Father's Day at San Bernard Wildlife Refuge

After celebrating Father's Day with my family on Saturday night, a splinter group of us headed for San Bernard Wildlife Refuge.  The refuge was dry, buy not quite desolate.  We saw some birds, no alligators, a big alligator gar, and a wild boar.

 Gentian

Sean and Barbara look for little crabs

 

Square  bud Daisy

 

Watching Bird Watchers

For the first weekend of June we had all sorts of fun people over.  Cami and Kasey spent the night Friday while their parents did what ever it is that parents do when left alone - clean I think.  They were great  fun.  We had a night walk and played lots of games.

Sunday, Elissa and Dylan stayed the afternoon, as did Greg and Tyler.  It was a hot day , but we had the new pool to cool off in.  The cousins all played very nicely with one another.

See all pics HERE

Casey and Sean

 Sean and the girls playing with 1990's technology

 In the new pool 

That is a scream of joy and laughter!

Memorial Day in Kerrville

We spent Memorial Day weekend in Kerrville with Nana and Grandpa and all the Boyce Family.  It was the weekend for the Texas State Arts and Crafts Fair, which some of us perused more than once.  Besides that it was Nana's good cooking, digging in the garden, taking hikes, and relaxing at the Boyce Ranch.

See all of the pictures by clicking HERE

Yes, he really did like getting his face painted!

Fierce Deer Hunters

Stink bugs on a leaf...

Kentucky Derby Party at Mr. Scott's House

Saturday was Kentucky Derby Day, time for a party at Mr. Scott's house.  The kids made derby hats, hit the horse pinata, and in general ran around.  The adults bet on horses, had a trivia contest, an may have combined Tim Tams and bourbon, but I am not allowed to talk about that.  As always, Scott was a great host to all.  (Special thanks to Brian for taking charge of kid safety and to Aaron for doing his best to keep the plant away from the party)

Oh, wait, the plant intrudes - three people on the phone to the plant at the same time in one place:

Easter 2011

In case no one noticed, I gave up posting pictures on the blog for Lent (even Sundays!)  As with all holidays we had approximately 7.5 Easter celebrations (more or less.)  Sean had an Easter egg hunt at school on Thursday.  He spent Saturday at with Aunt Jo, Grandma, and Dziadziu cooking, dyeing eggs, etc.  Saturday night Uncles Joe and Tadd and Barb and I joined the fray. Sean had a Easter egg hunt, supervised by 7 adults, and then we made Peep dioramas (see Aunt Jo's blog.)  Sunday it was off to northwest Houston and Uncle Nick and Aunt Heather's house for more Easter frivolity.  Nana and Grandpa were there and had just returned from Spain and Portugal.

Chicago Part One

We are in Chicago for Dave to attend the AIChE Global Congress on Process Safety.  It was a public transportation weekend.  We took the "L" train in from the airport, and have been on buses plus more elevators and escalators than we could count.  Public transportation in the age of Google is a snap - I had no idea Google could retrieve everything from routes to the times for buses, trains, and subways. 

Saturday we caught just the end of Chicago's St. Patrick's Day parade, but we did see the Chicago River dyed green.  We re-discovered that Sean plain does not like the cold.  After two days he is beginning to tolerate it, plus some gloves (knitted from Alpaca from the Everything Alpaca store, of course) helped.  Saturday night we spent at the Navy Pier, a little bit touristy, but lots of warm, indoor, things to do.

We spent Sunday at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry.  It has almost been completely redone since Dave last visited 12 years ago, and it is awesome.  Aunt Jo needs to visit just to see the wing on weather.   They have a two story tornado maker, and a lightening generator.  After the lightening generator went off Sean spent the rest of the time in the weather wing with his fingers in his ears.  The museum also a full sized 727 plane, an engine and several cars from a Zephyr train, and several other older types of locomotives.  Sean could not get enough, and he and Barbara may go back later in the week. 

 

Sean and an Aggie Leprechaun

 Chicago River dyed green

 Full sized laser guided automatic milking machine, with cow print floor tiles

 Air pressure ball levitation 1

 Air pressure ball levitation 2

 Air pressure ball levitation 3 (we spent a lot of time here!)

Sean at TSA

With special kids chairs!

An Adventure in Frankie Carter Randolph Park

Mid-February continued to be warm.  We went for a hike along Clear Creek at Frankie Carter Randolph park, which Sean called "a great adventure!"

Discovery Green

After two weeks of VERY un-Houston cold weather the Pasta's and the Boyce's met for a lunch and a nice Sunday afternoon at Discovery Green.

Elissa and Dylan

 

Dylan with Minute Maid Park in the far background

 

 Sean and Elissa on the bouncy seat-belt net thingy

Sean pouting when the bouncy seat-belt thingy got too crowded

Plane to Frankfurt

I think I will rent the volvo instead

Karneval Jester of Dusseldorf

The Hoppeditz (jumping child). Brought to life on November 11th at 11:11am each year and the "ceremoniously" buried on Ash Wednesday

Giraffe in the airport!

Mouse checks out the Sixt car rental company giraffe with Karneval hat on at the Dusseldorf airport.