Gearge Ranch Historical Park

Makenzie wanted to hit up a museum, during spring break, for 5 extra points on a test in her AP US History class. She had a list to choose from. She wanted to go to the Holocaust Museum, but we knew parking would be crazy down in the museum district since the zoo is also there and the weather was beautiful. We settled on The George Ranch Historical Park since it wasn't too far away and it was a beautiful day outside to walk around, except for all the pollen flying through the air!
This Park had it's beginnings over 180 years ago when the first Anglo pioneers came and settled as part of the Steven F Austin's Colony, which was Mexico at the time and is now Texas.

 

This room doubled as a classroom for the traveling school teacher.
Those are the benches and the work boxes that you opened up and it had your books in and you could use it as your desk  

Boys and girls shared a room and this was the boys bed

The girls bed. There were 2 girls and a boy in this family.
they had 9 kids, but only 3 made it.  

Indoor plumbing

There are 7 layers here and they don't even have the dress on.
Can't imagine dressing like that here in Texas with no A/C!

A very old oak tree

Old fashion vacuum cleaner

Love the wood work on this staircase

 

Rodeo Round Two

We had the opportunity to go to the rodeo again. Jacob was invited by a friend so we searched online and got some tickets for us and Makenzie got to take her friend Emily. This was Emily's first time to go to the rodeo. Kenny Chesney was performing the concert afterwards. We had a little time to walk around and see some of the animals before the rodeo started. It was fun. I will say I enjoyed Styx more than Kenny Chesney and maybe that's because I know more of Styx's songs, but Dale thought even Styx enjoyed themselves more while performing.

Baby pigs

A one day old calf



We are going to the rodeo

For All the Smith Men

We saw this billboard at Makenzie's track meet tonight.

Personal Best

Makenzie got a personal best in Shot Put tonight with a throw of 36 feet 7 inches. Her previous best was 35 feet 3 1/4 inches. She placed 3rd in the meet tonight in both shot put and discus with  her throwing 101 feet 6 1/2 inches in the discus.  She keeps improving and just a few more meets until districts.

And she keeps adding to her medal collection!

Meetings

When Jacob got home from Scouts/Mutual last night, Dale asked him what they did. Jacob said they had a meeting and Dale asked what kind and Jacob said,"a boring one." Dale told him, "Welcome to the rest of your life."

He's a little bit country, She's a little bit rock 'n roll

Dale was invited to the Houston Live Stock Show and Rodeo by a vendor, last night. We like these invitations, because you get to sit in a suite, there is food and get to see the rodeo and the concert. Styx was in concert last night. I saw then in concert 33 years ago, so I wasn't sure how they would sound. They were awesome and sounded great and were very entertaining and looked like they were having a lot of fun performing. I was really happy that we got to go since there was a Rodeo for Dale and Rock concert for me. Just a note, when we have grand kids, all our grand daughters will get a pair of pink cowboy boot from me! There were a lot of little girls that did the mutton bustin and they all has pink cowboy boots on, too cute!!

We had some time to kill, so we had our character drawn

My ice cream sundae in a cowboy hat bowl

This was right before we got in the car to go home. We should have had someone take a picture of us earlier so we had a reference point for our picture that was drawn.

In their spare time they go to class and study

Here is a little bit of what Matthew and Brittney are up to at BYU.

They both have jobs right now, Matthew is working as a Teacher's Assistant in the Engineering Department and Brittney is working at David's Bridal.

Matthew has enjoyed some time on the slopes snowboarding.

Yes, that is Matthew!

Brittney has been ice skating

Matthew and Brittney have been sledding together with friends from home

 

 

They have enjoyed a lot of BYU basketball games and thanks to Brittney waiting in lines for hours, they usually get good seat that we can see them on TV.

Brittney is in the bright pink jacket and Matthew is in the tan shirt

They are just to the left of Tyler Haws ear.

And the good brother that Matthew is, he made Brittney a steak dinner one night.
Proud Mom Moment!!

It's a sign

When you keep seeing this picture on your Facebook feed....

And your daughter calls you to ask about your brownie recipe...

It's a sign to make brownies, so I did! Just what I need after a day of 11 energetic 6 year olds.  

Church Basketball

Young Men's church basketball has started. Our Young Men are a little goofy, but want to have fun.

Jacob using the camera on a phone to put his eye black on

Do they look intimidating???

More Track

It was a beautiful day for a track meet, not too hot and not too cold. The sun was shining and there was little humidity and it was in the lower 60's. At the meet today, Makenzie placed 2nd in discus with a throw of 101' 2" and she got 5th in Shot Put with a throw of 34' 2". It should have been closer to 34" 8", but her marker kept getting hit and every time they replaced it they kept taking distance off and another school also noticed it, but luckily it didn't affect the out come.