2009 Cactus Flowers

Every spring we receive the blessing of the most beautiful cactus flowers in our backyard.....we would like to share.

April 2009 Visit to McKinney Texas - Baseball + Soccer + Beer

First thing we did was wait too long to book flights......ended up driving (not a bad thing because you can stop at Woody's Smokehouse in Centerville for beef jerky).

Then we found out that Andrea was not going to be there all weekend....something about a free trip to Miami.

Well it didn't matter because our draw was Chase's baseball game, Gabe's soccer game, and our early birthday gift for Shane.

We went, we got jerky, we saw baseball and soccer, and we celebrated Shane's 30th birthday party all very successfully.

Pictorial evidence below.....LOTS of soccer pics......enjoy

Easter 2009 in Franklin TN

On Thursday evening 9Apr09, the GuidryPeas met up with Evelyn Jordan (aka MaMah Too) in Nashville International Airport to begin a great Easter weekend with Tyler, Hannah, Coppelia, and Estee Guidry.

The flights in were uneventful but the threat of bad weather for Friday was all over the news. We woke up Friday with severe weather threats and tornado warnings issued for the entire day. I went to Kroger that morning and as I am walking up to the store the warning sirens started. I didn't know if that meant a tornado was on the ground or just a warning.....I looked around at all the other people and they just kept going into the store.....so like a sheep to the slaughter....so did I.

Sadly around 12:30 Friday a large tornado hit Murfreesboro TN (about 30 miles from Tyler and Hannah's home in Franklin, TN) resulting in two deaths and a lot of property damaged. Click Here for Story Link

We hung around the house most of Friday playing with the girls. Coppelia is a wound up twister of her own.....nothing but energy and really strong. Estee kinda glides thru.....she enjoys life leisurely and is always smiling (until you point a camera at her). We went to downtown Franklin that afternoon for a short visit but it had gotten cool and WINDY. Franklin is a really neat town....small town feel with big town conveniences.

Saturday we hung out around the house again and just played with the girls. Tyler took me on a quick visit to his office and a sight seeing tour of surrounding Franklin. We finished the evening with some Texas style BBQ from Mickey Roos and spent a pretty quiet evening as Hannah finished off her homemade Easter Baskets for the girls.

Sunday began with a trip to St Phillips Catholic Church for Easter Mass and then we joined Tyler & Hannah and the girls for an Easter service at Cumberland Church where they worship.

Hannah cooked a Sunday roast for us and we finished up our visit with hugs and kisses for everyone.

Flight back was a bumpy one.....last two pictures in series below are the cloud formations from the airplane.

Lots of pictures of Coppelia in the bookcase.....Estee didn't fit quite as good.

We had fun....enjoy...PeaPa

Spring Break 2009 Palmetto State Park

From Saturday March 7th until Tuesday March 10th the GuidryPeas joined Vicki's brother Larry Jordan and his children Mitch and Jenna for a camping trip at Palmetto State Park just outside the village of Ottine, Texas.

The trip started just as any camping trip we go on with excitement in the air after days of looking forward to going. As many of you know I have my excellently prepared camping checklist to make sure you don't arrive without something very important.

We got to Palmetto around 12:30 in the afternoon, found Larry and the kids and checked in to our camping spot. We unload our bikes, took out the ice chest and other boxes out of the back of the truck to get to our tent so I could set it up before we began to REALLY relax. I had spread a tarp out to be the base for the floor of the tent and took the tent out of the duffle bag. Then Vicki asked one simple question....."Did you bring the poles?" The answer was no. The last time we camped the tent box finally fell apart and I put the tent in a duffle bag and, in hindsight, not so wisely put the poles in another place.

Okay....what do you do? Sleep in the back of the truck? Sleep out in the open as Vicki suggested would be okay with her (probably trying to keep me from being upset at myself). Nope....you put on your engineering hat and make the best of what you have.

A pole, a tree, 8 tent stakes (luckily they were in the duffle bag) and we had a FEMA tent for the trip.

As with all our camping trips Vicki and I always go to Mass. We went online and found St James Catholic Church in Gonzales, TX that had a 5:30 Saturday evening Mass. What we also discovered is the pastor there is Fr. Paul Razz....the priest that married Vicki and I 22 years ago.

It was really good to see and talk to him again.

We had our infamous breakfasts (chocolate chip waffles + a new treat fresh blueberry waffles provided by Larry). I ate eggs every day with our usual finale of steak and eggs on the last morning.

Vicki got to do a first in life for her. She went canoeing. We rented a canoe and paddled around a small lake in the park for about an hour. It's neat to be able to say you have done something new after a trip.

We had our nightly campfires, our dominoes and pokerkub games, as well as a round or two of Yahtzee. The weather was nice....a little windy but relatively dry (couple of small showers that didn't amount to much).

