NOOOOOoooooo!

I just recieved an email from my brother-in-law. He said that he talked to River Bend (the camp grouds where we stay) and they said that the Frio River is so low right now that there is no tubeing, just swimming. Steph said she might cry...lol! Everyone pray for rain!!! I want to float the Frio.

:( Sindee

DOG DAYS OF SUMMER AND RECORD HEAT

Kenzie and Pearl cooling off in Pearl's pool. Pearl can't get into the big pool because Bulldogs can't swim (they can ride skateboards though) so she has her own pool. She loves to get sit in the water and cool off. Of course then she gets wet and dirty and wants to jump on you or sit in your lap...eweeeee. She is such a tomboy dog. Nothing girly about her.

Texas has been experiencing record heat and a drought. Today is suppose to be about 106 if I heard the weather man clearly through my early morning daze. Oh, how I long for the sweater weather of Alaska!! Today is my Friday and I am so looking forward to my 3 day week end. Even though tomorrow will be spent cleaning house and washing clothes with a little pool time slipped in some where. Saturday will be spent with Janice getting everything ready for Thelma and Louise's Scrapbook retreat. That's our side business. We hold scrapbook retreats at a local Bed and Breakfast. We have sooooo much fun and get a little cropping done if we are lucky...lol! This retreat's theme is Flip Flops and Sea Shells. The girls will be getting a number of items with that theme. Sand pails with pebble candy rocks inside, flip flops, flip flop scrapbook page kit, etc. We always try to think of cool things to give them. Wish my Alaska scrapbook buddies could come sometime! We had a girl come from England last year. It was ever so much fun.

Hope everyone is staying cool, Sindee

FIREWORKS

Our small town of Bastrop puts on a fireworks display each Fourth of July. Most of the town turns out for it and my family is no exception. We look forward to it every year. We have hamburgers on the grill at my house and then head on down to watch the extravaganza. Local fun in a small town. I love family traditions. Of course my BFF Janice and her family join us...they might as well be family. Hope everyone had a good time with their family and celebration.

OLD BEAU

BEAU

1996 - 2009

BELOVED PET

FAITHFUL

LOYAL

PROTECTOR OF CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN

FRIENDLY

LOVING

BEAUTIFUL

WE WILL MISS YOU OLD FRIEND

Thurs. the new Friday, July 3rd and 4th

Thursday is my new Friday. During the summer months we work 4 tens. Long days, but three day week ends are always worth it. Today is most people's Friday because of the Forth being on Sat. this year.

Tomorrow, July 3rd, we will be gathering at our house for hamburgers and swimming. At dusk we will go to watch the local firework displays. Kenzie and Khi got new red, white and blue t-shirts which is a tradition at our house. I love to take pics and make patriotic scrapbook layouts. This will be Pearl's first July 4th celebration. Hope she is not afraid of the noise. Our big Australian Sheppard, Beau is terrified of fireworks and thunder. I always feel so sorry for him on July 4th. He is now about 15 years old and his health is failing. So sad.

Speaking of scrapbook layouts, Janice (AKA Thelma, BFF) and I are going to a scrapbook store in San Antonio (about 2 1/2 hours away) to a July 4th Crop. It begins at 9:00am and goes till 12:00am. Plus everything in the store is 30% the entire time. WooHoo!! We will have a ball. We will be staying over night at the Comfort Inn. We have been going over there for years now. They have the most comfortable beds I have ever slept in. The scrapbook store we are going to is called Scrapbook 911. It is so cute. All the employees wear scrubs and everything is related to that theme. Can't wait. All I can say is SHOTGUN. Whenever Janice emails or texts me with an idea of going somewhere I respond with SHOTGUN (like when we were kids and we would call shotgun to sit in the front passenger seat)! I am always ready to go anywhere. I love being 58 yrs old, have raised my kids, husband is self sufficient and I can drop and run anytime. On the road again...

