Graduation Day! for Patrick

Yesterday, our younger son, Patrick, graduated from Texas Wesleyan University.  It has been a long road for him (and for us,too) but, we are so very proud of him and all that he has accomplished while going to college and managing the college loan money the way he did.  Interesting fact about his graduation:  He was one of two graduating seniors who majored in Religion and the other student just happens to be his girlfriend, Melissa.  Here they are together after the ceremony yesterday evening.  The next picture is of me, Jim, Patrick, Mom, and James.

Believe it or not, 40 year class reunion!!!

I'm working slowly but surely to put together some "memorabilia" for our class reunion this weekend. I'll share a little of it now: Above is a pencil/pen drawing made by our 6th grade art teacher of the school where we were for 6 or 7 years (depending on whether or not you went to Kindergarten) This picture drew some attention from a former student of mine who now drives by the building in Fort Worth on his way to work each day. He stirred up some interest in the year that it was first built. I went to Meadowbrook Elementary from 1958 to 1964.

This is just one example...more later...

Old is being brought down for the New

I found this on my facebook page tonight. It makes me feel old because that was a NEW building whenever I lived down there on campus during my 4 years of college!
Just thought I 'd pass on the video...

Celebrating with Lynda & Cole

We ate at Dunraven's to celebrate Lynda and Cole's 34th wedding anniversary. Happy anniversary to them both! (on June 8)

On Tuesday, we rode the aerial tramway and spent most of the morning atop the mountain where it was. I waited while everyone else trekked to the top of the mountain. Jim and Lynda somehow got lost and had to do a lot of backtracking--not an easy task at that altitude!

Here We Are in Denver...

We arrived here at Estes Park last night, June 6, 2009. We went to Kaily 's (our niece) graduation party for about 45 minutes yesterday afternoon. That was in Denver which is where we flew in to at about noon. After having to wait almost an hour for our "reserved" rental mini-van, we drove first to downtown to the Capitol Hill People's Fair. It was mostly just different kinds of foods and various arts and crafts. That is what all of the pictures are from.

Pictures from the Vatican

First Port of Call - Rome, Italy

Rome was the first stop on our Mediterranean Cruise. We joined a group of 4 other couples for a private tour of Rome. The driver acted as our guide except for the times that he could not enter the different places but had to remain with the car. We rode in a mini-van: Peter and Charlene, Bill and Allie, Mark and Debbie, James and Martha, and Jim and I. The ruins of the Coliseum was the first big stop and at that moment there was a loud crash of thunder. From inside the coliseum the thunder reverberated and the building acted as a megaphone magnifying the thunder. During the time that we were there a heavy rainstorm caused us to need the umbrellas that we brought. We had about 30-45 minutes to walk around inside the ruins and take pictures.



After the Pantheon and the Trevey Fountain, our driver, Gilberto, took us to a typical family restaurant for lunch. We skipped the octopus and a few of the other odd looking dishes but we did enjoy most of the others that the owner/operator had on display. All in all it was very good!

The afternoon was spent touring The Vatican with our own guide who communicated with us via a headset that each of us wore and the microphone that she wore. Without her we would have been lost. But as it was we had a very good afternoon. A treasure of the world, The Vatican houses many statues, paintings, tapestries, and mosaics. The barrel-shaped ceilings of the exhibit halls is absolutely awe-inspiring and I was very glad that we had such a great guide for the tour.