I (Patty) was just playing with the new camera and happened to get this picture and just fell in love with it.
Then of course we have to put some Amy pictures in here so here she is on her new blanket from her Granny!!
Patty
And a big slide that all the kids loved. Dad estimated it was about 30 feet high. ( Matthew probably went down it 20-30 times i think he liked it. :) )
And there was a carriage ride.
Annie, remember this blanket and gown?
Flowers for Amy from a nice friend, Jamin Goecker, De'Etta you trained him well. :) He, also coming from a large family, thought of Stella and brought her a deer made out of balloons. We'll have to get a picture of Stella's deer.
There were lots of them. It was interesting to hear what they meant and and how the Indians painted them around the winter, and summer solstice.
Some were about killing Buffalo,
some were recording the times of the year that they had a celebration, like a reunion.
Fun and interesting.
Joy looked info up on the internet and found out what they eat, so we told the kids they could keep him for a while.
I fixed her hair in a princess braid :)
So adorable!! :)
After supper; Joshua, Joy, and Jimmie set out with their sling shots to shoot birds. Joy came running in telling Roy the dogs had a cat treed and Joshua thought it was a Bobcat. Roy asked a few questions; how big is it? and grabbed a gun and headed out with Joy and three little guys following him. They came home with a bobcat. Joshua got to shoot it. He was really proud. And, he should be.
He looked great. Joy played a piece called Haunted Mouse. We had her dressed up like a mouse. She was so cute!!! 
They both fit their pieces perfectly.
We've had Jenny's friend Justin for supper several times lately and the kids really like him. And, yes, Stella has a new boyfriend. HeeHee.
Pretty sunset.
Dad and the three middles playing Cash flow for Kids
or shall we say Patty was assisting them trying it out.
See Patty trying to get out of the pic?
I know Patty was trying it out too, just never got a picture.:) Not sure why the pics are so yellow, had the flash on. I think its time for a new camera. Better start saving!!
This picture doesn't give it justice, with everyone standing in front of it.
The hunter.
and some cleaning. This is not a great picture with the glare. I had to post it for Annie. Joy is taking after her sister as far as reading goes. Although, I don't remember seeing Annie vacuum and read. Annie did do just about everything else while she read.
This is at the Texas State Aquarium with the U.S.S. Lexington in the background. And although we did not tour it this year we did last year.
Here's a few more pics from our Grammy tour. We had a rainy day, but had already planned the aquarium so it all worked out great.
These are a few cute pics. Annie and Darcy, this one is for you. Isn't she sooooo cute!!!!
A pic of M&M during worship at church. Don't they look like they really are reading. HeeHee
Grammy and I took the kids to the beach for the annual Grammy tour (we think our fifth year). We had lots of fun!!The first day was beautiful beach weather. We played
buried Stella,
played some more.
This is for Annie (Hi Annie!!!) 
Then while the younger kids continued to play in the water and look for shells with Grammy the big girls did some gymnastics on the beach.
After our beach fun we relaxed at the pool.
Wednesday was also Jenny's birthday.
Happy 17th Jen, we love you so much and are so proud of the lovely lady you've become. Know God has wonderful plans for you!!! We continued to celebrate this morning with cinnamon rolls and presents. Jenny's new purse!!!
We anointed her, blessed her, and covered her in prayer.
We also had fun fellow shipping all afternoon. Monday I asked Annie what she wanted to do. I knew there were several of her friends who still wanted to get together with her, so if she wanted to go to town I wanted her to. My awesome Annie blessed me instead. She stayed home. She told me that the one other thing she wanted to do was to set up the baby bed. Wow!! We had several of her favorite meals and she got up in the attic, brought down the baby bed, bedding, clothes, bouncy seat, bath tub, etc. She washed all the bedding and set up the baby bed. Wow!! Wow!! I'm all teary eyed again!!! Today we had a crazy morning. We headed to Fed Ex at 8a.m. to pick up Annie's visa that was to be over night ed, went to get her last round of Hep vaccine, and on to Cornerstone Christian School so one of the classes that is studying Africa could meet her and send her off with prayer. One of our old pastor's was there too which made it extra special. On to the airport. Check in the baggage. Oops!!! over weight, way overweight!! An extra $360.00 ouch!! We hugged,
and hugged,
and hugged,
and hugged,
loved,
hugged some more
And off she went. Annie, we love you so much!!
Annie
Joshua promply went to work. He loves doing things like that. Although, he had a life lesson. After he took the training wheels off both of their chains mysteriously started coming off. He had loosened the chain not knowingly. Dad came to the rescue and let him know he was proud of his assertiveness, however, this needed a little supervision. Joshua and Joy went on the help each of the boys and they're riding everywhere now with no training wheels.
