Sunday, August 14 –
The ladies at the Matador Church met Sunday afternoon to honor the upcoming birth of Courtney and Cim’s baby. Lots of gifts, lots of visiting and lots of refreshments were enjoyed by all. Family and friends from Matador, Turkey, Floydada, Afton, Roaring Springs and Northfield were present.
Everyone’s getting excited about Cim and Courtney’s little package that’s soon to arrive. The baby shower was held in Lubbock. The theme was, “pink or blue? we wish we knew”. She got lots of cute items and the refreshments were very yummy.
Courtney with hostesses, Andrea Shannon, Abby Phipps, and Sunny Tidwell.
The pressing question: guests were asked to choose which sex they predicted the baby would be and write their name on the appropriately colored paper outfit. The outcome was 9 girls to 8 boys, so it was pretty close.
Saturday, July 16 –
On the way home from our trip to Tennessee, we stopped in Oklahoma and spent the afternoon in the Washita Mountain Reserve. We really enjoyed seeing some buffalo up close. We stopped for a while by the side of the road and filmed a couple of bulls building up to a little skirmish. The weather was so beautiful, we decided to take a little hike, too.
Friday afternoon, July 8, 2016. This blustery little storm rolled in and dropped some rain. Hey, we’ll take it however we can get it. Watch full screen with the volume up for best effect.
Saturday, June 25 –
After a hot afternoon riding horses, nobody wanted anything too heavy for supper. Biscuits and eggs really hit the spot. Especially when teamed with fresh sorghum and Mennonite-made raspberry jelly from Tennessee.
Saturday, June 25 –
Nathan and the kids spent some time in the arena today riding horses. They had a lot of fun.
Stockton practiced dragging a heavy piece of wood around to get his horse used to the idea.
Sunday, June 5 –
This is the kids having a blast in the river on Sunday afternoon when the Tidwells and Renkens came for a visit. The weather was perfect and the recent rains put some water in the Pease river on the northwestern border of the ranch.
The Renkens are from Germany. Rudy came to study at the Sunset International Bible Institute in Lubbock. We’re so glad that we’ve gotten to know them.
Cim and Courtney came out, too.
Tuesday, May 31 –
After a few storms this weekend, we’re in good shape as far as moisture goes for the upcoming hot months of summer. However, we’re hoping to get even more rain. These clouds hold a lot of promise for the evening and the forecast is for 80% chance of rain all day tomorrow.
Thursday, May 26 –
Atlanta and Jordan took us to a new place on Cane Creek to swim.
Jordan saw a little turtle swim to the top for air. Stockton was able to dive and find it.
I stayed dry on the bank except for that moment when I slipped on the slippery rocks (with Alan in my arms) and completely fell on my back. No one was hurt, but Alan basically got dunked in freezing water. He was not happy about it at all. Later, after he played in the sand and puddles, Atlanta had to all but dunk him again to get him clean. Hopefully, he’ll forget his bad experiences at the creek moving forward…
Here’s a video I put together with these pictures and a little footage I took with my phone:
Tuesday, May 24 –
While on our trip to Tennessee, we took a day trip to Memphis to visit the zoo. We were impressed with the size and style of the zoo and the exhibits. It was so special to be with Marian and Alan as they saw many new animals in person for the first time.
I think we all agreed that Alan’s favorite animal was the elephant. Marian says she likes these wolves the most. Atlanta has been reading to her out of the Little House on the Prairie books and she’s keen on wolves right now. (In solidarity with little Laura Ingals and her special fears) After the zoo, we were very hot and tired so we found a place downtown to get something cool and refreshing.
When I say downtown, I mean downtown. It was the famous Beale Street that so many jazz and blues music stars made famous (including Elvis). Live music was already blaring out of several interesting looking establishments, but we stayed away from the clubs and finally found our intended destination, an old department store called, A. Schwabs, that had been operating since 1876. It had an old-fashioned soda fountain, lots of souvenirs and gifts, and other interesting things. They were just moving out a lot of ladders and lights and cameras as we arrived hot and tired. Apparently, they had just shot some kind of movie or TV show there that day. They told us that the store was open EXCEPT for the soda fountain due to the filming. I think they must have noticed all our faces falling in unison, because they quickly changed their minds and opened it all back up for us. Thank you, A. Schwabs!
If you’re wondering if the kids liked their treats, watch this video:
Stockton, Carolina and Marian stayed busy doing laundry with Atlanta’s hand washer and hanging the clothes out on the line. They got quite good at it and made it fun.
Marian even has her own clothes line.
