Last Weekend in Texas in June

I'm doing some catching up on the blog tonight. It has been a crazy busy summer.

Below are some pictures from our last weekend in Texas.

We decided to go for one last paddle down the San Jacinto River. This is Banana Bend Beach in full summer swing. It was one of our favorite places just east of Houston.

We found a quiet spot to soak in the river and have a little picnic.

The quiet was quickly disturbed by the speed boats racing each other back and forth and back and forth. They have installed car engines on these tiny boats. It is a wonder that they don't tip over and that people are willing to spend that much money on fuel just to go fast for a few seconds.

We ended the weekend hanging out on the riverbank back by the Jeep. Good memories.

One of the highlights of our short time living in Houston.

David Klein's wedding

Jonathan's cousin, David Klein, got married on June 1st near Columbus, Ohio. All the Klein's got together to celebrate the occasion and spend some time together.

Thank you to George who shared his photos from the wedding. Sorry, some of them are so small! This is a picture of David, the groom, on the move just after the ceremony.



The ceremony was in a beautiful, remote location over the river and through the woods down some of the back roads of Ohio.

We had the place all to ourselves with lots of room to run around! Jonathan's nephews, Andrew and Will, burned off some wedding cake energy on the boardwalk :-)

The two of us all dressed up with a fun place to go.

Jonathan's brother Pete, Sarah, and the boys.

Jonathan's parents George and Pam.

We all stayed at Fort Rapids....a Holiday Inn with a huge, indoor water park.

Andrew and cousin Nate take a break from the action.



Nate and I tried out one of the double tubes on the big slides. It was fun to be a kid again!

Riding this slide was kind of like being flushed down the drain in a giant sink.

Pete and Sarah gave it try.


Will enjoyed the fountains.


Andrew turned 5 on May 31st. We took advantage of the opportunity to celebrate with him and all the other people with birthdays in April and May.


I'll end with a picture of Uncle Jon and Will with his red bag of birthday marbles.

Memorial Day at the Ranch

I'm not sure if you can read the sign or not.....it says:

"Blue Mountain Ranch

John P. McCarthy

Rebecca McCarthy"

This is a great view of the Blue Mountains from the property.

On a clear day you can see 60 miles from the deck of their house.

This a picture of El Hefe himself, Toby's dad, John McCarthy. John doesn't normally look like this....he was just being silly for the camera. He was a lot of fun sharing the history of the area and giving us a personal tour of the properties and the new house they are building up on the mountain.

(Sorry for the tiny pictures. They are from Toby's camera and his online picasa album. This is a big as I can make them)

It was just a few days after Jonathan's birthday and before my golden birthday on 29th. Thea gave us "his and hers" paddling shirts as birthday gifts.

We drove the Jeep and kayaks down to the Llano River, which flows through one of the ranch properties, and spent most of the weekend on the water.

Most of the river crew is pictured above: (L to R) Colin, Thea, Tobias, Jonathan, Emily, and Veronica. Not pictured are Toby's little brother J.P., Kayla, Jesse, and Cody.

Thea is a professional when it comes to lounging on the river -- complete with floppy hat, shades, and her own floating lounger with built in cup holders.

Jonathan caught on quickly, floating with Toby on the giant inflatable fun center.

Jonathan and one of the guys went for a short paddle on the river. We had beautiful weather conditions for being outside all weekend.

Toby wanted a kayak lesson. He watched from the water as I demonstrated all the strokes. He did a great job and even performed a successful self rescue before the day was over. We only came away with a few bruises.



Around one of the bends in the river was an old quarry with really deep water perfect for cliff diving. Of course, we were safe and jumped feet first just in case.

Jonathan is pictured above demonstrating a classic "iron cross" jump.

Tobias and Jonathan use the ladder to climb back up for round two.

Thea jumps in!




The photographer strikes a pose and....




....finally puts down the camera and hat to take the plunge as well.
It was so fun I ended up jumping at least two more times!


It was a great weekend making new friends, seeing more of Texas and where Tobias grew up, and spending time with my sis.

We stopped in San Antonio on the way home and spent an hour walking around downtown so Jonathan could have his own "Remember the Alamo" experience.

Happy Birthday Jonathan!

Return to Crystal Beach

This time we brought Rachel and Derk and their dogs Sota and Charlie with us. We set up camp on the beach this past weekend. We did some kayaking, fishing, gourmet camp cooking, and took several long walks on the beach with the dogs.

We had quite the spread staked out along our own little section of the dunes.

Fun in the Sun along the Texas Gulf Coast!

Working Hard in Colorado

One of the perks of my job is getting to travel. This year's annual Project WILD Coordinator's conference happend to be in Estes Park, Colorado right outside of Rocky Mountain National Park. It was a lot of work helping to plan and prepare for the conference, as well as, making sure that everything ran smoothly throughout the entire week.

Everyone in my office came along. Including our executive director, Josetta Hawthorne.

We took several half day field trips to RMNP during the week. We heard talks from park rangers about fire management, elk population control, and climate change and the effects it is having on wildlife habitat and populations in the park.

The talk that I found most interesting was the discussion about Mountain Pine Beetles and how they are researching and working to control the damage that they are doing to forests. We had similar problems with Southern Pine Beetles in Florida. They bore into the pine trees to the point that the tree is overwhelmed by the destruction that the beetles cause to their vascular system and dies. This creates huge stands of dead trees. One method they are trying is cutting down the dead trees and burning them in a machine like the one pictured above. This hopefully kills any beetles that are in the process of reproducing in that tree and prevents them from infecting any other healthy trees nearby.

I stopped for a picture in the Alluvial Fan with some of my co-workers.

(L to R) Lanese, Maricella, and Grace.

I also got to catch up with Lori Haynes. She is the Project WILD State Coordinator in Florida. I was one of her facilitators when I worked at Pine Jog.

This was the view from our hotel. We held all the meetings at The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park. Yes, this is the hotel where Stephen King wrote "The Shining." The movie version, starring Jack Nicholson, played continuously on channel 42....kinda creepy!

Besides comittee meetings and field trips we also took time to share updates and suggestions for several of the Project WILD activities. Marc, who also works in my office, is trying out an activity involving spiders made out of pipe cleaners....what will environmental educators think of next!

Overall, not a bad week at work. Next year, we head to Portland, Oregon.

Too bad this only happens once a year!

Remember the Alamo

In April, I was in San Antonio exhibiting at the Texas Water conference for work. I had time each evening to do some exploring in the city. I happened to walk by the Alamo each day from my hotel to the convention center. I also got to explore the San Antonio Riverwalk and take a boat tour. If you are thinking of taking a vacation to San Antonio, Texas -- I'd say go for it!

I give it two thumbs up.