Dobson's Texas

Brazil Trip

2011-09-02T22:25:00.004-05:00

The Kelleys Come to town. . .

2011-03-05T10:18:00.002-06:00

I had a wonderful visit from Ashley, Travis, Wyatt, Kaylin and Agustus this past of week. It was hard to see them go yesterday!

Visit From Humble Tx

2011-03-01T17:48:00.003-06:00

Saturday I had a wonderful visit from Dave and Natasha's "My Three Sons!" which was a lot of fun as you will see by the videos!
Enjoy!

Visit To Dallas

2011-02-25T17:16:00.003-06:00

Last Friday I did a quick trip to Dallas and got to see Jessica, Mike and the kids. It was a short but great visit.

Got to watch them work and sing. . .

and see the Sisters Dance !

Grand Baby #14

2011-02-06T21:00:00.005-06:00

She's here! Little Scarlett (name subject to change by parents!) We are all very excited.

20 inches 7 lbs 15 inchs. She and Jen are doing great!

Days Gone By. . .

2011-01-16T13:58:00.007-06:00

Thought I'd share a few pictures of last Days of 2010 around our house. Enjoy!

Me OFFICALLY on Thanksgiving Va-K!

Visit from the Kelleys - and though we see them a bunch (which we love) I have not been very good about taking pictures so I "stole" this from Ashley!

Cousins got together for an afternoon of play (Tosh and Jessica's Kids)

Trip to Dallas where Grandma Celeste ALWAYS reads the grandkids a story!

Corbin and Hayden being silly at Hayden's 4th BD Par-Tah.

Quick Trip to Africa

2010-10-15T01:43:00.009-05:00

For the past two years my team leader at Chevron has been telling me that he had to get me to Lagos, Nigeria. Something about more exposure, as for me, I had already been there two times (2000 and 2003) with the Agbami team and figured that was enough. Well, he finally found a great opportunity and convinced me that it was for my good, plus it was an opportunity for me to promote some software and workflow techniques that I really believe in something that is extremely important for me in order to “sell” something (I’m sure that’s why I hated to go out and get new subscriptions for the ol’ “Salt Lake Tribune”, I delivered their product but was not believe in it!). So off I went to present our Teams new “trade secret” iRAVE at a company only Technical Poster Session. Turned out good, got to see some old friends (even had lunch with Barbie and Ken!) and made new ones while promoting iRAVE and our production mapping workflows. Only had my I phone which was okay cause I was not in a picture taking mood. So what you see below is about it! The Nigeria International airport. A nice walk from there to our shuttle ride.

My Hotel room from the front door. The place had some nice material, granite sink, Teak wood furniture and even a flat screen TV. However really lacked the craftmanship in putting it all together. See the bathroom shot below for example.

Notice the fine patch job next to john.
This little jewel kept the TV going (but nothing else) when the power would go out which was at least twice a day. I guess they have their priorities!

House project

2010-10-05T05:18:00.006-05:00

This Fall we got into updating our kitcten and after a 1 week project turned into a 3 week, we finally have our kitchen ALL back. We finished refinishing and putting on all the cabinet handles, putting up the blinds and window rod covers (can’t remember the correct name) and the food out of the washroom fridge back into the kitchen fridge. Gangs of fun. Enjoy the pictures!

Home Alone. . .

2010-07-18T23:56:00.003-05:00

It was nice to have Celeste around for a few days before she flew off for Utah. She has really been a Jet Setter these last couple of months. Today Grandma Dobson turned 76 and tomorrow she goes in for an operation on her eye to keep it from going blind. Please keep her in your prayers. I called her this morning to wish her a happy birthday and she sounded really good.

Tonight Shaunda had a party for her at her house in Draper and Celeste was even able to make it. Sounds like she had a really good time with all the family and especially Jack; she also stopped and saw Grandma Mae (Lance and Erica's Dad (Ron's) Mom), Ron and his new wife. They are all planning on going to Rachel’s reception next weekend. It will be great to see them.

Last night we had a great ward temple trip with a new record of 18 people in attendance. Brother Warr from the 2nd Ward officiated our session and Sis Mathew was one of the women helpers. 16 of us went to dinner after at the 59 Diner (done a few ward youth temple trips there). Good friends and good food.

