Happy Birthday Tess and Tommy

I asked Tess, "what is your favorite thing about Tommy?" She said "That he was born on the same day as me."

Last year they got to spend their b-day together and have birthday cake at Mozarts in Austin

I told Tess she was the best birthday present I've ever had. She looked at me for a second and then said "yes... and you were the box"

29 and the painful week ahead

Toad is 29 and now begins the long week (my last week of being 29) where he complains daily of being so old... "How can you stand being so old?" and "it's hard to be this old" etc...

For Tom's b-day I drug him--against his will--to Oklahoma's state park, Beavers Bend (2 and a 1/2 hour drive), our closest set of "mountains". I think eventually he did have fun. We stayed at the Lakeview Lodge, hiked around the lake and ate some local catfish. Thanks again to my wonderful mother who watched and even fed our girls so we could get away.

here is the view from our room, those hills in the distance are our lofty peaks
the "little smokies"



the back roads of Oklahoma were like a foreign country