Earlier this year a co-worker recommended The Hightaway on the Guadalupe as a great place to take the family for the weekend.   After some online research I proposed the idea to the Larsens and Hansens as a long weekend vacation.  Everyone liked the idea, so near the end of April we rented both the Hightaway and the Hightout from the owner, Stephen Hight.

These two houses sit on the bank of the Guadalupe River, north of San Antonio in Center Point, Texas.  The furnished accommodations come fully equipped with canoes, inner tubes, life jackets, bbq grill, fire pit, swing set, rope swing, etc, etc.  The fact that everything needed was already at the house made for a very relaxing vacation.

We spent most of our time on the water, in the canoes, playing on the rope swing, etc.  From campfire s’mores to tubing down the river to throwing a big lizard on Makana, I can safely say that everyone had a great time!

We surprised Makana with this friendly visitor (lizard in the lower-left)

Matt and Jake practicing for their circus act

Families are Forever! (...or... "Our Family Tree")

The shirt says it all

The Incredible Hulk made an appearance

This pretty much sums up our weekend

The property had a great kid's playground on it

Kalani and Olivia posing for the camera

And finally, a video of McKay surprising me and Kalani:

I came across lovely Father’s Day Portrait below on AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com and thought “If that dad deserves such an amazing gift of love, so does mine!”.

Last night was our ward (Church) talent show, in which all four of us played an important role.

Tia was in charge of the entire show and put in a lot of effort on the logistics, food, scheduling, etc.  She also MC’d the entire evening.

Kalani has been in a kid’s choir for the past year and took the opportunity to showcase some of her talent by singing Deep in the Heart of Texas.

As for me (and Mason), I saw this as a golden opportunity to pass on a tradition to my first born son:  performing Ice Ice Baby.  This was my 4th performance, and I thought it would be good to get Mason up there with me near the end so he could work on his stage presence.

Age 14, Ice Hair in Full Effect

His Eminence

My resume of Vanilla Ice performances now stands as follows:

1. 1992 – My first ever Church Young Mens / Young Womens combined activity (a talent show)
2. 2000 – In Tarbes, France, at yet another Church talent show
3. 2009 – On a cruise with my best friend
4. 2010 – Tomball Ward Talent Show

I would try to say my wife made me do this because she was in charge of the show, but there’s no hiding it… I was born for this.

So without further adieu, here are Kalani and Matt, doing what they do best.

I work in a high-rise in downtown Houston, an area in which I’d hardly expect to see much wildlife.

Earlier this week I head to the printer to pickup my printout, and out of the corner of my eye I see a bird sitting on the window sill. At first I just assume it’s a pigeon, but upon closer inspection I see that it’s a raptor!

I snapped a few pictures with my camera phone and emailed them to a few co-workers, one of which identified the bird as a Peregrine Falcon.  How neat!

(click images to view larger versions)