Today at church we focused on Pioneers and making our sacrifices in today’s world. Very fitting since next Sunday will be our ward conference and Pioneer day will be over. Got invited to our friends the Allens for dinner. It was Erins BD and so the Allens did the birthday scream (see video below.)

Uncle Lester’s cancer is back. Mary Nosack, my Mom’s best friend in the Canyon has breast cancer. Two months after quitting his job, Mike (Jessica’s husband) is still looking for a job.

And now for some good news, Jared landed a job in Pleasant Grove with his old IT company. Jen is pregnant with #2 and things are looking good for February. Amber landed a job in a clothing store (they are living in SLC in the heights above a bike shop in an apartment).

The One Man Band of Victoria!

2010-07-04T23:30:00.003-05:00

One of my favorite things. . .

2010-07-04T22:49:00.003-05:00

North to Alaska

2010-07-04T11:00:00.006-05:00

During the 3rd week of July, Celeste and I went with Doug (my brother) and his wife Julie on a cruise to Alaska. It was there first time and needless to say we had a wonderful time. We started in Seattle and went as far north as Sagway, Alaska which is still in the narrow neck of Alaska along the edge of Canada. After the cruise Celeste, and I spent the day in Seattle and were able to take Doug and Julie along until their plane left. It was great to see new country and to get away from the heat of Houston! Enjoy the pictures.

Lily's Day

2010-04-13T23:11:00.002-05:00

Tosh and I made a quick road trip while Dave watched the kids - Celeste was in Ohio- for the blessing of our #12th and newest member to the family, Lily! It was a wonderful day and her are the not to flattering (but best I got - Jessica I am NOT!) pictures of the day. (HEY - I'm a GUY your lucky I even remembered to take the camera!!) Enjoy.

Some time with the boys

2010-04-13T22:26:00.007-05:00

I conveniently locked up my iPhone and did not have my camera to support this wonderful activity. Nevertheless, it was a great time, just asks Corbin and Hayden!

Feeding the Ducks

We started off by buying bread at the store, the ducks favorite kind, cheap. Each boy had a loaf and proudly walked it to the checkout counter where the checkout lady told them how cute they were. Once we were out of the store I was told that I could carry the bread for them. We the hopped in the car for all of 90 seconds and we were at the duck pond at which Corbin exclaimed, “Wow Pa Pa, that was really fast! (Well it was just across the street!) Oh, the joys of being a Pa Pa okay a SUPER Pa Pa. We then proceeded to feed the ducks. I have a tendency to get a little memorized by this process, plucking pieces of bread, watching all the ducks fight for the piece etc. So I look over at the boys and Hayden too is memorized by it all except he is eating all his bread. I think he at more than he fed the ducks but hey, he had a good time.

Feeding the Turtles

Ducks weren’t as hungry our plentiful as in days past but we did notice several turtles poking their head up to snatch the bread that the ducks were to slow to get to.

What was that?

Then things got a little crazy. Bread started disappearing without a turtle or duck being near. The ducks were getting spooked and occasionally one would take off running across the water for no apparent reason. As we continued to watch our bread disappear we started seeing an fish mouth with big whiskers gobble up some of the bread. You guessed it, it was catfish in the pond!

This was a great find for Corbin as he had never seen a catfish before and Hayden would have been just as excited, except he was never able to see one.

Dating ourselves. . .

2010-04-13T22:15:00.003-05:00

Okay, so this is not about what you are thinking. (Date myself???) but about dating the house by what's in it. I was told our house was "dated" because of the old hanging lights we had in it. Of course, being a man, I thought they were 1. functional 2. still "shinny" and three weren't broke! However, apparently that was not enough. They were flat out dated and hence I was flatly out VOTED! So we spent some of our hard earned tax dollars on new lights in the house. Have a look.

Moving Day!

2010-04-04T22:08:00.004-05:00

So Sat Mar 27 was moving day for Travis and Ashley from their little house to an appartment about 2 miles away. I wasn't able to stay the whole day but we did get the big stuff and the last load on the truck And as you can see below they had a lot of good help!

KayKay's Birthday Party

2010-04-04T21:49:00.007-05:00

On Friday Mar 12th, we were lucky to be able to host Kaylin's 2 birthday. We had all the local extended family and as you can see we had a great time. Enjoy the pictures.

