Tracey's Dancing Days

Brooke wanted to do the Dance Revolution game- you can tell you ended up doing it- Watch the guy next to Tracey- he said he had done it for 10 years!

Friday night fun

We went and rode bumper boats on Friday night with my cousin and her son from Oklahoma. We had a blast as you can tell. Brooke looks like she is hold on for dear life- but I think she had fun anyway. Kirt & Sam had a good time on the race cars- although they did crash on the first lap- Kirt claims some one else ran into them. And here is a classic picture of Max & Emerson-

Max is a VERY oral child- everything goes in his mouth. We told him to hand Emerson a rock and he held it up to her mouth. She thought it was really funny and it became a game to them.

Sunday Brunch

Well, I feel very moved to write about the events of Sunday morning. God works in amazing ways which we witnessed first hand Sunday at the morning brunch. As I mentioned before one of Kirt's co-workers suffered a massive heart attack and passed away at the brunch. He was only 48 years old and leaves behind a wife & two children. The message that Norm Miller was speaking of at the very time was about how we don't know when our time is up on this earth and he was just about to ask that you join him in prayer to ask God into your life when someone from the balcony started calling for a doctor. The room was filled with approximately 2,500 people at the time. There was complete silence for about 20 minutes as everyone prayed for Darren and the paramedics used the AED to try to revive him. It was amazing the unity and prayers. Can you even imagine 2,500 people both belivers and non-belivers all praying for you. We ate breakfast with the chaplain on Monday morning and he said that Darren's wife takes comfort in knowing that on Father's Day her husband went to be with his Heavenly Father and what an impact his passing had on such a HUGE amount of people. I think God really used this event to witness to so many people that we need to live our lives everyday for God and our purpose here on earth to enrich His kingdom. Kirt and I were having breakfast Sunday morning prior to the brunch and Kirt invited Darren to sit with us because he was eating alone before his wife joined him. We had NO idea that he was going to die an hour later. His wife mentioned to the chaplain that Darren died with a smile on his face after having a nice breakfast & listening to God's message. I had just met him that morning and he spoke so sweetly of his two boys who were in Dallas with Grandparents. We just pray for comfort for his family and know that God used his life and death in a big way to impact others.

DC vacation Day 6

The National Cathedral- you could see it from our balcony. It was beatiful as the storm was moving in. This was from the party on Monday night. It was a Superhero and Las Vegas theme. Joe Gibbs and Kyle Bush spoke and signed autographs. We didn't stay too late- just long enough to have some ice cream & bread pudding!

Our last day Kirt wanted to go to the Lincoln Memorial. We left Emerson with Grandma Peggy and made a quick trip before we flew out!

DC vacation Day 5

We had a great experience riding the Metro. Emerson's new word is cho0-choo. We rode down to the Smithsonian station and walked from there. It was a perfect day outside.

This was a cute picture from the World War II Memorial.

We got a quick picture at the White House!

And had the best picnic at the park by the White House with great hot dogs from the street vendor.

DC Vacation Day 4

After brunch on Sunday we went down and took a boat ride on the Potomac. Kirt had a great fathers day.

We had a great afternoon on the boat and then we went and had dinner in Virginia at a great place called Carlyle.

Big News Morning

This is an early morning blog to share Sam's big news! He lost his first tooth this morning. Grandpa Len was so nice to help us out and pull it since Kirt is at an early meeting! Sam was so excited! He says he wants me to write that he didn't even say ouch. He is carrying it around in a cool jewlery bag that Aunt Tina gave him!

While the tooth pulling excitement was going on I found Emerson putting a HUGE piece of green gum in her mouth. She must not have liked it because she didn't even fuss when I took it away!

Sunday Brunch

Happy Fathers Day! As you can tell we didn't bring our gifts with us- Sam & I picked out a nice Godiva chocolate bar & card from the gift shop downstairs in the hotel. Sam really wanted to get the snow globe keychains with the White House in them but I promised him that Daddy would share his candy bar with him.

Emerson's little dress says "Daddy's lil Diva" she wore it in honor of Father's Day

We went to the Sunday Brunch that Interstate hosted. A co-worker of Kirt's, that we had eaten breakfast with an hour ago suffered a massive heart attack during the brunch and passed away. The Interstate family is mourning the loss of a friend today.

