Back to the TX Vacation

I don't think I finished telling you all about our TX trip.

One of the funnest things we did the whole time we were there was going to a farm near Proctor, TX, to pick black-eyed peas and blackberries. My dad took us early, early one morning (we left my mom's about 6!) and we had a great time. Pickin' peas is no easy task. I mean, you know which ones to pick, but if I had to do it for more than a hour or so, it would break my back. Then we moved onto the blackberries. Um, I didn't know the bushes had thorns! Yes, I got stuck a couple of times. We ended up with about 10 lbs. of peas and about a pound of blackberries.

Then we went to my dad's Proctor house and sat outside, shelling peas. I really should say "shellin'" because heaven knows we don't pronounce the "g!" We went to my dad's house because he needed to water his tomatoes. He no longer started the water on them, then it started to rain. Davis had a ball putting his head under where the water was running off the roof, soaking his head and his shirt! I have to tell you what a great time I had, sitting under the shelter, shellin' peas while the rain came down and a breeze blew. Shellin' peas will always remind me of being at my grandparents, where we would shell peas in the afternoon, in front of Rangers game on the TV. Ah, memories.

That day, we had a great lunch. Dad made peas, fried okra, ham, and we have fresh tomatoes. Yum!

Later on that same day, we went to Granbury with my mom to eat The Jalapeno Tree. Grace and Davis were dressed in their S'ville finery, to make up for the T-ball game where we cheered on Braden and his team. The kids both fell asleep on the way. I attributed it to being up so early. Notice the drool mark on Davis' shirt.




Then we took off for College Station. When we were there, we visited my sister, Angie, and our friends, Amber, Brian, and Kyle McCall. Angie is the college girl, getting ready to get her Senior Ring at A&M, which is AWESOME!! She has worked hard at school and, at that time, was working at her apartment complex and taking a class. We shared a few meals with her, but didn't spend the night at her place. The girl has a social life!

Our time with the McCalls was really nice. Grace and Davis played with Kyle just like always. Davis used to call Kyle "Kyles" but I noticed while we were there, he doesn't do that so much anymore, so I better stop, too! We had a couple of pitchers of margaritas (Angie was there, too) and Papa Murphy's the first night. It was so nice to spend time with people that we share a long, sometimes parallel, history with. Some of you know that we were in Germany at the same time the McCalls were and, while we were friendly, the guys weren't in the same unit so we didn't do a lot of things together. Fast forward to Fort Riley, where Brian and Jasen were some of the first soldiers in 4IBCT and we were connected. We now consider them dear friends.

Anyway, it was great to catch up with them, see Angie, and visit Aggieland, too! We got some great pictures while we were there. I'll post them soon!