of the young cheerleaders who were competing at a local college had the same idea. We ate and never saw any of our compatriots, and took to the highway. Wanting to see if the country road next to the hotel would take us back to I-10, we allowed the GPS to route us. We saw more back country roads than we had imagined. Every 3-4 miles we would turn left to head East or turn right to go South. Surprisingly by the time we did reach the interstate, it hadn't added any time to our ETA.

Sneed had a bit of gout in his right hand that was bothering him. I thought that might be why he was having trouble keeping the car driving straight ahead - he was slightly weaving in our lane. I volunteered to take over. He pulled off at Schulenberg and we switched seats. When I started up and got back on the interstate, I couldn't believe how the wind was affecting the car. That was why he had been going back and forth. About 20 miles into my driving time, the car really started weaving back and forth, so much so that I told Sneed he could take over as I couldn't hold it steady at all. I pulled off onto the berm and fortuitously I had pulled a bit onto the grass as well. For lo and behold, the minute Sneed opened his door he realized what the new problem was. The left rear tire was flat and the rim coming unattached!!



He set about to change the tire. At one point he said, "I hope your phone is charged as mine just died." Oops, I didn't even have mine. As it was, he completed the job and we were on our way home in less than 3/4 of an hour.

OK... We made it home and breathed a sigh of relief, until..."What's that noise?" I could hear a hissing sound and it was coming from...you guessed it, the right rear tire. It was leaking air. Gee whiz! These were brand new tires and tubes that were put on the car the day before we left. Sneed took the two rear tires back to the installer and discovered the tubes were damaged. He had them put the tubes that were in the old tires into the new tires and so far so good. In the meantime, Marque is sitting in the garage ignominiously with his front end raised while waiting for the front tires to be retubed.


And so it goes...

Part II - Hawaiian Luau

After lunch, we had some free time to relax in the room. Watched some TV while Sneed had a snooze. We got all duded out in our Hawaiian outfits and joined the others in the lobby for the free "happy hour" sponsored by the hotel. At 1900, we processed to the banquet room. Before entering, we were 'lei-ed', the women with fresh Hawaiian flowers and the gents with brown beads interspersed with greenery, all over-nighted from Hawaii especially for our event. We were taken away by the lavishness Cathie and Phillip had bestowed upon us.

Dinner was followed by a special show of Hawaiian dances and music. Some of us were selected to make fools of ourselves to learn a dance. I doubt anyone would have been able to interpret our hand and body movements as they were supposed to tell the story of the song. The professional Hawaiian dancers had us in awe of their gracefulness. They definitely could hula. John put together a great video of the day's activities. Click here to view our day.

Part I - Driving to the City of San Marcos (sung to Arlo Guthrie's City of New Orleans...well, you get the idea, right?)

Yes, sometimes I get carried away trying to come up with clever titles for my blog entries. That's just me, OK?

After an early morning rise, we drove from Katy to San Marcos to join our fellow car enthusiasts for the after holiday party activities. Arriving at 0830, we found out the trip to the museum wasn't scheduled until 1130. Sooooo, we went to the two outlet centers (Prime Outlets and Tanger) adjacent to our host hotel, The Embassy Suites and Convention Center. Picked up some more of the 'No Iron' shirts at Brooks Brothers which are a bargain when at half price. That was all the shopping we did as we definitely do not need any more 'stuff'.



The car museum was a mere 5 minutes from the hotel. Dick Burdick, a fellow RROC member, has collected about 60 American cars from the 30s to the 60s and displayed them in a pristine setting. The museum has only been open a few months. They sure could make gorgeous cars in the early part of the century. Here's a small sample of the ones we saw and drooled over.

After the museum tour, we drove down the road a piece to another member's tavern for a yummy outdoor fajita spread.

Aedin's Birthday dinner at BJ's

BJ's Restaurant and Brewhouse, Sugar Land, TX

Today is Aedin's 8th birthday. Wasn't she born just a little while ago? Time sure has flown as we have watched her grow into a beautiful, young girl.

One of her gifts was a book about string figures. Didn't take her long to form these.

Happy Birthday, sweet Aedin. Hope you had a wonderful day.

Watch out WNBA, the girls are on the court

After breakfast at Skeeter's with the local RROCers, I called Erika to find out what time Aedin and Dylin's basketball game was. Their first ever game was being played at Williams Trace Baptist Church gymnasium in Sugar Land at 11. We parked Marque in front of Terry's Tahoe and went inside thinking we were early and would see the girls before they got on the court. But nooooo, they were in a coach's session which started 30 minutes prior to game time. Everyone was there, Terry, Erika, Gavin, Colin, and Olsin.

This is a popular league so we couldn't get a seat in the bleachers until the other games had finished. Olsin wanted to sit up high so I handed Sneed the camera and he sat down in front with Erika and Terry.

One thing I must say, the girls really know how to guard an opponent. Aedin got so caught up in it she fouled her opponent who then made both of her free throws. To be fair the girl was older than Aedin and had a lot more experience. And Dylin had a 'deer in the headlights' moment. Her teammate was throwing the ball in. Dylin was right in front of her. The coach yelled out, "Throw it to Dylin". Dylin heard her name and caught the ball. Then he yelled, "Shoot it". She started walking to get a good shot just as the whistle blew (traveling) and the buzzer ended the game. They moved around so quickly it was hard to 'capture' a photo. I'm sure Erika's shots with her 'professional' camera were in focus = )


Dylin in the pink hightops and Aedin to her right, Aedin #42, Terry-Olsin-Erika, Dylin #7