Valley Vacation Part II

I know it has been a while since my last post. We have been oh so busy, but who isn't these days?! We went and floated the river and had an awesome time, had a garage sale, my parents came to visit, Mr. T's parents came to visit, playing softball, and just all the other every day things.





Anyhow, I wanted to finish my post on the valley... my step dad likes to read it and see pictures of himself. ;) BTW, keep them in yours prayers this next week as he has another CT Scan on the 4th and then he meets the new doctor and gets the results on the 5th. Just lift him and my mom up a little if you don't mind. :)

On Sunday we headed out to the farm and got the grand tour from Grandpa J. He was SO excited that my parents wanted to come and see it all. He talked about how the farm was started, passed down and what all they have done with it since they have taken over. It was very interesting to hear him talk about it all. He was full of information and I have not heard a lot of the stuff that he talked about, so it was a learning experience for me as well.

**Note: Late fall/winter is the best time to go to the Valley according to Mr. T, so we were a little worried that we would get to pick much or how well everything would taste, but we got lucky!

We went to all the different pieces of land that they own and got to see lemon trees, various orange trees, grapefruit trees, sunflower patches (which are planted just for the boys to go dove hunting...they are spoiled), onion fields and I think that is all. A particular piece of land it down on the Rio Grande River right under the bridge you take from Texas to Mexico. Due to illegals swimming across, the border patrol is real heavy down in the area. The border partol followed us and then questioned us on what we were doing. Grandpa J "explained" to him and then he left us alone. Bobby got to experience the BP coming after him.... it was a highlight for him. :)

After a long hot day of picking fruit, we were all pretty worn out and decided we had enough. On the way back, we passed a beautiful tree just FULL of oranges.... probably the best one of the day. Bobby could not resist and he jumped off the gator and went to picking again. We just sat and watched him and finally told him that if he didn't come on we were going to leave him. He did not want to leave.

All in all we had a wonderful trip and we are so glad we took time and went. We got to see family and just hang out. We enjoyed it so much and it is for sure a different world down there. :)

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Valley Vacation Part I

This post is going to be pretty long just because we had such a good time, so I am going to break it up into Part I and Part II. :)

Orange Tree on a Beautiful Day

As many of you know, my step dad was diagnosed with Stage 4, Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer the Monday after Christmas. It was a total shock to us. He has been through chemo since and is doing well. We did have a scare with a blood clot back in April, but he seems to be doing good. Lung Cancer does not have a cure and the life span of course, is different for everyone.

Mr. T's family is from the Valley and one set of grandparents farm and have an orchard. Many of you probably eat fruit and veggies from them. :) My parents got to meet Mr. T's family when we were having wedding showers and then of course at the wedding. With his family being SO wonderful, my parents just adored them. After visiting with them the little they got to, Bob-O decided he wanted to go down to the Valley. He has never been down there, just heard our stories and tasted all the yummy fruit that we would bring back from our trips down there.

My mom and Bob-O in the Orchard.

We decided no time was better than Memorial Day weekend. We loaded up and headed south on Friday after work and picked my parents up about 2.5 hrs south of us and then continued on the journey. The Valley is about 6 hrs from my parents house. About 3 hrs into the trip Bob-O asked if we were almost there, and little did he know we were only half way!

We finally got to Meem's house Friday night at about 11:30. We were all exhausted, but we stayed up a while and visited. It worked out well b/c my MIL and Mr. T's aunt had been visiting Meem and helping her all week, so we got to see them too! We spent the day with Meem and everyone on Saturday and just had good food, fellowship and a little bit of shopping at the Bazaar.....boy was that interesting! We went to dinner with Mr. T's other uncle and his family and then we got home and gambled a little. ;) Cousin Matt taught us a dice game called Liar's Dice and it was so much fun. Meem was winning all the pots and I finally won one. It was great just to have some good family time. I am so blessed that I married into the family I did. I had to ask my mom if she ever thought she would be hanging out with my in-laws. That just shows how fabulous they are!




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HM in Canada!!

As many of you know, we went on our HM to Lake Louise in Banff National Park. It was SO much fun, but it was cold and VERY expensive. Mr. T and I had a blast though. We got to do a lot of stuff and had something going on every day. T did get a little sick while we were there, so he wasn't his normal self, but he still managed to suck it up and have fun.



The weather there was almost like it is here at home. One minute it was snowing and windy and you couldn't see the mountains and within 20 mins it was bright and sunny and not a cloud in the sky. Everyday we were there it snowed at some point. It was nice to get to see it all, but I was ready to get back to the 80 degree weather back home. :)



We were able to go on a snowmobile tour, zipline through the mountains (Mr. T is scared of heights and I almost thought he was going to make me go alone, but he went and LOVED it), dog sledding to the Great Divide (where British Columbia and Alberta meet and where the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans meet), snowshoeing, get a couples massage, shop in Banff, and a horse drawn carriage ride.




We had a blast and would love to go back someday, but we have to save up to pay for the $10 a box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch... no really, it was really that much!






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