A Long Time Ago In a Land Far Away Called Texas...

I know these pictures of KR's and Greg's Basic Training are long overdue, but better late than never right?

July 2005
So Skinny!
KR lost 15-20lbs and also more hair but looked cute as ever.

K and his good buddy Nick Majors from Alabama.

Nick's wife Jennifer and I hit it off as well.
On one of Airman Kirkendall's "Town Pass" Days, we went to downtown San Antonio and saw the sights. Here we are in front of the Alamo. We took a boat ride tour around the Riverwalk too. It was interesting but so stinkin' hot and humid (it was 4th of July weekend) that it was painful at the same time. I could never live in San Antonio!

April 2006


Now it's Greg's turn. Same stinkin' San Antonio weather but add some wind this time and subtract a few degrees of heat.


Greg pushing Abby on the way into Sea World San Antonio to see the dolphins, the "penguini" and of course Shamu!


Obviously Abby had a great time and was left speechless! (for a moment (below)) :)

Greg was a little tuckered out. Ahh, finally some freedom to fall asleep without getting in trouble!

Airman Wardle Cartoon

Cats on Ice

For several months now, our backyard pond has been frozen over. The cats enjoy ice skating on its surface. Even I can walk onto the pond! When the temperature warms up, we will find out whether or not the fish survived underneath the ice layer.

Ooh Look, A New Toy

We got a treadmill and the cats can't seem to figure it out. They are sometimes brave enough to jump on and ride it until they fall off the end, but usually they stand on the side and paw at it trying to stop or "catch" the belt. Or they sit at the end and look underneath trying to see where the belt is going. It's pretty funny. Occasionally they will stay walking on it for 5-10 seconds, but other than that, they've decided it's a good napping spot (when it's off of course).

Halloween (a little late)

Welcome to our haunted Halloween house

Good food and decorations were about all our Halloween Party had going for it. Sure the people were great too, but I didn't have many activities planned so we sat around staring at each other at times. We also played Apples to Apples and embarrassed ourselves with some karaoke.

My bathroom was supposed to look like a scene from the movie Psycho

Our red room was turned into a human butcher shop complete with "bleeding" candles and severed body parts. The hand on the table is sound activated and I put it on the porch Halloween night. When kids would ring the doorbell, it would start crawling towards them. Boy did I have some of them scared!

Our friends and co-hosts, Captain Jack Sparrow and Gypsy Lady (Brandon and Nycole). Believe it or not, their costumes were homemade and completely awesome!

KR was a bounty hunter and sported a mohawk, camo pants and multiple weapons. I dressed as an old man for the party but threw this on to greet trick-or-treaters on Halloween night. BOO!

Cross-dressing guests Jeff, Adrian and Kaden(left) and Richard the "Cereal Killer" with Jeni the cop (right)

Westball 2006

Las Vegas here we come

What's a trip to Vegas without a double double animal style?
(And what's a few more pounds after eating at two large buffets and lots of good cheap food in our hotel?)

Bus Ride -------------------------------Bellagio Water Show





Most of you have probably heard about the long night we had on the strip while we were there. We heard about this Halloween event going on, FrightDome, at Circus Circus that we decided to go to. It included 5 haunted houses, 20 rides, 3 "scare zones" and several freak shows. Sounds fun right? We went through the trouble of finding discount coupons-which didn't work out-and we ended up buying our tickets online the night before. We parked several blocks away from Circus Circus, and those several blocks took 45 minutes to walk. When we got there and finally found the entrance to the Fright Dome, there were basically all teenagers in line (much to Dad's excitement). We had to get wanded before entering but Greg and KR were carrying large pocketknives so they were not allowed in. (At least they would have been prepared if we had to defend ourselves against an angry gambler, or in the case that there was a flood they could widdle us a raft out of a palm tree...or...) So we finally decided to scratch the whole idea and hawk our tickets. We lost a little money but oh well. We were also planning to ride the Big Shot on top of the Stratosphere. So after our first activity falling through we were geared up towards this one. Once we got there to buy tickets however, we realized what a rip off it was, ($10 just to ride the elevator up) and decided not to do that either. It was getting later by now and we were even further from the car and our feet were hurting (and actually bleeding in my case.) So, for the first real activity of the evening, Dad treated us to a bus ride back down the strip. It may have taken us longer on the bus due to the traffic, but our legs appreciated it and some of us even snuck in a little nap. We made it in time to catch 1 1/2 Bellagio Water Shows and then called it a night!

The next day, before we had to be to the airport, we surprised ourselves by choosing to return to the strip again. We went and saw the Lions at the MGM Grand which were pretty cool. We toured the M&M Factory, which basically was a four story gift shop consisting of everything you can think of with the M&M logo on it. The many people paying $9/lb for M&M's there must have been brainwashed. Do they really think that little candy covered chocolates are that cool? We finished out by riding the New York New York roller coaster. It was a fun ride.

M&M facory --------------------------- New York New York

MGM Grand

softball

Unfortunately, we lost all four softball games (again). But it was a good try. KR, Dad and Greg all had some good hits and good plays. Notice my picture is not here. The only "at-bat" I had was when I struck out. (After Greg informed me, "Nobody strikes out in softball, Emily, nobody.") I must be special? This was officially the end of my softball career.

look at that form

KR
Greg

Dad

Emily

We had a fun time bowling in the city of sin, but didn't quite make the grade. As you can see by my score, I might as well have been bowling with my eyes shut. Everyone else did great. Greg made himself a new high score and Dad came within a point of his record.