April Fools? 

Went to the Monarch butterfly fest in McAllen

on April 1st at La Quinta Mazatlan,

a nature preserve, and discovered these clocks

on our walk through the trees.

The stilt lady was "growing" leaves...

Some of the parade entries--the orange guy 

on the left is "Whata-man" from the Whataburger

fast food restaurant. Recognize anyone else?

The Mayor's Parade was a walk through

the park with the Mayor of McAllen.

He is the guy in the grey tee shirt and

butterfly cape. Anyone and everyone

who wanted could be in the parade!

even the firemen's dog McGruff

We come here for breakfast after church

in Harlingen.  Awesome blueberry pancakes!

Have to wait until next year for more.

We are leaving today, April 14th...

wondering what will happen to 

Bob's "garden" of mint, 

sunflower, and crotons during

the next eight months. :-)

A lot of snow contributed high, fast-running water

in the creek around Ana's house.

April 15th view from Ana's picture window!

Pelicans and ducks enjoyed their morning swim!

Lydia and Cecelia made their first communion

on the 16th.  We enjoyed crepes afterwards,

but I was too busy eating to take a picture!

Lydia, Ana, Cecelia, and Claire after church.

Yep, it snowed on the 16th, 

so I had to make a snowman after church!

Lydia takes guitar lessons online. Cecelia

accompanied her on the piano for her recital 

which was on Sunday afternoon. Took this

video when they were practicing.

We drove to Iowa on April 17th and celebrated Caiden's 

birthday a day early because there was a track 

meet at their school on the 18th.

Jett, Oliver (neighbor kid who calls Jett and Caiden

his brothers), and Caiden who is now 15 and driving!

Trina's tulips welcomed Spring---a lot different weather 

in Iowa! Apparently Minnesota didn't get the memo!

April 21st: We headed back to Ana's with Annika. Tom

told us to stop for breakfast at Dave's in Charles City, 

which looked like a barn inside. Apparently,

 the building was a bread warehouse at one  time, 

but it had great food! 

That evening we all went to St. Cloud.

Lydia, Claire, Cecelia, and Annika

were all "legally" blonde when they were younger!

The girls watched the movie "Legally Blonde" 

the next morning. 

They decided that they liked the movie

more than the musical! Definitely more comfy. :-)

Tom, Trina, Jett, and Caiden drove to Buffalo

on Saturday afternoon.  Lydia, Claire, Cecelia,

Annika, and Caiden spent some time at the pool.

Trina and Ana were the "lifeguards"

Good thing they didn't hire Bob to be a lifeguard!

We all ended up at Perkins for supper, and the kids

kept us entertained for an hour and a half before

we got our food. The waitress brought muffins

and cookies for us while we waited! 

 On Sunday,  April 23rd,  Annika was in a

regional gymnastics competition in Minneapolis.

We had to get all our states represented, too!

Anni "flipped" for us here,

 went over the parallel bars,

and took 6th place for her floor exercise!

Afterwards, Tom and Trina and their kids went 

back to Iowa, and the rest of us back to Ana's.

The temperature was 37 degrees for Claire's track meet

 on the 24th. We froze, but she jumped

over 11 feet in the long jump and ran too fast

in her races for me and my camera!

The next day we put together the Mexican Bingo

cards and had a practice game! Note what we are

using for markers! Thanks, Terry and Lodi

for giving me the game! Ana's girls have studied

Spanish in Guatemala and back home in Minnesota,

but can learn some new vocabulary words

in the bingo game.

On the 27th, we took an early flight 

from Minneapolis to DC. Julia and RJ

both had soccer practices that evening, 

at two different locations, of course.

We watched Julia, then picked up RJ and

Doug (who rode his bike from work to RJ's

practice field).

While the kids were in school on Friday, Sara took us

to the National Army Museum.  That was

 the only day it rained all day during our 25-day

trip from Texas to North Dakota.

RJ had a hockey game on Saturday, the 29th,

but again his speed outran my camera.

Fortunately, his soccer game was 

canceled due to muddy fields.