As we were leaving Larry's, excuse me Mitch's truck wouldn't start. It had drained the battery the night before and we jump started it from my truck.....started back up in the morning before we began to pack....and was completely dead when we were ready to go. It took a couple more jumps to get them on their way and they made it home safely.

Pictures below illustrate the fun....

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How about a quick look back at our first Spring Break trip to Buescher State Park in 2004

Twins 1st Birthday - Atlanta

We traveled to Atlanta to celebate the first birthday of Estee and Coppelia. We arrived on Thursday evening to join Andrea, Shane, sleeping Gabe & Chase, sleeping Mike and Katrina Miller (Hannah's parents) to get ready to celebrate the first annual birthday of the twins. Friday we took the boys to the Aquarium in downtown Atlanta....what a neat place. Saturday everyone was looking forward to the party. Hannah had decorated the living room and table early and put the girls into thier party garb....we opened presents....then attacked the CupCake Cakes placed in front of the girls......by that time they had partied enough and were ready for naps. The bigger people continued the celebration with a brisket that PeaPa cooked in Houston, froze, packed, shipped via Air Tran ($15 for checked bag), reheated and absorbed the praise.

The GuidryPeas are truly blessed to have spent a weekend with their children, their children's children, and extended family and friends.

Grand Lake Colorado

What a great trip. Cherri & Robert Griffin (Janel's in-laws) have a condo in Grand Lake which they graciously let others use. Cherri & Robert went on a Christmas cruise and offered the condo for use the week between Christmas and New Years. Janel, Vicki, and Joe all left San Antonio on 28 Dec for a week of relaxation and fun.

We were all anxious to get there and see it snow and sit by the fire. Nature has a way of taking care of Texans who don't drive well in snow by not providing us with an overabundance of new snow. The pass into Winter Park was quite drivable both going to and leaving from Grand Lake. In fact it only snowed one time (if you call flurries for about 15 minutes snowing) at the condo. We did get a little bit more snow when we went snowmobiling in the upper meadows within the Arapaho National Forest. There was plenty of snow already on the ground and we all made one feeble attempt to sled down a hill in town....we were definitely the 'most mature' sledders on that hill.

Snowmobiling was "a kick in the pants" as put by Janel and we all agreed immediately to come back the next day to do it again (now that we were more comfortable driving them). In fact, Vicki didn't even get stuck within the first five minutes on the second day.....a feat she performed the first day. She headed out into a field off of the groomed trails and promptly buried her snowmobile within minutes of taking off the first day. We did a quick job of "unsticking" her and quickly joined back up with Janel. This was FUN!!! The second day we accidentally ventured off on a smaller trail that was marked but very narrow. I must say that was the best mistake made on the trip....the trail was a one way trail and lined with snow covered fir trees (couple of pictures are in the slide show). This lead to an upper meadow where we actually got snowed on a little. The entire trip was just a great experience of nature's awesome beauty.

New Years Eve we all drug ourselves back into our coats and headed back into town to watch the midnight fireworks display over the lake. Grand Lake did a SUPER job of putting on a first class fireworks show. It lasted about 25 minutes and was spectacular. Well worth staying up and getting wrapped back up for.

We all relaxed, read, ate, shopped, drank, and sat in wonder of the beauty of this part of the country. We found the Grand Lake Brewing Company and fell in love with Wooly Booger Nut Brown Ale. You can buy a 64 oz bottle of their beer to go and bring the bottle back for a refill for about $9 - $12.....we finished off our take out and have left the bottle clean and ready for re-use by the next guests in the condo.

We finished the trip up with a quick casino visit to Black Hawk Colorado where only Janel walked away with more than she came with.

Pictures do not do justice of the raw beauty of this area. The short trip into the Rocky Mountain National Forrest and the snowmobiling in the Arapaho just left you staring off into the distance. .....and the sunrises and sunsets....and then back to Texas on 2 January.

Christmas 2008

Christmas 2008 began a little early when we made a trip to McKinney before Christmas to exchange gifts with Gabe and Chase. We got to eat lunch with Gabe and see Chase perform "Look in the sky - a Star" during his school Christmas pageant. PeaPa got Jack Daniel Coffee from Chase and a screwdriver set from Gabe. MaMah got a really neat hairbrush from Gabe and sleigh pin from Chase which she promptly began to wear.

Our annual journey to San Antonio for Christmas dinner and presents with the Jordan crew followed our McKinney trip. The stockings were hung on the mantle with care, including the two new stockings for Estee and Coppelia. The tradition continued of not winning anything on our scratch offs in our stockings. MaMah Too (Evelyn) made the best of it even though her Christmas friend Dan failed to show for the second year in a row.