Christmas 2008

Christmas morning we went for a walk first thing on the road by our apartment. It was already about 65 degrees and on the humid side.

Bridget helping Renee open her present.
Scott examining his present.

Bridget eating a bow.

Scott working hard in the kitchen.

Looking back over the past few years at all we've been able to see and do, we just feel very blessed and are very grateful for our life together. Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!

Quick Update

Scott's check ride last week got cancelled due to weather, and with the holidays now and the fact that he'll be going out of town in early January he is having to reschedule for late January. We'll still let you know when he gets his instrument rating, but unfortuneately it won't be by the end of the year as he had planned. We'll keep you posted!

Nebraska Trip

Thursday Renee travelled to Nebraska to watch Karla graduate and celebrate Christmas with family. I was also able to meet Jamie and Joy Thursday night for dinner. It was great to see both of them, but the time was just too short again!

Saturday was the graduation, this is Karla receiving her diploma (you'll just have to trust me).

I forgot about my camera for the Christmas part of it, so no pictures, but I had a great time and it was very nice to be able to see everybody I could!

Sunday Flight

As a requirement for getting his instrument rating, Scott had to file an IFR flight plan and navigate to a destination over 250 miles away using just instruments. So, Sunday we flew down to South Padre Island for lunch with Scott's instructor, Drew. (Those are his feet under the plane, Renee never asked him to pose for a formal photograph). South Padre Island is on the very southern tip of Texas, about 20 miles from Mexico.

It was cloudy Sunday morning in San Antonio, which until now Scott wouldn't be able to fly in. It will definitely be nice to be able to fly whenever we want, although obviously there are still limits as far as storms and fog. Taking off from San Antonio. Scott navigating.
The view out the window in the clouds.

Breaking above the clouds.

The clouds broke up as we went toward Corpus Christi...

Corpus Christi from the air. Everybody just says "Corpus" here.

Our first glimpse of the coast (or Renee's first glimpse rather, since Scott couldn't see outside).

Renee taking a picture of herself.

We landed at Port Isabel, which is about 10 minutes from South Padre Island. We then rented a truck and went to eat at Amberjack's, a restaurant on the beach. Generally when you buy fuel at an airport, they will give you a courtesy car (or even a Lincoln Navigator or something like that, depending on the airport) for free. This airport wasn't really equipped for that...but they did have a truck we were able to rent. It was a 2000 Ford F-150 extended cab with 96,000 miles on it. Someone had taken out the back seat and replaced it with a carpeted wooden box (?) that was too high to sit on. So we had to all sit in the front seat, Renee in the middle. It was also a stick shift. And the check engine light was on. And the rental contract was typed on someone's home computer. It didn't seem to be a rental car per se, so much as just some guy's truck. It was a funny experience. The truck was extremely clean though and the guy who worked at the airport was very nice.

Anyway, this is the bridge to South Padre Island. When MTV does "Spring Break" the traffic is bumper to bumper and apparently it takes over an hour to cross. It only took us about 15 minutes to get from the airport to the restaurant.

The view from the restaurant, Amberjack's (all seagulls).

Getting ready to leave the Port Isabel Airport (we were the only ones there). There was one guy there who fueled the plane and ran the front desk.

The control tower and hangar. The control tower's windows were half boarded up, half missing and half of the hangar's roof (which was made of wood) was also gone. But you could see how when it was built in World War II it would have been busy. There was a lot of cement everywhere, for runways and ramps.

We decided to fly over South Padre and check it out from the air. Scott did get to look outside briefly for this part. We spotted Amberjack's from the air, the one with the green roof.

On our way back north we flew low along the beach.

And briefly went out over the ocean (this is looking back at land).

We then flew to Mustang Beach as the sun was setting to file a flight plan for the last leg of the trip.

Mustang Beach from the air.

Scott and Drew planning the route.

The sun was setting just as we were getting ready to leave and head home.

Sunset from the air.

Downtown San Antonio.

Coming in to land at San Antonio.

Scott did a great job navigating, and it was a nice little day trip. He has his check ride already scheduled and we'll let you know when he's officially an instrument-rated pilot.

Bridget Update

We found out today Bridget's tumor was benign. It was a "follicular something" tumor and once dogs and cats develop the first one, they are a lot more likely to develop them in the future. Luckily they're also most likely to be benign in the future too, but hopefully she doesn't get any more. If she does, all we can do is have them removed. There's nothing we can do to prevent them and there's no way they'll go away on their own once they surface. As for this one, they did get all of it and the stitches have to stay in for 10-14 days. We have to keep the cone on her during the day but at night when we can watch her we let her run around without it.

Her collar threads through it and it's too much trouble to keep taking it out and putting it back in, so we let her run around naked when she's not wearing the cone.

She's acting normally and when we take the cone off she runs around like crazy enjoying her freedom. And she enjoys the pieces of chicken she gets with her pills. Bridget likes chicken very much.

Cooper's Pit Bar-B-Que

Earlier this week Scott flew to Llano with his flight instructor and ate at the world famous Cooper's Pit Bar-B-Que. Cooper's is apparently "the" place in Texas for BBQ, so Saturday night we thought we'd fly there as well (it's about 100 miles north of San Antonio) so Renee could try it. All the planes were booked, so we decided to enjoy the scenic drive through the Hill Country and through historic Fredericksburg. The drive was absolutely beautiful. The leaves are all changing colors and with the rolling hills and the sun going down and the cloudless sky, it was definitely worth the drive. And the food was worth the drive too! There are also pictures of President Bush eating there right after he was elected the first time.

They had about six pits outside where you order your meat, but they only had two going and no lines because it seems to be the off season (most of their seating is outside) and it was pretty cold (although still only 50 degrees or so). It was still packed inside though.

We got beef brisket and sausage.

You then take the meat inside where they weigh it and wrap it up for you, then you sit on one of ten or so long picnic tables where they have loaves of bread and condiments and eat your dinner on wax paper. We forgot to take the camera inside but taking a picture probably would have been awkward anyway :-) It was a great night, definitely worth the drive and it was nice to see Fredericksburg too, which appears to be well-known for peaches and bed-and-breakfasts.

Fall in McAllister Park

Air Fest 2008!

Sunday we went to Lackland Air Force Base for Air Fest 2008.

This shot is looking toward the static displays. The ramp was packed with people once the show started, but since we were second in the gate (because Scott's crazy), the only people you see here are those working at the displays.

C-5
Renee, being a good sport about being so early.

Scott, looking intently toward the horizon.

Our spot, front and center. Luckily we were the second ones in the gate and 3 hours early because once the show started it was a wall of people at least 40 deep behind us.
F-15 The Army Golden Knights parachute team.
The Golden Knights again with their aircraft flying behind them.

F-22, F-15, F-16, and P-51 Heritage Flight.

Three of the Blue Angels.

In other news, our computer of seven years crashed Saturday. Luckily, we were able to keep restarting it between crashes and get all of our pictures and programs we needed off of it, but it's toast. We're using Scott's laptop as a home computer now, and really we should have thought of this sooner because it's much faster and nicer. And our monitor we got in Louisiana still works great so we just hook up the laptop to that and it's like a brand new computer!