Yea!!! Their getting so big. In the past as one child came out of training wheels everyone moved up a bike size, now we have two, so they can't all move up. Anyway, Jimmie gave Joy's bike a try and he's doing great also.
Matthew has tried Jimmie's bike and although a little big he's getting it.
She has a lead rope on her so the kids can work with leading her when she is up at the house. Roy asked M&M if they wanted to ride her Sunday. They quickly agreed. 
HeeHee Joy and Jimmie decided that the new puppy, Killer needed some Aggie attire.
Isn't she cute. I think Aggie would be a good name, though we have some friends with a dog named Aggie and Roy wants to declare her as a snake
We had a great church play day at the Woodley's Sat. I forgot the camera. Bummer!! The kids swam, chased chickens, held chickens for long periods of time, and played on a slip and slide. The adults had a wonderful time fellow shipping. We saw some friends we haven't seen in a long time. It was all Good!!!
A pick up!!
A cow(Isn't she pretty) (Yummy cows milk on the way) Do you like Buttercup or Bessie?
and a transmission. What???? 
He described it like a spongy pancake. We ordered teff from the food coop and finally had our Ethiopian meal. Jenny found recipes on line and we experimented. Jenny ground the teff and fermented it overnight. She prepared three different dishes. They were a little spicy, but tasty. We decided the teff ferminted too long, it was a little strong. We also had quite a few cherries from produce coop that needed to be used, so Annie made a cherry pie to go with our meal. 
It was everyone's favorite part of the meal. HeeHee Good ole American Food, got a love it. We'll experiment again with our teff.
G'Pa, Joshua, and many little helpers built sideboards on the girls pickup. He wanted to have a surprise waiting for them when they got back from Trek. Grammy read books to the little's. 
They could sit and listen all day.
More Trek pictures!!!
The whole crew!!
And playing Crow in the tent.
Michael's playing in the lake
Two sisters showing off on the tube until dad guns it and dumps them.
Three generations of good-looking Zesch men.
and some of us were dared to crawl all the way through to the other side of the street. So Lane Huston and I crawled in the hole and all the way across the street(under the street) to crawl out a little bitty hole on the other side, 
it kinda hurt my elbows and knees, cuz we had to army crawl cuz the hole was too small to crawl on our hands and knees through, and we crawled through some water, it was kinda nasty and dark in there but overall it was an adventure!! Ha lol so it was fun.
We identified it as a bull snake. Roy told the kids to shoo it off the porch. The courage started out high until they made it mad and it started its rattlesnake impersination. Dad got it off.
And, Stella has enjoyed playing with playdough and pretending she is baking cookies. Yum, Yum.
I tried to turn this pic and it didn't work.
It was great. Its awesome to watch big groups of students playing together. This year their ensemble was made up of 10 students.
They played Scarlet Cape and they were self directed. Mrs Schlaudt, their instructor gave them a wonderful compliment during rehersal on Sat. She said she had directed many, many ensembles over the years and they were her best.
We have a 10 year old boy. Wow!!! Happy Birthday, Joshua. We are so very proud of you. You are growing into a wonderful godly young man. Keep pursuing the Lord and letting Him guide your path.
Today we dug a big hole to plant a new tree in the yard. Some of us ^^ Worked "reeeallly" hard lol They did work though.
Granny, Dakota, and Aunt Rae Ann
Mathew scraping out the watermelon after it sat out all night and flies had feasted on it. Oh well, extra probiotics.
Look closely at the arm above the elbow. I was getting Michael's life jacket on and buckled his arm in. Oops. He said it was a little too tight. 
The younger crew went first with mom's and dad's and the older crew left about 8p.m. for a moonlight float.
They decided it was lots of fun and very pretty floating in the calm water with the moonlight. The not so fun part came in when they couldn't see the rocks or the best way to float through the rapids. It was a fun experience, though they may stick to floating during the day. Roy's aunt Sheryl was a real trooper. She and Annie kayaked together on the night float. I'm not sure if she knew what she was getting into. 
We didn't get pictures of the canoe rides, though we did get some river pic's. The group that didn't canoe played in the river. We all had fun. Patty and her cousin Sierra snuck up on me for a good dunking. I fought pretty hard so now I have a sore neck.
I did get them back though. I had a few other cousins sabotage their late night canoe ride and flip them. To bad we don't have pic's. We gathered Sunday morning after breakfast and had a church service.
