Monday, March 11, 2013

Andrea and Louis Come to Texas

A couple of weeks ago my beautiful niece Andrea and her husband Louis came to Texas for a visit. Andrea is my sister Jan's eldest child. Long-time readers may remember that we went to North Carolina for their wedding in the summer of 2011. We haven't seen them since then, so we were happy when Aunt B offered to host a family get together while they were here.

We invited all of Andrea's first cousins and their families. We did manage a group picture of all the cousins who were there. Just for the record, I did try to get them to take off their sunglasses. They declined. Those are our princesses showing off their cowboy boots on the front row.

Bylinda and I have 5 children between us. These are our kids, grandkids, and a couple of girlfriends. Andrea and Louis are on the back row. She has the long blonde hair and he is wearing the striped shirt.
A family gathering at Aunt B's house means lots of great food, lots of visiting, lots of music, and lots of fun. It almost always includes a little gunfire too. This is Texas after all.

Aunt B and Uncle Mack have a shooting range set up at the back of their property. Here are a few photos of some of the family taking target practice.



Sadly, I didn't get a good photo of Andrea and Louis together. But I did get a couple of Andrea. She very kindly took the time to read to Princess E. These two pictures are not clear because, somewhere along the line that day, my lens got dirty. Katy noticed it was dirty and cleaned it, so the photos improved significantly.


Aunt B lives out in the country so there is lots of room for whatever you want to do. Some of the guys decided to hit a few golf balls.


There was also music. Zack brought his equipment. He and his partner frequently play small venues in central Texas and around the hill country. Travis and Nick played along and sang to provide some music for our festivities. Even the princesses joined in on the drum. The rest of us sat in the pickup bed or the lawn chairs and enjoyed the show.


It was a beautiful day and we all enjoyed being out in the country. Princess E and Grandad hunted bugs. They found doodle-bugs (pill-bugs), grasshoppers, and butterflies. Both princesses blew bubbles and ran wild and free.


It was a great day. It was really great to sit and visit with Andrea and to see that she and Louis are happy and doing very well. She also gave us the latest news for her siblings and her parents. I'm glad they're all doing okay. Here are a few other photos from our day with Andrea and Louis.


As you can see, a good time was had by all.