Vacation

Spending a week not having to think about what I will preach on Sunday is a rare treat. Spending time with all my children at the same time is becoming a rare treat as well! The following is a brief travel log of our recent vacation.

We met everyone in New Braunfels and stayed in a rented house for the weekend. We were pleased to have Elizabeth's boyfriend, Jaime join us. We spent a day at Schlitterbahn and a half day floating in a very crowded Comal River. The most fun was just being together playing games, laughing, and catching up with each others' lives. The kids were kind enough to let me win at both Texas Hold 'em and Nerts!

After the weekend our plans changed since Ben and Elizabeth were involved in a car accident on the way to New Braunfels. (No one was injured but they had to leave the car in San Antonio to be repaired.) Liz and I, therefore drove them back to Abilene where we spent the night at Ben's before continuing our journeys as empty nesters on vacation. We went to Frontier Texas in Abilene which is an interesting presentation by the early settlers of the Texas panhandle. I say "by the settlers" because they appear before you in lifesize 3-D to tell their stories.

After that Liz and I took off with no destination in mind other than to visit little towns around the area. We spent one night in Coleman and one night in San Angelo. Along the way we visited such small places as Santa Anna (named after an Indian chief NOT the Mexican dictator), Ballinger, Robert Lee (named by two confederate soldiers after the war), Bronte, and Buffalo Gap.

Our favorite stop was at Fort Chadbourne which was built in 1852 to protect the settlers who were moving west. When the fort was no longer needed it was sold in 1874 and became part of the O-D Ranch which used the buildings as headquarters. The property has been in the same family ever since. While touring the restored buildings and grounds we were fortunate enough to get a private tour by Garland Richards who is the great-great-great grandson of the original owners.

Returning to Abilene we were thrilled to go to a banquet at the Alliance for Women and Children where Elizabeth works as a program manager. It was the concluding banquet for all the families of the girls who have participated in the summer camps that Elizabeth directed.

On the way home we stopped in Dallas for lunch with Jeremy and Adrienne. Liz is back at work today and I'll be in the office on Monday to get caught up on all the exciting happenings of Impact Week.