Early in the morning after our anniversary, the woman who caused the stir the day before was found, so David had to go into work even though it was a Saturday morning. He let all of the media outlets know he'd be available until noon, but of course some of them were still looking for a bite once he'd left the office. We had other things to do that day, so when one station wanted an interview, he said they'd have to come to him, and we were having lunch on our way to a party.

The kids were very interested in Daddy being interviewed. I could hardly keep them back during his sound bite.

Thankfully I didn't have to keep them in the hot parking lot for long.

My friend Stacy brought her kids back to Texas so Steven and Lance could go to football camp at A&M (much to the chagrin of their grandparents) and Abby could go to soccer camp in San Marcos. The crazy thing is she also brought Steve's whole football team with them to go to camp! Several of these kids (from North Pole High School) had never been out of Alaska and many had never seen an outdoor swimming pool.
We arrived mid-afternoon at her family's friend's house in Lewisville for swimming and a cookout. We were "greeted" by a gruff, scary-sounding and -looking dog when we got near the gate of the backyard, but this dog was all bark. Reminds me of a certain chow-chow, my dog Sampson.




I don't know how I got a smiling picture of Abby--she hid from me most of the time she saw me with her camera. Abby is almost exactly 2 years older than Carmen; she used to pass down her clothes to her before they moved to Alaska (and now she wears snowsuits... not very useful here).

Paloma and Stacy had no problem picking up right where they'd left off.
But she didn't want to swim at first; she had fallen asleep in the car and had trouble waking up. She stayed in her clothes until after we watched the Kentucky Derby to see if Big Brown would be a Triple Crown winner.


OK, Charis, thanks to your blog I now know what game this is they're playing--cornhole? And I know you want this one for your own yard. Yes, I have other teasipping friends! (:
This is Lance, Stacy's middle child, who I can't believe is now a teenager! Yikes!


This is Steven, my little ringbearer??
My kids were a little scared of the horseplay; truth be told, they scared me a little, too.

They'd all start circling the pool and making the water into a whirlpool.
So I was happy to see Gabe practicing his swimming in the jacuzzi--just the size he likes.
You could get a sunburn from the natural light streaming into this house!
Poor Gabe took his new water guns to the party, but before long they were in the possession of 200+ lb football players.
A little later, Gabe got help getting his guns back from Stacy's sister-in-law Angel.
Around this time the other girls at the party must've been talking about popular tween shows that Carmen wasn't familiar with, because she told them something like, "We only watch Barney at my house." Good grief, that is not true. I cannot stand Barney. But she was exaggerating. I've heard that a household is equipped for the age of its oldest child, but ours is more like the average age of our children, I think. We're working on it, but I still can't believe she is about to be 8.
This is the girlfriend of the owner of the lovely house that was such a perfect place for a party.
Someone offered to take a picture of Stacy & me as we were leaving. Eva didn't appreciate it, but I am happy to have the photo--we don't have many of these to show for our 18?! years of friendship!
Stace, I'm so glad we got to see you all. We miss you, but it was so fun to catch up. Please tell your parents and friends thanks for the delightful party!
One pile o' kids--Paloma was completely tuckered out after our long day. I wanted a picture of her with Eva in their matching outfits, but she was just too tired to cooperate. The next thing I knew, the big kids were piling on, so I went ahead and snapped this shot.