After looking forward to our trip to Texas and our soon to be born Grandson Benjamin Paul Talley, we got in the car and headed south ... but first, we walked the yard, and I noticed that my flowering almond bush is in full bloom. I planted the thing four years ago, and I can't believe how small it still is. I'm sorry to miss its bloom, as I planted it,because my mother had one, and I have always loved them.
We drove to Albuquerque the first night, stopping in Farmington for lunch. I googled salad bars in various towns along the way, and even called one restaurant to see what they had on the salad bar. Dad said I was over thinking things, but after we ate at Porter's (Because someone had left a comment that they had an amazing salad bar) Dad said, "That was so smart, we'd have never found this place without checking ahead." Yeah, that!
We loved this picture of Van that Spencer posted that day. We love the connection we feel sharing on line. They said he loves rice. How cute.
On Tuesday we drove from Albuquerque to Pottsboro, stopping for lunch in Amarillo. We'd have never found this restaurant. We drove up to the address, and saw this ... we got out of the car and looked around, baffled. Then Dad noticed an easel bearing a sign for the restaurant, Pan Handlers, inside the lobby. We think it was originally the lunch room for the office building above the bank, and yes, another great salad buffet, with amazing Hungarian mushroom soup, and I've already googled vegan versions. Yum.
We got to Emily's house around 7:00, and after tucking most of the munchkins in bed ...
We hauled in the 'Shower in a box' and had fun with that. Dad did a Family Marco Polo of the big reveal, if you want to check it out.
The pop up function was so fun, that that they got Miss Wiggles up, as she was clearly still awake.
Emily was so surprised and so tickled! Here's a small part of her gift from Hannah.
Emily and Sam were both in love with this Animal Alphabet book, made up of unusual animals, from Brittney and Spencer.
Thanks for all the lovely gifts, she really felt your love. Brittney came up with the idea, but everyone really supported her, and it was lovely.
Dad woke up the next morning to lots of loving.
We walked the kids to school, and I was able to add a half a mile to my steps.
Back at home Emily worked on doing some translations ...
Baby Ben was very active and she let her Dad get his hand kicked.
When Emily saw my outfit, she said, 'Hey, I have one just like that' ... so here we are.
When the kids were at school, Abbie got all the snuggles.
The shower box provided entertainment for the kids all week.
It had been raining like mad all week, so we went down to the damn on lake Texoma, hoping they would have opened the spill way. Not great gushes of water, but the kids had fun collecting rocks.
We stopped at Aldi's, a German discount grocery store, that is very much like Lidl's were we shopped in Finland, also a German discount grocery store.
We had more rain that night, the worst Emily and Sam have seen since moving into this house. We were planning to go to First Monday Trade days the next day, and were concerned about the forecast.
We came in and the kids opened their gifts, that I had brought to assuage the gift envy they might be suffering seeing all the presents their baby brother was receiving. William's gift was a set of assemble yourself robots. Emily said it was the perfect gift for him. The girls got books and videos.
On Thursday, we took off for Trade Days, and Emily and Abbie had Doctor appointments. Abbie had a bead, that her Stake President, the doctor, removed from her ear. ... the funny thing is that his wife had given Emily a maternity dress, and the bead turned out to be one that had come off the dress. So the bead went very nearly full circle.
It showered on us a bit for the first hour of our 6 hour walk around the market ...
I loved this booth and started following the owner on Instagram.
How fun is this little set of drawers.
I laughed when I saw this door, Dad and I think its identical to the one we put in the family room, that is green and white.
We left a half hour before the sale closed for the day ... Dad was a trooper to carry this fun book case to the car ...
Back at the house again, Bekie shows off her Carmen Miranda look.
Bekie also made us matching bracelets.
All ready for school on Friday, and Dad took some cute pics of the cuteness.
While the kids were at school, another Mom from the school, brought by some ground beef Emily had ordered from a cow about whom the lady'd said "If you break out of my pasture, I'll put you in my freezer" Anyway, I'd never heard of these 'oreo' cows, and we later saw some in a pasture. How cool is that?
We also went to pick up the kids from school on Friday ....
William's upsidedown face.
Abbie was chasing butterflies.
Then we headed back to the lake, where the kids played and gathered rocks for an hour or so, before ...
going to meet one of Bekie's friends and her mom at a park.
I loved the old bridge ...
What a bunch of monkeys.
How cute is this face!!
and this one too...
That night there was lots of snuggle time with the 'snuggle bums', as their mom calls them.
Here is Sam working on the back porch of their new house where we hung out on Saturday.
Dad put in a few screws as well.
While Dad and Sam worked on the back porch, Emily and I and the kids, along with Sam's mother walked down to the town cemetery. I have always loved lamb markers, how sweet is this. I regret not taking a picture of the first civil war marker I have ever seen ... but alas
There was this cute tie dyed lamb of whom I got pictures.
As usual I brought up the rear on the walk back.
Here's Abbie at the back door of the house.
When we got back Sheila put on some videos for the kids and fed us a lovely lunch.
We also celebrated Spencer and Brittney's 6th wedding anniversary that day.
On Sunday morning Emily painted the girls toenails before church...
Here's Dad at church, leaning against a tweed wall in his tweed sports coat!!
The kids love these magnetic building sections. Abbie built this herself.
After church Dad and I worked on our Come Follow Me, intermittently, as we also watched the kids do free style paper crafting, and watching The Ten Commandments.
That night Abbie begged to get to sleep in the baby shower box ... boy oh boy has that box been fun.
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