I'm not sure what Travis is doing, but he sure has the kids attention!!

After opening her presents, she modeled some of her new wardrobe! I love my new hat!

Not every pink cowgirl has her own Pink COW to ride!

And a jacket to boot!

NOT to be out done Wyatt and his Snow White Slippers!

Leaving On Jet Plane . . . .

2010-04-04T21:37:00.004-05:00

Erica left for Provo for the MTC and then a week later her Visia came in so she left for the Brazil MTC. Yahoo! She is doing well and loves being in Brazil. Here are some parting shots of her! Enjoy!

A Day out East. . .

2010-02-11T12:35:00.008-06:00

On Wednesday we took a trip out east to see a member of the LDS church, Louise who is a native Apache 85 years old and has been a salward in the San Carlos Branch. Dad and Mom have been working on documenting her history for the Church. The taped an interview with her and now Dad is transcribing it into text. Pretty interesting. Anyway, we stopped to ask her a couple of more questions that came up during transcribing and wouldn't you know I forget to get her picture.

After our visit we headed east on I70 in search of these! (more info below!)

On our way we stopped to visit the nearly completed Gila Valley Temple and the new next door chapel.

We then drove out to and on HWY 191 to a area that was open to rock hounds. Here they allow hunting and digging of fire opals (not gem quality). Digging did not work out so well for me so we all spent our time searching for them on the surface. It was a lot of fun and we spend close to three ours looking. Anyone that knows me KNOWS I chould have spent much longer. However, we still gathered a boat load of rock to tumble as per my picture above.

On our way out from the area we hunted fire opals, we ran across this strange rock wall and decided to take a closer look by climbing up on the rocks to the right. Below is what I found.

It was a dam and was much deeper on the other side than one might suspect! The next series of pictures are each take to the right of the last one in order to show the size and lenght of this little project.

Pockets of water left from the receint rain. Channel off to the top right of picture.

On up the channel valley.

On our way home we stopped at this LDS church that we had seen earilier in the day as we were driving through.

It turned out to be the original 1953 Thatcher chapel (restored). I believe Pres. Kinball was from this area and attended this church. Almost a full block long!

Close up of the front of the chapel. Notice the unique steeple.

The River and exploring unknown roads

2010-02-10T02:47:00.006-06:00

Today we started after noon. The morning was spent with a very SLOW internet and helping Dad with his new garden. We hit the river banks first and then spent some time in Winkelman connecting with family via phone and stopping in our favorite family owned grocery shop. The rest of the afternoon was spent exploring new dirt roads and examining the rocks. An excellent day!
The Gila River with a congolmerate island in the middle of it. Lots of good rocks along it's shore.

Baby cactus's doing their best to make it in the hard rock desert environment.

River rocks ready for polishing!

Banded metamorphic rocks

The Canyon - Part 2

2010-02-10T01:40:00.013-06:00

Our hike down to the canyon and then up the canyon along the winter fed stream was a smorgasbord of geology and botany. However, being a geologist and NOT a botanist you will soon see that the pictures are not evenly split between the two! It was a great time as evidenced by the following pictures and the 15lbs of rock that I brought back with me!

Some trees will do anything to stay alive in the desert, even grow new trunks/limbs around the old ones.

Taking a break in a rock wall.

Old man climbing down from his perch.

Century plant with babies - a first for both of us!

Father on the rocks.

Multi colored rocks in water

Big rock in water, up the canyon.

Rocks under foot

Rocks under water.
(No Dr. Zeus was not with us)

I have even gotten my father into looking for fossils as proven by this picture taken as we headed back down the canyon. Looking back down half way up Tank ridge (were we parked the 4 wheeler). Yes it was steep.

Looking down from the Tank ridge to the stream bed we walked through the canyon.

Looking from the Tank ridge at the Canyon that we conquered!

A Day in the Canyon

2010-02-09T02:04:00.002-06:00

We started about 11 am hoping that the sun would warm things up a bit. However, cruising down the dirt highway the wind chill factor told us that it wasn't as warm as it looked. We drove to the Dripping Springs KOA camp and headed up the road. Several miles in we could see an old tank from a semi tracker trailer down on the edge of a ridge. That was to be our starting point.

