Angela's Summer

This summer has been a fun summer. As some of you may know, I am up in Oregon staying with my older sister Kelleigh and her family. I haven't really been up here to visit family in the past couple of years. I was up here for Dani and Adam's wedding a couple of months ago, but before that, it has been a while.

So this summer has been full of firsts. I am watching my two nephews, who before this, hardly knew me. I would see them at holidays and camps, but not much outside of family gatherings. So it is nice to be here just to be here. Another first was the all-American Drive-In. We went, I think it was the first weekend I was here. We saw Wall-E and The Incredible Hulk. The whole experience was enjoyable. Ya know, drinking the Starbucks esprresso shot, and going to bed at 2:00- 2:30 am. Always nice. The boys were pinned in the back of the car, and the three of us older people, sat outside. And it was nice and warm outside. Just an all-around fun experience. There are more, but I know if I go on, I would just ramble on and on, on all the "inside" memories. So I will spare you.

There are more firsts to come. One is riding a train, and also riding the train alone. Another is flying alone. I am going from Portland to Sacramento by myself, and I will meet Mom and Dad there. So that will be nice. I also get to go to work with Rob and Rachel, and I am kind of excited. I know that it is work, and it can get kind of "slow" but I am still excited to experience something that I haven't done before. So, even if it is me sitting in their office reading, at least it is something new, right?

Last week, I got to stay with Grandpa and Grandma for a couple of days. It was nice to meet their friends and go on walks with Grandma. We even exercised in the exercising area!!! Another very cool highlight is playing Dr. Mario with Grandpa. I did beat level 20 on medium speed. Yeah, I am pro. :) It was a fun couple of days. They even moved the couch in their living room, so I could have more privacy. That made me happy.

Last weekend we went to Rachel's baby shower. It was nice. We got to eat amazing food made by Jeanne. We got to see Dani and Rachel, which is always nice. Kelleigh and I got to have a little date before the shower and I enjoyed that. :) No boys reaching in the shopping cart taking things out, or boys talking about Velociraptors. As fun as it is, it was nice to have a break. Those boys are fun.

This week we are doing VBS for the church. We are doing the Power Lab VBS and it is fun. Kel and I are working together. We have the 3rd graders. I think they gave us all the good kids. All well-behaved, and very fun. I am enjoying it. The only necessity for Kel and me in the morning to function, is coffee. If we don't have it.... well, we don't want to know what happens.... haha :)

Well, those are some of the fun stuff I have been up to this summer. I am going to go to Tacoma next Tuesday and I will experience another part of the world!! hahaha It is going to be fun. I get to see my Aunt and Uncle, and of course cousins. And I will also get to hang out with Dani and her fun husband Adam. I think Kel and Mitch are going to see if they can go too! It will be a MASSIVE par-TAY!!!!

So, I just thought I could tell the world what I have been up to this summer. I start my senior year in about 3 weeks. The summer is just going by so incredibly fast. Pitty.

Love you all! Hope all of you are doing well!

Ciao!

Love,
Ang

THE ZOO!!!

This was my friend, Lenny, who almost poked my leg before this picture. We had some fun bonding times. It was nice.
I really wanted to get onto the tram. It is spring break, and a TON of people were there. We had our number.... 49. It was a long wait.
The family made a collective decision to name the Texas Longhorn Bubba. But when you say this... you have to have a southern twang to your voice. So everyone, meet "Bubba".
Us saying goodbye. I think I feel a tearing coming on.
I have no idea what this animal is called. We can pretend I know. That sounds like a good idea.
LEMURS!! All I can think of is on "Madagascar" when all the lemurs start dancing and they have those cool Jamaican accents. Yeah, good times. "I like to move it, move it..."
A Kangaroo from Australia!!
If you want to see this picture a lot bigger to see each of our faces, then just click on it, and it should blow up. It is a fun picture. :)
The kids and Nick looking at the giraffe. It was cute.
Christina petting the goats! It was a cool petting area!
Mom, being the mom, watching all the little kids.
Hannah is in her element!! She loved doing this! It was fun watching her ride the horses. She just loves horses.
Christina giving us a grin before riding the horses.
Our million buckets of food! It was sooo much food to give animals!! haha It was fun.



We were invited to the Bayou Wildlife Park by the Harris family. We were all excited to go! We drive in, and there are animals running up to our car!! It was crazy! It was fun. While we waited for the tram ride, there was a petting area. There were goats and fun little animals! There was even a giraffe that we could pet! It was fun. Once we got onto the tram, we all had our 5+ buckets of food to feed all the animals. There were ostriches, goats, ducks, alligators, turtles, cows, horses, lemurs, kangaroos, "zonkey" (a mix of donkey and zebra), bulls, zebra (and a 5 day old zebra! It was sooooo cute!!), emus, camels, pigs, snakes, swans, and other animals whose names I can't pronounce. I think one of the coolest animals that we saw, (and fed), was the Texas Longhorn!!! It was HUGE!! I was so excited! Nick just put out his bucket of food, and the longhorn would just eat away. It was so cool. We all felt his horns, and man, they are huge! I was excited. This whole trip was fun. I am glad that we went. A memorable trip! I like this trip a lot.

