Snow Cone Lady

After we dropped Nick off at gymnastics, the rest of us headed to the Library. We collected some good books and went over to visit the Snow Cone Lady!

Once again, Christopher snowed us all and ordered a mint, pink lemonade snow cone. I gave him "the look" and he quickly changed his order to rootbeer and green apple. I gave him another look and he was dumb-founded!

"What do you want me to get?" he kindly asked.

"Something that will not make you barf!" I was quick to reply.

He ordered a redhot with cream... like cinnamon. He loved it! I know, I know I should just let the kid get what he orders! But those just sounded way too gross!

The Drive-In

A few months back I read an article in a Frisco Flyer magazine that comes monthly (free in the mail). It spoke of the drive-in theatres of long ago. It was a very fun article with nostalgic items of the past.

At the end of the article it highlighted The Galaxy Drive-In Theatre in Ennis Texas. I checked out the show and show times and up was Ice Age: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs (one we have not seen) and Night At The Museum: Battle At The Smithsonian (one we HAVE seen and loved). What could we want more - A DOUBLE FEATURE with TWO GREAT MOVIES.

The only problem: showtime is at dusk (after 9) and Ennis Texas is 21 miles South of Dallas. We are about 20 miles NORTH of Dallas. Then we have to travel THRU Dallas - another 20 miles (it seemed, but probably not THAT long).

Long story short - we arrived home at 2:30am. I don't think the boys ever stayed up that late before. Emma and I slept through the 2nd feature in the back of the truck. (We brought a blow-up air mattress.) But Those Thomas Boys have TRUE Thomas Genes: they will stay awake through any movie and not even get a bit tired and fall asleep. Oh No Way!

Thomas Reunion 2009

Glenn has 1 older brother (Eldon) and 1 younger brother (Brent). He also has 4 sisters that are younger than him. All the siblings are married and most of them have kids. So, it's a lot of fun to get together. And when we do ALL get together, it's a FULL HOUSE!

The summer of 2003 found us ALL packing our bags and going to Aspen Grove Family Camp in Utah. It was a lot of fun! In 2006 we returned back and had even more fun. But, we found out that even though it was so convenient (meals are ready, clean-up is done, housing/bedding is provided, etc.) we really didn't find our families much together. We all kind of did our own thing and there wasn't too much interaction between all of us.

So, for 2009, we decided to have our own Thomas Family Family Camp in the mountains of Arizona. Hats off to a wonderful SIL who planned most of the adventure, we ate GREAT, we had fun doing dinner duty (only twice in the week), we had fun activities and we had fun being together - All 35 or so, of us! It was Fun!

We had a creek about a 1/4 mile from the cabin. Most of the older kids could be found in the stream hunting for crawdads. (They brought them home, boiled them and ate them.) About 2 miles up the stream there was a swimming hole. Near the cabin was a 3-story tree house. Each day found us doing water balloons. There was ping-pong, foosball, pool... One afternoon we shot guns. We drove the Rhino all around the property and beyond. There was crafts (t-shirts and bracelets). We also had a talent show. Card games and board games galore! We did rockets and water balloon launchers. There was a scavenger hunt, pinatas, hair braiding and all sorts of other stuff. We also did bike rides and lots of hiking/walking. There was the diligent (5am) morning exercise crowd doing runs, walks and biking.

Here's a few pictures:

Mo Tab

A few months ago, in church, it was announced that the Mormon Tabernacle Choir would be doing a Central States Tour this Summer. Included would be the cities of Omaha, St. Louis, Denver, Norman and a few others. Glenn and I glanced at each other. We ALL just love listening to the choir! Yes, we all gather to watch Music And The Spoken Word.

So, yesterday afternoon, we went! Oh, I wish they would come visit each Summer!! We would be there. The boys were just amazed at the size and sound of this group of people (360+). We all enjoyed the versatility of the music they presented (songs of the land, hymns, theatre, etc.) There were piccolo, bagpipe, flute and organ solos. There were BYU Favorites (Betelehemu and Cindy-my favorite). The handbell choir did a few numbers too (Come, Thou Fount Of Every Blessing).

It was held at the Lloyd Noble Center in Norman OK - home to the Oklahoma Sooners (as in Boomer Sooners). Norman is straight North from our home, under 3 hours. Since the concert was at 7:30 and lasted till 10, we stayed at a fancy hotel and jumped on the beds and ate ice cream! We were able to visit one of the Norman Wards this morning and came home this afternoon. All Is Well! All Is Well!

