Welcome to the Harvest Creek Ranch where we spent our Texan Vacation! 

Home to Darin, Jody and their trusty Australian Shepherd, Jake, the smartest dog in Texas, bar none! 

You have heard of living in a gated community? Well I guess you could say that they live in one of those! A rather large one....800 acres worth! 

The long drive from the road meant that their place is very secluded, a perfect place to rest and relax, and we did plenty of both! 

The yard is in sight, Jody and Darin live in the house on the left, while another couple live on the right. The barns, and machine shed are behind the houses. 

Here is Jody and Darin's house...a 100 year old ranch house with hardwood floors that are amazing! They have definitely made it home! It was sooo fun to see them and now we can imagine where they are when we talk to them and think about them during the day. 

We stayed in our own log cabin....still on the ranch, but about 1 1/4 miles down the road, the owners were away and left it for guests to use....what a special place to call home for the week. 

Lunch on the porch was a treat....love that warm Texas weather. 

Along with the horses that come to the ranch to be trained, Darin and Jody also have three of their own horses. Here Jody is with their 'girls' as she calls them, Shamar and Ketura. They always look like they are talking to each other. 

Darin isn't the only one that helps with the horses....here Jody shows a horse when his owner came to pick him up. 

They have lots of animals on this ranch besides the horses.....Cows need feeding, as do donkey's, a long horn, axis deer, the tame deer, felice, and yes, don't forget the Big Horn Sheep...everyone is looking for a free meal, including the big rams, Jacob and Esau!

Jake always goes along for the ride! Darin is counting how many calves were born since the last feeding!(seven total while we were there) 

Life on the ranch includes not just riding and feeding the animals, but also giving personal TLC as needed. Ketura needed her hooves taken care of....Jake looks like he is filling her in on what's up while Jody and Darin wait. 

Shaved Ice Anyone? This is one of Jody and Darin's favorite things to do in Boerne on a hot day!
The King and Queen of Boerne take their places!

Saturday we spent the day shopping...first in their little town of Boerne, and then later in San Antonio.....we found these great chairs in the little Outdoor Store in Boerne!

Sunday Dinner at the Grist Mill in Gruene, Texas was a new adventure for all of us except Jody...she had been their with her Bible Study group and enjoyed it so much she decided to bring us all here after church! Mmmm, mmmm, Good! 

Tuesday afternoon was our last day so we decided to try something new....a canoe trip down the Gualdalupe River. We launched our canoe first, then Jody, Darin and Jake got into their canoe and we were off. 

The River looked so tranquil....sometime when you have time ask Dave about our trip down the river!  

Our time was almost over and we decided that we needed to have a picture with us and Jake! Our furry texan grandchild! We sure did have a great time! 

Howdy from Texas!!

As an avid blog hopper I understand the frustration of not having any new posts for days and even weeks on end! So today I decided to reward all of you that have been faithfully checking our blog with nothing new on it! As many of you know, Dave and I are enjoying a Texan Vacation with our kids, Jody and Darin. Unfortunately our home computer developed issues the day before we left so I couldn't post the pictures I had taken of the makeover on our guest room(I promise to still post them later) or anything else for that matter! How frustrating is that?

Once we got down here, I realized that I should have brought my camera cord to download pictures onto Dave's laptop, but alas, it was not to be! So I promise to post lots of pictures when we get back home. We have had an awesome time down here on the Harvest Creek Ranch.....800 acres of God's creation! It's unbelievably relaxing and we even have our own place on a bluff overlooking the Guadelupe River complete with a porch swing!(one of the couples who live here on the ranch are at seminary and left their home furnished as a guest house for anyone who wanted to visit...what a blessing!)

Yesterday was extra-special because I got to sing on the worship team that Darin lead(they didn't have an alto...or tenor for that matter!) What a blessing to sing about our awesome Creator in the church where our son-in-law is the worship pastor! A very unique opportunity ...thanks for asking Darin, even though I was unsure about saying 'yes'. Afterwards we drove to Gruene, Texas, about an hour away to have dinner and walk around this National Historic Landmark(portions of this entire old german town have been saved) very neat!

It will be hard to say goodbye, but we are so thankful for this time away to relax, and be refreshed, while spending time with Jody and Darin at the same time and getting to see more of their everyday lives! Complete with shaved ice, movie nights, and lots of card games! Thanks for having us you two!

It's Baseball Season!

Baseball is back!! Heather and Megan catch up between games! The first league games of the season found Megan in the cheerleading section this year instead of at back catcher, cheering on Jamie, Matt and Heather who are once again playing on our church slow pitch team, the South Abby Ravens! They won both their games on Saturday morning....let the games begin!(notice baby beck's appearance! ;-) (thanks Courtney for letting me steal these pictures off of your blog! ;-)

Baseball Cheerleaders! Dave and I cheered the team on along with Megan's parents, Brian and Nancy, and her brother, Ben, who were out visiting from Michigan during Ben's spring break. The weather wasn't exactly balmy, but it didn't rain either! Being chilled was a great excuse for lunch at Tim Horton's after the games!

Jamie and his lucky track pants that he always wears to baseball games! He loves to slide so they were rather air conditioned! Fortunately one of the player's husband is a paramedic and is always prepared(like good boy scouts!) On Saturday he brought out the Duct Tape to repair the pants! Quite the Fashion Statement Jamie! 

A Trip to Google

This past week I was in San Jose, California for a very quick ministry related trip(flew down on Sunday evening and home again on Tuesday evening). One of the fun things that we did in the middle of long hours of meetings, was a field trip to the home of Google!! It's the most amazing place.

We had to register and get name tags before the employee that was hosting us was allowed to show us anything! As soon as we walked into the building we saw what makes Google so famous. A massage chair stood to our left, and beside it a huge cooler with drinks of all kinds, free for anyone to help themselves. Just around the corner was a snack bar with coffee, tea, chips, cookies, nuts of all kinds, and more...everything free for the employees. And our tour had only just begun.

Throughout the buildings there were more massage chairs(sometimes with employees in them), stationary bicycles, treadmills, a gymn, beach volleyball court, and bean bag chairs to sleep or read in. And all of this is free....some of the perks that come with working at Google.

I had to think that it was sort of like being a christian! We have all the perks, so much for free, that comes with being a child of God. But how often we live like paupers.....sort of like a google employee bringing a bag lunch to work when he has absolutely everything he can think of there for free any time he wants to eat!

The famous Google Cafeteria which serves three free gourmet meals a day for their employees. And for each meal they have multiple amazing choices of what to eat....for lunch we had a choice of Bass, Lamb, Pasta, Chinese, Japanese, Salads, Sandwiches...and more(I can't remember it all)

So working at google cuts down your grocery bills because not only can you eat there, but you can take home as well! Sounds like a sweet deal to me!

We had to take a picture to prove that we were really here! and to show Karen what she missed(her flight was cancelled out of Edmonton the night before because the landing gear on the plane broke when it landed coming into the airport...so she didn't arrive in San Jose until the same time we were having lunch at Google....so sad) The reason I am standing so far away from the group is that the cactus behind me was really, really prickly! And this was as close as I was going to get!