Summer Trip to California

July was a welcomed break from the Texas heat to visit family. It was a jam-packed time of fun and visiting, and was a great encouragement for Darby to finish seminary faster so we can Lord-willing be back near family! There were a few things that were extra-special -- like seeing all the Lang nieces and nephews (it had been about a year since last seeing them) and how they are all either taller than Aunt Karyn or nearing that day. It was also extra-special to be a part of Jasper's 3rd birthday, as well as be there for Father's Day. On Father's Day there was an announcement made that you will have to scroll down to see.

Shelbie went all out on Jasper's "under the sea" party. In addition to making this awesome sandcastle cake, she had great activities for everyone, including sea-animal origami (see the fish pic at the beginning of the blog, complements of Sophia Lang Photography) and sea-animal charades. Nothing funnier than seeing Uncle Morgan act like an eel and Aunt Fanny act like a grunion and Grandad act like Shamu!

No under-the-sea party would be complete without swimming! This is Allison striking a pose.

Zachary and Cody are ready to swim.

Uncle Darby and the birthday boy.

As mentioned earlier, this is proof of how much Taylor has grown. Looks taller than Darby, and Darby is even on his tip-toes (just kidding).
A year since we've seen Audrey, and she is a little girl now.
After the pool party, we got to spend the night at Morgan and Shelbie's place and then go to church the next morning with them. After church, we celebrated Father's Day/my birthday/Darby's birthday.

This is Sophia, who continuously and politely asked to borrow the camera. She has a lot of talent for her age, and we were struck by her thoughtfulness in setting up the shot, asking people to pose or arranging the items being photographed. She even has the knack of being at the right place at the right time, as you see by the picture she took of Silas below, who is pressed up against the sliding glass door.

Baby Silas was so sweet and cuddly and happy, it was a joy to spend time with him, as it's been since Christmas since seeing him. Here is Uncle Darby holding little Silas in the beautiful exotic jungle yard!

After Father's Day at the Hughes house, we went to celebrate Father's Day at the Hauptman house. As mentioned earlier, there was a joyful and shocking announcement made, as my Dad opened this gift:

No confusions, it's not our announcement! But my brother Danny and his wife Shannon are now expecting their first child, the first of the next Hauptman generation. We were all surprised and crying. You can follow the progress of the baby at the Hauptman Family website by clicking on "Shannon and Danny." My Dad was a little confused and thought the gift was for his use.

The following morning, the Hughes side got together for a day of fun. Darby and I started out with In N Out for lunch, officially making me ready to die and go to heaven. The next stop for the family was to go to the veteran's memorial cemetery to try to locate the gravesite of Great-Great-Great Grandad King (the number of "Greats" was fully explained by Darby's Mom, but I'm still confused!)

George W. King

We went to the beautiful California beach. It made for some great pictures! This was so relaxing and beautiful, praise God for His beautiful creation.

We spent the night at Morgan and Shelbie's again, ate some Ravanelli's pizza for dinner.... mmm... and the boys bonded over their video game.

Another sweet memory is spending the night at the Lang's. The kids left us notes in the bed with little messages. They remembered that at Christmas when we stayed at their house without them there, we left them each notes in their beds. It was a surprise that they remembered! Oh, and before bedtime, the Hughes family had an outside movie night, eating ice cream and brownies and popcorn in front of the big screen projection of Surf's Up.

The next morning, Shelbie and I took the boys to their classes at the rec center while Darby spent time with the Lang kids playing Wii. It was fun to see Jasper and Silas'personalities come out in this different setting. Jasper was shy and hesitant but was coaxed into participating. Here he is on the trampoline. He says he's jumping, but he is really just standing there doing nothing while Shelbie swears that he is able to jump on Cousin Audrey's trampoline. Suuuure.... :0)

Silas and me. He's so cute!!

Silas was impressive, as he remembered the toys and knew exactly what to do to make them make sounds. He was the oldest baby there and is ready to move on to the next class.

We were able to spend another night at the Hauptman house. This is me and my Mommy in their new kitchen. I am still surprised every time I see it!

Sadly, time to leave the next day. We planned to meet the Hughes/Lang family at Starbucks near the airport for a last goodbye. Our flight was delayed, so we got to spend more time there. Who knew that 15 people can meet for cofee at Starbucks and still be able to sit together!

This is Audrey, Jasper, Sophia and Silas.

Darby and I with all the kids. We missed Cody and Heather, but they were at school. Surprised that with so many kids, it's Darby who has his eyes half-closed!

Sophia the photographer borrowed my camera again. She got some great shots, one of which is this adorable picture of Shelbie and Silas.

Allison took this picture by holding the camera in front of us.

And you can't beat Sophia's picture of the birthday boy!