Awards, awards and more awards

Emma and I have had a busy week. It all started last week when Emma graduated from preschool. Next year she will be doing preschool over again, but we are going to call it pre-K. That just sounds much more important. She had a GREAT time with her friends. We started out with six children, but one moved to UT and another boy was quite a bit older and went off to "other opportunities" at Christmastime.


At the end of last week, Zachary had his Awards for 4th Grade. He received 3 of the 4 medals that are given for the TAKS testing (Texas Academic... something or other). He missed the 4th medal by 1 point. He also received the Math Magician Award.



This week started out with an Awards ceremony for Christopher on Monday. Christopher also brought home the Math Magician Award. I think he also brought home the BIGGEST smile too in his Kindergarten Class.



Nicholas did not surprise anyone... he came home with the Awesome Athlete Award in 2nd grade!

And Benjamin closed the doors on his Elementary Days at Pink Elementary. Off to Griffin Middle School in the Fall. He's very excited! He is registered for two advanced classes (one in Math and the other in Language). He was able to receive all 4 of the TAKS (Texas Assessment... or something like that) Awards (reading, math, science, writing).

Just a side note regarding Ben: He received the Ravenous Reader Award for his love of books. He really read lots of books, so many that he didn't do his homework for a week and his book priviledge was taken away. Someday he'll tell us the complete story!

All the brothers received Honor Awards (As) for their performance during the year. Glenn and I sure have a lot to be thankful for. We have hard-working, fun-loving, handsome-looking sons! And they sure are NICE too! Great job Boys!

Memorial Day and Movies

We spent our Memorial Day weekend having easy fun! That really sounds good because it seems that Glenn and I have been tired these last few months (could it be non-stop baseball and soccer?)!

It was a beautiful weekend. There were brief rain showers here-and-there.

One evening the missionaries came over and we had a back-yard BBQ complete with burgers, vegi-burgers too, carrots, peas, beans and topped off with root beer floats! We also had the Tilton's children over while their Mom and Dad went to the temple. With their four young children, plus our young 5 children - I felt like The Brady Bunch! WE ALL HAD A WONDERFUL TIME! All the kids played great together and had fun! The evening temps were wonderful and we swung and swung!



On Saturday we finished off the garden boxes. We are now ready to get some things growing. We even hit Night At The Museum II. Very fun! (Of course I slept thru some of it, but that's normal!!) We then went over to Chipotle. Yes, they know all of us by name already.

On Sunday we did church and learned of our new Bishop, Bishop Jensen! We were all so excited! The Jensen's have three boys and a little girl. (Our oldest sons are a day apart.) Everyone else just falls into place!

On Monday, Debbie, Becky and I headed at 5am for White Rock, Dallas TX (Memorial Day Run). I convinced Debbie and Becky to do a 20K with me. It went well. The temps were a bit warm, but it was shaded nearly the entire run! The race began at 7 and we were home by 11. It was a wonderful morning. I placed 4th in my age division with a 1:50. Overall I placed 25th out of 115. Becky placed 10th and Debbie placed 40th overall. (Becky and her family moved into our area a few months back. It's hard to find runners but she loves running!)

We got home and the boys were ready for another movie - this time Monsters vs. Aliens. Another good flick! (Yes, I dozed thru some of it. Don't ask me how.) Glenn kept offering me apple slices to keep me awake! After the show we went to the neighborhood pool for an hour and I just sat in the sun since the water still feels like cold water out of the tap! (Give it a few more weeks.)

Christopher and The Snow Cone Lady

We have this wonderful lady who works out of a small brick building just North of the Library here in Frisco Texas. This lady is probably in her late 50s and serves the BEST SNOW CONES anywhere! They are made with the Hawaiian shaved ice and are a nice large size (even tho she considers it small) for a mere $1.25. She has over 50 flavors and each time we visit, it's such a TREAT!

The other day I took Ben and Chris out to "The Lady." Benjamin is always mixing flavors - he usually gets a banana split (banana, strawberry, chocolate and vanilla) with additional cherry. Zach usually gets something with red hot cinnamon. Nick likes the fruity orange and berry flavors. Emma likes cotton candy and bubble gum. I like orange and vanilla (dreamsicle). Glenn enjoys guava and tropical flavors.

And Christopher...

"Mom, I'm going to mix root beer and sour green apple!" That will be soooooo good!

I'm so glad Ben and I were able to talk him out of that combination! :)