Our Winter Break...

Left to right - Kristen, Bob, Korinne, Hilary, Jenna, Britton

A couple of weeks ago at Roots Tech we ran into my cousin, Bob Clifford and his wife, Kathy.  He was scanning old slides.  Since then, he has been sending me a few awesome photos.

Last Thursday was an education marathon day.  Before we left to go to the airport that evening I had attended two different CE classes and the Realtor Day on the Hill with the legislature.  That is usually informative.  Senator Mike Lee is shown below.  I missed the dinner with our legislative representatives because we had to leave for the airport.  Texas here we come!

We arrived in SA really late and arrived at Tiffany's via taxi about 1 a.m.  She was up first thing in the morning to take Abigail to the dentist.  After a "no-cavities" checkup, Tiffany and I were able to keep our appointment at the temple for a session.  With a brief stop at nearby Kneaders, we headed home for lunch with Steve and Abigail.  Then Tiffany took us across town to the SAS, San Antonio Shoes, factory store.  It was a quaint, interesting place.  We loved the 5 cent popcorn and the extra $20 off from their sale shoes.  Tif didn't sign us up for a factory tour because I told her we didn't need any shoes.  With that $20 off incentive, however, we couldn't resist.  We got some really comfortable shoes that we think will be great for our travels.

Here is an employee hand-sewing some children's shoes.  It was amazing to us that they still do that.

That evening, we got our first taste of the family karate lessons.  Shawn has been traveling so much that he hasn't been able to participate but both Tiffany and Abigail are progressing nicely.  While we were visiting, Abigail passed of all of her stripes for her next belt test so she will be testing on Wednesday.  Good luck, Abigail!

Friday morning, we were out of the house fairly early.  Tiffany had all of her stuff packed in the car to teach her classes.  Friday morning is Abigail's homeschool co-op enrichment activity day. We were impressed by how well everything was organized and the variety of classes.  The classes last for 10 weeks and Tiffany teaches 2 classes while Abigail attends 3.  Tiffany teaches writing and card making.  Abigail takes classes in horseback riding, painting and dance.  Every parent teaches or assists with two classes and has 1 class period to socialize with other parents or prepare.  They even had potluck snacks that were quite yummy.  Someone brought a fabulous Greek salad.

The co-op meets at a Christian church campus--I do mean campus.  We had never seen a church that had multiple buildings for the different age groups like that.  We were wowed!

We sat in on Tiffany's card making class.  It was pretty entertaining.  Then we went to observe Abigail in her painting class.  We also walked around the campus a bit, made some phone calls and enjoyed the socializing and snacks with Tiffany after her second class.  We brought lunch to eat before going to the Rodeo and Stock Show but I wasn't very hungry from our yummy snacks.

The first thing we did upon arriving at the show, was walk through a big semi-truck display on welding.  They had these cool simulators to train welders.  Both Steve and Abigail took a turn trying it out.  It was pretty interesting and fun for them.

As we were attending the show during the last couple of days of the 3-week event, most of animals had been judged and moved out of the barns.  In the first huge display barn, they were setting up a welding display and competition for FFA and 4-H youth.  This whole building was eventually filled with gates, trailers, portable BBQ units, etc.  Their work was extraordinary to us.  Here Tiffany, Abigail and I pose in our cowboy boots and rodeo attire.

We had a fun visit with these three young men from Boerne who had designed and built this fantastic portable BBQ grill.  Steve loved asking about their materials and design and they loved showing off their work.

The tall boy in the middle was the designer and all three of them built it.  I think that they worked for a while just to purchase their materials.  This was not made of junk.

I loved this fancy gate that was on display.  Only in Texas would they add the scripture from Psalms 96:12 "Let the fields be joyful,..."

Abigail was chosen to be a cheerleader at the pig races for team #2.  Our pig barely lost at the last second.  No prize for her.  It was fun though.