Love,
Ang

Kemah and Landry's!!

It was beautiful!
Hannah is so stinkin' cute!!
Our restaurant! MMM.... so good.
The colorful carousal.
What the girls went on.
I am tired! But the food was OH SO GOOD!
Nick doing the model thing.
Christina and Hannah in Landry's.
Nick and Hannah watching the boats.
The boat's name was "Christina"!


We went to Kemah, to the boardwalk. It was a lot of fun. We bought fish food, and we fed the fish, which was pretty cool! We walked around a little bit looking at all of the boats and shops, while we waited to be seated in Landry's seafood restaurant. After we ate, the girls went on the carousal. It was fun! I loved all the lights! So here are pictures from the night!

Love,
Ang

At the San Jacinto Memorial

Dad and the girls with the canons!!
There is a plaque on each of the canons.
From the memorial, looking up at the Monument. This is all in memory of San Jacinto.
There it is!!
Nick, Hannah, and Me being sailors!!


We went outside of the memorial, and there were mocks of the "twin sisters". These were canons that defeated Santa Ana's army. They were a gift from Cincinnati. As a result of using these canons, if gave Texas their freedom! Yeeeeeahhhh!! At the memorial, there is the ship from D-Day. It is up close. Pretty sweet! Nick LOVED this! He wants to be a history teacher, so he was excited to come to these places. Here are more pictures!

Love,
Ang

"THE" Monument

We were about to get blown away! haha
This is what all of the cement looks like. It is cool.

This is posted when you are in the elevator on the way up to the top! Cool.

Looking from the observation deck, this is the bayou. It had a ship from WWI and WWII. It was cool. It was the flag ship on D-Day
The family standing at the bottom of the Monument. It is HUGE.
Hannah trying to look at dad... haha. It was REALLY windy.

So, we went to the monument on Wednesday. We went and watched a movie on the history of Texas. It explained the fight that happened there. It was very interesting to learn about the history of Texas.

We got there and walked around a little bit. It was VERY windy. Inside, the concrete that makes the building, has imprints of sea shells in the walls. The makers of this amazing building used ingredients from the Bayou right next to the monument. It is really cool. Inside there are artifacts from different people and places that are connected to the fight of Mexico and Texas. There are also small re-made scenes of the time. I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

:)

Love,
Ang

Tuesday in Texas

Today, we went to Schlitterbahn. It is an in-house water park. It was fun. Mom, Dad, and I went to hang out in the huge hot tub, while Nick and the girls went on every possible slide. It was a nice and relaxing time.

Here is the website to Schlitterbahn:

www.schlitterbahn.com

I like writing the word "Schlitterbahn".

After we went there, we went to Murdochs to go shop at the beach. We all got our nice and neat nick-nacks. I love the beach. There has been a crazy storm, and looking at the ocean, it was choppy. After we cruised around for a while, we ate at the "world's greatest hamburgers" Fuddruckers. It was GOOOOOOOD. I liked it a lot and I wasn't even hungry.

We finally left, and we got to Chad and Mandy's house. I used to babysit Brittany and Jordan when they were babies..... They aren't babies anymore!!! They are cute girls! And now there is a third!! Daisy. She was in bed, so I haven't met her yet, but I am very excited to! The girls took a picture, so here it is!



Love you all!
Ang

Texas Rodeo!!

Here is our adventure at the Texas Rodeo! It is chronologically backwards... but it works! Haha
These are the guys that do the "bareback" and they have to stay on the horse for 8 seconds and how they stay on, they get point accordingly to their "perfection".

Pretty tough guys if I do say so.

Dinner time!!

Hannah with her Texas Ranger hat and her Texas sausage!

That turkey leg was tough! Nick took forever to eat it!! haha


Can't have a rodeo without the cattle.

The old days!!!
What Dad calls "the boot". It was over $10,000. CRAZY!!!



Only in Texas.

This is where the livestock and shopping was. Very fun.



This was a memorable time! I loved it. There were many different categories during the rodeo, and afterwards there was a concert. We were tired, and we didn't know the singer, so we left after a few songs. It was fun to walk around the shops and see all the "bling-bling" that the Texan women wear. And let me tell you.... It is BLING-BLING. All the real cowboys had their vests, big belt buckles, nice jackets, and their handy-dandy cowboy hat. Very nice. We walked around a bit, and we got free beef stew. This whole experience was amazing, and a total culture shock. Nothing like Porterville. It was like the Springville rodeo on "steriods" as Nick would say. :) We all had fun.

Until next time,

Ang!

P.S. Before we went to the Rodeo, Mom, Dad, Nick, and I went to Friendswood. As some of you know, it is where we used to live. We stopped by the lot where our house used to be. We went back to the tree house, and memories where flying! We drove around and saw the schools, and all the shops. It was fun. Just thought y'all would like to know that.