June Birthdays 2021

In the past, our traditional June birthday/Father's day celebration for the family has always involved attending a baseball game at the Dell Diamond in Round Rock.  The Round Rock Express is the farm team for the Texas Rangers.  From time to time, we would get lucky and have pleasant weather. Usually... not. After all, June in Texas is HOT!

 Once the new stadium for the Rangers was built in Arlington, any thought of sitting and sweating through a game at Dell Diamond was quickly replaced with the excitement of possibly watching baseball in an air conditioned environment. Therefore, Scott started the long process of emailing family members to get a head count for ticket purchases. Unfortunately, since the past 18 months have been unexpectedly insane, this year our June birthday celebration just didn't quite work out as planned

For various reasons, getting everyone together to celebrate at one time just didn't work out. So, the twins and Jamie celebrated at the end of May with a trip to I-Flight and a small party at Dairy Queen. Ron and Scott celebrated with lunch and cake at Leslie's house, followed by a Ranger's game. And, Sophie celebrated her birthday with friends at a trampoline park and a family get together the weekend afterwards.  Family members attended the celebrations they could. 

Samantha and Sophia's Dairy Queen birthday celebration:

Leslie and her girls drove down from Ft. Worth and stayed the night at our place. She took her girls to the I-Flight facility and spent a few hours watching some of the girls in the wind tunnel. A couple of them chickened out and they shall remain nameless. Ron and I opted to just meet up with the birthday girls at Dairy Queen. 

Sophia and Sophie enjoying DQ treats and eats.

Jamie and Sophia

The twins, Ryan and Ron, along with Leslie and Gwen

Maggie, far left, with Samantha, Sophia,
a friends and Sophie

Ron and Scott's celebration at Globe Life Field for a Ranger's game:

Okay; I'll be honest. I think I was more excited about the Rangers game than anyone else! Everyone but the Searls-Glenn branch made it. We met at Leslie and G's house for lunch, cake and ice cream, then headed to the ball park. I was so excited when I saw my best friend from college, Madonna, taking tickets at the gate! I had to run down and get a picture with her. The game was so much fun and the ball park is amazing. The Rangers didn't win; but, everyone had a really good time.

G doing an imitation of Stevie Wonder with
Rebecca and Maggie.

Sophie and Leslie

Molly and Scott

Gwen with her college friend, Madonna

The family, with Ron behind the camera.

Sophie's birthday celebration with the family after her trampoline party with friends:

Sophie sort of hemmed and hawed when asked what she wanted to do for her birthday. She is a much more social person than Maggie; and, I could tell she really didn't want to do the typical family thing. After submitting her to intensive interrogation, we finally figured out that she just wanted to eat McDonalds for lunch, and have a few friends over for a sleep over. With COVID the way it is; that wasn't going to happen. She finally settled on inviting some friends to meet her at the local trampoline park. Then, as a family, we got together for cake and ice cream at their house in Ft. Worth. That stupid game that Uncle Scott bought her was SUCH a big hit! I wish the twins could have been there. They love playing games and would have gotten a kick out of seeing Aunt Molly and Uncle Scott playing Mall Madness.

G and Ron watching TV instead
of playing games... typical.

Rebecca and Maggie

Scott, Molly, and Sophie

Leslie

Sophie

Uncle Scott broke tradition! Instead of
his usually bag-o-money, he got
Sophie a Mall Madness game. I
think it is mostly because he 
enjoyed playing when the girls got 
an original one, years ago!

Leslie with one of the original Mall Madness games.

I have always been so appreciative of having our adult kids live fairly close to us; all are within a 2 1/2 hour drive. We have been able to spend most holidays and birthday celebrations together. Sadly, as the grandchildren grow older and become much busier, we don't seem to get together as often. Of course, the pandemic has made things even more difficult. That makes the moments we do share even more precious. 

Ron's 60th Birthday Surprise

Blog catch-up post: Ron's birthday.

Ron turned 60 years old on June 12th.  I wanted to give him a special gift in honor of this milestone birthday. The kids had asked me if we were going to do anything special for him, and I kept drawing a blank. We usually go to Round Rock, Texas to watch a semi-pro baseball game; but, this year we couldn't find a home game at the right time. On top of that, some of us were going to be just getting back from the coast. About 2 weeks before school ended, I woke up knowing what I wanted to do for Ron.
The last time we took a trip to Ohio to visit his family, Ron's mother gave him his father's old guitar. Howard had been in a gospel music group before his death, and had played a 1957 Gibson electric guitar.  No one had played the guitar since Howard's death, and it had been kept in the closet or basement since then.  Ron had talked about getting it restored when he first brought it home, but never followed through with it. I decided this would be the perfect birthday gift.
Scott (#2 son) sneaked into the house one day when we were both at work and snatch the guitar. He and Ryan (#1 son) found a man in Austin that restores guitars. Ryan took it down and explained that we wanted to give it to Ron as close to the 12th as we could. There was a lot of work that needed to be done, and one part needed to be rebuilt, so the chances of getting the guitar back by the 12th were slim. So, when we got back from the coast, we had a Father's Day/birthday cookout and played that off as Ron's birthday celebration. The kids were all in on the secret, and as the time passed it got harder and harder to not say anything around Ron.
Finally, Ryan got a call from the restoration agent letting us know that the guitar was ready. Luckily, it was on a Wednesday, which is traditionally our family dinner evening. Ryan headed down to Austin and picked up the guitar.  We hid it in Mom's sewing room until just before dinner. Then, I had Ron sit down in the center of the living room and Ryan went to get the guitar. Ron's reaction was heart melting! Ron was so touched when he saw what we had done. The kids had all chipped in to buy a beautiful, sturdy new case for the guitar because the old was was beyond repair. I think it was a perfect surprise gift!

I don't think Ron really understood what he was looking at because the case was unfamiliar.

Once Ryan opened the case, Ron realized it was his father's guitar.

The strings on the guitar had been kept tight, causing the bridge to bow. You can't even tell now.

The piece that lifts the strings off the guitar had to be rebuilt.

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

These guys have amazing secret keeping abilities!

That is a happy old man!