MG happenings: To The Burg!

Ok, three posts in two days... I'm telling you, we've had so much going on! :) Makes life so much fun!

We recently had a trip to Fredericksburg, Texas, to visit my parents and almost all my siblings, their spouses, our nieces and nephews were there. It was a great time! My parents did an acorn count. They filled a jar up with them and then had everyone fill out a sheet guessing the number in the jar and my sis, Jen, guessed on the spot right when the announcement was being done- and she WON! Way to go, Jen! My parents are building a home there, they are retiring there, and it has come so far! My mom has researched and researched and will have made this home look like a historical land mark. She has designed it to look as if it has been there for a hundred years and the detail is enormous and makes my brain crazy thinking about it all. It will have the old-time push button light switches and all. It is amazing! My sis, mom and me chose every paint color, for the entire house and it will be gorgeous! The best part about the weekend was all the laughter we shared. As we all get older we seem to just keep getting closer and it is just a wonderful feeling. I am the baby of eight children and wish all of us lived in the same town. We are spread around the nation and I wish we got to spend much more time together. I may try and do a family reunion after we get into our new home. Wouldn't that be fun?? I think it's past due, and I think 250 acres would be plenty of space for our enormous family... hopefully. :) Back to the weekend, my mom bought a tether ball game and oh my goodness, what a hilarious game! The kids barely played with it, but the men--- oh the men had a great tournament. My face was hurting afterwards from laughing so much at them. They were so serious and competitive--- at TETHER BALL! Oh- what memories! ...and my sister in the background just kept saying, "yea- there is just no way to look cool playing that game..." because it kind of makes you spazzy chasing that ball on a string- jumping, ducking, swinging, kicking, falling, yelling- and the facial expressions of the over-exertion from a bunch of grown men's' will to win.... what a blast! My sis-in-law, Amy, was the only brave woman to take one of them on and she put up a great fight! The kids had a Halloween pinata and my mom did the bandanna over the eyes and even spun them around three times before they could attempt to hit it... I guess I need to wikipedia "pinata hitting" because I was shocked that not only could they not see but you have to make them dizzy, too! Surprisingly they all hit it. Kiddos' equilibrium must be more stable that ours at older ages. I'd have run into the tree it was hung from had I tried. There is no way I could have blindly and stumbling dizzily hit that two foot by two foot object. People would have been running away screaming. We enjoyed two nights of campfires because it was pretty cold outside and the second night their nice neighbor came over and played his guitar and even sang for us. The majority of the time he was singing and playing my dad and brother were engulfed in trying to get pictures of the fire- it had a mysterious green streak every now and then probably from something someone threw in to watch burn. I ended up with tons of pics of the fire itself, but never anything green. It was wonderful watching all the children play. My dad, Grandpa Bud, camped out in the house with one of my nieces and nephews and they claimed they froze. The house has walls but is not completely shut in yet. Grandpa Bud wins the bravest award because he was out in the open with all the critters and cold sleeping in a sleeping bag on a concrete floor. Have I mentioned how much we love where we stayed? :) Ken and I don't mind camping every now and then, but if we have a choice to have a warm bed we jump at it!

The view from the window on the plane on the way there. Ken took this shot.