Me at the start of our journey down to the canyon.

The largest Sorel catus in Dripping Springs. That dot in blue is ME! It has over 30 arms growing out of it.

My Dad: Trusted guide and "Machete Master". So thankful to have a father who loves the out doors.

Dad looking up canyon contemplating the journey ahead.

Annual Trek to Arizona

2010-02-07T14:09:00.010-06:00

Every Spring for the last 9 years I have made a trip out to Miami. . . Miami, Arizona that is. It’s adjoining town, Globe are the closest towns to my parents home. This year I am came a little earlier than most so that I could catch the Tucson Gem and Mineral show, which runs next week. I flew into Phx and these two lovely folks were there to meet me.

We attended a session in the Mesa Arizona Temple, which I always love. After wards we had lunch in the Temple’s cafeteria and then swing by Seth and Brittany Russell’s (my niece) place to visit their little family, as you can see by the cute pictures below.

It was fun watching Madi play in the gravel while Seth entertained us with his RC car and “floater” plane. (Sorry no pictures) It was a wonderful but short visit and it was off to Dripping Springs (22 miles out side of Globe Az), which is where my folks live 3 months of the winter to get away from the Utah Snow. More later!

A typical work day in KL?

2010-01-28T08:42:00.006-06:00

Wednesday we spent the day in meetings (in this very room). We discuss various technical parts of our production efforts in Chad. During the morning we have some of the ExxonMobil Team call in from Houston to give us their reports. This means it's anywhere from 9pm to 1 am for them. Glad I was on this end.

Meeting room in the 4th floor of the conference center.

During the evening we got together for dinner. Started at 8pm not my ideal dinning time, but I took one for the team.
Traditional Malaysia food dinner at local restaurant.

Other half of the table.

The guys talked me into gettng my picture with the dancers before the show.

The night ended with the above group of dancers who preformed TRADITIONAL Malaysia dances. It was interesting to say the least.

Chicken Fish for Dinner!

2010-01-27T00:36:00.005-06:00

Monday night we had the pleasure of reuniting with our old ExxonMobil Chad Team friend Mitch Rotter who took us downtown KL to our favorite chicken fish Restaurant, Hop Kee. Yep, it's a street Restaurant and the street is lined with places just like it-
I forgot to take a picture of our food BEFORE we devoured it. Just for your info, The chicken fish looks like a groper fish, not like a chicken at all. John, me, Mitch (our guide) and Jeff.

Up the street and

down the street. Restaurant after Restaurant all wanting you to eat their food.

John P. and Mitch on our way home from dinner.

Malay Mall - Night Life

The Petronas Twin Towers

2010-01-26T09:39:00.008-06:00

Today we spent the day with Petronas in meetings in their Twin tower. It was a clear day and we could see for miles. ExxonMobil Building at the end of the silver flatter roofed conference building.
A lot of the buildings are twined because it is much cheaper to build the second building if it's just like the first.

The Twin Towers at night. This large city Park is very cool. Lots of families come here during the weekends and evenings. Includes playgrounds and swiming pools. Notice the large road to the top left corner that deadends into the park? It leads to a six story underground parking garage that extends under the entire park. Pretty awesome!

Our hotel the Mandirian Oriental from the Petronas Twin Towers where we had our meeting on Monday. The silver roofed building above it is the Conference center where our meetings will be through the rest of the week.

Trip to Baku Caves

2010-01-24T06:21:00.009-06:00

Saturday we took a tour around town and this was the last stop. Last time I did this climb back in the 1990's there were monkeys running all over and NO giant statue at the entrance.

The stairs (all 287) of them seemed endless!

Once at the top of the stairs there is still more.

The boys at the Great room.

Center room Buda Shrine.

The Cave is more like a tunnel with open room at the end as you can see from this photo.

Direct to you from Malaysia

2010-01-24T03:48:00.006-06:00

Well, after a 3 legged flight from Houston (10, 11 and 1 hours) we made it to Kuala Lumpur Malaysia at 8 am in the morning. We took the train from the airport to the city and then from there a cab. We got settled in our rooms at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel had lunch and visited the mall accross the street.

