Texas Swing

We only feed our kids the best... powdered doughnuts from the gas station/casino somewhere on hwy 69 in Oklahoma. Still waiting for that sugar crash to induce some much needed sleep. Seems as though sugar is just inducing silliness.

Miles and miles to go…..

Today we are traveling home after several days in Texas. I’m thankful for caffeine pills. (You know you’re a bit tired when you need 200 mg caffeine at 8:15 on a Sunday morning.) Oklahoma roads are mind-numbing. Also thankful for iPods, earbuds and DVD players. The boys are currently watching Star Wars Episode II. Bobby just informed me that, “Episode IV then I are my favorite but not Episode III-- it’s not very good.”

We arrived in Denton last Friday after a long 12 hour drive from St. Louis to Denton. The Shanks let us stay with them the first couple of nights. Thanks guys! Payton and Gini Lu were fun to watch playing together.

We got to have lunch on Sunday with the Shanks and Squiers after a busy Saturday. Joseph took the kids and shot rockets with Gene, Hailey and Frank on Saturday. They had a great time.

Uncle Gene, Ian and Bobby

Gini Lu, Grandpa Frank and Hailey

Joseph spent the week in Nashville but we still got to see both our families. I (Suz) saw lots of friends at the conference on Saturday, then we saw many more at the baby shower on Saturday night and again at church on Sunday. We felt so blessed to see our friends and family again. Makes us miss Texas, but we know we are right smack where we belong! (But, we do really enjoy MO!)

On Friday we celebrated Joseph’s mom’s birthday. It was a great 50’s theme party. Happy Birthday! (I had so much fun I failed to take a single picture! I'll try to get some from Casie to put here.)

The next day Joseph, Evan Jr. and Evan Sr. finished assembling a swing called a Giant Stride. We’ve tried to find pictures of this online and there’s nothing quite like it. My (Suz’s) dad had one growing up and wanted to make one for the grandkids. (But, really I think he wanted to swing on one again.) It’s 13 feet high and has five chains coming out of the top. Attached to the end of each chain is a handle. Basically you grab on, run and tuck. I have to admit, I look pretty dorky running in a circle and my tuck isn’t so good after three kids. Kids can pull this stuff off so much more gracefully than an adult. But, it was great fun and it’s a fantastic oblique workout! Can’t wait to ride the Giant Stride again. From Ian and my perspective, we were close to crashing into one another. Bobby falls off pretty quickly in this clip, but both Ian and Bobby could hang on all day. It was a great time for all of us.

Looking forward to getting back home. School is in session and I’m sure we’ll be back in a routine in no time.