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Thanks to a great Christmas present of first class plane tickets from Elizabeth, we were able to be in Texas for a week. It was a VERY BUSY week. School was over for Case and we attended his last school party, ZAK was making trips home with loads of his stuff, etc.
On Friday evening, we traveled to Huntsville for the Sam Huston University graduation, Kaitlyn Scarlett was done in four years, GREAT Job Kaite! The campus is right in the middle of a little town that looked like Grass Valley but older and there is a huge prison just down the street from the University!! After dinner at the Farmhouse where everything is FRIED, we spent about 3 hours in the indoor basketball arena. The ceremony ended with everyone standing up, holding hands and singing "Should old acquaintances be forgotten......., etc"

The next evening, we attended the Fort Bend Boys Choir and they sang much better with Case being in the Town Choir group - hearing over 150 boys altogether was a wonderful sight and sound. Then, off to House of Pies in Houston for late night snacks.

Sunday, we had a Mother's Day Lunch with Mike's parents Billie and Jim with wonderful food provided by Elizabeth. Due to rain each night, the air was fresh and clean and we all ended up swimming in her pool while drinking Shiner Bock - ask Robert about the special Family Reunion 6 packs he found!

Now, Elizabeth is taking her kids for a whirlwind trip to the Netherlands to see Tony's Grand Opening of the water feature, then over to Paris and London for a bit. Never a dull moment in Texas - and, see the last photo which shows how BIG stuff is in Texas -

Thanks for being part of our "East Coast" family, and being such a good aunt to Eliza. You were the first Freitas (other than me) that she ever met!



We hope you have a wonderful day, and our thoughts are with you and the Weill family.

I remember the days I would see my dad drink beer and think "That's so gross. How can he drink that stuff??" Well, I've succumbed to the liking of beer myself, as some of you probably know. I have began to like beer SO much that I am beginning to brew my own stuff! I picked up all the ingredients and supplies and the Handcraft Brewing store in Elk Grove and have finally finished fermenting and bottling my beer a couple of weeks ago. I didn't expect much as this is my first batch of beer but honestly it looks and tastes great! (Excuse the sediment at the bottom of each bottle. I will filter it better next time around.) It's a classic German wheat beer also known as Hefeweizen...it tastes similar to a Pyramid Hef. I will most likely be making a Belgian White the next time around so if any of you would like me to ship you any let me know! I would be more than happy to ship it to anyone, anywhere!
What you see in the first picture is the 5 gallon "carboy". This was basically the second step in the fermenting process. We let it sit in the carboy for a little over a week before we bottled it. After bottling, it still ferments for another 3-5 weeks. So in another week it will be finally ready to be drank! However, I couldn't resist and had to open a bottle only after 1 week to be sure it wasn't spoiled, or ruined. Yum yum!

Love to all the great Moms in our family on this great day. After breakfast in bed with scones and quiche (made by me!), and a nice new little computer for Miyoko, we headed off to Rock Creek Park to try out our new baby backpack. So long as I don't fall down, Marisa loved it - a whole new perspective for her as she is up high and can see what we see. Another month here in DC, then Sacto for a few days in mid-June, and then off to Kathmandu on June 26th. Everything is falling into place well, housing, etc., is all taking care of, and we just have to get us, our cats, and baby to the other side of the world. See you all (we hope) in Sacto, love, D&M&M

(Follow the link for our flickr stream!)

Happy Mother's Day to Grandma from Sara, Eliza and Noelle!

See you in June!!!!