Texas Blue Lime Productions

Our first day of Christmas (and our first major holiday since the move to Austin [1]) was jam packed.

9am – leave Austin for Bryan
11am – 2nd group to arrive on scene at Luza Christmas
12noon – giant family lunch, 65 in attendance, paper plates and a seat on the deck
1pm – visit with family, watch Mom and the kids open gifts
4pm – after the mass exodus of her home, we visited with Mom and the remaining family
5pm – leave Bryan for Paris
10pm – arrive in Paris

What a day!

[1] Thanksgiving would have been our first try at this travel pattern, but Lori came down with a cold bug. She too sick to travel, but more importantly, we didn’t want to infect anyone else.

We have been slow to update and that is mostly because we’ve traveled back to Bryan a LOT. After, getting the apartment, packing, and moving, we also traveled for these reasons:

• 30 May  – a wedding
• 13 June – a wedding
• 20 June – to have the carpets cleaned
• 22 June – to get something from the house that we both thought was already in Austin; Lori made a special day trip
• 27 June – Emil’s neice’s wedding
• 2 July – to Paris. Happy Birthday to Lori’s grandparents (3rd and 4th) and to celebrate Independence day with the Parisites.

For the 4th, we headed back to ATX. We wanted to hear the Austin Symphony play 1812 Overture with real cannon fire and see the fireworks over the lake. It was amazing.

photo from the Austin American Statesman

Read about the Austin festivities.

Happy Independence Day to you all.

This may have been my favorite Easter ever. It was certainly the nicest one I’d ever had at the Annual Luza Family Easter Camping Trip.

The weather was perfect. The days were only a little cool, requiring long sleeves, while the nights required only a sheet and light blanket.

For reference:

• We have camped at Easter when it was 80+ degrees with close to 100% humidity. We were all miserable.
• We have also camped at Easter in ~20-degree weather with sleet/ice—in the same weekend when we battled rattlesnakes. Again, we were miserable!
  [ Don't you just love Texas in the spring??? ]

The new barn/shed Mom had installed is amazing. I expected a wood pavilion with nothing more than ~four posts and a nice roof, but the metal-sided building she selected has six garage doors. It’s perfect for keeping stuff safe there during the year (we justifiably worry about simple things like water hoses) as well as providing shelter to us if there is wind (which we needed this year) or rain.

Turtleor got a new baby sister: Valvet, which is it’s own story for our blog.

Our nephew, Chad, and his friend, have not only built a bunch of new trails for four-wheeling and hiking, they also have started constructing a shower area (with the help of our great-nephew Andrew and great-niece Ashlyn), and have planned a zip line!

After (my insistence and others’) encouragement, Chad also took us on the “First Annual Hayless Ride” around the property. Just before the little Luzas had to head to bed, we loaded up the flatbed trailer with blankets, made sure we all had drinks/snacks, and embarked on a journey around the property that belongs to Emil’s mom. Kids (by age and at heart) all had a great time and deemed this the new annual Friday night tradition to replace when the family used to run to the bridge to get blown away by the late-night train[1]. Thank  you, Chad!!!

Happy Easter, everyone.

Thanks, Charles, for forwarding this little giggle along to us.

A recent study conducted by Harvard University found that the average American walks about 900 miles a year.

Another study by the American Medical Association found that Americans drink, on average, 22 gallons of alcohol a year.

This means, on average, Americans get about 41 miles to the gallon.

Great (this one’s a) Neice #15 made her “breathe your own air” debut over the weekend.

We are so lucky to have all these great kiddos in our life.

ok, #16 baby Quail [1]
it’s your turn.

#17 will be here just a few weeks after that.

[1] yes, the bird; some nicknames stick for good reason

There were several family photo ops today at the Luza Christmas today.

• Mom wanted a family-wide photo with those who were in attendance today.
• Our newest great-niece, Caroline, met most of the family, today.
• Hannah & John are getting married in a couple of weeks, so we did a fast engagement session.
• Patty wanted a photo of her son Ben, his fiance Jackie, and her daughter Maxie.

Thank you all for endulging Mom and me and the cameras. We all appreciate the images of family.

If there are any that you want made into prints, please let me know which one(s). I’ll upload them to a print service, like RitzPix, where you can order online and have them printed in your own town.

Thanks to Twitter, we now know that we are—once again—Great Uncle Emil and Great Aunt Lori.

Baby Caroline arrived today at 6:41pm weighing in at 7 lbs 5 oz!

Congratulations Sean & Audrey and Alex!

Today was a wonderful day with Emil’s family and some extended/in-laws. It was a lovely day of food, good conversation, football, chasing the sweetest great-nieces and great-nephews you’ve ever known, and genuine care, concern, and love for one another.

THIS is what the holidays—all of them—are about.

We wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend. Be safe. Take care. Have an extra scoop of gravy or dressing. Calories consumed in celebration don’t count.

Love to you all,
Lori & Emil

Maegan’s husband, Larame, just returned from the war. His photo was in their local paper, the Pensacola News Journal.

What a GREAT shot of the two of them!

Each year, the Luzas camp on our land in Dime Box for Easter. We go out there on Wednesday night, set up our camp, clean up the area a bit and get things ready for the others to arrive. Our first evening there was so beautiful. After a warm/muggy few days, the air cooled and was just perfect for camping!

sunset was gorgeous

a monster? oh no!

no, it’s just Indigo

Thursday, as Emil was searching for wood for our fires, he found an unwelcome visitor. We’re sure the Viperidae Crotalinae Crotalus didn’t take too kindly to us being in his home, either.

as Emil was killing him with the shovel, the snake struck….and buried his fangs into the blade of the shovel.

After two beautiful days of great camping weather, the much-anticipated storm front moved in. We awoke Saturday morning (early!) to the sound of sleet landing on our tent. After a couple of years of camping in the Gila National Forrest with our Alterntive Spring Break students, this was old hat to us. We were warm and toasty in our tent, so venturing out to help with the annual barbecue was NOT easy!

We grilled and prepped (and took phone calls from all the cancellations!) in the sleet and rain and braved the weather with Charles, Elain, Diane, Jonathan, Erin, Alexa, Bobby, Patty, Nathan, and Ben. We ate quickly, packed up in a flash, and headed home. Lori headed straight for a hot bath so she could warm up and rest before shooting a wedding that evening.

whew! what a weekend!
SOOOOO much better than working!