Prior to the tragedy mentioned above, Jimmy Macar & Norm Miller gave a wonderful message of devotion and prayer. Tobymac was in attendence to perform, but the concert was obviously postponed.

Peggy took this picture of me & Kirt and his "other" father's day present. I am 29 weeks pregnant.

Washington DC day 3 continued

Saturday night at the Smithsonion- Interstate hosted a great party at the Air & Space Museum

Sam & Grandpa Len were buddies on the bus ride

Washington DC day 3

Our Zoo Trip- Aunt Tina, Sue, Sam, Me, Grandma & Emerson- Brian Brown also went with us but he was the photographer in this picture~

This is the baby panda- he will be 3 in July. Emerson picked out a cute green purse with a panda bear in it. And Sam got a squirt bottle with a fan on it (I think that was more for the mommy than for Sam) It was a great purchase on a hot day.

Sam & Brian- Brian will be a junior next year at Plano. His dad works with Kirt and his family also has a lakehouse near the Ruby's. Sam thinks Brian is the coolest

Snowcones were the hit of the day.

We had a busy day at the zoo this morning- it is only about a 3 block walk from our hotel. The kids were so excited to see the panda bears and monkeys. It is SO humid here! The National Zoo is a very hard walk- it is downhill then the way back out is all uphill. Luckily we found out they had a van shuttle at the end of the zoo to take you back to the entrance. We were SO thankful- even though I walk alot at work- it is much different when you are outside in the hot weather. We definetly enjoyed snowcones at the zoo. Tonight we are supposed to go to the Air & Space Museum for a dinner party. Sam is SUPER excited~

Washington DC day 2

Well, I was so tired yesterday I didn't get to post anything. But we had a great time. Peggy & I ventured out in a cab to the museums- after getting dropped off at the wrong musuem we cruised very quickly to the art museum and then onto the Museum of Natural History. It was great- the kids saw lots of animals and the Hope Diamond. We headed back for naptime and Emerson & Grandpa Len took a nap together. Then Aunt Tina came and met us for dinner at an italian restaurant. We had such a great day!

Washington DC Day 1

Interstate Batteries Convention 2008

We stayed at the Grand Hyatt at DFW on Wednsday night. We had such a great time. Our room overlooked the runway. We literaly had to peel the kids away from the windows to go to bed. The hotel was amazing and we had great service. The bellman told Sam to pick out the airplane we were going to ride on and then when we were checking out he gave Sam a letter that said "Dear Ruby Family, we were able to honor the request of the AA plane #31 as Sam requested" Sam was so excited- he really thought he chose the plane.

This is the hotel we are staying at in DC. It is beautiful and historic. It is a few blocks from the zoo- which I'm sure we will have pictures of very soon. Kirt's sister Tina lives nearby so we are so excited to spend some time with her.

The kids both crashed about 2:00- did I mention that taking the 6:45 a.m. flight was NOT a good idea- even if we could use airline miles- NOT WORTH IT! They were SO exhausted- MAJOR MELTDOWNS! After we took naps we had a nice relaxing dinner in the suite with Kirt's parents & Tina.

Lexie's vacation & Andy's recovery

My sister's dog, Lexie, came to spend the weekend with us while they went out of town. As you can tell, Lexie is going to be ready to go home! Poor girl- she came with two hair bows and we hadn't even gotten out of Josh & Tracey's neighborhood before Emerson had pulled them out. That was only the beginning. Then Sam found a leash and him & Emerson have been diligently walking/dragging Lexie around our house. You can tell from the pictures how thrilled she is with this. She is such a mild mannered little dog- she just goes with the flow. As soon as I take the leash off- she hides very quickly. I have now hidden ALL of the leashes in the house.

Andy has been getting LOTS of love & not to mention a whole box of treats this week as he recovers. We have had a few setbacks as he figured out how to get his stitches out even with his cone collar! He had to go back to the vet for some staples AND a bigger collar and some major antibiotics. He refuses to eat his dog food unless I pour coffee creamer or milk on it. Kirt thinks I am giving in too easily and that he will eat eventually when he gets hungry- I make sure he eats every night (he is like one of my children- I can't let him be hungry). I am supposed to call the vet tomorrow for his pathology reports- we just pray that it is a benign tumor! We did find Emerson wearing his cone collar as a skirt- she wraps it around her waist like a tutu.