Downtown Dallas Tourists

These are the 3 Amigos.  Chris Scharmen, Becky Lee and Rich Lodi have been friends for only about 25 years!  They have too many memories of working together as staff in the youth group in San Jose, California.  Back in the 80's some pretty crazy stuff was done to get the kids attention not to mention, have a little fun yourself!

Well, Chris and Becky planned a trip to come see us for 5 days over the 4th of July.  I will post their visit in segments since we did so much together.  I might just loose you in this post because I have so many good pictures!

One of the most interesting things we did was become Dallas tourists.  We've lived here for 6 years and have never explored downtown (isn't that sad!).  I've always wanted to go see the fountains at the base of this sky-scraper. You can see this funky shaped building from the free-way and I've always been curious about it.

We went on a Sunday afternoon and managed free parking in this parking garage. 

It's really an amazing place and I think everyone who lives in Dallas needs to visit this at least once.  

The building is all glass or at least it's made out of something that reflects the water falls all around it.  It is surrounded by water.

It would be fun to bring a picnic lunch down here sometime because there were these great umbrella tables all around.  If you do decide to visit, make sure your kids bring their swimsuits!

This is the fountain place I was talking about.  Water literally shoots up randomly out of the cement.  This is our friend, Chris, daring Reece to run across it.  Chris showed him how it's done.

So then Reece got up the courage to run across too.

So far, there is not a lot of action from the water 

geysers. 

But . . it slowing got a little more crazy!

Reece is still dry.

A.J. decides to join in.

Dry no more!

Back and forth they go, weaving in and out.

Olivia gets involved.

Can she make it?

This was crazy.  One of these quadrants would just blow full blast and you never knew which one or if you'd be lucky enough to be caught in one!

Here is the experience in slow motion.

If you could drowned in shooting water, Olivia would manage to be the one.  She has always loved to get fully wet, fully clothed.  The water dripping off her glasses was a great effect! Click on this picture to enlarge it.

Micah stayed nice and dry on Dad's back.  His mouth just hung open as he watched his crazy siblings. 

It was hot that day so the wet ones drip dried as we walked on down to catch the trolley.

I can't believe Micah is actually looking at the camera in this picture.  When you have 5 kids it's hard to get everyone looking at the same time especially Micah.

I wished I had gotten a picture of the trolley from the outside but I guess we were too concerned with catching it in time.  I'm not sure why because this conductor was not in a hurry in the least.  He gave us some background history about this trolley and even let the kids blow the whistle.

This is another free thing to do downtown besides visiting the fountains.  My husband is all about free!

We rode the trolley to the end of the line and then caught the DART back.  I had to take a picture of the escalator in the DART station.  It's the longest escalator that I ever been on.  It was a little freaky actually.

I think Julia is afraid of heights and she is definitely weary of escalators.  It must be the "quick decision making" factor that accompanies boarding an escalator that throws her. 

This picture was taken at the JFK shooting sight.  The street behind Becky and the kids is where John F. Kennedy was shot.  The sky-scrapers in the background are stunning as is the revolving tower next to them.  We were told that it's under construction right now but that would be fun to visit sometime.

It was a long day for Micah as it was for us all.  It didn't take him long to check out on the ride home.

We had a great time with Chris and Becky.  I hope to post more pictures of their visit soon!

A step back in time

Isn't the 50's a fun time period!  Olivia was invited to a friend's birthday party last week.  She was turning 16 and had a 50's theme party.  Poodle skirts were begging to be worn, pony tails, and scarves, of course.

Olivia didn't really know what they wore and so we looked up some pictures online so I could show her the style back then (before I was born).  She got into it once we got the whole outfit complete.  She borrowed this skirt from a friend of ours who sews all the time for her daughter who sings and acts.  She is always making costumes for her next activity.  We were so glad she had one since we had about 2 days to think about it.

These are two sisters who also went to the party.  Nicole and Shawna made their skirts to match.  They worked hard the morning of the party to finish in time.  

Aren't they cute!  Oh, to be that young again!

Kristin

Gardens, Hillbillies and Cellos

What do gardens, hillbillies and cellos have in common, you ask?  Well, nothing I guess except that these three subjects have been highlights at the Lodi's lately! I've wanted to write about all three so why not put them all in one post!

First, let's talk about my garden.  This is where I spend some of my time (hopefully not too much) these days since it's hot and I'm trying to keep things going.  Many diseases and bugs have attacked my precious plants but I'm staying faithful to growing our food organically.

This is what it looked like a few months ago.  Now the tomatoes in front are taller than me and the squash in back has climbed up and over our 8 foot fence!  The peas on the side are finished so they aren't there anymore but I've planted cucumbers in there place.  I went ahead and ripped out my bell peppers plants because either the aphids were doing them in or they just weren't producing.  Plus, as you can see, it's a little crowded.  I've got an eggplant plant and some basil in there too.

Ahhh, I've got tomatoes!  Many years of no success with tomatoes or very little hasn't squelched my gardening addiction.  Past years I've been discouraged at the end of the season and vowed I would not get so involved again.  But then spring rolls around and I get the fever to try again.

This has been my most successful year but not without it's challenges.  I will not take any credit for this windowsill full of tomatoes.  They are truly a gift from the Lord.  I planted 3 kinds of tomatoes this year.  Of course, cherry tomatoes because I know they are easiest for me to grow, Roma tomatoes, and then the famous vine ripe tomatoes.  

Ok, for those who don't know what these are, you need to be educated about the best squash around.  This is spaghetti squash and we absolutely love it.  In the store they sell for $1.59 per pound!  If you buy a 3-4 pound squash, you'll pay $5 or $6 per squash!  Ok, one squash will not feed my whole family so then I need two!  So . . . I've always wanted to grow them.  Well, here you go, a whole basket full and I've still got 5 or so ripening on the vine.

When you bake a spaghetti squash, it comes out stringy just like spaghetti.  If you don't over cook it, it will taste just perfect and you can even top it with sauce and whala!  You've got carb free spaghetti!  

Well, I hope this looks good to you because it sure tasted great.  I used my tomatoes to make a summer tomato sauce with fresh basil also from the garden and then cooked up some chicken sausage to go on the side.  Throw in a salad (too bad my lettuce didn't make it this year) and top it with parmesan and it was fabulous!  What rewards for my labor.

Ok, on to the next topic around here.  This is Hillbilly Reece!  

He finally lost his front tooth.  The other one is just sitting there as big as life!  It's a little loose but not enough to pull it yet.  His smile is pretty interesting looking. When we tease him, he just winks and smiles big.  

On to cellos!  Olivia has been wanting a cello for a few months now.  A couple of the youth at church play them and she thinks they are pretty cool sounding.  Olivia, AJ and Julia put all their money together to buy one.  Why Aj and Julia?  Well, the deal was a cello and a violin.  Olivia already has a violin and AJ and Julia have been wanting to learn too so they got their violin in the deal.

Olivia is very excited about her new toy.  She is teaching herself how to play right now.  In some ways it's very similar to the violin and yet it is also very different.  She has picked out a few songs on it.  It has a very deep, beautiful sound.  She wanted me to blog about it so that some of her friends who read this could see it.  So there you go.  

Maybe some day I'll post a video of her playing it!