Birthdays, Reunions, and Beaches....

June flew by already? Last month we had a lot of excitement. Misty and her kiddos visited from Marshall and we gave them a brief tour around Austin and visited SeaWorld in San Antonio. Next we celebrated Noah's birthday at the lake house. We hosted a surprise poker party for Mike's birthday. It was great that so many friend's made it over to celebrate with us...he didn't figure it out until we crossed the threshold at our house where we were (so he claims). We served a plethora of his favorite foods, hot wings, pizza, chips, and cake. He was not as successful at poker, but still enjoyed the game. The last weekend of June we drove to Dallas for Mike's 20-year high school reunion which was fun. Earlier in the day we ate lunch with a couple of his high school friends who have been living overseas. Later that night he had fun seeing who recognized him with his drastic change in hairstyle. Sunday morning, after the reunion, we caravaned south and spent a few days at North Padre Island with Mike's parents. We stayed at their old favorite spot, Island House, right on the beach. We brought Noah along to offer Stephen some youthful company. On Tuesday morning we woke up very early to witness the release of a few hundred Kemp's Ridley sea turtle hatchlings. Each time a turtle made it out to the sea the audience applauded their triumph. The sad truth is that only a handful of the hatchlings we saw released will live through their first year.

For the 4th, Mike, Stephen, and I went downtown to Auditorium Shores to listen to the Austin Symphony play and to witness the fireworks. It was a pleasant way to celebrate Independence Day.

Early Monday morning Stephen and a group of fellow boy scouts began their trek to Canada. They are off to the Northern Tier of Canada where they will canoe and portage along the lakes and great wilderness for about 10 days. He is scheduled to return on the 18th. We hope his trip is safe and he steers clear of grumpy Caribou.