My partners for the trip Jeff Mathews and John Pederson (who new our family in Saudi).

The following pictures are the center of HUGE mall next to our Hotel. Luckly none of us have any of our wives with us or we would be BROKE! As you can tell they are ready for valentines day!

The Petronas Twin Towers - we will have a meeting on the 72 floor on Monday with Petronas.

Pretty Cakes! & Never to Late for the Christmas Train

2010-01-19T22:41:00.006-06:00

Eric and Celeste are taking cake decorating classes and are having a great time learning and then practicing their new learned talent! Aren't they purrty!! They really did a good job. Can you guess who's is who's?

I finally got serious about the Christmas Train under the tree but unfortunately it was after most the kids left! The Red train is mine that I got when I was around 7. It's been a loyal friend every since. Anyway wanted to share it with all the kids who didn't get to see it! Happy New year!

Christmas Delight!

2009-12-28T21:53:00.004-06:00

Christmas was lots of fun with family from all over! Nic, Jen and Jack from Utah; Ashley, Travis and kids from Austin; Jessica, Mike and family from Dallas; and Tosh, Dave and boys from Atascocita! Lots of grand children, lots of joy!

Daniel and Jack with their Pa Pa

Autumn and Brooklyn in their new Christmas Dresses.

As Promised . . .

2009-12-27T18:17:00.013-06:00

Look who's back! Yep, after a year sabbatical, I'm back but not sure how consistant I will be. Time will tell! We have enjoyed keeping up with other family and friends via their Blogs and decided it's time to "get back in the saddle" by sharing a little. Hope you enjoy the pics and the family news!

Had a wonderful Thanksgiving here in Texas. My Mother and Father, son Jared and wife Emily and daughter Anne all flew in for the Holiday. Natasha, Dave and boys also came from Atascocita for Thanksgiving Day Dinner. We also enjoyed visits during the week from Jessica, Mike and their children as well as Ashley, Travis and kids. It was a wonderful time.

A Chinnse Dinner the night before Thanksgiving Dinner

Emily feeding Daniel, Jessica and Michael.

Pretty princesses enjoying play time.

Autumn, Brooklyn, Wyatt and Kaylin.

My Mom and Dad relaxing in Texas!

Weekend in Honor of Jack

2008-12-11T22:12:00.012-06:00

It was one of those in and out operative missions that you see on the spy movies. Flew in late Friday and out on Monday. Only I got to enjoy the company of children, grandchildren, parents and my sister.

Saturday was spent up at my Mom and Dad's with all who could cominig up for pizza and BYU football game. It was great to visit, get caught up with them all while rooting for the Cougars. That night was cards at Doug and Julie's. She was in Penn seeing Colby and family so it was Doug, I and the kids. We had a great time and if I recall correctly Doug had one of the extra special night where he won both games! Always a highlight of my trips to Utah.

Sunday was the blessing which was awesome and needless to say Nick did us all proud. Jen and Nic had us all over to their place for Chili Sunday after church for Chili and cornbread. NUMMY!

Monday morning my folks and I spent some time with Shaunda, had some lunch with her and then off to Airport. Here are some pictures of the trip. Enjoy!

It was an extra treat to get to see these two sweeties! Erica and Thuy joined us on Saturday for the BYU football Game and Pizza.
The Dobson Family with one very proud Grandpa after Jack Gordon Dobsons blessing.

Emily and Jared with the "next" grandchild on the way!
The Jolleys and the Dobsons after the blessing

I love it whcn a child laughs . . . BIG or SMALL!

There is nothing and I mean nothing like a sleeping baby, especially when they are in your arms.

Autumn really got into building with tinker toys with me while her mom and I talked. Needless to say it was a pretty special time for all three of us.

Brooklyn was very interested in the little person that G-Grandpa Dobson had in his hand.

Halloween with Spiderman and Transformer!

2008-12-11T22:01:00.005-06:00

Hayden (aka:Spiderman) and Corbin (aka: Transformer) invited us to their Halloween party at church. It was pretty awesome. We got to watch them parade around the room while everyone tried to get pictures then it was out to the parking lot for the "trunk or Treat" out tof the back ends of vehicles. I got to walk Tranformer around because his Dad and Hayden were just a little to slow for him. After the second lap his bag was pretty full. Mom and Celeste managed the Curfiss Trunk by giving out lots of candy.

