Happy (Belated) Mother's Day!

I had a nice Mother's Day on Sunday. The kids humored me with a picture together before church.

After church we went to the Olive Garden, which has become a tasty Mother's Day tradition. It was nice to spend time together for a little while.

We also went to the garden center to buy flowers, along with most every other mother in a 50 mile radius. That's all part of the experience. I got a few flowers that I wanted, and the kids each picked me out a hanging basket. They both picked baskets of pansies this year, and they're so pretty. Every time I look out and see them on my patio, they make me feel happy. Pansies are a happy flower. :) I also got cards from the kids, but this year, Ron gave the kids some cash and told Tyler to drive him and his sister to the store. I won't lie, that's pretty convenient. Danielle also made me a card.

Tyler also straightened up a little for me. This kid knows the real way to a mother's heart.

It was a good day together.

Prom

Tyler went to prom last Saturday. The girl who asked him is a junior, so he was able to go even though he's a sophomore. Prom was held at a nearby restaurant, which I thought was nice. The tickets included dinner before hand. I like that they didn't have to drive multiple places or worry about reservations, etc. Caitlin is the catcher for the varsity softball team. She and Tyler are in the same honors chemistry class, but we knew her through softball first. It was a little odd to see her in a dress as opposed to softball pants and eye black, but she looked very pretty. Tyler had a really nice time.



This was her official "promposal". Seems so complicated now, but she did a nice job keeping it low key.

(Danielle took this one)

(And this one)

It was deceptively chilly!!

(Danielle also took this one. It's my favorite.)

Our SB Vacation

Our fight home from San Antonio left really early on Saturday morning, so we planned to leave our house a day early and stay overnight in San Antonio Friday evening. Before we all headed out, Ron and Tyler toured the USS Lexington in Corpus Christi. It has a very interesting history. The boys said the veteran on the museum really enjoyed sharing his stories with them.

This is what Danielle and I did while the boys were touring the aircraft carrier.

When the boys were done, they came back to get us and we headed out to San Antonio. We planned to visit Choke Canyon State Park on the way there and then to have dinner along the Riverwalk area in San Antonio that evening. We ended up staying too long at the park, though, and had to make other arrangements for dinner. It was worth it. The park was so different from the area where we stayed. We were all glad we got to see that "side" of Texas, too. Danielle and I walked a couple of the trails while Tyler and Ron fished in the lake.

Scissortailed flycatcher

 

Golden fronted woodpecker

Harris's hawk

Danielle and I found a ton of wild pig and javelina footprints on the trails, but we didn't see any. There were also a lot of huge fire ant mounds, full of busy fire ants.

 

Tyler caught more bass than Ron did and he made sure to point that out.

 

We had such a great week. Texas is a huge state with so much to see and do, and it's all spread out. I would love to go back and visit some of the areas we just couldn't get to on this trip. None of us can pinpoint a favorite on this trip - it was all such a nice, relaxing time visiting a new area, which was exactly what we were hoping for.

The Wildlife Refuge

After our fishing trip and some lunch, we drove to the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge. It wasn't a far drive, but the Texas scenery was interesting. Everything is so flat! The park itself was practically empty. We stopped at the visitor's station to pay the entrance fee and see what information they could offer about the park. They were not collecting fees, but the lady working in the office was extremely friendly and helpful.

We enjoyed our time exploring the park! We found several alligators, some still with their stripes. We saw lots of birds, including a family of whooping cranes way off in the distance. We didn't see any snakes, but we did see some lizards and a tree frog. We also saw some wild pigs, deer, and an armadillo. Danielle and Ron saw a javelina. Tyler and I think we saw a coyote. We're not sure what else it could have been, but it didn't look like the coyote in our area. There were lots of wildflowers, but they were everywhere in Texas, not just in the park.

American coot and a pied billed grebe

American green tree frog

 

Little blue heron

Least grebe

Green anole

Danielle and I would have liked to go back to the refuge at a different time of day to take the auto tour again, but we just didn't have enough days to fit everything in. We enjoyed our afternoon here!

Our SB Vacation

We took a "deep sea" fishing trip through Dolphin Dock in Port Aransas one morning. I wouldn't really consider it "deep sea", but it certainly went much further out than we could reach on our own. Their building was wiped out by Harvey, so they were operating from a trailer while their new building was being rebuilt.

The four of us outfished everyone on the boat. Ron caught the most with 22. We mostly caught gafftopsail catfish. We didn't want to keep that many fish, so they put some of ours on other people's stringers. We still ended up with way more than everyone else. We caught a lot of fish that weren't keepers, too.

Our stringer is the one in the middle, the biggest one.

The lady beside me kept getting her line caught on everyone around her, including me, so that was a little annoying. Other than that, it was a really fun trip. The weather was decent, the fish kept biting, there were a lot of dolphins to watch, and the crew was helpful and friendly.

Breakfast Stalker