Carlos came home

On September 11, 2007, Carlos arrived at DFW airport. We hadn't seen him in a year and a half. We were met at the airport by members of the Southern Cruisers Riding Club, Scott Rasco, Mike and Ron. Scott and Ron are from the Ft. Worth Chapter and Mike is from the Denton Chapter. Their group tries to have members present whenever a member of the US military returns home from over seas.
Southern Cruisers colors.

Scott holding the coin they brought to present to Carlos.
Carlos was suppose to arrive at 1800 hrs. but with the time spent going through customs it took him longer to make it out to the waiting area. The Southern Cruisers were very patient and helped us indure the wait. Every time the doors opened and someone walked out from the area of the international flights we expected Carlos to walk out. That door must have opened 30 times!!
Then Ron said, "There's a Marine coming now!" Elfida took off running!!! Carlos was wearing his uniform and looked great. He hugged Elfida and picked her up. His luggage cart kept rolling down the walkway.
After a few minutes, Elfida let go long enough for Carlos to meet Scott, Mike and Ron. You could see Carlos' appreciation for the support shown by the members of the Southern Cruisers. He received the coin and some very heart felt hand shakes. We really appreciated their dedication and support in showing up at the airport even though Carlos' flight arrival had been delayed for three hours. Originally he was to have arrived at 1500 hrs. but the flight was delayed for unknown reasons in Tokyo, Japan. Carlos called us at 0200 hrs to let us know, Elfida let Scott know of the time change at about 0800 hrs. Scott had to let the other members know about the change that same morning.
Ron, Mike, Scott, Carlos and Elfida.

Me, Elfida, Carlos, Maiko and Angie.

Angie and Elfida pushing Carlos' luggage cart to our truck.

Somewhere along the way they dropped the luggage, but quickly picked it up. Angie had taken the day off to go with us to pick up Carlos. She had been the one who had picked up Carlos on two other occasions when he had come home from Florida and from North Carolina..

We stopped off at a restaurant along the way to eat dinner. Carlos ordered a 22 ounce steak! Yep, he ate it all. He also picked up the dinner tab for everyone. He had a restless ride to Waco. He said his back and legs were hurting from his 14 hour flight and the time change. His body was having to adjust from what use to be night time now being day time. The first 3 days he spent mostly sleeping.

Carlos accompanied Elfida and other members of the Central Texas Marine Family Support group on Sunday when they went to support the Marine recuits that were shipping out to the San Diego Marine Depot. Carlos will be here for a couple of weeks and another fellow Marine is coming down to visit him next week.

Thanks again to the Southern Cruisers Riding Club for coming out to meet Carlos with us.

Texas Weather

Since we didn't go anywhere for Spring Break we decided to go hiking on the first weekend of April. We left Friday morning for Inks lake and Sam drove since I had worked all night. The drive there was nice and relaxed. I took the first picture of my wife right before we went into the park.
Everything was green except for the red rocks and the beautiful flowers growing everywhere. The weather was perfect for hiking. It was cool and a little overcast. We thought it was maybe too cool for this time of year, but then we always expect a cool front moving in to our area a few days before Easter.
Our hiking group, Lt. to Rt.- Me, Dora, Sam and Elfida. The day before we left my wife stayed up so she could finish the Easter eggs she was coloring for the grand kids. She left the eggs on the kitchen counters so that Sunday they could have an egg hunt in our backyard. The clover had grown nice and tall, just perfect for hiding eggs.
We hiked for about four hours and finally made it to the falls. We had stopped and eaten some turkey sandwiches earlier. By now we were hiking but resting pretty often. Our feet were hurting but there was so much to see. Before we knew it, it was six in the afternoon and we still needed to get to Austin where we were going to find a nice restaurant and enjoy a good dinner. We never made it to Austin. While driving through Cedar Park we saw a Goodwill store and decided to go in a see what they had. We spent about an hour there and by the time we got out we were too hungry to drive to Austin. We found a nice hotel, got a room and drove back to a Chili's we had seen a few blocks from the Goodwill. We had a nice dinner. OK, as hungry as we were, even a McDonald's would have been good. When we got out of Chili's it was about 50 degrees outside. The weather guy on TV said that we might get some snow mixed in with the rain the next day.
On Saturday we left Cedar Park and stopped at the outlet mall noticing that it was getting colder. We were about a half hour out of Waco when Sam's daughter called him and said it was snowing north of Waco. We had just pulled into our driveway when the snow started to come down in our side of town.

