Backyard Bliss

Mom and I rode into New Braunfels last Thursday in hopes of tubing the Guadalupe River and even though when Jack and I checked it out on our own vacation just a few weeks ago, it was too low to ride. It just wouldn't have been fun - most of the places that rent the tubes were closed - and there really wasn't much activity except for around the campgrounds. So, we went to one of the campgrounds and just played and swam right there in front of where we parked. It wasn't quite the same experience, but at least we were able to get in the water - all was not lost!

The only picture I took on the whole two-day trip was of the Luling watermelon - I guess it's a water tower, but it sure has lots of antennas, so who knows? I just thought it was cute - it was here that I also bought two of the prettiest bouganvillas I've ever seen - they're by our pool and are pictured below.

Saturday morning was Gracie's riding lesson - the first in three weeks as we were on vacation and then the Stanalands were on vacation. She did great!

Saturday night was the George Strait concert at Reliant Park- I bought tickets for Jack and I as his Fathers Day present. Mom kept Grace. The traffic was an absolute nightmare. He had three opening acts - Julianne Hough, Blake Shelton, and Sugar Land. We missed the first completely and by the time we got seated, we were able to see Blake sing 4 songs and that was it. Sugar Land and George did a great job. It taught us a good lesson though - when we come for U2 in October, we're going to get to Reliant Park at 1 am the day before! That's a bit of an exaggeration, but not by much - I can't imagine what that will be like as it's in the middle of the week, so we'll be dealing with concert traffic AND work traffic! Start praying for us now - yikes.

Bobby and Kevin worked all day Saturday (until 10 pm under Mom's supervision -she even ordered pizza for dinner) and part of the day Sunday to complete our backyard project...sorry the pictures are at night - by the time we finished working, this is the kind of light I had to show you what we did - those are the bouganvillas I was telling you about at the end of the pool.

This is another I bought in San Marcos. I love it's variegated leaf AND the turquoise pot Mom and I found to put it in.

Close-ups of the Luling finds - pink and white blooms on the same bush. Love, love, love it!

But, the major part of the "Backyard Bliss" project was our checkerboard backyard. I saw it in a Southern Living magazine, fell in love with it, showed Jack, he really liked it, and so we just went for it - we think it looks great. We initially wanted it in a diamond pattern, but our concrete contractor said he couldn't get it symmetrical that way, so we went with the checkerboard. We still think it turned out really nice and it's different for sure! Even in the dark, that's Jack and Grace soaking it all in...

Whacha think?