We are home.

We are back from Texas and I would like to show you some pictures of our trip.    Above we have a picture from the Fort Worth Stock Yards.  It is a fascinating place with lots of restaurants and shops of all kinds.

We had to laugh when we saw this sign at the restaurant we ate at with some old friends of ours.  We were wondering if this was the Micro Brewed Beer of Texas!

No trip to the Stockyards would be complete unless you went to Billy Bob's and spent some time in there.  We met my brother and his wife there for lunch one day.  They do not have a mechanical bull.  Instead they have REAL bull riding every Friday and Saturday night.  You must have your bull riding card to participate but all are welcome to watch.  (we left long before bull riding began)

From left to right is:  Susan (my sister in law), Stan ( my brother ), me and Joe my wonderful husband.  I am still wondering when my brother went country.

We celebrated Bryson's 7th birthday while in Texas.  He sure looks funny here.  We were all singing to him and I think he was worried about all the wax getting on the cake.

I am not a proponent of giving children guns to play with but.........his daddy does work with aviation ordanence for the Navy and is a fire arms instructor too.  He had wanted this cap gun since Christmas.  It uses the old fashioned rolled caps.  I know they are old fashioned because they were around when I was a child. (and that was some time ago)

I had to have a picture of their 7 month old puppy Kiowa.  She is a real character and this is one of the few times we saw her actually relaxing.  She is a very busy lady wanting everyone to play with her toys.  She was a Christmas/houswarming gift from us to the family when they moved into their house this past December.  Just think, she has another 17 months to grow.  I think she is going to be a rather large GS!

Here is a picture of the Texas family.  It was so hard to leave today.  In the back row is Jamie (my daugher in law), Jay (our son) in the front row is Bryson and Jadin (10 yrs old).  They have 2 other boys (Neiko 17 and Skylar 22)  but  Neiko was not home and Skylar is in college in Philadelphia and couldn't make it home.

This was my favorite time today.  It was just before we left and I got to hold the boys and love them a lot.  They are wonderful children and I wish we were closer so we could see them more often but that is the Navy for you.  There isn't a base here in Arizona so Texas was the next best place for them to pick.  It is only a 3 hour flight or a 14 hour drive (ugh!)

While on this trip I finished my Multnomah prayer shawl and started back working on my La La's simple shawl.  I still have Eva's shawl to finish after this.  But I did manage to get the socks done for Jamie before we left and she loved them.  I have a request from Jadin for convertible mittens for this winter.  I am going to have fun making them as I never got a chance to make an outline of his hand before I left.  I did hold his hand to mine and it is quite a bit smaller than mine so will just have to punt.

I need to go to bed now.  It is back to work tomorrow and I am sure there is plenty for me to do there since I have been gone for 7 work days.  (sigh) Only 9 more years and I can retire.  (big big BIG sigh)