Rubes at the River

Ten days ago, we were lucky enough to attend the birthday party of a friend of ours, Jason. He and his wife just bought an acre of land on the Llano River just west of the city of Llano.  The skies were clear and the sun was out, providing us with the first great day of weather in over a week.  Ruby had a fabulous time, as she insisted on trying to wade out into the cold (!) water as quickly as possible.  It's clear we have a child that loves the water regardless of its temperature.

Thanks again, Jason, for the invite!  Some pictures from the day:







More pictures after the jump ...

Brown Chicken, Brown Cow

Rubina has a boyfriend. Actually, Rubina has several boyfriends: Tio, Mr. Mark, the Urban boys, Henrik. But she's been spending a lot of time with one special boy lately, the handsome Desmond. Ruby and Desmond have become great friends over the last year and as an added bonus, David and I have become great friends with Desmond's parents, Taryne and Ian. We eat dinner together regularly and love sharing parenting stories and coping techniques while the little ones play. Plus David and Ian have a shared love for all things prepubescent such as BMX, skateboards, and wacky youtube videos of Japanese game shows.

Here are Desmond and Ruby hanging out in his crib.

We have since taught her that you should let a boy buy you dinner before you start hanging out in his bedroom. That's a battery operated candle in Ruby's hand. Can you say romantic?

The young couple, eating their frozen fruit and talking about how nerdy their parents are.

We love you Hallett family. Thanks for agreeing to live in Texas forever.

My Valentine

Happy Valentine's Day from Ruby.

We have an adorable Valentine's picture from Ruby, but we want to wait to post it until after the grandparents receive their copy in the mail. So check back in the next few days.

Flashback Friday

From our last blog post before Ruby was born:

Bubbles!

Ruby loves story time - especially when they release bubbles at the end.

Dad's 30th

I bounced between titling this post David's 30th or Dad's 30th before going with the latter. I figure that while the majority of people who visit this blog would understand whose party it is regardless of how I identify myself, it is Ruby's blog. And I am, after all, her dad. With that out of the way, onto the fun.

I officially left my youth in the rear-view mirror and jammed the accelerator firmly into adulthood when I turned 30 on February 1. I was fortunate enough to share the weekend with friends and family - some of whom I knew were coming and others who were a total surprise. See, my mom, sister, and wife planned an awesome surprise party for me that went off without a hitch: I was entirely clueless even walking in to the restaurant where the party was held. Instead of being greeted by just Jesse and Meaghan, I was faced with a slew of family a friends, some of whom I had not seen in many years. The fact that a lot of folks came from across the state (and country!) to attend made the event that much more special. So thank you again everyone - with huge thanks to Gramma, Lauren, and Emilia. I love y'all.

Now onto the pictures. Many apologies if your beautiful face does not show up. It doesn't mean we don't love you - just that we didn't get a good (or any) picture of you:

Many more after the jump ...

Wordless Wednesday