It was light snow at first but the flakes kept getting bigger and bigger. This was so out of the ordinary for our part of the world. Snow in April??
We unloaded quickly. OK, they unloaded quickly while I took pictures. My son and his family arrived while we were still outside. They had come by to drop off Lily. They were on there way to Dallas to go see the Texas Rangers play ball. Isabelle ran straight to her swing set and made the first foot prints in the snow.
This was Lily's first snow. She was very leery about walking on the white stuff. She would just stand and look at her feet. Elfida had to walk with her. Later on she kept wanting to go outside and walk on it to see here foot prints. Every time I went out to get firewood she would grab her wool cap. A signal that she also wanted to go out.
We took a family picture just before Maiko and family, minus Lily, left for Dallas. Needless to say our Easter egg hunt was postponed until next week when the yard drys out. We left the patio curtains open so we could see the backyard cover in snow. The view from the stairwell was also beautiful. We watched TV as Lily played on the floor in front of the fireplace. Dora and Sam came by for dinner. Elfida made "caldo" which is the perfect dinner for a snowy evening.
It was a great weekend. We hiked, shopped, ate out, played in the snow, enjoyed the fireplace and babysat our grand daughter!!!

We have never had a White Christmas, but now we can say we had a White Easter!

Uncle Arlo and Isabelle

Carlos was fourteen or fifteen when Isabelle was born. He wasn't too comfortable holding a baby and avoided holding Isabelle. Maiko was living next door to us and finances were tough on him. Carlos moved in with him and we helped with the rent. Isabelle spent the first three years spending time with Carlos every time she was with Maiko. When she started to talk, her first word was "Arlo". That was her name for her uncle Carlos. She loved wrestling with her uncle. She also loved arguing with him and they would compete over Elfida's attention. When Carlos left for boot camp she really missed him. When we told Isabelle that we were going to go see Carlos become a Marine, she found a small US flag that had been in Carlos' room and said she was taking it to wave at Carlos so he could see her.
She grew up in a house full of Marine Corps paraphernalia. Her dad had graduated from boot camp in 1997 and served four years in the Marines. It was a long drive from Waco, Tx. to San Diego, Ca. Isabelle had a great trip. Not only was she going to see her uncle Arlo but her great grandma was also going.
We had bought her a portable DVD player for the long trip and I beleived she saw the "Emperor's Groove" four or five times during the trip.
Isabelle enjoyed bugging her uncle every chance she got. Carlos spent his time paying her back for it. She knew he had broken his foot during the Crusible and would ask us how he was doing and when he could come home. She had to wait to hug her Uncle when we first saw him at the Marine Depot. Grandma got to hug Carlos first. Isabelle wanted to follow her uncle everywhere. These series of pictures were taken as Carlos walked around and Isabelle followed.
Now that her Uncle is in Iraq, she writes his notes everytime we send him a package. It is just letters strung together, but it her way of telling him how much she loves him and misses him. He has been out of country for over a year now. Isabelle was telling my wife the other day that when Carlos came home she was not going to fight with him any more.When Carlos was in Florida going through his training, he sent her a full set of Marine cammies. She wears them to the Central Texas Marine Family support group meetings. Gunny Sunday, one of the Marine recruiters in Waco when Carlos signed up, gave her some chevrons which she wears with her cammies.
I mentioned that Carlos broke his leg while at boot camp, it happened in December of 04. We were in Eagle Pass when we got a call at night from Carlos. He was telling us that he had broken his foot and wouldn't graduate with his platoon. He was very upset. He had grown attached to his group and had been doing great. He was hoping to graduate as the top recruit and now it had all changed. He was depressed and we were worried. Gunny Sunday was our granite pillar. He checked on Carlos on a weekly basis and made sure we were kept informed of his morale and his healing. As young as Isabelle was, she was aware of this and Gunny Sunday and his wife became her favorite friends. Isabelle now five years old, found out that Carlos was in Iraq and told Elfida that she didn't like him being there because that was were they killed Marines... I don't know where she heard this but I know that this war is now even on the minds of babies.

Kids growing up

Last year we went to a friend's wedding in San Antonio, Texas. She use to babysit our boys. Mary use to spend weekends at our house. She was the daughter my wife always wanted. When I started coaching soccer, she played on the first team I coached. We did pretty bad the first year, but she was a very good player. She went on to play high school soccer in a mixed coed team which played against all boys teams.
Her wedding (to Patricio) was in a very big church. Very beautiful church where we weren't allowed to take pictures from the sanctuary. I was allowed to climb up to the balcony and take pictures from there. This is my favorite photo from the church ceremony. I like the way the whole wedding party is included, the red carpet and the happy expressions on the bride and groom.
They had hired a photographer to take pictures, so I worked around him. I like taking photos from the angles most people won't normally see. That means putting the camera on the ground or holding it over my head or shooting through an opening in the flower arrangements. I also prefer not using a flash. That was a problem in this church since there was very little natural light coming in. Most churches have stained glass that allows enough sunlight to shine onto the alter but this one had blue stained glass which allowed very little light through. She was a beautiful bride.
When we still lived in San Antonio Mary was willing to help me with my photographic experimentation. This picture I took using my old Pentex 35 mm camera. I used two flashes to get the transparent hand effect. My wife loved having her over. My wife always wanted a daughter but we ended up with two boys. I was extremely happy to have boys, so Mary was very special to my wife.
Mary had two brothers and two sisters. Her mom could tell a story about her kids and make it hilarious. There were stories about when Marie's hair caught on fire, when the truck hit Gloria with the side view mirror, when David rode his big wheel off the family car's roof, about the time John cut his tongue, and about the hundreds of jokes they played on Christina. Their father was an EMS technician so he did most of the stitching of cuts, bandaging of scrapes, and assorted first aid. We would go visit and my wife would laugh so much at the stories they would tell that she would get an asthma attack every time we went there. Ok, some of it was from Wilma's smoking. Wilma was like a sister to my wife. They worked at the same place for about five years. When Mary got married, I think my wife was as excited as Wilma was. At the wedding I did what I have always like doing, take pictures. It was a beautiful wedding and a great reception. The rehearsal dinner, which we were also invited to, since we are family (almost) was most excellent. One of this days I will put all the pictures of Mary on a disc and send it to her. I will include the 100+ I took at her wedding. She was a beautiful little girl, she is a beautiful woman and my wife and Wilma are lucky to have her as a daughter. The years went by so fast....

