Last few pic's from Texas

This next picture is just too cute to leave out.

The story behind it....Mary was walking in front of this cactus and totally did the ta da pose, it was so cute. So I was trying to get Mary to do that again in front of this cactus, you know for a picture. She did it a couple of times for me but I kept missing the shot, stupid slow digital point and shoot camera!! So inevitably she absolutely refused to keep cooperating and wouldn't give me the time of day, and she kept trying to walk away. I kept putting her back in front of the cactus. I know she was thinking I have already posed 3 times, Mom! After about three times of shoving her back in front she gave me this look. I just thought it was funny and cute. Mom's so demanding! ;)

While we were visiting my mom's cousin, Sherly Ann Turpin Dickenson, she took us around to see the Texas country (and a cemetery or two) we were boldly introduced to this donkey. His named was buckwheat. He wasn't very happy we were just driving by. He chased us up and down the fence as we drove along the rode. He whinnied the whole time. Not just a quiet little whinny you are imagining but the movie kind of whinny. It was loud and obnoxious and just down right shocking!! We were laughing so hard! Apparently he was quiet upset with us that we were driving by and didn't feed him some carrots or apples. He was a sassy fellow. He has on occasion attacked a horse and broke the horses teeth! I tried to video him but I couldn't get him to do it when I had the video on, but here is a picture of this priceless Buckwheat!

They also had some baby kittens that were totally adorable. Mary couldn't get enough of them. She was actually more gentle than the 5yr old boy who was carrying them around by the necks!

While we were here Grandpa John showed us how to clean a headstone and apply shaving cream to see the information on it. This come in really handy with the old headstones that haven't been kept up and have lots of stuff growing on them.

Visiting the Malaga's in Texas

Our 2nd night in Texas we had dinner at Cami Malaga's house and the kids had a fabulous time. Riley and Madison were great with Eliza and Mary. Madison was so thoughtful and totally helped me keep an eye on Mary in the pool. Riley and Eliza didn't want to leave each other at the end of the night they were getting along so well. They had a great time sliding down the slide and playing games in the pool, while Grandma Troy, Grandpa John and Cami caught up with each other in the house. Steve was out of town:( maybe next time. Mary couldn't get enough kisses from their puppies. She was mauling them all night!

Six Flags Over Texas

Eliza and I went to Six Flags while we were in Texas. We got to ride roller coasters to our hearts content. We did find Eliza's extreme. The Titan towering 255 feet above the earth, the muscular steel superstructure features one of the world’s mightiest drops at hyper-speeds of 85 miles an hour. This seemed be Eliza's max because she kept hitting her chin on the bar that was supposed to be at her waist...she was a little short. It wasn't the speed of the ride or the extreme drops in her words 'they didn't make that ride very well mom. That stupid bar didn't even hold me in it just kept on bonking my chin!' She wasn't very thrilled about that. She also didn't like that she couldn't see herself in ride pictures she was always too short so it just looked like an empty chair next to me. Eliza's favorite ride was the Wildcatter first you fly 10 stories straight up in the air—then, an irresistible force shoves you over the edge into a heart-pounding free fall. Yeah I know she absolutely 'love love loved it' as she said we went on this one twice! When you get to the top you get a Birdseye of Arlington, Dallas and Fort Worth, literally! Then you fall 10 stories, Eliza's favorite part of the ride! Our first ride was Sponge Bob 3d that was pretty fun!

Here she stopped to pose with Batman and Robin for Dad. While we were there we practically froze to death! It was so cold this afternoon and evening. We went to buy sweatshirts at the gift shop but they were sold out. Unseasonably cold weather. We were so disappointed because we were looking forward to some hot weather and instead we got unseasonably cold and the day we left it was snowing. SNOWING can you believe it!! We did find Ryan a long sleeve Dallas Cowboy's tee shirt that Eliza broke in for him. She found it quite warm;) She is showing off her pop gun she got at the gift shop. Go figure, you can actually get toy guns all over in Texas!

Some Texas Gravestones

I am finally getting around to updating my blog I know it has been a long time!! Wow how time fly's. Everything is great with our family. No news is good news!!

I did want to post a few pictures from spring break in Texas.....As most of you know my mom and step-dad have been traveling the country visiting all the temples and doing genealogy. They have found hundreds of names and have done a session in virtually every temple in the continental US. 60 something if I remember right. My mom's grandma grew up in Texas and my grandma grew up in Oklahoma. So my mom wanted to get more info on family members that were buried there in Texas. This is the Thurber Cemetery in Thurber, Texas. This is were my mom's great grandma's son Jim (little Jimmy) Whitenton's was buried. He was 26 months old when he died in 1910. My mom had never been here and walked right to his head stone. She is amazing when it comes finding what she needs to know. She sure listens to that still small voice. I wasn't sure if it was morbid to take a picture of the kids around a head stone and I was reluctant to do so. But I am sure glad I did! I love this picture!! One of the coolest things about this picture is that there is another one that is almost the same with my great great grandma and 3rd great grandma in it instead. The picture was probably taken 70 or 80 years ago. When I get a copy I will post it too. I just love that we were so close to were our ancestors were. It is so cool to know that they were here putting flowers on this same gravestone many many years ago. It was an amazing feeling of family and sense belonging. It is very hard for me to put into words what it was like to be there. But it does put a smile on your face and gives you the good chills.

The next picture I chose has a bit of a story to it. We were hunting in a cemetery in Stephenville, Texas for my 3 great grandma and grandpa's headstone. My mom had gone the day before to the town's historical library to find the plot map and my 3 great grandma and grandpas location. The map narrowed it down to section 11 and we had been looking for about 40 min's I was getting frustrated. A little background on the day, is that Mary and Eliza were completely done looking in cemeteries for something they couldn't understand and were even more done riding in the truck and we had a 2.5 hour drive ahead of us. I was a bit stressed out and started questioning my mom. "Are you sure this is the right area? You didn't look at the map wrong? Mom I don't think it is here." She kept telling me "I know it is I was here." "Yeah I said in 2nd grade." I said sarcastically. She said that she was sure 'it was along the stone fence' and I was sure she was remembering incorrectly so we bantered back and forth as we stood there. mom was talking as we both looked down and we saw the corner of this gravestone peaking out from under the dirt. As we were talking my mom kicked some of the dried mud off and we realized it was the gravestone we were looking for!! Over the years the mud had collected over the head stone. If my mom had not been persistent it may have been completely covered next time someone came looking for it!! See the stone wall in the background my mom was 100% right! This is one of my most cherished times we had in Texas with my mom and John. Even Eliza got into cleaning the headstone of Grandma Bertie.