The Merritt Center and Lodge Payson

... Anyway he was pretty cool. Former Army Ranger, he is involved in local search and rescue. He believes that most people that require rescue aren't out of shape novice hikers, but usually fit, experienced people, who are wanting to push their envelope but maybe didn't do their homework properly and are caught unprepared for what they have chosen to attempt on a given day. I told him that people like that really irritate me.

... s) built this. It is apparently a place that all musicians love to play at. The Allman Brothers Band was there while I was there and I tried to get a ticket but the were sold out. So I will have to come back here someday for a concert. My next stop was at a state park just east of Albuquerque New Mexico. I was there for a few days. While in New Mexico I went up to SantaFe. I also went up to Los Alamos to see Bandaliers where American Indians lived in the side of cliffs. It ...

... of really cool shops and restaurants in town, though I wasn't there long enough to stop into half of them. The one that I did spend a bunch of time in was the "Ghost Town Gear" Shop, which for a store with a relatively small footprint, had a great deal of gear, both old and new, as well as 7.5 minute topos covering the entire state, should you need such things. They also had a good quantity of used and new books covering all topics in the outdoors.

... Lytle's to our favorite French restaurant for dinner. As usual, it was excellent. We had to walk off dessert so we went down to the beach for a while. The weather was perfect and believe it or not there was one section where they had lights and there were people playing Frisbees and actually one guy surfing.

Gene: Monday afternoon: We went out to Cathedral rock, very impressive! Then we decided to head in to uptown and just shop around, I found a great Eagle to go on my desk in Luling. We enjoyed just hanging out at the shops. Kinda just decided to buy dominos at eat on the back porch and watch the sun go down. Pizza and beer, now that's what I call vacation! Tuesday morning got off to a quick start with having to deal with mortgagae company, title ...

Gene: WOKE UP AT 5:00!!! The sun was up already and blazing! It gets morning here way to early, but both Kathy and I rested well. Went and visited with the Fairfield folks and then went out to lunch, ate at the Heartline cafe, it was different, but then everything seems "wierd" out here anyway. We had a chilled strawberry soup, with two salads, it was all good, especially the coors lite! We then went down the road to Oak Creek Village, wandered around and took pictures ...

... and peppers too. I'm thinking if we keep them on their current home school routine they should be ready to get a place of their own by the time they are 12. The other highlight of the day was that we put an offer in on a condo in Park City, UT. We have been looking since Feb. and found what will be a very good deal if it works out. We have prayed about it and put it in God's hands. He has always been faithful to open the right doors and close the wrong ones. We will see.

... to be able to spend this family time together. Kelly and I are constantly in awe of the experiences we have had and the places we have been able to go. After we rode for a while we stopped at this little seafood restaurant on the main street. As you would imagine, everything was excellent. When we got home we let the boys go out and play with their friends and Kelly and I sat around a fire with some of our neighbors. We have really nice couples with kids on both sides of us.

... he will be going back tomorrow to get them filled. Barter is Better.(For more information on barter contact me at...) We moved back into the spot we were in last week. This is a great park right on Mission Bay. There is plenty to do for the kids. We cooked out on the grill and then made a fire in our fire pit. Kelly went out for a while after dinner. So the boys and I made smores and then went for a walk.(They rode their bikes) Afterwards, we played Sequence before they went to bed.

... practicing and we started chatting. I was so proud of Keegan...most kids would have been bugging me to stop talking and get going. Instead, he noticed an older lady setting up chairs for someone's 90th birthday party and walked over and asked her if he could help. After doing that, he started putting all the table cloths on too. I just stood back and had a proud mommy moment watching him and how great he is with older adults. It ...