A good start to a bad day...

We start off on our road trip to meet my Mom and kiddos in Goldthwaite...we're all in a good mood...see, even Karter is smiling...


Isn't this a cute little house?

These flowers belong to this house...




Texas Pride...


The Monarch Butterflies were out...I guess it's either mating season or they're on the move!!!


Dead 'Dillo...
(Corbin said "that's a bug!!"...then a few seconds later "that's an alligator!"...bug, alligator, armadillo...take your pic...either way, it's looks like road kill to me...)


I got lots of practice taking pictures of tractors....








And even managed to see a few silos...


Here's a cool 'ole truck...




This little store in Rising Star let me practice with their plants and fruits...


















Wouldn't be west Texas without an oil rig...


Hay!!!
(my friend, Holly Weckwerth would get this one!)


Managed to see a few cows...they participated by pooping, swatting flies and even moo'ing on cue...


This is what I call "Peek-a-Boo Cow"


They were very curious...





White cow: "Hey, mooove out of the way...this is my only shot at being famous..."
Black cow: "Dude, you're so lame...can't you see it's all about me..."


Now he's turned in to "Peek-a-Boo-Through-My-Ear Cow"


This little tank caught my eye...


And when I got closer, I realized there was a little memorial to someone...


I just love windmills...even the big white ones they've put out in West Texas...there's something calming about

So, this was the 1st part of what I thought was going to be an uneventful trip to meet my Mom half way between Round Rock and Abilene so that I could get the boys from her... Shortly after passing Rising Star, my Mom calls and says "the car's broke down...we barely made it to the side of the road...the windows won't even roll down..." For those of you who don't know, my Mother has Muscular Dystrophy and while she is not in a wheelchair, she's definitely not able to chase kiddos on the side of a busy highway (they were on 183), it was very hot, there was no shade in sight, she had to keep the kiddos in the car so that they wouldn't run in the street (and you know how hot it can get inside a car--luckily the windows ended up rolling down after about 10 minutes), the sun was blazing through the windows blanketing one half of the car (so the 3 of them were huddled on the other half), my Dad wouldn't be able to get to them for about 2 hours and at the time I thought I was just about as far away...sooooo...two hours--no big deal, right???....maybe if you're by yourself...but imagine it with a 2 year old and 4 year old...who are crying the whole time b/c they're hot...and you're covered in sweat......... Well, there's hope to the story...a man stopped by to help my Mom, but couldn't help her get the car started so he tried to leave...unfortunately for him, the ground was still pretty wet and he was towing a trailer full of granite (white is VERY heavy stuff)...so he got stuck... In the meantime, my Mom called the police who dispatched a tow truck and I'd called Highland (our church) and they gave me the number to a church in Lampasas (which was close to where my Mom was...oh yeah...I forgot to mention that part of the story...she knew she'd passed Briggs, but had no idea how far out of Lampasas she was...could be one mile, could be twenty...) The church sent their janitor to pick up my mom... So the tow truck shows up 1st...and it gets stuck, too!!!! So they had to send another tow truck...and about the time that that truck shows up, the man from the church shows up...and he's so intrigued about the tow truck getting stuck that he's not even worried about my mom or the kids...according to my Mom, the hot wait in the sun would've been cut down by about 35-40 minutes if the guy from the church would've arrived, loaded them up, and headed back into town...but he didn't...so by the time I arrived in Lampasas at the (about 1.5 hours or so after the call--it should've taken 2...I won't say how fast I was driving but let's just say it's VERY ticketable), my Mom and kiddos still hadn't showed up!!! They did pull in a few minutes later... My Mom and the kiddos faces were beet red--no joke--I'd never seen anyone so red-faced...I felt bad for all three of them. We switched everything over to my van and eventually went home...it was such an exhausting day...I, myself, had been in the car since 930am (and it was almost 8pm when we got home)...I can definitely say that I am sooooooo glad we are through with that day!!!

Oh yeah, before I forget...I had to return my defective camera and got a Canon Rebel XT...and I LOVE IT!!! It is easy to use and takes great pictures!!! I can't wait to take crazy pictures of the boys doing wild things like flips on the trampoline or jumping on the beds, flying off of rocks--you name it, my kiddos are little acrobats (especially B)...so be watching the blog!!!
Candace