The weather was so nice at Doug and Sara's

that we could eat outside in their screened-in porch.

Note that the weather got nicer everywhere we

went--snow in Minnesota, tulips in Iowa,

and, finally, flowers in Mc Lean, Virginia!

Julia's first communion was on Sunday, April 30th.

There were 66 kids receiving the sacrament 

at St. Agnes church that day. Julia didn't

want a big party afterward, but besides 

us, her teacher, her godfather Michael, and

her Granddad (Doug's dad) came to the house.

 

Julia wanted her cupcakes in the shape

o cross for her first communion dinner.

It didn't take long before the double-cross

became a single cross! Yummy.

Congratulations, Julia!

Marching Ahead!

Well, it was 100 degrees yesterday, so Bob, 

Dennis and Nancy, Kathy, Jerry and Wendy

went to the island. I opted to stay home, catch up

on balancing the books, and reading a book!

Wendy took the picture...the guys and Kathy

enjoyed the raw oysters!

Annika was in her school's production

of "Mary Poppins" and had three roles:

Katie Nanny, a chimney sweep, and

a customer. She also did a cartwheel

and a flip during the play! Congrats, Anni!

Wendy, Nancy, and I played Card Bingo

on Sunday. since Brenda wasn't with us,

we dealt her a hand anyway! She didn't win, 

but we all ended up with some maple syrup,

a gift from Rae, the caller, who is from Vermont.

George is 8 months old! He will probably be

walking when we get to see him in May!

He is still a "most happy fella".

St. Pat's Day parade in Maple Lake...Lydia in red,

Claire--the tall one in the box; Ana driving our pickup!

Claire, Cecelia, and Jesus in the pickup

This little guy was sitting on the shelf

in the restaurant on Sunday

We went to Sarita, Texas on the 15th

and learned about the Kenedy family

that became huge landowners and

were very successful. 

This is Mifflin Kenedy who was a steamship 

captain. He brought the King family 

to the Rio Grande Valley.

Sarita was Mifflin's granddaughter

who was described as a "tomboy".

She married Arthur East, but they

both contracted undulent fever

and never had children. A man once

claimed to be her grandson, but

the courts threw out the case since

there was no way to prove it.

This looks like Arthur East...he is dressed

in typical "vaquero" garb.  Did you know that

the word "buckaroo" comes from a

mispronunciation of vaquero! (the "V"

in Spanish is often pronounced as a "B".

Clothing on the bronze models is their original clothes.

Sarita (on Mary's left) was very devoted to the Catholic Church 

and received Papal recognition and honors.  She and her 

sister-in-law established a hospital and convent 

in the Corpus Christi area.  After some challenges 

to the family fortune after their deaths, the courts 

ruled that 80% of the money from the properties 

would go to Catholic Charities of Texas.

On the 16th, we went to San Benito

to visit the only Conjunto museum in the world.

Conjunto literally means joined together; the music

features two or more artists creating typical

Hispanic music. 

This replica and the photo on the wall

show the original building which has three

floors and and an open-air dance floor

on the roof. the only access to the upper 

floors is an outside staircase.

The museum was the dream of Rey Avila

who collected thousands of memorabilia

of conjunto music and stored it in his

garage and house waiting to find a 

permanent home for his collection.

After he died in 2019, his family was given permission

to use a building owned by the city. Avila had at

least 100 framed photos of conjunto musicians, and

thousands of other collectibles in the museum.

His daughter was out tour guide, and she said 

that the old RCA phonograph still works.  We also

saw the equipment for pressing vinyl records

that Avila had also saved. 

This man came from Poland to Texas,

and he was the first one to actually

make vinyl records there 

creating the IDEAL label.

Next, we found the art museum in San Benito,

and the special display was Living Along the Border

featuring women artists.

I really liked this one...artist and description below...

This was computer-generated.

San Benito is also the home of Freddie Fender, 

but the museum next door to the art exhibit 

was undergoing renovation.

Jerry and Wendy had their annual fish fry

on St. Patrick's Day. Dennis and Bob

are loading up their food!

