Fourth of July weekend

Kathy, Aaron, Jake and Andrew came down to visit over Fourth of July weekend. We had a great time with Jake and Andrew, who in turn had fun swimming in the pool and playing with Amadeus.

If you look closely, Andrew has an intimidating dolphin-gun in his hand. He's staring you down, if you can't tell. And no, he doesn't have time to pull his swim-trunks up.


Aaron trying to give Andrew a bird's eye view of the pool.


Rob, Kathy, and Ann chilling at the more behaved end.


Jake kept trying to get me to do a flip off of the diving board, and I kept saying no. So we settled on doing a pencil instead.


Jake executing beautiful form before he completes his flip.


Of course, the boys had to have some time with Amadeus, who was only too happy to run and fetch whatever it was they were throwing.


And here's a little video of the pup in action!

Jake's trip

Well, better late than never! Here are a few pictures of Jake's trip down here in early June. We tried to show him all the best of Texas, from blistering hot days to fly fishing to family reunions where you don't know anybody. All in all, though, I think he might have had a decent time!

Here he's not actually scowling, but squinting. It was very bright. And little does he know he still has almost five hours to go in the car.


Thank goodness he had a traveling companion/fuzzy pillow.


The day after we got there, John and Mills gave Jake the grand tour of Texas A&M University. Sorry, Dana, he's already signed up to be in the ROTC program.


And, of course, the one thing the boy wanted to see in Texas was 3 1/2 hours away from us. So we loaded up in the car and drove all the way to San Antonio to see the Alamo. 'Twas a good trip, despite the distance!


While there, we had the obligatory Mexican meal, which we all enjoyed (though Jake doesn't look it).


Next up: fishing. We took Amadeus along so yours truly could get some training in.


And though Jake already knew how to fly-fish, Tom graciously provided additional lessons.




Then on to the Bing family reunion, set in historic Oakwood, TX--a town to which time has not been kind. Anybody feeling multi-cultural?


The one business still open in Oakwood is the bank. John and Mills tell me that it has been closed on family reunion weekends in the past. Why? In honor of Jefferson Davis's birthday.


That closes our trip! Thanks for coming to visit us, Jake. Amadeus misses you!