We even got to pose with our favorite Spiderman and Transformer! We had a great time.

Grandkids - Grandkids! We love our Grandkids!

2008-10-29T21:43:00.001-05:00

Had a great visit with the Grandkids this past Saturday (all except Mr. Hayden :( ). It was a lot of fun as you will see below! Enjoy.

Grandpa and his Grand boys. . .

Ashley and her little girl. . .

Corbin and Wyatt having a good time, cousin to cousin!

The Great Race!

Kailyn was a HOOT! What a pretty little girl!

Travis may of not wanted a girl, but this picture proves he is singing another song now!!

Let's play catch!!

Ashely tried to get the boys to play ball with her. She has a lot of patience!

Some Things Never Die. . .

2008-10-29T21:34:00.000-05:00

It didn't take long after Ike for the our friendly fungi to pop back up. Just look at these babies!

After the Storm. . .

2008-10-29T21:25:00.000-05:00

Two Days after Ike, Lance broke his left leg. After several ordeals in the hospital he is home and getting better. This picture is is first time out of the hospital and shows his new "Dinning room" bedroom!

A Cruise To NOWHERE!

2008-09-10T21:43:00.000-05:00

Well as you might have heard our cruise to Mexico got cut short by Gustav. So instead of leaving Monday, we left on Wednesday and instead of going to Mexico, we went No Where! Really, we just cruised around the middle of the Gulf of Mexico for a couple of days and then headed back to Galveston. We didn't even have go through U.S. Customs, cause you guessed it, we never even got off the ship! All in all we had a great time and it was perfect for Celeste to test her sea legs and get a feel for the Cruise ship environment.

We were about 2 hours late getting off, but hey there wasn't any hurry because we were going "no where"!

Each evening after dinner we would come back to our room and find new towel aninmal. When Celeste saw this I she could not stop laughing. It really caught her off guard.

First there was this walrus (not me! the white thing with sun glasses!)

And then an Elephant

And a puppy!

"The Mall" was a pretty sight at night. It was easy to forget you were on a ship!

Midnight buffet with the ice carvings

I was able to get these shots before the crowd came in.

We had some great people at our table as this final dinner shot shows. We even made some special friends, Greg and Patrica Roberts from Kingwood!(left side nearest window)

What a great time!

Grandpa D's Yard!

2008-08-28T18:23:00.000-05:00

Look what I found in our yard!!!

A Friday w/Grandkids!

2008-08-24T20:48:00.000-05:00

Got a visit from Tosh, Hayden, Corbin, Ashley, Wyatt and Kailyn Grace Ashley Clover. We had great time with blocks. . . .

Playing with the race track, ...

and taking turns giving. . .

... Baby Kailyn a ride!

ONE . . . .

. . . . TWO . . .

. . . THREE little Grand children!!!

Tosh and Hayden enjoying a tender moment with a basketball. . .

"Look Grandpa, it's a big Brown truck!"

Two cousins sharing a "big Brown truck" moment before they leave.

Daniel Michael Speed's Blessing Day

2008-08-18T19:36:00.000-05:00

Daniel sleeping before going to church and recieving his beautiful blessing by his Dad, Michael Speed.

Although blurred, you can still see the beauty of all these girls! Getting ready to go to church for Daniels blessing. Needless to say it was a wonderful day.

Austin-Sarah Walks Wedding

2008-08-18T19:15:00.000-05:00

What a wonderful day for a White Wedding! The Cerimony was a beautiful as the the Bride!

Sarah and Austin coming out fo the San Diego Temple.

Matty pre wedding
Matty all dressed up with Sarah.

This is Sarah's Sister, Jessica and her Mom, Kathy. Good looks just run in this family.

Guests at the Wedding:
Cory and Seth
My Dad and Drew
Stacy Walk
My Mom, Tami, Dirk, Stacy
Cody and Stacy

July Trip to Utah - AUTUMNS BIRTHDAY

2008-08-14T21:49:00.000-05:00

Birthday Girl at Brick Oven Pizza party!

Girls having a ride on their favorite Donkey Dobson!What a fun time we had visiting the girls on Autums Birthday. As you can see, this was pre Daniel coming into the world.

