Aunt Sherlie & Uncle Sherman's house.

Art's "chuck wagon". He cooked an awesome BBQ with all the trimmings meal for us on-sight out of his wagon.

Gracie ready to take in her very first vacation/family reunion.

Mid-morning of Day 1 we gathered chairs outdoors under the shade to watch a terrific show put on by a professional rodeo "trick roper". He was truly amazing and entertained us all.

This is Kevin, our roper/entertainer.

He only stood on his horse's saddle for about 10 minutes - straight, while still performing yet more and more roping tricks to our delight.

Then he pulled out the 4 more-grown kids from our crowd and used them one-at-a-time to perform a different rope trick on each and then as a group.

Jennifer's turn out of the hot seat.

My cousin, Kittren, was his next "roping assistant".

First Kevin "roped" one arm, several times, then the other arm, then both arms together and now he's doing her left leg.

Next he did her right leg, then both legs together, then all around her body. She ended up "trussed up" like a turkey.

After the show was over the boys wanted to see his horse up-close.

Time to eat Art's wonderful BBQ meal. 3 sets of long tables held us all (plus a few others who sat on the patio).

Poor Gracie missed out on eating a wonderful meal.

Everyone had matching nametags made by my cousin, Karen. A few of us turned them towards our back so we could bend forward to eat easier.

Afternoon brought yet another form of entertainment, again with horses involved. This was a family who travel and use some of their own horses to teach mostly children about how to walk up to a horse, pet, groom, etc. and parallels that with Christianity. Ms. Jackie put on quite a show that probably taught us all something. This horse's name is "Lasso".

Alex held Lasso's halter while Ms. Jackie groomed his tail.

It's hard to tell but Jennifer is standing behind Lasso and holding Gracie up on her back. This was Gracie's first experience being on a horse's back.

"Star" was the other horse brought by Jackie and her family.

Show's over, let's go back to visitin' with one another....

Patio on the inside of their U-shaped home. We spent many hours enjoying the wonderful atmosphere it provided for our conversations, even though it wasn't picture-friendly.

Uncle Sherman taking a group for a ride around their 10 acres. The kids had a blast on it.

Our two boys and their 2nd cousin, Bill played with the 3 air-soft-pistols most of the weekend. This was them out near the guest "bunk house".

Time for a break. Safety glasses are required when playing with the pistols. (Alex wore his name badge around his wrist.)

Aunt Reta and her cousin, Charlotte. I have no idea why I didn't take any close-ups of anyone other than these 2 and Gracie; wish I had but at least I got one really nice close-up of 2 really nice ladies.

Gracie on Day 2 of the reunion and she's 7 weeks old.

Grandpa holding her and obviously telling her something really funny. She's been smiling more and more back at us over the past 2 weeks. I finally got some photos showing it.

Yea, I'm hearin' ya Grandpa, what's the rest of the joke?

That was HILARIOUS Grandpa!!! :)))

Evening time Day 2 and the deer started coming in for their daily feed. (Our boys had put out deer feed for them.) First there was a group of 3, then after they left a lone deer came out.

Evening of Day 1 found the 3 boys and their cousin Eddie throwing/kicking a football back and forth. Had it not gotten night-time-dark they'd still be playing.

At the O.S.T. (Old Spanish Trail) restaurant in downtown Bandera. At the bar the only seating are saddles on top of posts. Kind of unusual, but Alex & Chris said they were really comfortable.

Same O.S.T. restaurant but a different part of the room. The old chuck wagon in the famous John Wayne room holds their salad bar.

The Medina river where it runs through a city park next to downtown Bandera.

The same river, up close.

Same river down a hill back behind our hotel. It was so scenic and restive-looking. Our family of 5+ went down to see it before leaving to head for home.

I could sit on the park benches they had on the river bank all day and look at this lazy-summer scene. The water appeared about 3-4 feet deep, very clear with a white sandy bottom.

Alex was the only one brave enough to want to get in. In this picture, the water comes up to about an inch or two below his white shirt - notice how clear the water is.