Special Thanks to Courtney

When we made it back from Burleson the kids were clamoring for a snack after dinner. I divided up the popcorn into bags that we got at the HBP. They were so excited about these bags, Madalyn asked 'Who gave us these cool bags?" I told my friend from school Courtney had made them the cool movie-themed gift box and decided she was 'Awesome'. The pic cracked me up. Thanks for being 'Awesome' Courtney!

Jeff's 20th High School Reunion

Jeff, Richard, Steve and Steve

Danny, Will and Jeff

Jeff, Laura and David

Jeff, Matt, Derek, Julie and Cherry
Go Burleson Elks Class of 1988! We went to Burleson this weekend to attend Jeff's high school reunion. We started at the Pour House in downtown Fort Worth on Friday night where they had a great turn out. The next day we went to the park in Burleson for family fun and then on Saturday night a formal event in the Fort Worth Stockyards. It was so much fun and I really enjoyed getting to hear all of the high school and even elementary school stories which included a guy that ate crickets, a girl that was so bad the teacher tied her to her chair, and Jeff was accused of taking his clothes off at the 10-year reunion. Unfortunately, it wasn't him, it was another guy but I was a little sad that I couldn't torture him with that. :)
They had people from New York, Seattle, Massachusets and Portland come back in for the festivities and it was great to see Jeff 'in his element'. And the other original member (Steve in the white shirt)of the Guess Who Crew was there. Nice! One highlight of the weekend was David and Laura (above) who got engaged! It's so cool to actually get to see that happen, Laura was so surprised and it definitely made the evening memorable all around. I held my own with the Elks and it was nice to have two dates with Jeff in one weekend.

2nd Annual Halfway BirthRAY Partay

On July 12th we had the second annual Halfway BirthRAY Partay at the City of Kyle Pool. It was really nice to see some new faces and some people who enjoyed it so much they came back again a second time. We were celebrating Madalyn turning 8 1/2, Beck being 4 1/2 and Bristol being 2 1/2. The weather could not have been better and it so great to see everyone. As you can see from the pics a lot of the Dual Language girls made it to the party. Some highlights were the limbo contest, the pinata that kept on giving, the treasure chest prizes, and Jessie's super amazing Pool Cake(see below). Jeff worked hard on an amazing music playlist for the night and made CDs for all the guests to take home. We raised $100 for PAWS, the local animal shelter, and we're going to take them the money this week. Thanks to everyone for all of the great gifts too, the kids have really enjoyed everything they got. I'll let the pictures do the talking for me- it was too hard to pick the best ones. I hope you enjoy!

Thanks so much to those of you that were able to make the drive to Kyle, and if you weren't able to make it hopefully we'll see you next year!

HBP Pinata and Cake

Raymond Crew

Pinata madness

Pool Cake by Jessie

Raymond Boys with cake

HBP - Pics!

Miss Natalie

Jeff and Jake

Beck on the slide

Linda and Josh Raymond

Madalyn and Brenah

HBP - More pics!

Dual Language girls represent!

Sharon and Megan

Dianne and Addison

Courtney and Shea

Heather and Valeria

Pinata Candy

How much candy can you fit into a pinata? Madalyn and Beck seriously stuffed 900 pieces of candy (per the bag count- I didn't actually count them!) and lots of Oriental Trading Company toys in there. It was SO heavy! You can see that there was some sampling while they stuffed it, so maybe 890 actually made it in there.

Delay on the HBP pics-

Jeff took the camera with him to Ojai, CA this week and I didn't get a chance to pull the HBP pics before he left. If you took any that you don't mind sharing with me, please email them to me at hraymond@mlrpc.com.

Oh, and Jeff's going to the Coldplay concert tonight in LA, so I hope he can get some good pics of Chris Martin. :)

Madalyn goes to Girl Scout Camp

Well, Madalyn has had a very busy summer and today was no different. We took her to drop her off at Camp Texlake for her first Girl Scout camp. She's at camp on Lake Travis until Tuesday at the Stick Horse rodeo. They're going to ride real horses, make their own stick horses, and swim. She was in great spirits when we left and was glad that she got a top bunk. We're very glad that she's so independent and so amazing. After we dropped her off we went for dinner at Southpark Meadows and let the boys play on the playground. I loved the shot of Bristol.
I also wanted to tell Stacey Heller thanks for all of the great stories of when she was a camper there and giving me the vote of confidence to send her off again. Thanks Stacey!

A few more pics

Kim surprised us by coming for a visit from New Mexico. Unfortunately, she's in town for a memorial service, but we were glad to see her anyway. I didn't get a picture of her or Eric, but got a good one of Julie holding Mason who was fresh from his first hair cut. He looks great and we were excited that they were able to join in the fun with us.

July 4th in Buda

Me and Bristol

Ella sno cone

Brandy and Bryon

Jessie, Mike and Ella Stephens

The girls- Maddy, Brenah, Makayla and Ella
On July 4th we went to my parent's house for a cookout complete with ribs and roasted corn. It was awesome. We gathered up with the Reeds, Larvins and Stephens' at the City Park in Buda for sno cones and what turned out to be a 32 minute fireworks show. It was a fabulous show and it was topped off with the Hays Rebel fight song, Dixie. How could it be better?

Madalyn models the cats

Carly


Greyson

Rocky

Madalyn got a kitten from her friend Victoria, and named it Carly (after the Nickelodeon show iCarly) who is grey and white and very friendly. My parents adopted two others, Greyson who is an orange tabby, from Elizabeth that I work with. They also adopted Rocky (named by Beck upon our cousins' arrival) who is the white/grey/orange. He's a little less outgoing, but the three of them seem to really have a lot of fun together.

Suessical the Musical

Last week we went to see Suessical the Musical with the kids and my mom. MLR is a sponsor of Zach Scott theater, and we got free tickets, can't beat that. Zach Scott theater did it as part of their children's program this year. We liked the show a lot and Bristol almost made it through the whole thing. We had to take a picture in front of the Cat in the Hat's hat. You have to love Dr. Suess and the best song was Green Eggs and Ham in the finale.

Diana's 30th Birthday

I don't have a picture of the guest of honor (check Aimee's blog), but about 30 of us gathered for Diana's birthday at the Salt Lick. It was lots of fun and we enjoyed getting to hang out with Aimee, Valeria, and Gerardo. Not to mention that we actually got to sit with Diana and Reed. I'm just a little jealous that they got to go on a long weekend in San Francisco to celebrate. Somehow I think that 4 days in Napa would make turning 30 a lot easier. :)

MLR BP2W5

MLR Group pic

Nancy and Michelle

MLR was recognized as one of the best places to work in Austin for the 5th year in a row by the Austin Business Journal. We got to celebrate at a luncheon held at the Hilton downtown and then a second celebration back at the office. I talk about it a lot, but I'm so glad that I joined the team here- it's such a great fit for me and our family.

Madalyn at Church Camp

First time kayaking

Karaoke time!
Madalyn went to church camp with her friend Lily from school. They were gone from Sunday to Wednesday and seemed to really enjoy themselves. Madalyn came back tired, tan, and full of stories. One of the camp counselors shared these pics with Lily's mom. Maddy said that only two bad things happened - one, her swim suit broke. The first time she tried to wear it, so she had to wear a t-shirt the rest of the time. D'oh! And she skinned her butt on a rock. Double D'oh! Obviously with only two bad things on a first trip away she did pretty good overall. And those are both pretty good learning experiences. Pack two swimsuits and watch out for rocks. :)