West Texas Travels

2008-07-04T14:49:00.000-05:00

Last Friday morning after taking care of Smokey (Lance’s dog; Lance and his father Ron were in Utah visiting cousins and extended family – not to mention Erica his “24-7” BYU collegein’ sister!), Celeste and I headed out to explore more of Texas via back roads, little towns, 2nd hand shops and garage sales. We had not done this for almost a year. We actually had to write it in our scheduler to make sure it happened. Oh what busy lives we choose to lead! Anyway, our trip last year we went east so this trip we went west (Go west Youngman, go West – I digress) which took us on a nice hilly road through the Sam Houston National Forest (Nice for the ride but not so good for the 2nd hand shops). By the end of our first day, we hit the towns of Plantersville, Navasota and ended up in Brenham for the night. In Brenham we visited the Texas famous (if not world famous) Blue Bell Ice Cream Factory. It was a fun stop but we were very disappointed to find that they do not give out free samples of ice cream anymore! Later in Brenham, we found that Friday nights bring on expensive hotel prices ($130+ for one night even in a Days Inn!!!). I believe the fact that they were having a town reunion didn’t help the matter. We elected to stay at the Ant Street Inn which has been rebirthed as a premier historic inn. The Ant Street Inn combines the finest in deep south hospitality, warmth, and elegance with the conveniences and personal service of a first class hotel. It has fifteen guest rooms, having been painstakingly restored by artisans to retain their original flavor while offering the best in modern comfort and convenience have private bathrooms, twelve foot ceilings, polished hardwood floors with Oriental rugs, cable televisions, telephones, and individual climate control. Needless to say it was very nice. After our breakfast we went out to some of the local shops that we did not get to the night before. I found that I enjoyed looking more so than Celeste. Luckily she brought some books to read and once she was done she would go to the car, turn on the cool air and read her book. Lucky for me she was very content to do this which allowed me to look to my hearts content. We then took our time heading back home complete with a stop to get some food for the house. Our treasures from the weekend included 2 old trunks, a serving platter, old silver plated salt and pepper shakers, little silver plated jam bowl, hot wheels car case, 2 old bottles, 3 onyx eggs from Pakistan and a blue and white vase.

Goodies from West Texas

2008-07-04T14:36:00.000-05:00

Sunday Reflections. . .

2008-06-22T22:30:00.000-05:00

Sundays are always a special day for me, busy but special and this one was no exception. One of my favorite things about Sunday is the subtle little messages that our Savior gives to us as I attend meeting, listen to lessons or teach them, talk to other, listen to others or even just meditate. I have a Gospel journal given to me by my mother in law, that fits perfectly with my scriptures and allows me to take notes, write down thoughts or impressions as I go through my Sunday. I'd like to share my impressions from today

1) The Lord wants us to prosper in this life, not to get ahead of our neighbors but so that we can care for ourselves, our families, give to the poor and help those in need. Note that by prospering, He does not mean gathering a lot of material things that complicate our lives, that we can't take with us and that keep us from doing the really important things of this life. Because having a lot of those "things" can make us vain and prideful. The key to this journey is to stay focused on Him throughout the "obtaining prosperity" process.

2) This life is the pivoting point of the rest of our existence and the time is so short compared to the eternities that we have ahead of us. That is so hard for me to remember during my day to day rat race but easier to understand when I look at how fast my years are screaming by. I so want to keep my eye focused on the REAL goal of this "second estate". The trick I believe is again to stay focused on Him.

God is good - God is great and I thank Him for all my blessings in life. . .

Days gone by. . .

2008-06-19T05:14:00.000-05:00

Just wanted to remind my oldest one that life HAS BEEN and IS great! Nothing like a few pictures from the past to remind us of how blessed our lives have been. God has truly been good to us!

Each day is the beginning of the rest of our lives. How I cherish that thought and the ability to start over and do better.

Fathers Day

2008-06-17T22:26:00.000-05:00

Thanks to wonderful family I had a great Fathers Day. Fewer meetings and lots of love from children and family members.
BBQ Steak and potatoe dinner to boot!
I am a blessed man.

More to come, for . . .
This is only the beginning. . .