Ian's First Prom

About a month ago, Amanda (a young woman in our church branch) asked Ian out to the high school prom. He accepted, and last Saturday he went on his first date and attended his first prom.
 

 They took photos at Amanda's Grandmother's house.

 

They have a fun zipline for the grandchildren. 

Ian had to try it out!

Then they went to dinner at Chilis, then the dance. The end.

Feel the Burn 5K

Ian ran in his second 5K towards his goal for this year! There was also a 10K going on simultaneously in which some friends of ours were running. He has spent the past month reading running books, running blogs, watching YouTube running videos, and attempting to craft the perfect running footwear. Oh, and he has also been running a lot as well.

Here he is awaiting the start and apparently not wanting his photo taken:

And they're off!

After a short wait for the onlookers, they were back! 

Ian came in 3rd overall, 2nd in his age category, 

improving upon his previous time by about two minutes (19:24)! 

And wearing his homemade sandals!

He was pretty exhausted and had really pushed himself.

The sponsors had snacks for the participants.

We were anxious to see how our friends did in the 10K. 

(David S. won the 5K last January.) He was pushing a stroller this time, so he got 2nd place.

And his wife got 7th place overall. They are an impressive couple.

Sadly they are moving soon as do most of those in the military here.

And then very tragically our Canon camera died.

It just stopped working for no reason, thus putting

the future of this blog in great jeopardy.

Thanks to Janell's old iPhone, we got a couple of the awards ceremony.

Flashback Post: January in Del Rio

Good-bye to Megan

We loved having Megan visit for the holidays! We were still unpacking and setting up the house, so we didn't do too much. We went to the movies (Star Wars, of course!), tried some local cuisine, talked a lot and relaxed. She left January 2nd to return to her studies at BYU.

Missionaries!

We feed the missionaries once a month here in Del Rio. There is one pair of Elders and one pair of Sisters for the city, and we usually schedule both sets for a Sunday dinner. 

Sisters Shepherd & Angulo

The Elders thought we were so fun that they came back on a P-day to play with us. 

Elders Atagi and Forbush challenging
Dallin and Erin to a game of foosball

Then they battled with light sabers.

Fishing at Lake Amistad

The locals claim there is fish in this lake. We have yet to see/catch any.

Del Rio Chilly 5K

One of Ian's goals for 2016 is to run in three races. His first was a 5K on January 30th. He had been diligently training for the month, and his discipline paid off.

Starting off: Ian is #828 in a dark shirt

On the home stretch!

Ian ended up 6th place out of all the males, and 3rd in his age category! Way to go, Ian! His time was 21:24.6!

And he got this nice medal!

Ian's 16th Birthday and Subsequent Celebrations

Happy Birthday to Ian!

His real birthday was February 15th, and he got a homemade chocolate cake. And apparently if you are eating fancy chocolate cake, it calls for a new hairdo. No, Ian is not driving yet. He has to put it 6 hours or so studying this booklet prior to even applying for a learner's permit. He also hasn't been overly anxious to start driving, but we will get him going on it soon enough.

For his official celebration, he asked to attend a book signing event in San Antonio. Brandon Sanderson is one of Ian's favorite authors, and he is currently on a tour promoting Calamity. He was scheduled to be in San Antonio the evening of February 26th. Since Del Rio has no bookstore (GASP! I know, can you believe it???), and we are a family of readers, how could we not grant his request? Also, Kevin does not teach any classes on Fridays, so he was free to come with us.

We arrived around lunchtime, went to Barnes and Noble to purchase some books and get a ticket for the signing line, stopped at the Scout Store to get Ian a new shirt since he keeps growing on us, and then experienced a real Texan BBQ at the Barbecue Station. Dallin ate bread and chips. The rest of us ate BBQ chicken, turkey, brisket, pork, beans, and potato salad along with our bread.

Following lunch, we stopped at the historic Alamo. Remember that from history classes?

We still had an hour to kill before going to the book signing, so we drove south a few miles and took a walk along the famous River Walk. We walked from a park to the Concepcion Mission, but due to the trailside map not being to scale, we misjudged distance (what appeared to be about .5 miles was actually 1.5 miles) and didn't have enough time to actually go inside that mission.

Our starting point along the River Walk--
it actually goes for many miles and is popular with bikers and joggers.

Ian holding the Tower of the Americas,
which is an attraction for another visit

The San Antonio River

Cormorants

We look forward to visiting this on another trip.

We found our way back to Barnes and Noble without getting lost and made it on time. Brandon began with a short talk, a Q & A session, then read a chapter from the not-yet-released third book in his Stormlight Archive. 

Then they called up patrons by ticket letters--Ian had letter "E" so we amused ourselves by looking at the Art of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and wondered why Megan had not yet requested it for one of her birthday presents. Erin and Dallin hung out in the children's section the entire time and had a blast reading whatever they wanted. It was better than our small library in Del Rio.

Brandon took time with each fan, answering more questions, joking around, and personalizing messages in their books. We were surprised by the diversity of people who came to the event--all ages from elementary school kids to older adults.

We finished by 9:30 and had a quiet 3-hour return drive arriving home at 12:30 AM.

2014 Jr. Duck Stamp Awards and Phoenix Zoo Trip

A family tradition since moving to Yuma has been our yearly trip to the Phoenix Zoo for the Arizona Jr. Duck Stamp Awards. Megan has entered each year and won prizes, although this year she admitted it was difficult to find the motivation to paint another duck--she has tried so hard to earn the Best of Show for the state. Nonetheless, she indulged her parents and quickly produced this lovely painting of a female mallard with ducklings:

 Erin also participated for her first time and created an original view of a Canada Goose feeding.

 Megan won a Second Place Prize for her entry:

[Side note: Megan was scheduled to take the ACT in Yuma this morning, but she was not too disappointed when we changed her test date to June after hearing about the duck stamp awards. A day at the zoo beats standardized testing anytime!]

Following the awards ceremony, Dallin directed us to his favorite Komodo Dragon exhibit. Sadly, both Komodo Dragons died the past year and a Chinese Alligator replaced them in the outdoor pen. There were some baby dragons being kept inside a building until they grow larger. We saw two of them through a glass window, and they were very cute! We took the token Komodo Dragon statue photo:

Human Interest Photo: Arlene's Bathroom

Behold, a Galapagos Tortoise!

 

Kevin and Erin went for a ride on paddleboats while the rest of the family looked at animals and played on animal statues at the African watering hole.

 

We were amazed at the vibrant colors of this King Vulture's head.

"Mom, this water looks like your breakfast drink!" the children told me. They have yet to learn to appreciate my green vegetable juice drinks. Guaranteed, my drinks taste better than this murky lake water.

We joined back together and continued on to the South American Forest.

Since Erin missed the African animal statues, she got her picture on a South American frog statue.

We watched the mother and yearling Spectacled Bears for a long time. The yearling nursed from its mom, then climbed around a bit, then nursed again. The fence prevented us from getting a really good photo of them. I would love to participate in one of the ongoing studies of these bears in Peru or Ecuador (Ian and I heard about some of them at the IBA meetings last September).

Megan and Dallin rode on the Carousel for their extra activity.

Rhinoceros face study

 

Sleeping Lioness

Resting Erin

Overfed Prairie Dog

And we'll spare you from the gazillion other animal photos we took.

Dallin's assessment was, "This zoo is AMAZING!"

We had a great family outing.