At Starbucks, the kids were sweet by giving us pictures they had drawn for us. Zachary drew a picture of Texas, complete with dirt, cactus, and tumble weeds. It made my co-worker Melissa laugh, as it's funny that Californian's have that picture in their heads when they think of Texas. And so y'all know, I don't see too many tumble weeds and there isn't any cactus here. Just dying grass from the heat heat heat!

Spring Break!

I'm sorry it's taken me soooo long to blog! I bet you all have just been dying for Hughes updates! Well, it's been a busy few months since Christmas. Darby is plugging away at his 3rd semester of classes. I have been working away, and we continue to meet people. It has been a much milder winter than last year, but it did snow a few weeks ago! We got 1-2 inches of excitement before it melted the next day.

Here's a photo of the view from our front porch before the snow was finished falling, and a little video clip of the falling snow.

The week after the snow, it was in the high 70s and low 80s when my Mom and sister came for a visit. We had a lot of fun in downtown Fort Worth and the Stockyards. Not to mention eating at favorite restaurants like Cracker Barrel. We watched several movies that they had brought along. My favorite of what we saw was Dan in Real Life. I highly recommend it. It was raining a lot the day they were supposed to fly off, and so their flight was canceled. They ended up getting a flight the next day, but I was glad to get more time with them! After we saw them off, we headed South for about 4 hours to San Antonio. We stopped at the Texas Roadhouse for dinner, where Darby had the best ribs he's ever had (and we got to throw peanut shells on the floor).

We got a good deal on the Crockett Hotel right next to the Alamo in downtown San Antonio. We don't mean to shatter your imaginations, but when you think "Alamo," don't you think of a really cool old building surrounded by lots of dirt and land? Well, the Alamo is surrounded closely by shops, hotels, and buildings, even with a wax museum across the street!

Here is a picture of the Alamo. On the right, you can see the sign for the "Crockett Hotel."

Here is Darby standing in front of the Alamo. When we were there, the line was too long for us to want to go into this building you see here, so instead we checked out other buildings. We got to hear the story of the Alamo. Did you know that they lost?!? I was surprised!

And this is me standing in front of the Alamo. I'm wearing a new shirt and hat and jeans from the outlets that we stopped off at on our way down.

This is Darby with the back of the Alamo in the background.

After visiting the Alamo, we walked and walked and walked to Market Square. A fun little shopping place where you couldn't find anything but Mexican food to eat.

Near downtown, we stopped at the San Fernando cathedral, where the remains of Davy Crockett are (I learned that he died at the Alamo. I didn't even know he was associated with the Alamo. I just thought he was like a mountain man. I guess I wasn't paying attention in U.S. History class!) and other Alamo folks. We forgot to take a picture of the cathedral. It's the oldest one in the U.S.

On our walk back, we came across a purple heart memorial for wounded veterans, and I took a picture of the memorial in honor of my Dad.

We walked around the River Walk. This is the most beautiful down town that we have ever seen! It is a winding river with hotels, restaurants, and shops lining the paths. You can pay to ride a boat down the river.

Another view. Check out Darby's finger at the bottom of the shot.

You can see one of the boats. We didn't end up riding in a boat, we just walked and walked and walked.

This was quite funny to us. This is actually a Starbucks. It's also full of their music, where you can listen to any CD you want to and you can burn any mix of songs that you want to while you sip on a latte.

The River Walk is prettiest at night time. Also the most crowded!

This is a view of the restaurant where we ate dinner. We waited an hour to be seated inside. Can you imagine though, sitting at one of these tables, with the atmosphere, and not being able to sip on a margarita? We were dying!

The sign of the place we dined.

You can pay to ride in a lit-up horse-drawn carriage around the city.

Oh, and while we were there we got to see Horton Hears a Who. It cost $4 per ticket! We loved loved loved the movie! You know you've seen a good movie when you can talk about its analogies for hours after!

San Antonio is such a nice little vacation spot! We promise that whoever visits us, we will take you here! On our way back home, we decided to take a "scenic" route that ended up looking like a drive through Acton. No offense to Acton, but we should have taken the normal drive through Austin, which is much greener and prettier! We decided to take an hour and a half detour to take a tour of these caverns. Very cool, as I had never been to caverns. These stretch 6 miles or more under the surface.

Now forgive us for posting alllll of the following pictures, but this is the easiest way for us to show the Hughes family these pictures. On our drive the "scenic" way home, we just happened to come across the town of Morgan, TX. We had to take pictures of some signs in honor of Darby's brother.

This was my favorite sign:

It was funny to come across Morgan City Hall. Yes, this tiny building is city hall. Shows you what a big city it is!

When we were taking the picture of City Hall, we heard a voice from behind say, "What about us? We're the fire department!" This is the volunteer fire dept building. I guess they are just hanging out waiting for a fire. Yes, they are striking a pose for us.

And Morgan gets a water tower, too!