SA Spring Break '13- at Camp Bandina!

 What a group gathered to spend 3 days at beautiful (and empty) Camp Bandina.  All the Blanks, the Bens and the Whits - with all the spouses (for at least a day) and all the kids.

As you can see, almost as many little kids as big (grownup) kids! 










Everybody - even the kids - signed up for cooking and cleanup - and we were Well Fed.










Lots of time to play, too.  We spent a day at Lost Maples State Park, played at Camp Bandina's Medina River and on the camp grounds.


Here we are playing a new game - guess who brought it - that's right, Crazy Raja!  Those pvc tubes are blowguns shootging mini marshmallows.
Who would know that a marshmallow can hurt so much??



The last Saturday morning was (how convenient?) the Opening of Spring Turkey hunting and our guys scored big!

For this group you could not have scripted a better Spring Break.

Or for the rest of us; especially the three grandparents present: Gary, Ava and Chuck.

Spring Break in SA - part One

All the kids had the same Spring Break so we invited ourselves to Becky's house in SA!  Here Gram Ava and Pa Gary are posed with our beautiful grandchildren at the Alamo. 








Works of Art.

After the Alamo we went to the Botanical Gardens and were joined by Randy's brother Mark and his family - as well as our special guest Grandma Jane.







Who would have thought that Becky's house would be big enuf to seat Dinner for Seventeen?
But it was - and more than once:)




Not all our time was spent eating, though.




Some of us worked it off!!

or tried to.

Only the Pro - Vivian - could keep it going, and going, and going.  I think she hula-hooped the whole time the rest of us tried to keep it up for just almost a minute! 

Our family really knows how to have cheap fun.

Harlingen Winter-time Fun in Sun

 After early January no rain - but the birds still come thru on their northbound journey in March and April.

















Since we water the native gardens there is always something blooming - and blooms bring butterflys!











First Saturday of March was this year's Community Garden Work Day.  For Marla and her friends (all boys?) it was Play Day.









Pa Gary helped Tarin and the big girls clean up the Fall/Winter garden and get Whits End ready for Spring. In the background you can see many others bent over working in the ground.  All those older  bent backs means a Bengay bedtime!

This Community Garden has been a great addition to the local work of the church; thanks, Marilyn and all the others who make it happen.

Winter 2013 in Harlingen

  This is our lot at Palm Gardens, we parked here for three months and had a fine time.  Rent was very reasonable, good neighbors (from Holland!) and lots of activities - cards, pool, hot tub, stained glass class and a good wood shop.  All this and exactly one mile from our door to Aaron&Tarin's.









 The woodshop allowed me to finally tackle the shelving solution in our pantry.  It was a lot of work but I enjoyed it.
















These 8 drawers (9"x24") are on heavy-duty, full extension slides and are solid wood.  We can finally really use our pantry and fully enjoy preparing the many meals we cook at home.  I didn't picture it, but I also built book shelves and DVD/CD shelves in the open area behind the flat-screen TV.  It was also nice to meet, and work with, other RV'ers who were doing simimilar remodel projects in their rigs. 

A house is a house- there is always some repair or improvement that needs doing.








Added this pic to show off (overhead) the powered vent we had added to the roof of the living room/kitchen.  That was the other much-needed improvement to our trailer.  I didn't tackle this one- I let the pro's do it.

Sunny Glen Sojourn - Jan 2013

 Our  first of two weeks of the Sojourn here in San Benito was made a lot more fun because a group from the AFC - Aggies For Christ - were also here and we worked as one team.  They are a super bunch of young people.










As you can see, they are considerably more supple than us Sojourners, and go 'above and beyond' to get the job done!  I thought I was the only one to really care that the top of the appliances and cabinets were clean, this young lady obviously had some good home training.






When the Sojourner team was thinned by bad weather and illness John and Karen joined us and helped a bunch.  The first week of this Sojourn had the worst weather the Valley was going to experience all winter!







Here we are at one of our devotionals with the Sunny Glen staff.  Ray Crowder (front left) is the new Director and will be a real asset to the home. 

Maybe the Lord knew (I sure didn't) when we signed up for this as Co-Leader that our familiarity with the area and staff would be so useful - but when our Team Leader had health issues and couldn't make it, I got a "battlefield promotion".  Still, the work was able to go right on, and was successful. 

Simple family fun

 Aaron was Santa and passed out the gifts; the pile is greatly dimenished by this time.











A recent addition from Becky is the Holiday Challenge that always involves several games.  Here you must suck M&Ms onto a straw and transfer them from bowl to bowl. Harder than it looks and takes an intent scorekeeper to referee the results.








The Games moved outdoors and looks like Gram Ava is excited about someone's throw.













 Poppa and Viv are enjoying the games and a pleasant night out (in the backyard!).  Wish I could remember who won The Games, but winning is the least important part of this Family Fun.

Christmas 2012 in Harlingen

 Couldn't drive thru Portland without seeing Roger, Beth, Colten and Laura!  Here Ava and Laura are sharing one of Roger's funny pictures.











Tarin had the house decked out for Christmas.  This was just before the family tore into presents and it never looked the same again!











The girls know how to make our traditional PullaPart bread; and no Christmas is complete without it.












Must be the Valley if you can go swimming on Christmas break.  Here Becky and Vivian brave the chill, all the girls got wet - the parents watched safely from the beach.