Visit With Buddy and Heather

On Thursday, Feb. 18 as we were headed toward Ft. Worth to visit family, Susie called to give us a heads up about an airplane that had plowed into the IRS building in Austin. We hadn't gone through Austin yet so she suggested that we take a toll road that goes around Austin. Traffic in Austin is always bad so we suspected it would be especially bad with that tragic crash. It was good advice because we had no trouble going around Austin on the toll road, and it made the trip quite nice. It was interesting that there was an option on the toll road to take a picture of your car tag in order to bill you by mail. We took advantage of billing my mail so we'll get a bill sometime in the future. That was very convenient.

We went to Buddy and Heather's because they went to a company event in Denver. Gary and Rosemary drove from Flagstaff to take care of the kids, and they invited us to join them while they were there. It's always fun to visit the Hopkins family. The first day Gary and I went to pick up the kids at their school. They go to a pretty new school in their new neighborhood. Here is their school.




Here are pictures of Gary and grandson, Garrison. When we arrived, Garrison said, "I've missed you." Then he stood next to me and said, "I'm taller than you are." He is a lot taller, and if he's not taller than I am yet, he will be soon.

Here's Garrison with their new dog, Jay. It's amazing they have bonded since Garrison has been quite scared of dogs for a long time. Jay is a very good dog so that may have helped.

Of course Bob did his magic for the kids. They always love that.

When I asked the kids what they wanted to do Saturday, they said, "Roller skating." That was good since that's what we had thought we would do. Skating is one of Bob's favorite things to do. Here they are having fun at the skating rink. Going skating gave Gary and Rosemary a little time off which they appreciated.

This is Rachel.

Can you tell that this is Kimbo?

Here is Rachel skating and skating and skating. She is the skating queen.

After lengthy periods of skating Garrison also took time for games.

Rest time.

Kimbo and I traded socks so she had socks that covered her ankles to protect her from rubbing from the tongues of the skates. Cute socks, huh?

Saturday afternoon, Buddy and Heather returned with gifts for the kids. They were so happy to have Mom and Dad home.

Father and son hanging out.

After kids went to bed for the evening the adults got to play games, one of the favorite things that the Hopkins family enjoys doing. We played a game called "Up the River Down the River." It's a fun way to spend an evening.

Sunday we went to church. Afterwards the Hopkins family spent time together while Bob and I went to Mansfield to visit Becky, Beth, and Bill, my cousins from my mother's sister, Phyllis. I think we need to have a Carter reunion some time in the future. We had a very nice visit.

We left Monday morning to take a trip to Abilene to visit one of Bob's former principals in Iowa and his son who was also one of Bob's former students. They have a house that they built themselves, very rustic, and they have a kennel for breeding and training hunting dogs and for boarding animals. We had a nice visit, but I forgot to take any pictures. OOps.