2 of the San Antonio Missions

Well now that the weather is cooling off it is time for the Ramos' to adventure out of the Air Conditioned house and out of hibernation and go on our family adventures. We decided to tour the old missions that was established back in the 1700's by the conquering Spainards. There are a total of 5 missions and we visited two of them. We started with Mission Espada, here are some tourist photo opts!

This is a church that was astablished in 1690 by the Archdiacies and is still in use today!

Anyways we had a great time getting out and enjoying being outside. Not a whole lot is going on around here. Annabella is doing better at school now that Emily drives her to school. Marcus is Marcus and he is a boy. Gotta love it. He finally decided on a Halloween costume and now he wants to wear it all the time, or at least asking if it is Halloween yet. Emily is doing better from the recovery of having her tonsils taken out. She has issues of food getting caught in the holes that were left behind but she deals with it. I finished another class and started another and start another in November. I will be so happy once school is done, tired so tired.

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Phil and Vicki (Derek's parents) came to visit over the extended weekend and we had a good time. We drove up to Ft. Hood in the Suburban to visit old stomping grounds for my parents. We saw the first house that my parents bought, the same house that I came home to from the hospital. Kinda of cool, though I don't remember any of it. The town of Kileen, don't get me started, I felt pretty safe there, ok from in side the car with the windows up and the doors locked. Scary place. Not a place that I will aspire to visit again. When I was a kid I always said I would go back and see Texas the birthplace of me. I have been here, I have seen what I have seen and now I am ready to go.

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While my dad was we attempted to replace the rotors on our Nissan Xterra. I was really excited to work on the car and replace the rotors myself. First time for me to replace the rotors, not only that the Nissan dealership wanted to charge me $700.00 to do it. I thought to my self I can do it for pennies on the dollar, so I did my homework and yep sure enough I felt that I had enough mechanic experiance to do the job. Two rotors = $50.00, brakes = $25.00 vs. $700.00. So my dad and I went to the shop on base where they have car lifts to use and we lifted the car and pulled off the wheels and calipers only to find out that you have to have a special tool to take of the the hub that keeps the rotors in place. AAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!! My buddy Dave talked about sticking it to the man, well the man stuck it to me. I went to a few other cars in the shop to check out how most Rotors come off and man that tweeked me even more; however, I guess that is how they, the man, make money. From that point on I made a personal vow to do my best to not buy new vehicles that if I cant work on my self, or at least simple tasks such as changing a rotor, then I don't want it. To me no fancy car is worth having if I can't work on it myself. I miss the VW Bus that Emily had and that is what I am going to shoot for. I Want a Bus again. I know I can work on that myself, thanks to the teachings of Mike (Emily's Dad). Anyways there you go.

Take care all.

Hey Everybody

Well it's been, I don't know, too long. Anyways, Emily had her tonsils taken out about three weeks ago and she says it sucks. After the surgury I took a look at the back of her throat and it looked like the doctor took a melon baller and scooped out the tonsils and the holes were black. It was really gross. So she has not been able to eat and barly drink anything for two and half weeks and tonight she was able to eat a Burger King hamburger. I think she was so hungry that she was going to tough it out and eat the burger.

School has started for Annabella. She is now in Kindergarden. CRAZY !!! Our little girl is riding the bus to school and is gone all day all week. She says she has fun. Marcus' pre-school starts after labor day. Emily is teaching the preschool here at home with a couple of other kids. So, he is excited for that.

My school is going good, I am plugging along. I found out this past week that I did not make promotion and on top of that I missed it by .2 points. That sucked, but we know it did not happen for a reason. So we'll just keep going.

It has been a hot summer, we spent many days at the pool here on base, and that was really awsome. The kids took swimming lessons and have become really good but hillarious swimmers.

Doing some catching up Emily and I had the opportunity to go out with the Young Women for the Girls Camp 4th year hike. It was fun, we went to a state park called Enchanted Rock state park. Now for those back west in Utah and Washington and other westerly states, this is not a impressive site to see; however, for Texas folks this is a Mountain. Anyways, the girls hiked to the top and myself and a few other guys went and set up rock climbing and repelling. It was awsome, I did not get to as much as I wanted to, it was about the girls; however, Emily and I did get to go at the end and it was my first time to do this. So I walked out to the edge and took a deep breath and went, it was crazy. Then one of the other guys there, more experianced, hooked into the harnest to go face forward. It was an opportunity of a life time, and I took it. Here is the pictures.

And here is the Mountain, don't keep your hopes up.

The next pictures are from our annual trip to the coast. This is in Port Arnasas Tx. past Corpus Cristi. We love going there, and the kids absolutly go crazy going to the beach. They love the water, waves and sand. Now the pictures you are going to see are true and real. The beach is not a paridise beach with long white crystal clear water. In fact it is murky and off in the distance you can see off shore oil rigs. That was different; however, if you don't pay attention to it is a cool place to visit, and at least we get a chance to go play at a warm water beach. Some people don't even get to do that.

Oh yea the seaweed, the kids loved throwing that around and at each other, I did not like it so much, it felt gross aginst the legs as it washed in and out.

