Riding, Boating, Baking, Fencing, Biking...oh my!

We have moved Gracie's riding lesson from Saturday mornings to Friday evenings at 6 so it won't be so hot - afterall, we have a fair-skinned, blue-eyed, red-headed little one - no precaution is too great! This week, however, we moved it to Thursday evening because Mr. Eddie & Mrs. Robin invited us on a sunset cruise in Kemah for Friday evening...you'll see that in a sec -

Miss Lauren taught her for the first time and Grace responded very well to her - she had a great lesson, and best of all, a lot of fun!

Look at this crazy kitty - I've seen dogs fall smack asleep on their backs, but not a cat! She was totally spraed eagle and catching some zzzzs.

OK, so Mrs. Robin has a business where she coaches CEOs of companies with their day-to-day challenges of running their prospective businesses. Once a month, all of the CEOs that she coaches gets together to exchange strategies and ideas. One of the CEOs owns the Star Fleet in Kemah and since every Friday evening in June, Kemah has a fireworks display, they decided to make a sunset cruise their monthly meeting...cool idea! We didn't see Mrs. Robin much because, well, technically, she was working...but Mr. Eddie, their daughter, Lauren, her fiance, Cory, and Jack and I all hung out, ate BBQ and watched the show - it was a grand evening - cool, but not too windy and we were so close to the fireworks barge, I thought we were all gonna disembark with cinged eyebrows! And, don't worry about Gracie - she's living it up with Aunt Letha, Uncle Mike and Miss Hannah -

Just starting out...going from the mouth of Clear Lake into Galveston Bay - there's the Kemah bridge...

sweet pic of Lauren and Cory

Jack's throwing beads to the observing crowd on the Kemah Boardwalk -

Lots of folks have the same idea - watching the display from the water -

the fireworks barge and flotilla of boats joining us to watch

Kemah from the water

our spectacular sunset

one of the only shots I took that you can actually see clearly...

a glimpse of the finale...

It was a late evening - by the time I unpacked the car from Gracie's adventure and got ready for bed, I think it was around 1 AM...I opened my eyes Saturday morning to see that it was 11:17 - I haven't slept that late since college! I almost died - Jack said that Grace had just come and gotten him not too much earlier - I guess we were all pretty tuckered out! So, what did we do once we decided to join the land among the living? We made chocolate cupcakes! Some with coconut-pecan iccing and some with chocolate buttercream - look who got in the batter!

Now, today...Jack blew his knee out about a week and a half ago - he slipped in some mud and his right leg went one way while the rest of him went the other and so he still doesn't feel just great (I think he may even go see the doctor tomorrow - you know it hurts bad if he's gonna do that), but he went and hired three day laborers this morning and they have fenced all that they can now - we have to wait to close in the back yard when the pool is finished. Now, they're just mowing and weedeating for us - we're gonna paint the fence a chocolate brown to match the front entry gates and our front door and lighting that are all bronzed, but that's another day!

Grace was playing "Pony Express" for me...she brought a note to her Daddy asking him a question for me and here, she was bringing it back - she's really progressed in her bike-riding skills since receiving her bike for her birthday!

Until the next adventure...