The Rezeks

Jon and Meghan stopped by for a quick visit on Friday.  They now live in North Carolina--are residents of New Bern, and their house was flooded last year during the big hurricane that struck.  They are just about done with their rebuilding.  They also have a condo in Orange Beach (reference the Dec 2018 blog post), which is about a two hour drive from our house.  We had a very nice visit--hung out, dinner, and some wave-running, which was cut short due to some weather coming in, but they did get to see some dolphins.

We went out for some yummy seafood for dinner, and then Bode was nice enough to take a picture.  It is hard to believe that I have known Jon for 30 years come November.

I have taken to bird-proofing some of the garden.  We will see how this goes.  I have some nice beans growing, some pumpkins starting to emerge, and I also planted some spinach and cilantro, but haven't yet seen their buds.

The okra has really been coming in; unfortunately, we haven't really done anything with it, other than look at it.

I wonder if the garden is attracting reptiles because yesterday, we had FOUR snakes in the yard; fortunately, Ashley was able to kill two of them.

The big project for the next couple of weeks will be more sod in the back yard and hopefully a flagstone walkway/stairs leading down to the dock.  I've dug out most things; below is the prep work.  First, where the sod will go.

Next shows the stairs.  I'm not exactly sure I will correctly build the stairs like a professional landscaper, but I think Ashley and I should be able to figure things out. 

Close to three tons of flagstone, two tons of gravel, and one ton of sod will arrive on Tuesday; hopefully Ashley can get everything to the back yard without too much trouble.

Bode starts the sixth grade tomorrow.  We picked up his class schedule, and he seems very excited.  He has band, world history, math, language arts, earth and space science, and gym class; that sounds like enough to keep him busy.  We'll see how everything goes tomorrow.  Pleasant Sunday.

Summer Swim Meet

Bode had a swim meet this weekend--it was his last swimming activity until 13 August, so he's pumped about the break.  Because of the impending break, we decided to swim both on Saturday and Sunday--a full weekend on the pool deck :-)  We got there early both days and set up our shade protection, complete with Auburn Tiger towels.

Next is a picture of Bode getting ready for his first swim of the day--the 100-IM. 

Here's a picture after the first leg (butterfly) and halfway through the second--note the lead Bode has (he is in the middle).

After the backstroke was Bode's Achilles' heel--the breast stroke.  Note he's now behind going into the final turn.

Bode made up for it on the freestyle, and closed the gap--I couldn't tell who won, and there really isn't a photo-finish in these meets ;-)

Bode had an amazing meet--six individual races, six personal bests.  Below are the events, his previous times, and his new times.

• 100 IM       1:36     1:24
• 50 FREE    36.5     32.3
• 100 BACK 1:40     1:26
• 100 FREE  1:21     1:13
• 50 BACK   38.2     37.5
• 200 FREE  3:30     2:50

Here is a picture of Bode coming into the turn in the 100 free.

Not much else going on this weekend.  Bode starts his introduction to junior high school band tomorrow; in preparation, we went out and got his trumpet.

Only two more weeks until school starts for Bode--where has the summer gone?

South Carolina

Bode and I spent the last few days in South Carolina visiting my father and his wife, Janet.  We had a lovely time--we managed to do a lot while also relaxing a lot in the days that we were there.  They live on an island that has three golf courses, which means we spent a large amount of time golfing.  Even Bode got into the swing of things.  Here's a picture of Bode in front of one of the many ponds.  It's hard to tell, but there is a gator swimming in the water behind him.

Bode enjoyed the golf, but I think the best part was the driving of the golf cart.

Here's one movie of Bode hitting a wedge--not too shabby.

As I said, there were some gators about...

It was a little eerie being near water with gators, but they were quite skittish and left us alone.   That being said, we didn't go fishing for too many balls out of the water.  Before one of the rounds, we stopped for some pictures.

Here's a movie of Bode hitting his driver--he actually does well when he connects (but there is the occasional whiff...)

Bode liked the birds--he might have a future as a wild-life photographer.

We had a lovely brunch at The Rhett House in down-town Beaufort, which has some amazing old houses.  I should have taken more pictures, but this is the best one I got...