Up next is our annual trip to Seaworld. One of the perks of the military is that we get go in for free once a year. Thank you Anheuser-Busch for supporting the troops. The kids had a blast, and it was even better this year because Marcus was tall enough to be able to go on the same rides as Annabella, so they were both excited to be able to go together. Proud parent moment when Annabella took Marcus' hand and led him on the roller coaster and showed him what to do. It was awsome.

Well, that is that, it has been a fun summer and now we will move on to the winter time, not that there is much of one here in Southern Texas. I miss the cold, wet and crisp fall and winters in the Northwest.

Take care all

and remember

It's almost Friday

Sorry

Sorry to all my faithful readers out there, all two of you, my hard drive crashed and we lost about a year's worth of pictures and my school work, and on top of that school has been kicking my butt this time. Anyhow I finish up my classes this week and I will have the month of July off of school and so I will get caught up. Thanks for your understanding and I appreciate your business. Please standy by for technical issues.

Ramos

Not Much going on

So it has been a little bit sense the last time that I have updated our blog. Sorry, but there just has not been much going on. We've been to the zoo (as seen in pictures).

A week ago we went to the Poteet Strawberry festival. We did not plan on going inside the festival but the only place where you could find Strawberrys was inside. Luckly for us being military it was free. It was awsome and we got a great deal on 4 flats. We kept two and friends of ours bought the other two. Emily made Strawberry Jam. Oh man the jam is awsome!! In May Emily and I are planning on going up north of San Antonio to pick Blackberries and Peaches to also make Jam. This time I have taken days off to help with that process.

This was at the Poteet Strawberry Festival. A real live Texas Long Horn

A boy with a frog and a cookie what more could a boy want

I have been studying lately for my promotion test. I test in the begining of May. I wont find out till a few months later if I get promoted. I hope so. Then I start school up in May. Really excited to get that done. Not to much longer with that.

On a great note Emily quit her job at the kids school, which they are no longer going too, long story if you want more details give us a call. Anyhow, Emily has been so much happier being at home more and Annabella was able to get into preschool here on base. She is so excited to be going to the big kids school. So that mean next year she'll be in kindergarden. Crazy!!

Well that is it for now here are a few pictures to enjoy. Peace and remember it's almost Friday

This was at the last air show here at the base that I am at. The kids had a great time, Looks like Emily is having a good time also. Pilots and there flight suits.

Phantom of the Opera

Just a quick note if you ever get the chance to go see the Broadway play Phantom of the Opera go and do it. It was great a little something for everyone some comedy, romance and action. A dark play kinda of like Batman that was done by Tim Burton. It was an exceptional play to go and see.

Good times

Ok so last week we all went out Enchanted Rock. It is a state park of a giant rock that has hiking trails around and up to the top of the Rock. We decided to hike the to the top of the rock first. It was crazy steep. From the base to the top it was just over one-half mile and went up 425 ft. For all you math folks that was steep.

On those really steep areas I had the kids Bear crawl so they would not fall backwards, they thought that was cool. So we all made it to the top and we had lunch up there. This area is about 100 miles north of San Antonio and had a much better sceanry then San Antonio. From the top we could see many hills and vegitation. it was nice.

Now comes the fun part, going down. No big deal until Marcus decides that he needs to go to the bathroom. On this rock there is no bush for him to pee in nor would he do it anyways. So I (Derek) have both kids by the hands so they won't slip and tumble down the rock while trying to go as fast as I can to where there is some bushes for Marcus to pee in. We find a bush and Emily helps him and he pees. He did not like standing and peeing at all. This was his first time to pee standing up, more of a forced to do it rather then wanted to do it, anyways lots of first going on in our family. After the hike down everyone was so pooped from the hike up we left. It was a fun trip.

First lost Tooth

Annabella lost her first tooth at the young age of 4 years old. It was a fight and a half to get her to do anything with it. When we first noticed the tooth it was at church and we told her that she needed to wiggle it so it could come out. She did not like that at all and from that point on she would not do anything it with her tooth. Annabella would not let anyone see it or touch it. A couple of days later she let us see it and that is when we noticed that the incoming tooth had already broken through her skin (as you can see in the picture.) We were concerned and made a dentist appt. The dentist found out that the tooth had no root left and was ready to come out and another tooth was getting ready to come out also. The dentist was going to go ahead and pull the teeth right then and there and that is when Annabella melted (as would almost any kid) and they said they couldn't do it with her melting down like that. That night we called Ms. Jeania over and I (Derek) had to hold her down, and she pulled the tooth out. She was screaming (again like almost any kid would) but she recovered and that is when a whole new little girl came out, because the next day at school she VOLUNTEERED to stand in front of her class and recited the ABCs, if anyone knows Annabella she is, or was, the shyest girl ever, then the other day we went to the park and she went across the monkey bars all by her self, we were close by but not so close that we could have caught her if she fell, so she took that on all by her self. Talk about a proud parent moment. Lastly, we have not been able to get her to stop talking, in her class at church her teacher had to keep asking her stop talking. How funny is that, it has been a crazy week with this little tooth.