Visiting Kalia in Dallas

Kara and Chris moved to just outside Dallas  early summer last year, making it a bit more challenging for us to visit Kalia. Nonetheless, we persevered and made it to Kalia's new home in McKinney Tx for Thanksgiving this year.  After a fantastic T-Day dinner with Kara and Chris's new friends, we went down Friday to the Home for the Holidays celebration in downtown McKinney.

Grandma - you realize your nose is poking out my eyeball!!!

Did I tell you about grandma's nose in my eyeball?

Three Generations of Good Looking Drago Women!!!

Chris took the following picture sequence, which I think goes a long way in showing the hyperactivity of Kalia.  Given her mother ... she comes by it honestly.  :)

Look at what camera ...

Is there a camera over there ...

No ... that's just Daddy and Mommy out there ...

You mean a camera over there ...

Hey ... did you see the little boy over there ...

Daddy ... what are you doing over there ...

 On Saturday we visited my most favorite store and let Kalia build a tool box.

 

Kalia's much better at hammering than Chris ever will be ... but Chris is pretty brave (or maybe stupid) with his fingers!!!  :)

 That afternoon we visited a local McKinney park with a great playground before Tina and I headed back home.

 

The Expert Slider

The Amateur Slider

Poor Chris!  He needs to learn how to hammer and slide from a 2 year old!  :)

CCS Grandparents Day

Jennifer and Jason's kids switched over to "Community Christian School"in Melbourne which had it's grandparents day on November 15th.  I had customers in house, but Tina and her Mom were able to attend.  All 3 grand-kids performed in a show as a part of the day.

Ashlyn (Right Center in Front Row - First Blue Shirt From Center)

Jesse (Right Center - Second Yellow Shirt From Center)

Kaylyn - Figure it Out! :)

Kaylyn Again

 You have to admit, Kaylyn makes a pretty good looking Police Officer!

Merritt Island Hike

Merritt Island has a large area of undeveloped land just north of SR-520 and the first road north of there.

Harbortown Marina is on the Barge Canal

Tina and I took a hike there at the beginning of November on the weekend after our return from Vegas.  It was another beautiful part of Florida wilderness.

Early Morning Hiker

The Lake in the Swamp

The path ended up down at the barge canal which goes from the Indian River to the Banana River and is the main waterway from our house over to the Port Canaveral locks. It was the first time we'd seen the canal from land.

The Barge Canal from Land

It was still a bit early for birds to be down but the flowers and greenery were beautiful.

Fall Flowers

The Non-UF Swamp

 

Happy start of winter from the frigid Florida swamps. :)

Hoover Dam

Towards the end of October Tina and I went to a trade show out in Las Vegas (I know ... tough job, but somebody had to do it).  On our last day there we rented a car and drove out to Hoover Dam.  I had been there when my parents went by there when I was 5 years old, but somehow I didn't have a whole lot of memory about that visit. 

Regardless of how many times you see pictures of it and hear documentaries on it, it's still absolutely amazing to see it in real life.  Just the enormity of it's size, the engineering challenges which had to be solved to build it, and the fact that it was pulled off in a 5 year schedule is just amazing.  Throw in how visually breathtaking it is and you have a place that is well worth the visit.

We did the complete tour which allows you to go down into the electrical generation portion of the design.  There's a total of 8 generators on the Arizona side of the dam and 8 generators on the Nevada side.

Walking over to the back side of the damn you can easily tell how bad of a drought this part of the country is still suffering through based on the lowered water levels evidenced by the white marks on the side of Lake Mead.  Water levels in the lake have dropped 100 feet since the year 2000 and are being estimated to drop another 25 feet over the next year.

On a brighter note a new bridge over the down stream side of the dam diverted highway traffic from having to actually drive over the dam itself.  It's hard to believe that this bridge didn't get completed until 2010 even though studies identified back in the 1960's that the dam would be inadequate to handle the traffic that was growing.

The bridge was named for Mike O'Callaghan (governor of Nevada and Korean War Hero) and Pat Tillman (well known Afghanistan hero who gave up his NFL football career to enlist).

 

Until next time ...

Labor Day 2013

So I'm still trying to catch up ... but we're starting to get there.  Shortly after we got back Labor Day snuck up on us and we had a water sports get together up at our house.  The weather was absolutely beautiful and we had more than enough people here in the morning to get a boat full of people out on the water on the raft.  Unfortunately this was the only outing that I had the camera out for, but we still managed to get most of our younger visitors captured on "film".

We started with our niece Mia and granddaughter Ashlyn.  Ashlyn was a bit nervous, but Mia's attitude got her out there.

Mind you this was before we got going so Ashlyn was still looking pretty positive.  A few moments later though and Ashlyn was reaching for something to hold onto.

Adding our granddaughter Kaylyn onto the mix didn't seem to totally settle Ashlyn, but Mia was still playing the role of the trooper.

Due to the expert boat driver, Ashlyn seemed to finally start enjoying herself.

Switching things up we got our nephew CJ out on the raft with Ashlyn still braving it through and our newest grandson, Jessie, joining in on the fun.

Jesse was a bit nervous at first, but quickly started warming up.

Meanwhile, Kaylyn and Mia were chillin' out back out on boat.

Tina's sister finally made it and we got her daughter Ellie out on the raft.

But towards the end of the boat ride it was time for the grand kids to learn what rafting is all about as you get older.  Mia and CJ didn't give me a speed limit ... or perhaps I just didn't ask.  :)

Note ... first person off of the raft for the day was CJ.

Meaning first person climbing back onto the raft for the day was also CJ.

But alls well that ends well ... and our niece and nephew enjoyed a peaceful ride back to the dock.

So November 12th and I've caught up through labor day.  I'm getting there.  Until next time ...

Bye bye!!!

;)