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FAMILY
EVENTS - 2018
Here is a snapshot of the things
going on around Bruce and Betsy's place in 2018. These included
holidays, birthday parties and other fun events. Bruce was on a
contract with NASA in Houston to provide radio communications
support for the International Space Station, so there were a lot of
Houston and South Texas activities that year.
Swiss Guests at NASA
While working at the Space Center,
Debi Studer, a friend Bruce made several years earlier mountain
biking in Las Vegas, was were in the Houston area sky diving. Debi
had her friend Sarah, also from Switzerland, was with her. They met Liu Pim from Beijing, China, at the Spaceland skydiving center, and all
wanted to tour the Space Center.
Below is Sarah and Debi at the
International Space Station Exhibit pointing out the Swiss
participation.
Below is Liu, Debi and Sarah in the
full-scale mockup and training building.
Debi, Liu and Sarah at the Mars
weather station. The high in the Gale Crater that day was -18F or
-28C.
Sarah, Debi and Liu at Rocket Park
and the Saturn V.
After the tour, it was over to TGI
Fridays for dinner and some Baby-Back Ribs.
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Tyler State
Park
In the spring, Bruce and Betsy took
a camping trip to Tyler State Park March 15-18. Some of their
friends say trailer camping with indoor plumbing and satellite TV is
not really camping, but they feel otherwise. Below is the trailer on
the campsite.
They had some friends from Houston
and Dallas joining them. Below is Bruce and Lu Anne from Katy taking
a break after setting the trailer up. Lu Anne is a regular on their
camping trips.
Some of the campsites were over the
top. Below is one with a 40'+ fifth-wheel, wedding chapel dining
tent and screened room. Yep, it is a Texas thing!
The next day it was over to the
Tyler Rose Garden. Tyler is the rose capital of Texas, and possibly
the US, and the garden has thousands of roses.
Below is Betsy and Bruce on the
steps leading down into the garden. The photo below shows only about
20% of it.
In the center of the garden is a
Koi pond with a bronze statue of a boy and a frog.
Further on, Betsy found a St.
Francis statue just like one she has in her garden.
Toward the end of the walk, Betsy
and Bruce discussed additional rose plants for her garden.
Afterwards, it was off to
Chamblee's for four new varieties. These were Sunny Sky, a pale
yellow rose; Tutu, a red rose; Miranda Lambert, a pink rose; and
Winter Sun, another yellow rose. Chamblee's is the leading
provider of championship roses in Texas and the south-central USA.
Of course, Bruce couldn't go to
Tyler without doing some trail riding. Below is Bruce with Lu Anne
and JJ from the Houston area out on the trails. Bruce's friend,
David also rode and made the photo.
What's a campout without grilled
steaks. Below are some all natural tenderloins on the grill the
night before breaking camp.
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Easter
Another Great Vigil Celebration and
feast in 2018.
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House & Yard
The yard at the beginning of the
spring restoration on March 9th, 2018.
The first step was to remove the
old mulch and till in some organic compost.
Next, the soil was leveled and the
drip irrigation was put back in place.
Betsy determining where to place
the new roses from Chamblee's in Tyler.
Preliminary placement of the new
roses.
Mixing potting soil and fertilize
for planting.
The finished planting on March
31st, 2018.
First blooms started appearing in a
couple weeks.
A close-up photo of the Winter Sun
Rose.
A close-up photo of the Tutu Roses.
One of six mixed assortment of flowers in the hanging baskets on the
fence.
Another mixed assortment of flowers, but in a basket and frame on
the deck.
Amaryllis blooming on April 14th, 2018.
Betsy's gardening habit overflows into the driveway and alley behind
the house.
The southwest corner of the back yard on September 16th, 2018.
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Clearlake &
Kemah
The weather the weekend of the
festival wasn't very good, but by Sunday afternoon, it started to
clear and become sunny. Bruce was glad to see this since Ruben
Moreno and the Zydeco Re-evolutioln Band was doing the late
afternoon show. Below is the entrance to the Kemah Boardwalk on
Galveston Bay.
On the way over th the main plaza,
Bruce passed this cute little smoker.
Once at the plaza, it was time to
get down to the business of consuming a mess of mud bugs.
All the tables were occupied, so he
asked a couple of gals there if they would mind him sitting at their
table. Below is Jill and Christy from Texas City up for a girls
weekend while their husbands went fishing.