On the 18th we went to hear the story of Rio Rico,

and how the course of the Rio Grande was changed.

Joe Vidales has met some of the Rio Rico citizens,

and was instrumental in telling their history.

The former area then became part of Mexico 

instead of within the US boundary which was the river.

Homero Cantu was born in Rio Rico but was in California

taking care of his mother, who later died.  The US government

wanted to deport him, but he applied for immigration. He

claimed that he was born when Rio Rico was in the US.

His lawyer had heard and read about Rio Rico and they

appealed his claim, and Cantu was a US citizen!! Hundreds

of others had to prove their birthright---and people came

from all over the world to "try" to claim, but only

250 people were granted their rightful citizenship.

These people were give special IDs to prove their citizenship.

RJ's hockey team won the championship,

and RJ had a hat trick!!! He's the one on the far right!

Julia was a gnome for her Spring Concert.

The Hispanic Genealogical Society had a

meeting on the 19th and featured speakers

about conjunto music and performers, too!

Conjunto, as I see it, is Hispanic polka music,

played by two (or more) musicians 

with guitars and accordions.

On the 20th, Grace won third place

in the North Dakota State Spelling Bee!

We caught the news story on our ROKU tv.

On the 22nd, Wendy and I took Kathy and Nancy

to lunch for their birthdays...

John and Ruth hosted an end-of-year party

on the 23rd for the pickleball gang.  They were the park

managers when we moved to Texas for the winter.

Meeting of the minds? Terry, Bob, Dale seated

Lyle, Jerry, and Dave standing...looks like 

the blue shirt club

Pam, Mary, Ron & Shirley, Lodi, Wendy

Nancy, Leanne, Diane, Dennis, all seated

and John standing

The gang isn't all here.  A couple of people have

already headed north, and Ruth is taking the photo.

Dave & Jean, Wendy, Jeff, Terry, Bob, and Mary in back;

Middle: Dennis, Richard, Pam & Dale, Shirley & Ron, 

Kathy & Lyle; front kneeling: Leanne, Diane, John;

and sitting Gabe and Deb

Went to Weslaco for the Onion Fest on the 25th.

First we watched a video at the museum

 about the 1015 Onion that explained how 

this variety was developed at the USDA  

Ag Experiment Station in Weslaco, Texas. 

It was named the 1015 because the 

optimum date for planting was on October 15th.

Afterward was a short documentary by BBC

about Rio Rico.

Texas Avenue was blocked off and there were

a lot of vendors and an entire "culinary" section. 

This doggie is a mascot for a Canes BBQ place.

The ultimate treat at the festival is the onion blossom.

Step one: Cutting the onion! This is so cool!

Step 2: the onion is coated with a light batter

Step 3: and then it is deep-fried!

This "blossom" with "the works" fed both Bob and me!

On the 26th, we saw this funny Neil 

Simon play in the Water Tower theater.

The tour bus to the Rocket Ranch and Space X

picked 50 of us up at our park at 6:30 a.m.

Where's Waldo?

Not really a ranch, it is now a

bed and breakfast place...sort of...

that gives tours of Space X and sells

prime seats to view the launches.

Who knew that one day the Civil War trail

would be filled with rockets.

L

Left to right: the booster for the rockets;

next, a rocket they think will be sent up but

not programmed to return; middle with the 

tummy patch is #15 which has already made

 its up and down flight. Next with the wide dark

patch--the heat shield--is #24 which is supposed

to be going up next. The far right shows the 

heat shield which is on only one side

because the rocket descends parallel 

to the earth and turns vertically just

before landing.

The two arms sticking out lift the rocket onto 

the booster. If you go on YouTube, search,

and type in Lab Padre, you can see it work.

The bus took us to the Black Bear Diner in Brownsville

for lunch.  Great food and a fun, interesting day!

Ana and Katie is Fargo

and at the Fargo theater

Sara and Marissa in DC

Sara and kids enjoying the cherry blossoms

RJ, Julia, and Ian in DC