Yet another apology

Here at the Renaud Empire, there has been no shortage of stories to tell the world at large. There has been, however, a shortage of time in which to write said stories. So, yet again, I am apologizing for a lack of updates here.

A few days ago we returned from a trip to San Antonio to visit family and relax. It was really wonderful. The weather was hot and dry, although we were thankful to see the parched land receive some rain while we were there. My Nan’s pool was loads of fun, and all three of the girls greatly enjoyed it.

We got to celebrate two different birthdays during the trip — Ludi turned 2, and my brother Jon turned 24.

Jon and Brittney came to town for Ludi’s birthday. During the day, he and I went to the driving range to practice our golf swings. I am dreadfully out of practice, and I have a golf outing coming up next week on my dad’s birthday.

Anyway, Yoli made a ladybug cake for Ludi’s party and we had a lot of fun. (Jadzia has been spending the most time playing with many of Ludi’s presents, as always seems to happen)

For Jon’s birthday, we drove out to Del Rio. It was a great trip. We enjoyed the scenery along the way and the small towns. When we got to Laughlin Air Force Base, Jonny met us at the main traffic circle. We had been planning to go right to a bowling alley, but Jon asked us to first follow him to his house so that Brittney could get socks. Yoli realized she, too, needed socks, and asked to borrow some from Brittney. At that point I realized both Jadzia and Ludi were in sandals and would need socks, but I wasn’t sure where to get any.

At the alley, we found they had one pair of kids’ socks for sale. But they were for older kids. So I bought the pair. I decided to let Jadzia bowl the first game and Ludi the second game. The socks were obviously big on Jadzia, but it worked fine. She had a lot of fun, though most of her balls ended up in the gutter (bumpers only worked on two of the lanes). When it came time for Ludi’s turn, though, Jadzia threw a bit of a fit. I had to extract the shoes and socks and put them on Ludi; the socks covered pretty much all of her exposed legs.

After a meal and two games of bowling, we went to Jonny & Brittney’s place for chocolate cake. I am pleased to report than Jon did NOT whiff when it came time to blow out the 25 candles.

I gave him a Tiger Woods Wii golf game. This game had a disc golf mode, which I was eager to try, so Jonny and I played a few holes before the girls started getting sleep-deprived-crazy and it was time to go back to San Antonio.

During the trip I was able to scan 140+ Lawrence family photos, as well as some George documents. I went over some family tree stuff with my Nan, and I also conducted a 40-minute video interview with her discussing her dad and stuff from her childhood.

We got to visit our Renaud family (Grandma, Aunt Carol, Aunt Joyce) for one evening, but unfortunately it didn’t work out to see them another time. Grandma was not feeling well that week. We also had a great dinner visit with one of my friends from high school, Christy.

Suffice it to say that the trip was great. Nan’s hospitality was greatly appreciated, and the girls (read: Jadzia) keep telling me they want to go back and live there.