Hope everyone has a great Fourth! Sindee

WEDNESDAY, 1 MONTH TILL WE LEAVE FOR THE FRIO RIVER

We have a long standing tradition of going to the Frio River sometime during each summer. It is about 3 hours from here. The water is ice cold and so clear you can see to the bottom in even the deepest places. When we were children Steve's family and my family went camping at the Frio...we didn't know each other then and never ran into each other. After we married and had children we began taking them up there. Now we are taking our grandchildren as well. Everyone, from the oldest to the youngest in the family looks forward to it all year. This year we are having the first ever Pat Glenn (my father in law) Family reunion. Steve's sister, Annette and her family are coming all the way from Colorado. They are only staying for 3 days and since we are staying 7 days, Janice (AKA Thelma) my BFF and her family are coming up and taking over their cabin for 4 days. This should be a blast!! Cooking on the campfire, floating the river, catching up on everyone's family stories, playing domino's and just relaxing. It is so great to have all your family around you up there. Something for everyone to do and nothing to do if you don't want to. The pic at the top is a shot of the river. I am starting to get my list (I have kept a running list for years which I edit each year) together, buying non perishables, planning meals, etc. You know the Frio river is where George Strait learned to swim...at least that is what he says in his song...lol!

We actually got a cool front yesterday. It will be 90 something degrees today instead of 106. We also got some much needed rain this morning. It's just a drop in the bucket of how much we need, but we will take any little bit we can get.

Did y'all catch Deadliest Catch and After the Catch last night? After the catch was so funny at the end and Sig's fish balls looked delicious.

DAY 8 ALASKA CRUISE and LAST PORT OF CALL

Cruising into Victoria, B.C. we awoke at 9:30am. It felt like we had slept till at least noon. I dressed and headed to the Great Outdoors for my morning cappuccino and french toast. We will not dock in Victoria till this evening. We will have the day on the ship to do what ever. After breakfast I went to look at the T shirts they had on sell and finished up my gift shopping. I went to the photo gallery and found a decent pic of me with the sea otter mascot disembarking in Ketchikan. I got it because it came with a pic of the ship and I really wanted that keepsake. I went around to the internet cafe and got in on a "minutes sale". Got 30 minutes for $12. Sat down and immediately used half of them. I used the other half when I got back from our Castle excursion. I then went back to the room to pack my suit cases. We had to put them outside our door at 10:00pm tonight to be taken and sent to our airlines to meet us in Houston. Thank goodness we will not have to lug them off the ship, into a cab, through the airport, etc. The ship personnel also printed out our boarding passes for us. That makes going to the airport a breeze. It was a tight fit, but I got everything into my suit cases. I still don't know how I did it but there was a lot of huffing and puffing and laying across the suit case. I relaxed till time to go ashore. We even had a leisurely dinner in the Summer Place before we disembarked.

It was windy and cold getting off the ship in Victoria. We quickly found our bus and climbed aboard. Our driver told us all the history and highlights of Victoria. It is a very beautiful city with a beautiful coast line. Most all the houses look like Cape Cod Bungalows. We toured Craigdarroch Castle. It was really pretty and HUGE.

There was some beautiful flora in Victoria. I love seeing how the plants vary from region to region.

China Town

The Empress hotel. Sorry for the glare from the bus window. No tea with the Queen.

More touring of the city, then back to the ship about dark.

An ice cream snack, blog and a movie before bed.

We docked in Seattle about 8:30am, Sunday morning. Sunday morning was relaxed. After breakfast for the last time on the deck of the Great Outdoors we looked around our room for anything left behind and closed the door for the last time. We disembarked about 10:00am and hailed a taxi. He was a very nice gentleman. We told him we would like to go to a movie to kill time till our flight at 5:40pm. He drove us to a movie theatre downtown and gave us his number to call when we were ready to head to the airport. We watched "My Life In Ruins", cute flick, then went across the street to the Cheese Cake Factory for a late lunch and to kill a little more time. We had originally planned to sight see when we got back to Seattle, but fatigue got the better of us. After lunch, no cheese cake (too full), we called our taxi driver. He was busy so his brother, the taxi driver, picked us up. He was equally as nice. He told us of his country, etc while driving us to the airport. We bid him good bye and went into the airport. We did a little shopping in there...very cute stuff...then went to wait for our flight to be called. Maxine came through again and we boarded first. A few minutes into our flight the captain said to look out the left window (just happened to be my side) to see Mt. Rainer right next to us. Here is the incredible shot I got.

Had a relaxing flight and movie.

Glad to be home...sad to be home...miss Alaska. Hope you enjoyed the journey, I sure did. NCL is a fantastic Cruise Line. The Inside Passage is an amazing place to see. If you ever get a chance to visit Alaska, Take it! You won't regret it. It was so worth the year of scrimping and saving to take this amazing trip. I would go back in a heart beat, but I would like to see some more of what the world has to offer. Where to next? That's the question.