Fralos!

Fralo's on Friday nights has been a long-standing tradition for the Machiceks and Bubelas, so we did it this past Friday with Chase and Mrs. Friesenhahn and had a great time. All the pictures turned out really well - I noticed lately that since either me or Kenan are always taking the pictures there's never one of us together :( We'll have to work on that.

 Awww

 I was playing airplane with Chase - never fails to get a giggle

About ready for bedtime

Happy 4th!

We went to a fun get-together at the Machicek household last night to celebrate July 4th and had a great time. 

 Erin giving Chase some peas - he liked them!

 The boys hanging out with the dogs

 Pool fun with the kiddoes

 Playing some Baggo

 Hanging out with Chase

Giving Buddy a belly rub

Gunfighters for a Day

Today we had a very special field trip - one of my coworkers is a retired F16 fighter pilot and we got to take a tour of Lackland AFB and check things out. We saw simulators (some of us experienced the simulators), walked around the airfield with the F16s and had lots of fun. It was very cool indeed to tour the base where my Daddy went through basic training. Here are the pictures:

Carlos getting suited up for the parachute training simulator

Nuff said.

Pretty good photography here if I do say so myself - we were always in a hurry since you obviously can't go wandering around a military installation without an escort, especially on an airfield

Chris showing us the business end of a heat-seeking missile

This is just for you, Daddy! It was painted on the side of the aircraft we were looking at and I got a little verklempt :)

So several flights landed right by us as we were out checking out the planes and this guy took the cake. I didn't get a good picture of it but he started hamming it up the minute he realized we were taking photographs of him. Love it!

It was a wonderful day and every single person we met in uniform was as polite and gracious as could be - they were also quite excited when they found out we were from USAA. And our fearless leader for the day, currently a Lieutenant Colonel who trains fighter pilots, was a Texas A&M graduate! 

(I could swear the kid at the security check as we came on base wasn't old enough to have a driver's license, much less tote an M16, but I think that just means I'm a grown-up now). Besides, I have seen pictures and that is pretty much exactly what my own Daddy looked like when he was an Airman. *Sigh*

Happy Father's Day!

We went to Caldwell this weekend to visit my Mom and Dad for Father's Day. We had a great time with each other and here are some pictures from our fun weekend:

Daddy relaxing with Madison - she knew who the man of the hour was!

The boys (Daddy, Kenan, Richard) out at the pond fishing

Kenan caught a fish! (Actually he caught several)

But he was in for it because look who else was fishing...

And I caught one! Daddy was right there to help me hold him up - that fish was a fighter!

 My little leech

This one is hard to see but it's Daddy on the old Ford tractor. He hadn't tried the lights in years but they turned right on!

Happy Father's Day, Daddy. We love you!

Grown-Ups Have Toys Too

You are never too old to play with your toys, the dynamic just changes a little bit when you grow up. Yes, that is my husband underneath all that dirt. I am seriously considering some kind of shower out in that shop:

I helped him remove the hood and he worked on the side panels, too. Current phase of the project is to strip down all the way to the frame, then sandblast and re-paint. Kenan says it's in better shape than he expected!

Family Fun

We went to visit the fam this weekend in El Campo for a baby shower for Kenan's cousin Lynette and my niece Kinley's dance recital. The boys did some recon at deer camp while the ladies were at the shower:

 Aaron in the famous tree at deer camp

 Getting some weapons education with Dad

 Lynette opening her gifts

Sisters!

I didn't end up getting any pictures at Kinley's dance recital (which was so fun!) but she did beautifully, she was front and center during all her routines and she was the best one in her group. They even did a Halloween dance to Thriller with actual moves from MJ! Great job, Kinley! We are so proud of you!

Wild Turkeys!

So I saw them from across the street this morning and then again around lunch, but never close enough to take any decent pictures. This afternoon while I was reading on the back porch, I looked up at the gobble and realized they were wandering right through the yard, at the back fence. As you can see from the photos below, they are not shy and let me get as close as I wanted. I got VERY close to get good photographs, but I was a bit wary there for a second - they are pretty big. Check it out:

 Three males and a female in the background (she blends in with the landscape)

 This is so very typical. The female was immediately ready to head back to the woods, but the males sensed an audience and promptly ruffled their feathers every chance they got. I think they would have stayed if I had stood there longer to watch them.

 The female was very vocal and seemed agitated; perhaps they had wandered too far from the nest. It's interesting behavior though to have one female and three males; with most species it's the other way around. Turkeys for feminism!

I reached over the fence for this shot. I was probably within arm's length at this point. Too cool!