We also swam in the club pool every day, and Bode and I managed a couple days on the tennis courts.  We needed to do all this exercise, because we probably ate too much food at night :-)  We had a wonderful visit to South Carolina and were sad to come back to the real world :-)  We got home today, and are both a little tired due to getting up early.  We'll goof off the rest of the afternoon and rejoin society tomorrow :-)  Pleasant day to all!

Houston III

The big day finally arrived.  We all put on our best clothes and posed for some pictures.  Bode needs to tell us to move into the light because you can't really tell the below picture is of Ashley and me...of course, I could just say that Ashley is really tan, but we all know that to be a lie.

Bode and Charlie were all dressed up and just thrilled to be going to a wedding.

We even had to force David to stop working and come to the wedding...

The wedding was held in an old converted barn; we were worried it was going to be hot, but it was properly air-conditioned and quite pleasant.

The ceremony was short and sweet, and we headed to the reception.  Bode and Charlie were ready to eat.

Ashley got a picture of Bode with the lovely bride, but I was too slow to get over there, so I only got a picture of a picture of Bode with Chelsea.

I did manage to get a nice picture of Ashley and Penny.

These next pictures are of Bode dancing; I should have taken a movie.  The little man loves to dance (didn't get that from me), but he's not quite got the hang of what to do (got that from me).  But he had a blast on the dance floor, and I'm sure this will bode well for Bode when he starts going to the junior high dances.  In all pictures, Bode is the short guy in the white shirt in the middle.

After the wedding, we retired to Penny and Milton's for some final R&R.

We had a wonderful time in Houston and cannot thank Penny and Milton enough.  Thankfully they have two more daughters, so hopefully we'll get to do this real soon :-)  Pleasant week to all.

Houston II

On 5 Jul, Frank and JoAnne arrived in Houston, and we all headed back up to Lake Conroe for a big fish fry. 

Bode and Ashley did some more lake swimming--similar to swimming behind our house, but without the salt; the water, however, was not near as clear as our water.

David and Charlie arrived from Denver, and the Rankin clan (sans Teddy, who was in Switzerland) was back under one roof.  In hindsight, I probably should get everyone to stop what they are doing and pose for a picture, but I didn't want to interrupt the flow of the evening; thus, many of these pictures aren't the best.  However, we do get to see JoAnne and Frank, Patty and Dwight, Milton, Josh (Penny and Milton's oldest child), David, and Owen (Josh's son).

I also snagged a good picture of Ashley and Milton.

The fish-fry was awesome--tons of food (again) and it is always nice to see everyone.

Houston I

We spent the last week or so in Houston.  We went on 3 Jul and returned just today (8 Jul).  We had an amazing time.  We flew out early on Wednesday.  Here are Ashley and Bode getting ready for takeoff.

The flight out was uneventful--on time departure, early arrival, and we took a bus to get to the rental car complex.

The car was waiting for us when we got there, traffic was light, and by 1000 that morning, Bode and I were in the pool.

We went to Houston for a wedding.  Penny and Milton Watson (Ashley and Penny are cousins) have four kids; their oldest daughter, Chelsea, married a fine young man named Brandon.  Penny and Milton rented a house at Lake Conroe and were gracious enough to let us stay at their house, which is simply the equivalent of a 5-star hotel.

On the 4th of July, we went up to Lake Conroe to visit the Watson crew at their lake estate.  The house they rented was pretty nice...

and had a wonderful view of the lake.

Bode and Ashley did some lake swimming and snagged a picture with the bride-to-be and her nephew, Owen.

Bode tried to walk on the yellow floaty-thing.

The basement of the house was pretty cool--lots of games to include Ping Pong, pool, and an air hockey machine.  Ashley and Bode played a few games to determine who could claim the title of McGuirk Champion.

Milton was getting ready to grill up burgers and hotdogs, but he managed to stop and get a great picture with Ashley and Bode.

And Bode was nice enough to snap a picture of Ashley and me.

After a fine meal (which turned out to be the theme of the stay), we headed back to Penny and Milton's and watched the first episode of Stranger Things 3 on Netflix; thus far, we are fans :-)