Happy 19 Savanna!

My baby is 19!!

Brad and Savanna in front of Amore

lighting the candles

Savanna was afraid they were going to burn themselves

Bad off-key singing

didn't blow them all out

We celebrated Savanna's birthday last week. She actually celebrated with Linda on "the day". After I discussed with all the brothers and daddy when a good time to have her dinner, we decided on Thursday night. Well, come Thursday Ryan didn't get off work until almost 8 o'clock and Matt decided that if Ryan wasn't going he was really tired and didn't feel like going either. Well, fine then, Brad and Savanna and I celebrated by ourselves. Amore is her favorite Italian restaurant so we went to downtown Portsmouth. Our waiter was pretty much drunk which made for an interesting evening as you can imagine... The food was wonderful but the service was terrible, but entertaining nonetheless! Did you know his name was Steve? Well, it was and I think he must have told us 7 times! We decided it was lucky that the boys hadn't been with us because we might have been thrown out of there. We can get pretty rowdy and throw a drunk waiter in there and you're just asking for trouble!!

Anyway, after dinner we went home and had birthday cake. We didn't have any lighters or matches in the house so Brad used a paper towel and the oven element in order to light the candles. HAPPY BIRTHDAY SAVANNA!!

Family, family and more family

We spent Saturday with some more of the Brown "kin". Grandaddy's sister, Jamie and her family were in Corpus Christi spending the weekend so we drove over there to see them. The Blum "kids" and the Brown "kids" spent a lot of their childhood together when the Blums lived in Nashville. We were quite entertained with some of the stories they had to tell about those days. It was a bit bittersweet though because two of those kids, Marty and Amy, were not there to participate in the fun. It was great though because all of the Blums were able to be there and all of the Browns. Jamie made the observation all of the descendents of Elbert and Louise Brown were there. A few of us went to the Texas Aquarium, of which I must mention that Liz's sister, Sue, was the main fundraiser for the aquarium back when it first was being built. It was a fun time. The most fun was the dolphin show and Charlie, Holly's son, was chosen from the audience along with several other children, to go down to the tank and learn a dolphin hand signal. They then learned that the signal was for the dolphin to splash them. They all got pretty wet but we were a bit envious of them because I'm sure it helped cool them off a bit. Shepherd was fun at the aquarium he sat on Ben's shoulders and watched the dolphin show in earnest. He barely took his eyes off, it was so cute! Of course to a family whose previous "baby" is almost 19 years old, the newest baby can yawn and we all think it is adorable :-) Today we will be seeing more family. Jack and his wife Molly are coming out to the lake and I think James's son, Jason is coming out with his family. The Blums are also coming out too so we will be having a good time hearing lots of stories I am sure! Check the facebook link for more pictures.

Brown Ranch - Beeville, Texas

We spent yesterday at the Brown Ranch. It was a lot of fun and we met family that we had heard about for years but had not met. The family connections are vague but Savanna and I are hoping to pick Grandaddy's brain today and get it straight in our heads. But, from what we figured out Austin Brown 1 was Grandaddy's dad's brother. Then there was Edwin - who wasn't named Austin (obviously - haha) who was a wildlife photographer and was also in World War II's Germany towards the end of the war and took some incredible pictures during that time as well. Then Edwin had a son named Austin 2 (who we met and is now the "patriarch" - although Edwin's wife, Penney, is still alive and we did meet her as well). The youngest family on the ranch is Austin 3's family, his wife Jodie and their two children, Austin 4 (better known as Cuatro) and Addie. Those were two of the sweetest most well-mannered children I think I have ever met. They were a joy to be around and so personable and polite. Cuatro and Addie are homeschooled there on the ranch so Jodie (Austin 3's wife) and I had a lot in common. I think it was encouraging for them to meet three kids who were homeschooled pretty much the entire time and they certainly seem normal - or at least they are able to put on a normal front. HAHA Austin 3 and Jodie, of course, have been bombarded by the usual "oh but what about their socialization?" You know, the usual stuff from "well-meaning" strangers who think they know better what their children need. They all live there on the ranch but in different homes that are scattered throughout. The ranch is 4000 acres which is pretty mind boggling. Right now Texas is going through the third worst drought in recorded history so they are really struggling with taking care of the animals. There are pictures that tell a better story than my blathering on my facebook. Same link as the link in the previous post. Ben and Leah arrived at the lake last night and I hear Shepherd awake - gotta go!

Texas

We arrived in Houston right on time on Tuesday afternoon. Ben picked us up and we headed to get something to eat first. After eating we went to Enterprise and picked up our rental van and we drove over to Ben and Leah's house. Leah was working but Ben and the boys went and picked up Shepherd and brought him home. We then just hung out at their house watching Shepherd and then I totally sacked out after dinner. Ben and Leah had to work on Wednesday so we just got up about 8 and headed down to Lake Corpus Chrisit. We got there a little after 1 and it is great to be back at the lake! Again I cannot upload pictures to blogger with my phone connection so I am putting them in an album on Facebook. The link is: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=93161&id=701749222&l=d8b23747be

Proud of the hubby!

Brad pinned on the Captain eagles yesterday. The boys both had to work so it was only Savanna and me that could attend. I had the honor of pinning them on. We've known since spring '08 that he was getting the promotion so it has been a long wait for this day. YAY Brad!!