Oh yeah, she use to dress up our youngest son in her Cabbage Patch Doll's clothing. Apparently it had no lasting impact on him since he is in the Marine Corps now.

My Father, me and my son

My son, Maiko, and I spent the whole afternoon building another kennel for the dogs. My shoulders, arms, legs and back hurt. Even my fingers ache. It was a wonderful afternoon. I know that after a few hours of working, my son was hoping I would say it was time to quit and that we would finish it tomorrow. We worked until the sun was just below the horizon. We picked up the tools in the dark. I think we found all of them. It was one of the best afternoons I have enjoyed in a long time. Time spent with my son, working.
I stayed behind to finish picking up some boards, and fence posts. My son carried the tools to the garage. I could tell he had worked more that he had expected. We should have stopped working an hour or so earlier, but I couldn't leave the work for tomorrow. I smiled as I remember working with my dad and wondering when he would stop working. I remember wishing he would stop and tell me that we would finish the work the next day. It just didn't happen. I remember pouring concrete with the light from a lamp on an electric cord because we had to finish work that day. We use to live next door to my parents when we both worked for Vickrey and Assoc., I remember we would get home after 06:30 PM. This was after having gone to work at 06:30 AM, I would walk into my house, get a beer and go sit outside to rest. My dad would eat dinner and then come outside and begin working on the house, the yard, the truck, or something else. I would have to go over and ask if he needed help. We would work until the sun went down.

I am now like my dad. I just can't quit once I start a project. But.... my son is starting to sound like me, like my dad too. We were outside watching his two daughters playing on their swing set. He was talking to his oldest daughter, telling her to be careful with her sister. He used the same words I had used on him more that twenty years ago, when I would tell him to be careful with his brother. I couldn't help telling him, "You sound just like your Dad!" My wife cracked up laughing.

It was a great afternoon and hopefully many years from now it will bring a smile to my son when he remembers the day we worked until sundown building a kennel.

I still miss my Dad, especially on the days when my sons do something good. I know he would love to be there to tell them how proud he is of his grandkids.

America's Highways

I am one of those who does not like driving. I don't mind being the passanger. I can take picture while riding. Ok, I can take pictures while driving but it isn't very safe. We traveled west to the Pacific Ocean and within 200 miles of the Atlantic Ocean, then we traveled South to the Mexican boarder and then North to Colorado.
That trip took us through Texas and New Mexico. These are the pictures take from the front passanger seat of my Ford F-150. My bother, Roje, did the driving while I took picture.
I even took a picture of the road through the rear view mirror to show where we had been. It was a lot of fun. We listened to 70's music on my Creative Labs MP3 player.
WE drove through some cloudy roads, rainy roads, sunny roads and again through rainy days.

We saw many trailer trucks, small cars, big cars and in Texas we saw many pick-ups.

We also hit some construction sites with their bright orange signs. The slow traffic allowed for some better picture taking.

Along the way we drove through some small towns with the Co-op building being the biggest and tallest structure in the whole town. Most of the small town looked as desolate as this one.

On some of the construction sites we came to a complete stop. We were able to get out of the truck and eat lunch. I even walked away and took pictures of the insects, plants and animals in the area.

Some of the weather was pretty frightening. Like when we were almost out of Colorado and we out ran this front. It was carrying some very strong winds, hail and lots of rain.

It may have even been carrying some tornados too. We were lucky that it was traveling a few mile slower than we were.

I felt sorry for the truckers and others traveling in the opposite direction. The y drove right into the storm.In the distance you can see the sunshine. We made it there just as we drove into Texas. We out ran most of the rain and hail, but the wind caught up with us just south of Amarillo. The dust was so thick that visability decrease to about 15 feet. That dust storm was the scarries part of the trip. What a welcome home we got from Texas!!!