A Special Concert at Peace River!

I have had an exceptionally busy week this past week.  Actually the past two weeks have been unusually hectic for us.  So I have tons of things to blog about, but I've been so busy that I haven't had the time to blog about them.  Hopefully I will get caught up over the next several days or during my next few days off.

This was one of my favorite did but didn't blog about it things: a concert given to the park performed by pickleball friends.  Not just any pickleball friends though.  Super talented and musically gifted friends.  I met Todd Hallawell and Garth Matthews both this year.

 I heard about Todd long before I knew him though because Austin is a huge fan of Todd's musical talent and has shared numerous YouTube videos of him with me.  He is an incredible musician.  What I did not know was that his wife is also. 

We were so impressed with Garth's playing also.  They played beautifully together!  Such a treat to hear all three of them play together and judging by the crowd's response, we were not the only ones that felt honored to hear them play.


Just a few short clips of them to give you some idea of their talent.

Ray Bethell-Good Stuff

Two Guys and Their Guitars

Yesterday we spent more time having fun with our friends. I'll blog more about it tomorrow. Before I head off to bed though, I had to share some video clips of the "sons".



Patti and Roland's son Matt spent the day with us and graciously spent time showing Austin some guitar playing tips.



Matt has to be the most awesome guy I've met for a guy his age, alongside my brother Steven. It is a rare thing to find a guy who is good looking, funny, talented and smart. Oh yeah, and very kind on top of it all. Matt has it all. Can you tell he won me over? I'm wanting a Matt son-in-law.



It was really something special to me to hear the two of them playing together.

Happy 4th of July!

Happy Fourth of July to everyone out there. We hope that all of you had great family and fun time together. We hung out today, trying to avoid the heat by spending time in the air conditioning and the pool, and then did things like pickle ball and talking to our neighbors and eating some yummy pulled pork BBQ. A little fun fact on the neat neighbors: Aubi says the mom is a nurse and was up at the hospital when Octomom gave birth. That had to a be a wild thing to experience. They were so sweet, even sharing their s'mores with us. Austin made friends with a guy named Asa and I thought that was the neatest name. Of course, I'm partial to the "A" names. He lives in WA so maybe we'll see him at another TT's again when we get up there.But the most fun today was probably going to hear people sing karaoke. This was our favorite:

Texas Tech National Anthem

Loved this! Thanks Valerie for sharing it!

Sea World in San Diego-Movies of Austin

We visited Sea World in Texas and loved it, so we were looking forward to visiting the one here too. Here is just a glimpse into our day.

Austin feeding the Sea Lions:


At the Ray tanks:

Video from Red Rock State Park

Some video clips:


Of the deer:

Video from the Grand Canyon

And for Gabe and Olivia:

Grand Canyon National Park

We spent the day at the Grand Canyon and I'm too tired to crop pictures or blog much about it just yet. Before I head off to bed, here are Mikaylah's thoughts on it:



When we first arrived, I must have had a mighty grip on her hand because she asked me why I was squeezing her hand so hard. I apologized and explained that it was a long ways down and I just wanted to be sure she was safe. She sighed and then said, "I will NEVER be able to fall in there with YOU here!" Now she is really going to think I'm old. I won't even let her fall into the Grand Canyon. She is right, Nathan is always more funner than me. Oh, I just love that kid! She kept me laughing the whole day long.

Video of Austin with the deer at Lake Medina

We will miss these sweet creatures when we leave here:

More Sea World in San Antonio

We spent another fun day at Sea World today. The weather was just perfect!

Boom Chicka Boom Boom

Don't ask. Vintage film of Austin that I found on our memory card in the video cam:

My Super Talented Brother

He is attending school to become a chef and sings and plays guitar. And he has a heart of gold. The kind of guy everyone loves because he is so incredibly uplifting to be around. He's come a long way in his life and I'm so proud of him. Here he is playing one of the many songs he wrote: