February Freeze and South Padre Sun

The winter beast of the previous year, arrived in Texas again February 2-4, 2022, causing damage to much of our landscape, while still struggling to survive the former attack.  Although not nearly as severe, it was disheartening to see our yard in distress. A packet of cheer arrived via text sometime later, and little Brooke warmed our hearts.

We were able to spend some time with the Johnson kids while Stephanie and Ben took off for a get-away to Costa Rica, the first part of March. We never quite know what we are in for with the Johnsons . . . Bennett and Tanner surprised us by coming home, after playing near the dam in their neighborhood, with an otter skull!  Destroying dinosaurs, tossing water balloons, solving puzzles, and texting friends, are just a few more of the fun activities going on while we were there. It's a good thing the kids were in school most of the time - we were feeling our age for sure!  

Grandpa was able to accompany Paige to her school's daddy-daughter date night on Friday.

While Emma and Paige were at other activities on Saturday, Bob and I took Tanner and Bennett to Double Lake State Park where their ward was having a campout.  We took them on a hike around one of the lakes. They spotted a dead armadillo in the water. These boys are always prepared for outdoor fun, so I suppose it was a good thing thing to find they had packed an ax (and a machete???) in their backpack!

Bob was getting close to completing his upstairs laundry room project.  When we bought this home, the one thing that was a concern was that there was only a small laundry room downstairs, which was built to fit the owners small (but nice) Miele washer and dryer.  When I say small, I mean it only fits about 3 pool towels.  It would do for Bob and I, but eventually, we knew we would want a space for the extra large laundry set we had inherited from Bob's parents.  So, Bob designed a laundry room upstairs using a portion of our walk-in attic. He used some cabinets which we had removed during our downstairs remodel; and he did all the dry-walls, doors, floor tile, plumbing and electrical himself. It's a great addition to this house!  (I've added a more recent photo as proof!)

The end of March, we headed south to join Bobby and Jill's family in South Padre. They had planned a trip to the island with some friends for their spring break, and invited us to tag along.

We found a cool sandcastle built on the beach.  Not to be outdone, we set out to build our own!  We quickly realized that without the right tools, ours could not compete.

No trip to South Padre Island is complete without a visit to Sea Turtle Inc. Dedicated  to the rescue, rehabilitation and release of sea turtles, it's always a fun place to go.

Another must do activity is to book a dolphin watch tour.  We were fortunate to see lots of activity when we went.

Bobby roped me in to going on a night hunt for crabs with his family. We found a few and even staged some crab races into the bay.

Thanks for letting us join your South Padre adventures, Bobby (and family)!

Spring was in the air, and when we returned home, we were happy to see some of our landscape in full bloom!