Daddy/Daughter Camping and Mommy/Son Date

Neal and Chris Huff were joined by John Goode and his girls this year for Daddy/Daughter Camping.  They went to Tyler State Park. They had fun watching John retrieve a Frisbee from the lake, played ball, attended a knot tying class, hiked, ate Neal's homemade peppermint marshmallows in s'mores, and had a great time in good weather.

John testing Sophie's knot strength by lifting her with her rope under arms.

Keri and Rhys planned on eating out on Friday night and going to the library. While at the reasturant, we sat ourselves next to a large group and overheard they were going to be playing a basketball game that evening.  We inquired of details about when and where and found they were playing at our children's elementary school gym in about an hour from the time we asked. We said maybe we'd join them tonight and wished them luck.

Then we headed out the library which we found was closed by some fluke.  A staff meeting was being held and they had closed early.  Luckily, we had just met a very nice team, called up some friends, the Kenworthys, last minute to join us and they did!  We spent the next hour having a blast cheering on team Notre Dame from Dallas in a Special Olympics competition.  They even had their own cheerleaders!  It was great and seriously action packed.

The next day, we went to the mall for a trip to the Lego store, his first taste of See's Candies, and a ride of the carousel.  While there, a friend we ran into alerted us to a planned event at the Disney store for the opening of Zootopia, this the bunny ears.

It was near the end of this awesome morning when I gave Rhys a choice. Did he want $2 to ride on the carousel again, buy a little clearance Groot (superhero) plush, or save towards a large Lego set he has wanted since before Christmas. I had no idea the pressure I had put on him but I was so glad I did because he really did great.  There was no wrong choice. He debated for some time. Finally he asked for help and we sat and talked about which one he really didn't care about - the ride, and threw it out.  Then we discussed what he thought the pros and cons of both remaining choices were. After 30 minutes, and his mom almost caving in a few times, knowing I had $4 to make it easier, Rhys finally came up with the choice the thought was best and was satisfied with--save fore the Lego set.  I was so proud of him for figuring it out on his own.

Neal's a Ham!

Neal is increasing his knowledge and skills in emergency preparedness by remaining involved in CERT, attending Skywarn conferences, and just recently taking a 6-week basic ham radio training and passing the exam. Congratulations, sweetie! Now we can have better chances to communicate needed information during and after disasters if we should survive one.

Valentine's Weekend

Class Valentine's parties made sure Sophie and Rhys were stocked with candy and cards a plenty. Neal and Keri attended a church Valentine's gathering for adults in the congregation so we got our share of sweets and socializing too.

Keri joined as partners in crime with Cherri to run the Cupid's Chase 5K in Dallas, benefiting those with disabilities.  This is the first race we went all out with extra flare! Best friend T-shirts, red tutus, and feathers!  Keri came in at 33:18 and placed 7 out of 22 in her age division, 32 out of 167 females, and 60 out of 236 participants. She beat her goal of 33:37 and without wearing a watch to pace herself!

On Sunday we had our "fancy dinner" tradition with 'take and bake' pizza we got the day before. The kids decorated the table with paper hearts. We asked questions from our Tabletopics cube and opened gifts. Neal got a ham radio, the kids got Legos, and Keri got running socks and a great book on running. Pretty nice weekend!