Abigail built a lego car that came in second in a big race.  She was pretty happy with that.

There were lots of cowboy vendors and other vendors who sold everything imaginable.  It was fun to see their stuff.  There were lots of food booths and everything possible on a stick.  Abigail tried the cheesecake dipped in chocolate.  It was pretty tasty and since she couldn't finish hers, we got a bite.

There were several amazing sand sculptures.  The artist was finishing up one of them.  The details were incredible.

Aibgail also participated in a pedal tractor pull.  She pulled the most weight the farthest, but the young kids had lighter loads and a couple of them beat her.  Her tractor pulled 200 lbs. She did well as she is very competitive.

Tif, Steve and I shared an apple dumpling.  We won't get this again.  The Amish dumplings are much better.

We loved this army band who played swing, jazz, etc.  Their music was very enjoyable.

I think our favorite part of the rodeo is the beginning where they put on a very patriotic display with the flags and their horsemanship.  They always have a beautiful rendition of the national anthem and an opening prayer in the name of Christ.  We love that.

The rodeo was really good.  A cowboy from Victor, ID won the bareback riding competition and another cowboy from Beaver, UT won the saddle bronc riding event.  There were more riders from UT and ID than ever before.  Abigail wasn't feeling very well and Shawn was home ill too, so we ended up leaving before the concert which was Rascal Flats.  It had been a long day.  Next time, we will probably divide it into two outings.

On Saturday, in spite of Shawn's not being up to par, we drove to Banderas to an outdoor shooting range that Shawn likes.  It was great weather, sunny with no wind.  Shawn is a master marksman.  He is amazing to watch.  He is also a very good teacher so he got Steve and I into the action.  Abigail's gun misfired and so she wasn't able to shoot anymore because the other guns had too much kick.  Tiffany usually uses Abigail's gun so she didn't shoot either.

Steve did an excellent job hitting the target.  My first round all landed somewhere on the target, but the second round was not so good as I missed a few times.

It was a very nice outing.  Since it is Shawn's birthday on the 27th, we wanted to do something he would enjoy.  We ended our afternoon with dinner at a Hibachi restaurant.  We were glad that turned out since Shawn got really sick for the next two days and we weren't able to celebrate on his real birthday.  We had planned some fun celebrating.  Darn!

Abigail has a pet named Oreo.  He is a guinea pig who makes lots of little squeaks when he is happy. He really squeaks when she holds him and feeds him kale.

Abigail got roller blades for Christmas.  She wore them outside for the first time walking with us.  We walked several times and she played one afternoon with friends.  By the end of our visit, her skill level and confidence had greatly improved.

On Monday afternoon, we left Shawn home to sleep in peace and we drove to a Wild Animal Safari park about 45-60 minutes away.  Abigail was in heaven.  She loved the animals coming up to the car begging for the food we had purchased to give the animals.

The ostrich really pecked at the window.  We didn't want to feed it from our hands and it didn't seem to realize that it needed to pick up the food we had thrown on the ground.

Abigail's favorite animals of the day were the llamas.  She is really into alpacas too but there weren't any at this animal park.

These baby goats were only a day or two old so they were pretty cute too.

That evening, we went to another karate class for the girls.  Abigail is diligently preparing for her belt test on Wednesday.  

While we were together, Abigail and I worked on a project crocheting newborn baby hats for our Zimbabwe baby kits.  Our first one fit her doll perfectly.  Out second one turned out much better.  We also had a little tangle with her roller blades in the interim.  

After two days of rest, Shawn was off again to work with an early morning flight to Dallas.  We left after lunch to fly home to Utah.  Silly us.  When we arrived home, we took our walk through the snow.  We should have walked in Texas in the morning when the temperature was 73 degrees.  When we landed in UT, the temperature was 37 degrees and it was colder than that by the time we went walking.  Thanks to Tif's family for a wonderful Texas visit.  We loved our short break from the cold and snow too.