East Texas Adventures

Chad and I have this joke about the part of the state where his family lives. Whenever he says anything about it, he says "East Texas-with a capital E." And really, it is almost like a completely different state than the part of Texas where we live- both in landscape and, shall we say, accent. This visit to the east was during our semi-annual tour de Texas and we visited Chad's dad, "Pappaw Bill."

A few of Bill's cows. Yes, it really is that green and peaceful there.

The girls were excited to go. They jumped right in to playing and getting caught up with Pappaw.

Tea party time!
Chocolate pie!

We visited the sandy beach of a nearby lake one morning. We pretty much had the place to ourselves and it was just right for the girls to play. The water and shallow and calm and the beach was clean.

Mama Duck and ducklings

Girls on the Go at Lake o' the Pines

Abbey and Chad's sand castle, complete with small shells and bottle caps.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch... no, really, back at the ranch, the girls helped Pappaw Bill take care of the cows.

Riding in the "Rhino" to go see the cows way out on the other side of the field.

Holy cow!

(Sorry, couldn't resist.)

Abbey was a pro at feeding the cows pellets from her hand but Elliott needed a while to warm up to the idea.

We also made our way down the road to visit Chad's Aunt Pat and Uncle Wally. The girls were happy to see them and their soccer playing dog, Suzie Q. They were much sweeter to Pat and Wally this time- last time we saw them Elliott was 2-1/2 and when Wally tried to get her on his knee she said, "Nooooooo!"

That's a lot of Newmans! (And one Wally.)

It was a good visit. Abbey especially enjoys running around outside there, feeding and watching the cows. She says she wants to be a veterinarian, I think she's off to a great start. Thanks for having us, Bill!