Beautiful Sunday ride

We woke yesterday to cooler temps and lower humidity - what a nice break from the heat we've been having!  Kenneth is in the process of re-doing the porch (a post on that later!) and even though we didn't have any screens or walls, he did leave the table and chairs so we could have coffee and apple fritters out back.  I put a roast in the slow cooker and we headed out into the cool of the morning.  What a beautiful day it was!  We headed to Longview for lunch at The Butcher Shop.  Got behind a large group of riders but they were headed in another direction.  After lunch, we rode through the Texas back country and found Los Pinos Vineyards.  The Shreveport-Bossier  Riding Club was planning a ride there so we thought we'd meet up with them.  We went to the tasting room and found a wine we both liked so back out to the porch we went and got a bottle of wine and a margherita pizza.  Very nice place to sit and enjoy the breeze, nice wine and a slice of pizza.  We brought most of the pizza home because we were still kind of full from lunch and had a roast cooking for dinner!  On our way across the parking lot to leave, the other riders showed up so we chatted with them for a few minutes, then they went to eat and we headed for home.  It was beginning to warm up and the heat from the road was much more noticeable but there was still a nice, cool hint in the air.  After a seven hour day, we were home safe, thank the Lord...and dinner was all cooked and waiting for us!

Another group of riders who had the same idea we did...enjoy the cooler temps!

I'm certain Longview has other great restaurants, but we'll never know.  This is the only place Kenneth wants to go.

Beautiful back country roads in Texas - this one is on the way to the vineyard.

You have to really want to go here.  It's pretty far back in the woods!!

Wine tasting room

So thankful for this wonderful guy I get to spend my life with...:)

Early birthday dinner

Since I'm going to Charleston to see Katie for my birthday, Mum took me out for an early birthday dinner!  We went to Red Lobster and had a wonderful meal together...thanks, Mum!!

Fish fry for friends!

Lisa and Curt rolled into town last Thursday evening to start the weekend early!  The guys went fishing and the girls visited at the house...in the A/C!!  It's been so humid and hot here the past couple of weeks that we decided not to sit on the back porch.  Friday, I went to work, Lisa slept in and Kenneth and Curt went fishing again.  We all went to Superior Grill  for dinner Friday evening and Daniel came to hang out with us there and on to the casino afterwards.  I'm always happy when at least one of our group wins at the casino and Curt did it that night - YAY!   Saturday morning we loaded up the fish that were caught and headed over to Charlie's nursing home.  By noon, we had fresh fried fish, hushpuppies and fries!  We set up under a wonderful shade tree and the good Lord provided a pretty steady breeze all day long so it turned out to be a great day, not too hot, good food and old friends.  Sunday morning, Kenneth and I loaded up in the El Camino and Curt and Lisa followed us to Jefferson where we had a really good breakfast at the Bayou Bakery & Café. Afterwards, we parted ways and all headed for home.  Another fun weekend full of memories for the books!!

These margaritas kicked my butt...cerveza for me from now on!!!

I would have liked to see him win big!!

Kenneth doin' his thing...had his fryer set up and he was slingin' food!!

Kenneth, Kathy and Charlie enjoying some fish.

Katie gave us her selfie stick she got for Nurses' Week and Kenneth had more fun with that thing!!  Kenneth, Curt, Charlie, Lisa and Kathy.

Our annual selfie!!  Kenneth needs to work on his technique...:)

Charlie, Mac and Kathy

Charlie, Jeff, Mac and Kathy

Kathy, Jeff and Nikki

A wonderful day was had by all!!

Nice way to end our visit...

July is almost gone...

The older I get, the faster time goes...  Here are a few things that flew by in the last couple of weeks...

One day I got home from work and Kenneth had the bike out...I never turn down a ride!

Always need to be on the lookout for this!!  Kenneth spots them first - thank goodness he stays alert.  He saw this one in the woods and pointed him out to me way before he hit the road.

Kenneth got the house painted a little darker color. 

Trying to drive home from work one day.  We've had several crazy bad rain storms!!

I stopped to drop some things off at Katie's storage unit and Mum went shopping..."borrowing" Katie's lamp since she's not using it!!  Katie was happy it's been put to use.  We really need to have a sale and get rid of most of the stuff in the unit.

Headed to the car show in Marshall...

...and turned around halfway there to avoid the lightning and hail storm that was between us and Marshall!

Didn't rain a drop in Marshall but we weren't going to drive through this to get there!

ALMOST beat the rain home, but she got a little wet.

No worries...he got her all shined up again and ready for the next adventure!

This little hummingbird joined us for coffee one morning.  Would hover right in front of the screen and watch us and then head for the feeder.

Out for a motorcycle ride one day and another pop-up storm chased us home.

Daniel and Kenneth getting in some fishing time.

Beautiful Sunday afternoon ride. It was HOT but these shady back roads provided some nice, cool spots.

I think the second plane was training.  He followed the first plane in a big circle.

Small town with a nice memorial...

Love the name of this small Texas town...

This is the pop-up storm that chased us home on the motorcycle mentioned above.  We got home about 15 before this started! Worst of the storms to hit so far - lots of limbs down and a LOT of water!

Family reunion

The weekend before the 4th, about 35 family members gathered in Marshall, TX at Bob and Peggy's for a family reunion.  We had folks from Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Colorado and Washington, DC and everyone had a great time!  Kenneth fried fish, there was smoked turkey, grilled chicken, lots of side dishes and way too many desserts!  It's always good to see family from far and wide and keep in touch.  With the 4th being on a Tuesday, we didn't really have any solid plans.  Turns out, Kenneth took his sister to the DFW airport and Mum and Haley came up an spent the day with me.  It was a lazy, relaxed day for me and a lot of driving for Kenneth, but he likes to drive and listen to his talk shows/music so it worked out great for both of us!  Happy birthday, America!!

Carl and Daniel

John, Kenneth and Bob

Siblings!!  Timothy, Pamela Jayne and Kenneth

Lilah, Amanda, Brandon and Kaylie

Sandy, Kay, Garreth and Haylee



MayBelle, Sharon, Sandy, and Timothy

Jake, Daniel, Carl, Kenneth, Ken, Mike, Bob and Glenn

Can't have too many pictures of Daniel!!

Kaylie, Lilah and their great-grandmother.

Sandy and Timothy