About 4:30 PM, Ruben Moreno and the
Zydeco Re-evolution Band, one of the top Zydeco bands in the country
took the stage. Not long after they did, folks were dancing in the
plaza and having a great time.
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Tim's
Birthday
Another year and another birthday
for Tim. This year, it was the big double-nickel (55). Below is the
family resting up in preparation of the festivities.
Next it was time for a lasagna
dinner.
After dinner, it was time to see
who could shoot their marshmallow the farthest with a sling shot.
After the shooting contest, it was
time for the cake.
The events concluded with the gift
exchange.
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Italy
Vacation
Betsy and Tim went to Italy,
Switzerland and Austria in late April and early May. A few of the
more sensational photos are below, but for the full trip, head over
to the Vacations section.
Lake Como & Bellagio, Italy
The Garden at Villa Calotta.
The church and village square near
Bellagio.
The Villa del Balbianello or
Bishop's Palace at Lake Cuomo.
Lucerne, Switzerland
Betsy at a lake-side garden in
Lugarno, Switzerland.
A river-side walkway in Lucerne,
Switzerland.
Innsbruck, Austria
Betsy standing outside the flagship
Swarovski store in Innsbruck, Austria.
Salzburg, Austria
Betsy at the Mirabell Palace &
gardens in Salzburg.
The Austrian Alps below Hitler's
Eagle Nest in Austria.
Vienna, Austria
Betsy in front of St. Stephen's
Cathedral in Vienna, Austria.
Betsy at the fountain in front of
the Shonbrunn Summer Palace in Vienna.
Venice, Italy
St. Mark's Cathedral, Venice,
Italy.
Gondolas on the Grand Canal in
Venice.
Betsy and Tim on a Gondola ride on
the Grand Canal in Venice.
Milan, Italy
Betsy at the world's first shopping
mall, the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, in Milan, Italy.
The plaza outside the Galleria
showing the famous church, the Duomo di Milano on the right.
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Collin's
Birthday
In 2018, we celebrated Collin's
birthday up at their place in McKinney. Colin is granddaughter
Ariana's husband. Weather was nice, so we ate outdoors.
After dinner, it was time for the
gift exchange.
And finally, cake and ice cream.
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Southern
Junction
Southern Junction Restaurant and
Dance Hall in Irving is one of Bruce and Betsy's favorite places for
a night out. Dinner and dancing: doesn't get much better.
Eating steaks floor-side.
The dance floor and stage. They go
early before it gets crowded and you have a bunch of drunks
colliding with you. As you can see from the stage, the interior
decor is quite impressive, being made up of murals and storefronts
depicting Texas scenes and landmarks. There are a lot of
store-fronts around the perimeter inside.
Below is the "photo area" inside
the club.
Betsy with the rodeo grandstand
mural inside the club.
A close up of the mural showing
better detail. Nice detail, interesting characters.
The right-hand side of the entrance
lobby.
The left-hand side of the entrance
lobby. Cowboys and Indians shooting it out.
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Alissa's
Birthday
The birthday celebration for Bruce
& Betsy's number two granddaughter was held at her older sister's
house in McKinney. From left to right is aunt Holly, grandma Betsty,
Alissa, her sister Ariana and her mom Chrissy.
Being late spring, the weather was
perfect for eating out on the patio. The men in the photo are
Ariana's husband Collin, cousin Bret and uncle Tim.
After dinner, it was time for the
gift exchange.
The final event of the evening was
the cake and ice cream.
The last photo is Alyssa with her
grand parents, Betsy and Bruce.
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Cemetery
Several times a year, Betsy and
Bruce tend to the family plot at Pleasant Ridge Cemetery. In 2018
they repaired and repainted St. Thomas which had been cracked by
vandals.
They dug out the lilies that had
started to run out of control at Ariel's plot.
They also dug out the out of
control lilies at her parents and brother's plot.
The lilies near Robby's plot were
also removed.
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Bruce's
Birthday
The birthday celebration this year
had two steps: the first was the weekend of his actual birthday in
Kemah with Betsy and Tim coming down to the Houston area, and the second was in the Dallas area with
the rest of the family.
Below is Betsy on the Texas City
Dike in Galveston Bay. They had planned to go fishing, but no one
was getting anything, so they decided to make it a sightseeing
event.
The shrimpers were in action. They
had plans to eat at Joe Lee's that evening and wondering if those
shrimp would make it back in time for dinner.
The Texas Outlaw Challenge Poker
Run was being held that Saturday, and below is one of the Cigarette
boats competing in it.
