A Visit with Angels

I walked around the Hillcrest Cemetery, here in Temple, today and enjoyed photographing some of the beautiful angel statuary. I'll explain in my next post why I was at the cemetery.

This one was my favorite. Doesn't he have a sweet little face?

Not really angels, but this little boy and little girl caught my eye. Not sure why anyone would leave an 8-ball in the bowl.

To the Rodeo!

After the 4th of July festivities, in Spring, we brought Clara home with us for a few days. We came home on Thursday, and that evening went to a big rodeo at the Bell Co. Expo Center. Friends of ours from church, Robert and Susan, gave us reserved front row tickets! Robert works at a bank, and gets complimentary tickets, because the bank is one of the rodeo sponsors. Robert also provided tickets for the church youth group. Before the rodeo started, we joined up with the teens and some of their parents for a hot dog dinner at Robert and Susan's house. Clara enjoyed getting to know some of the girls.

The show was three hours long, and that was a tad bit too long for a tired, squirmy little girl, who had already had a couple days of 4th of July activities. Clara told me she liked the horses, but didn't like the bulls. She especially loved the pretty girls doing trick horseback riding. They really were phenomenal, but I think that it was the glitter on the rumps of the horses that actually impressed Clara most.

I took pictures, but they didn't turn out good. I kept looking at the results on my 3" LCD screen, and thought they were fine, but when I got home and loaded them onto the computer, I discovered that they were all pretty blurry. I should have used a much faster shutter speed. Next time I'll know better, although I may never have such a good opportunity again. Those seats were fantastic. We were close enough to reach out and touch some of the horses, from our seats (but we didn't). And close enough to get dirt (and glitter) thrown into our faces. Here are a few blurry images which, at least, show some of the action.

Fireworks!

Ever since Clara was a newborn, Chris has taken her to "Daddy-Daughter Breakfast" on Saturday mornings. After breakfast they go to Jill's Books, where Clara gets to pick out a used book to take home. Jill has befriended the family, and she was the reason we got such an outstanding spot from which to watch the fireworks. She reserved a couple of her store parking spots for Chris & Co. Those parking spots are directly across from the spot where The Woodlands launches their fireworks. Thank you Jill for helping to make our 4th of July so special.

Here's our crew minus me and Robert:

Robert preferred watching the fireworks from the safety of his car. As you can see, he kept his hands over his ears or hovering nearby, out of respect for those big booms.

And here are a few shots. It was a magnificent display that lasted an hour or so.

Happy Fourth of July!

Dan and I drove over to Spring on the third. Our plans were to go, with Chris, Kelsey and the kids, to a patriotic outdoor concert that evening, but dark clouds and thunder changed our plans. Instead we went to dinner at a great little deli, where Clara had fun in the old-fashioned photo booth. She did two sessions; one with Daddy and one with Mommy.

The next morning - the Fourth - started early. We were on our way to The Woodlands for the parade by around 7:00 a.m. That got us there early enough to get a nearby parking place, and to set up "camp" at a perfect spot along the parade route.

We ate our breakfast there, while we waited for the start of the festivities.

After awhile some street performers arrived, which helped keep us entertained until the beginning of the parade. Clara got a glittery star stamped onto her sweet face.

And both children got balloon animals -- a ladybug for Clara and a giraffe for Robert.

All sorts of people (and superheroes) showed up!

The kids got a little weary with waiting for the parade to begin.

But, FINALLY, it started, with marching bands, horses, floats, boy scouts, girl scouts and tributes to the military. It was a first-class celebration of America's independence.

After the parade we went back to Chris and Kelsey's place for a little lunch, and then we all took afternoon naps. Aaaah!

Late that afternoon Chris threw burgers and brats onto the grill and friends came over to share a backyard meal. 

Robert had the right idea for cooling off.

A Fourth of July celebration wouldn't be a proper celebration without fireworks, so I'll post my fireworks pictures in the next post.