The Wandering Bruces: Back to Texas, Florida and "My Fair Lady"

After our visits to Arizona and California this year we headed back home to Texas and the Hill Country, to spend more time with Meg's Centenarian Father. His church has a seniors retreat each year at Alto Frio, the Baptist Encampment at Leakey, Texas. It's a beautiful site and we've taken them there for several years.

This year we bought a cake and shared it with his church family. Now, if there are two things Carl loves, they are the Lord Jesus and ice cream (probably in that order). So, on the way home we stopped at Medina and the Apple Store and treated him to apple ice cream. Try it sometime; mmmmmm!

We read an article in Escapees magazine entitled, "No Siblings Allowed!" The article encouraged grandparents to take along cousins (rather than brothers and sisters) from their family when they travel: that they tend to leave their "baggage" at home, with its pettiness and squabbling, and concentrate on learning each other and having a good time. We're implementing this into our plans and it works very nicely!

In June we picked up Lydia in Kyle, Texas and took her with us to Maypearl and the Lakeview Camp, where we worked as MAPS workers for two weeks. Andrea brought Reagan down from Oklahoma City and we enrolled the two cousins in their first church camp experience together. They had a wonderful time, as did we.

Not sure what is going on here: make-up or a snack....but they ARE having a good time!

We had dinner with Peggy and Ken McGowen (MAPS friends) at Mo's Diner in Maypearl. Great food and always nice to find a new good place to eat.

Following our camp experiences we took the girls back to Oklahoma and Andrea's home for a couple of weeks. We parked our home at the Central State Park campground in Arcadia, OK as usual, while the girls stayed and played at Reagan's home. July 4th involved Independence Day fireworks in the park with Rodney's family. Later in the week Rodney took us to the Oklahoma Aquarium in Tulsa. It features a lovely arrangement of buildings and exhibits, and was well worth the time we spent there.

Leaving Oklahoma this time with Andrea, Reagan, Ryan and Lydia, we made our way back to Abey's home in Kyle, spending one night enroute at Maypearl again. Our friends Chuck and Vanay met us for dinner at Cici's Pizza in Waxahachie.

During this time my physician assistant class in Arizona sent me an "Oscar" ("Hollywood Best Teacher") as their personal award and thank-you for my time spent with them. A wonderful surprise and I'm very grateful!

Our trip gave Andrea and kids some good family time with her Brother Abey and his family,

Meg with Sunny

Christian

Abey and Phineas

as well as with the new puppy "Snowflake."

We spent a beautiful summer day swimming at Splashtown, a large waterpark in San Antonio that is very fun and family-friendly.

After creating some new sweet memories with family, Andrea and girls returned to their home courtesy of an Amtrak train from Austin to Oklahoma City.

Roger and Meg flew to Florida to attend performances of "My Fair Lady", starring our daughter Stacey, and including Ashley as a supporting castmember. While there we celebrated our birthdays at the local restaurants.