There were some nice motor yachts
on the water too.
Around on the lee side of the dike,
the kite and wind surfers were having a good time.
From the dike, it was back to the
travel trailer to clean up and head over to Joe Lee's for a seafood
dinner. This is one of their favorite seafood restaurants in the
Kemah area.
After dinner, it was over to Buck
Wild for some dancing. This south Houston club is what Gilley's used
to be.
The next day, Tim picked up Betsy
for the trip back to Dallas, and they had seafood at Tookie's,
another favorite of theirs.
The celebration with the rest of
the family was held the following weekend up in the Dallas area. As usual, Bruce's birthday
celebration began with some family socializing. This is typical of
most of their parties.
Next came the birthday dinner.
Dinner concluded with cake and ice
cream. Bruce is the only one in the family that likes German
Chocolate cake, so he gets a special portion. Everyone else has
regular cake.
Bruce with a tee-shirt from the
grandkids saying "Dads know a lot, but Grandpa's know everything".
Bruce is remarking about how this is true.
Since Bruce is an avid mountain
biker, many of the gifts were gift cards to Richardson Bike Mart.
The following day, he made a trip over to RBM to stock up on some
biking supplies.
And finally, a photo of Bruce in
his Grandpa tee shirt.
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North College
Park Neighborhood Assoc. 4th of July Picnic
Each
year on the 4th of July, the North College Park Neighborhood
Association organizes a community picnic. They have events and
contests, and of course, food.
The
first event was the three-legged race.
Next
was the Hula-Hoop contest.
Bruce and Betsy's neighbors were there. From left to right is Betsy,
Gary and his wife Michelle, Jeff, his kiddo and his wife Mary.
The
event also included a parade with decorated wagons, strollers and
dogs.
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Betsy's
Birthday
This is the year Betsy hit a
milestone birthday - 75. The weekend festivities began with a steak
dinner for two at the Saltgrass Steakhouse, one of their favorite
restaurants.
The next day it was off to their
granddaughter's house for a family celebration. Bruce had a custom
cake made by a company that does special cakes. Betsy was surprised!
Here is Betsy with the cake out of
the box.
A close-up of the cake with the
birthday banner and roses.
Next, it was the traditional family
birthday dinner.
The festivities wrapped up with the
gift exchange.
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NASA Manned
Space Flight Vehicles
In August, the announcement for the
first commercial crews was going to be made, so the engineering team
was treated to a viewing of the manned spacecraft that would be
flying in the next year. Below is a test version of the Orion
capsule that will be used to test the Ascent Abort system. The
Ascent Abort System is is
the tower on the very top of the rocket that pulls the manned
capsule to safety in the event of a failure of the SLS booster.
From the Orion area, it was over to
the Building 9 mock-up area. Below is a display of ExtraVehicular
Activity (EVA) suits used during the Space Shuttle era.
The first stop was an Orion mock-up
used to train astronauts. This is the deep space capsule that will
be used to travel to the moon and beyond.
The International Space Station (ISS)
has been continuously manned for over 20 years. Crews are rotated
every 3 to 6 months and resupply missions happen monthly. The Boeing
Starliner behind Bruce will be used beginning in 2019 to ferry crews
and supplies to the ISS. It can cary up to 7 astronauts.
Below is Bruce with the SpaceX
Dragon crew module. This capsule will also be used to ferry up to 5
astronauts and supplies to the ISS.
While in Building 9, Bruce took the
opportunity to be photographed with a prototype Mars exploration
vehicle.
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Twins
Birthday
A group photo of Betsy's kids at
the beginning of the festivities. Left to right are Chrissy, Tim,
Betsy and Holly. Chrissy and Holly are the birthday girls.
The party game this year was pop a
balloon for a cash prize. Some of the balloons had currency in them,
and if you popped it, you got to keep the money.
Next, it was inside for the gift
exchange.
Then there was cake and ice cream.
And finally, one more family photo.
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New Smoker
Several charcoal-cooked meals were
prepared after buying the grill, and on November 17th the first
"smoke" was done on three racks of baby back ribs.
Shelly, being a woman of class,
brought flowers for the hostess.
The baby back ribs were prepared
St. Louis Style with mustard and a rub, and went on at 1 PM once the
temperature was right. They were kept moist with spray every 30
minutes consisting of a mix of water, honey and molasses. About 3
hours later, they were wrapped in foil with butter, brown sugar and
honey, and then put back on for 1 1/2 hours. At the end, they were
taken out of the foil and finished for about 30 minutes with Sweet
Baby Ray's BBQ sauce.