Patty and cousin Mason led worship and Roy led us in a great discussion on Psalm 91. Praises to our King for His unending Love and Protection.
We got to San Marcos and after a little wait they suited up.
Roy, Annie, Jamin, his brother Josiah, and his sister Krista. They headed for the plane,
and their off.
Here comes Annie
She's on the ground safe and sound
Can you believe my first born has graduated? Annie, you are a beautiful young lady. Truly becoming a Prov.31 woman. We're so proud of you. Sniff, Sniff
Roy coming in
He's on the ground too, Yea!!
A great day. It was fun to hang out with the Goecker's. Can you believe this is only two families and we're missing one?
The weather was beautiful. A really fun day.
Stephen Jones, Not sure what he is doing. Funny way to practice with a bull whip.HeeHee
some people rope ropin dummies. Stella rides 'em.
(Picture by: Kendra G.)
We've been working on a new garden for about 4 or 5 months. We have a beautiful finished product. I have a wonderful husband who has built a fabulous garden with the help of everyone else. Some helped more than others because of preplanned activities or because they were a little short on one end.
Back in January Roy rented a front end loader and hauled about a foot of caleche out of our new garden spot. Then we had good soil mixed with compost hauled in. Next came the beginnings of a fence. Roy and the girls dug 25 post holes. 4 the old fashion way and the rest with an auger.
Stella checked to see if they were deep enough.
They concreted all the posts in and then the welding began.
Thank goodness we didn't forget a child in a hole. Hee Hee Roy had lots of want to be helpers when he was welding.
Jimmie was his closest buddy, even when he was sleeping.
After the fence was up we sanded it. Annie conveniently had a piano contest in Midland that weekend. Jenny swears she planned it around fence sanding.
Though she in fact had nothing to do with it. Everyone helped sand.
After the sanding the girls and Roy primed and painted. Then it was time to put the wire up.
This made for lots of sore hands. While we were getting the fence up M,M,and S figured out they could go down the zip line if there was a loop in the rope.
We planted the last two weeks and are anxiously awaiting yummy fruits and vegetables. 
Thank you my wonderful husband for having a beautiful vision. He sees things that don't exist so much better than I do. I'm so glad God gave me such a great guy.
It was full of water. Joshua and Joy waded in it a little.
The water was over Joshua knees in some places.
Its such a nice thing to walk around the pasture taking pictures of God's blessing. The sound of frogs croaking, the dog splashing through the water, 
shouts of glee coming from happy children playing in the creek, the smell of rain in the air, nice clean white horses once again. 
Most people would see these pictures as a nasty muddy creek, but as a ranchers daughter here in West TX, I see these pictures as Gods blessing, sending rain to dry ground, water to wild animals and beauty soon to come with abundant wild flowers and green grass. 
Thank you God!!
Did you know our military used camels during the 1800's?
Joshua enjoyed the Lipan indian demonstration. He's sporting a fox tail on his cap.
Stella liked the white rabbit skin.
Firing the canons
The boys pulling the double trigger of a buffalo hunters rifle.
Well Dad calls it a pick up..... Anyways.
Coming in
Pouting
This is Michael just being cute.
Friday, we put up Christmas decorations and had our weekly pizza. The pizza pro happened to get home in time to roll out the dough or shall we say toss the dough.
Saturday the ladies went to town for a ladies day out and ushered at the Nutcracker.
Then we drove up Route 66 to Peach Springs, AZ. Stayed at the Hualapai Lodge.
Hiked up to see a waterfall.
Ate lunch in the canyon and continued on the rafting trip. Went on a Helicopter ride up to Grand Canyon West. 
Drove back on a very bumpy road in a van to Peach Springs and the Hualapai Lodge. Stayed a 2nd night at the Hualapai Lodge.
Drove to the North Rim. Got to the North Rim at sunset.
Took pictures at the North Rim. Drove back to a little town called Jacob Lake and stayed the night.
Stopped and took pictures at lots of points in the canyon. 
Drove up to Boulder, UT and stayed the night.
Drove through a trail drive. ha ha. Hiked up to Hickman Natural Bridge. Took lots of pictures. Drove through Glen Canyon. Drove by Lake Powell. Drove to Natural Bridges National Monument.
Then drove to Cortez, CO. Went to see Mesa Verde National Park at sunset. 
Stayed in Cortez.
Drove back into Utah to Arches National Park. 
Another trail drive. Went through the park. Drove up to Green River, UT. Stopped at the John Wesley Powell Museum.
Drove to Beaver UT. Stayed the night.
Drove back to Las Vegas, NV returned our rent car. Stayed at a hotel in Vegas.
