Blessing Day for Annaly

Annaly's blessing was on September 25, 2011.  She looked beautiful in Emily's blessing gown.  The Denison's all came up and together we had a BBQ after the blessing at our home.

Kingsville, Texas

After spending the night on Padre Island, we headed to Kingsville.  We spent 3 years here with Exxon.  Dad worked on the King Ranch, where Exxon had a field office.  It was on private property and if I ever saw it, is was probably only one time.  To travel the short cut to Kingsville from Corpus, we take a backroad that is filled with cotton fields.  Texas has been having a severe drought but you can see a bit of cotton on the ground after the harvest.  They could sure use some rain!

Ready to get on the highway!

Almost there!  Brownsville is 2 hours away and we use to drive there and over the border into Mattamoros, Mexico several times each year.  

Flat South Texas...it doesn't get much flatter!

829 S. 23rd Street Kingsville, Texas!  Our 3rd home.  Hopefully the grass is brown just because of the drought and not neglect.  When we owned the home, the shutters and trim were painted green.  This was the home that we had to ask what all the plywood was for that was stored in the garage....they were to place over the windows in case we had a hurricane.

The front 2 windows were bedrooms.  The one on the left was Jason's, who was just a baby when we arrived here.  He was born in Andrews, Texas and less than a month later we were moved to Kingsville.  The window on the right was Jared's room.  The window next to the garage was the formal living room.

We use to stop here and buy doughnuts every once in a while.  One time in the parking lot, Jared got ahold of my keys that had a mace container on it.  He hit the button and sprayed his eyes with it.  Not a good day for Jared!

We use to have a little mall.  Looks like they still have a few stores there.

Our old grocery store is still there!

Dad surprised Mom with a handmade King Ranch purse one year when we lived in Kingsville.  The saddle shop makes them.

Not your typical saddle shop!

Beautiful campus in Kingsville.  One Sunday we were so hot in the house so dad and I took the little boys to the fountains on campus so they could play in the water.  We tried to find them again but no luck.

While dad was working, alot of times I would put the boys in the car and we would head to King Ranch to drive the loop to see the Santa Gertrudis cattle and other animals.  It is now closed to the public except for tours.  That was disappointing.

On our way out of the Kingsville/Corpus area we stopped at KBobs to eat.  We use to eat there alot when we lived down there.  This time it wasn't as good as I remember.

A picture of our rental car.  Mazda 6.

We had a great time reliving old memories!  I hope that someday we can return to Andrews and Midland too.

Padre Island and Corpus

After seeing our Corpus home, we decided to head to Padre Island.  We use to take the boys there to play on the beach.  You go over bridges to get there since is really is an island.

Looking towards the island

Welcoming Marlin

Since we were there in September we didn't have a crowd on the beach.  The sand is silky smooth.  Hardly any shells and the sand is white.  It is beautiful!

Water was so warm!

See the smooth sand.  It was hard to find any shells to bring home.  I can remember finding sand dollars years ago.  I found only a piece of one this time.

Notice the drilling rigs in the background.

Our new friends, the Rapps invited us up to see their condo.  Believe me, if it was easy to get to Corpus, we might have come home with our own condo!

What a view they have!

Thomas and Elizabeth Rapp from Greely, Co.  They said they drive down in 2 days every time they come!  The husband was quite the character!  He had to be to let 2 strangers into their condo!

The outside of the condo

We decided to head to downtown Corpus for dinner.  We ate at Landry's.  Dad use to work in one of the high rises there.