Three slabs gave each guest a
half-rack.
Bruce's guinea pigs for the first
batch of ribs on the new smoker were a few of his camping and
mountain biking friends.
Left to right is Jaclyn, Shelly,
Betsy, Bobby and JJ.
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Bret's
Birthday
The family gathered at Ariana's
house to celebrate Bret's birthday. Ariana is Bret's cousin and
Betsy and Bruce's granddaughter.
The big gift that year was a new
grill for Bret. He and Lindsey are buying a house, so he wanted a
"real" grill.
The obligatory happy birthday song
and candle ceremony. The cake was made by Bret's mother, Holly,
standing in the background. There were also "cake balls" on sticks
that were quite good. The "poop cake", now that's another story.
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Thanksgiving
The crew, mostly the women, getting
it all ready.
Bret, #1 grandson at the head of
the serving line.
Lots of folks, so banquet tables
were set up in the living room.
With folks facing four directions,
needed multiple photos to get everyone in. Oh yes, Cowboys were
beating the Redskins, and that made it oh so much better!
The final photo getting everyone in.
Since the photographer was not in
any of the previous photos, here is one of him with his loving wife.
This was the first Thanksgiving
gathering hosted by their granddaughter, Ariana Thompson, and it was
a success!
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Ariana's
Birthdays
Granddaughter Ariana, second from
left, hosted her birthday party in 2018, as well as for her
mother-in-law, Michelle on the left, and brother-in-law, Zach on the
right. Zach is opening one of his gifts.
Ariana's Uncle Tim, Aunt Holly, son
Bret and Bret's girlfriend Lindsey looking on.
Michelle happy with one of her
gifts.
After the gift exchange, it was
time for dinner, Subway!
Finally, it was three cakes and ice
cream.
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Fredericksburg
Bruce and Betsy took the camper down
to Fredericksburg for a 4-day "anniversary get-away." Fredericksburg
was founded in 1844 by German immigrants sponsored by Prince
Frederick of Prussia.
Brice and Betsy stayed at
the Fredericksburg RV park.
Below is the camper on site No. 16.
Museum of the War in the Pacific
On Friday, December 7th, they
attended a Pearl Harbor Day memorial service at the National Museum
for the Pacific War. The museum is a result of the efforts of
Admiral Chester Nimitz, Fleet Admiral and Fredericksburg.
The museum is huge and Bruce felt it is the finest war museum he has
ever seen. He plans to do a separate page just on the museum at some
point in the future.
LBJ Ranch
The following day, it was over to
the Lyndon B. Johnson ranch east of Fredericksburg. There are two
parts to the ranch; the State Park and National Park. Below is the
entrance to the State Park side.
The original Johnson Settlement
started by Samuel Ealy Johnson, LBJ's grandfather.
The house below is the birthplace
of LBJ.
Luckenbach
From the LBJ Ranch, it was over to
Luckenbach. Below is Betsy at the old post office, now a general
store and gift shop. Yes, it was cold that day.
Next it was over to the Luchenbach
Dance Hall, one of many historic dance halls in Central Texas. They
couldn't stay since the event was sold out the night they were
there, but they plan to go back soon.
It is appropriate their "anniversary get-away" ended with a trip to Luckenbach, for after all,
as the lyrics go, it was all about "Getting Back to the
Basics of Love."
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Christmas
Bruce and Betsy in front of the
house the weekend before Christmas. The decorations are typical of
what they do every year except Bruce added the Star of Bethlehem.
This photo was used as their electronic Christmas Card in 2018.
Bruce typically uses the same
outside light design each year. This year, he decided to add the
Star of Bethlehem to change things up a bit. With a three pieces of
1x4 lumber, table saw, paint and two strings of lights, he created a
star over 8' tall in one afternoon.
The way the family room looked
prior to the festivities.
Not too many folks send Christmas
cards like they used to. Electronic media is taking the place of
real cards.
The mantle and hearth decorations.
Even the Gators got into the spirit
as seen by the Gator Nutcracker below.
The tree and gifts.
The gifts were distributed and
everyone took turns opening theirs.
In about an hour, all the gifts
were opened.
Here is Betsy and Bruce with their
gifts.
Next, it was time for Christmas
dinner.
The festivities wrapping up with a
family photo.
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