July 2003 Pictures
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July started off with a bang at the Texas Rangers game
followed by fireworks and then a hand-launched bottle rocket misfiring and shooting down
our street. Fortunately it exploded in a neighbor's yard, instead of
in their house. Greg, Devin, and Reagan Cross cheese it up for the camera at the Rangers game.
Caitlin, Bailey Cross and Bailey's cousin Gracie. |
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Caitlin gets ready for our upcoming trip to Galveston. Yep, it works...no water getting in. |
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Angela's birthday with a Winnie the Pooh theme.
Caitlin with her Pooh PJ's on for the event.
Angela gets a jewelry chest while Kristen Hatcher laughs at the clown just out of frame who is balancing on a unicycle, juggling flaming Chihuahuas while blowing smoke rings. Sorry, I couldn't fit everything into the picture. |
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Devin's friends from last years class at the Early Childhood Center at a birthday pool party. They look like trouble waiting to happen. |
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A plastic trash barrel at the park across the street from our house spontaneously combusted, or else someone threw a cigarette into it, the fire marshal wasn't sure which had occurred. Hundreds of park trash barrels spontaneously combust each year, it's just not widely reported. |
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One July evening the atmosphere, clouds, and Sun produced this incredibly vivid sky. This is an unretouched photo; it really was this orange. |
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More house pictures. Estimated completion date of the
house is early September. Dad and Greg install a window seat in Caitlin's bay window.
A view of the kitchen/breakfast nook looking from the family room.
Caitlin and Devin while the hours away playing in the sand pile out front.
Pre-bricks
The brickers work it.
Dad, Grant McCraney (builder) and Seth (supervisor) check out the work.
The tape and bedding guy who sidelines as an amusement park act works on the arches in the family room.
This is Angela's favorite view looking from the master bedroom door towards the front door through the formal living with the dining room to the right.
Angela has lots of great ideas for snazzing up the place. Here we are putting a special phaux-stone texture on the walls of the kitchen.
Angela handles the heights. |
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We had a wonderful vacation to Galveston with the Cross
family. Here is a picture of the
Hotel
Galvez where we stayed.
A view from our third floor room looking out into the Gulf of Mexico.
A night shot of the pool area. |
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We spent a day at
Moody Gardens,
similar to Disney World's Epcot Center. It is divided into three massive
pyramids (aquarium, discovery, and rain forest). I was fascinated at the aquarium. Here you can get close to a shark.
Poor Mr. Turtle was born with deformed right appendages. But, he got along just fine.
In the Rain Forest area, you can see the environment from above and below the water line.
One of my favorite fish, the Jimmy Durante fish.
The aquarium tanks are extremely large. You can go around to windows on different levels to see the tanks from different angles. Here I took a picture looking through one window into another where Charles Cross pretends he is swimming.
Take a stroll under the shark tank.
Greg pets a massive Hermit crab in what I call the "pet it, don't sweat it" attraction where they also had manta rays and baby tiger sharks for you to touch. |
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In the Rain Forest pyramid, poisonous frogs paint a vivid
rainbow of death.
One of our favorites, Oz the Frog. Looks like a pile of poop.
While we were busy looking at the fauna, the girls were checking out the flora.
Caitlin, Bailey, Devin and Reagan.
The Speed family.
Everyone now. |
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In the Discovery Pyramid, Devin stands next to a tree that
was bent by a Hurricane.
Goober nerds wait for the iMax 3-D show to start. |
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At the massive simulated beach/pool at Moody Gardens Angela shows the wear of a long day. She claims that she was fine and I just caught her off guard, but her look says, "Mess with me and I'll let you have it. Just once more...once more. Come on, give me a reason!" |
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One day the guys and girls split up and spent some time
perusing the shops. Greg and Devin on one of the shop piers.
Devin and Reagan attempt to communicate with an angry bird outside of the Rainforest Cafe.
Caitlin and a rose. |
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A trip to Galveston wouldn't be complete without a day at
the beach. Caitlin hunts for sea shells.
I know, I know. Angela is tan and I'm pasty. Beach-goers were all wearing sunglasses, but not because of the Sun, because of me. 4 out of 5 doctors agree that friends must apply sunscreen three times per day to avoid the harmful UV rays I emit. This picture had to be digitally altered, because of the overexposure due to the bright light reflected from me.
Angela and Stephanie covered me with sand and then put on their wonder twin rings and shaped me in the form of a mermaid.
It took about an hour to create and fortunately they left the seaweed hair off until the very last, because it was rank! There were people coming by laughing at me until I cried. Some even videotaped. |
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Caitlin traps Bailey preventing her from running away
screaming in front of this
gargantuan tarantula at NASAs Johnson Space Center..
Nickelodeon has taken over NASA's public image at the Space Center. This is a scientific experiment show. Things that blow up and ooze always make the coolest shows.
We got a free ride in their zero-G spacecraft. Dang cell phone rang just as they were taking the picture. Who knew the "Can you hear me now?" guy made sure space was connected? |
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At the Adobe Cafe in Houston, some of the best Tex-Mex
available, Devin loses his balloon.
And he watches as it disappears into the sky. Don't fret, we got him another one. |
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Mom and Dad's neighbors raise Labradors. Gracie is pregnant with a litter of chocolate labs, one of
which is going to be ours.
Then she had them.
Devin cuddles. They should be weaned and ready for delivery in about a month, around the same time we move into the new house. |
