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South Padre Island runs long the Texas border along the the coast of the Gulf of Mexico.  Except for boat, the only access is this 2 1/2 mile bridge.  It is the prettiest place we have seen in Texas since arriving in Texas on October 15, 2012.

1-23-2013 - We have been in Brownsville, TX for about 4 weeks now.  South Padre Island is along the coast of South Texas.  We drove out there yesterday to take advantage of the sand and sun.  It is about 25 miles from where we are staying in Brownsville.  A family from the ward lives on the island and invited us out to see the beach and have dinner with them. 

The pictures didn't load in the right order.  This photo is just as you come onto the island.  The island is probably less than 1/2 mile wide and very long.  I don't know how long, but it goes clear up to Corpus Christi, however there are road only for several miles along the island.

This would be Kay showing off the sand on her feet.

This would be Kim taking advantage of a beach chair along the beach.

Here we are with the Gulf Coast to our right and condos to our left. 

We left San Antonio on December 26th and headed for Brownsville, TX.  (It happens to be one of the most southern points in the continental US and the temperature looked pretty good.)  This is our New Years Eve shot at a party at our new RV Park.  We continue to find new friends where ever we go, but still miss our old ones at home.  Can you believe that pretty girl I am with?  Living an RV is not bad at all, when you share it with your best friend.

We arrived in San Antonio on the 13th of December.  One of our first outings was to the Alamo.  Texans take their history very seriously.  We never knew, but Texas was an independent nation when it was annexed into the United States in 1845.  For this reason, it is the only State in the Union that flies it's State Flag at the same height as Old Glory.

We love the Christmas decorations in shirt sleeves.  This is the Christmas Tree next to the Alamo.  You will notice a lot of "Lone Stars" and other Texan symbols on the tree.  It seems funny but we have yet to see a Christmas Tree lot in Texas.

This is Christmas Morning.  It was a very simple, yet very sweet Christmas.  We went shopping for each other just before Christmas, with a $25 dollar limit, and had great fun. The pretty girl sitting next to me seems not to have changed hardly at all in the last 40+ years.  It has been a long time Christmas morning has been this quiet.

We decorated our "Home away from Home" on Christmas Eve.  The decorations consisted of paper snow flakes, popcorn on a string, and a cheap wreath we found at a discount store.  Yet we can not remember every having the decorations seem so "right".  Living is tight quarters is pretty sweet when you can share it with your best friend.

A most amazing thing happened to create this Christmas photo.  We went to college and became close friends with Scott and Sue Shumway, who eventually had five kids. We celebrated Kim's 60th birthday with them in Tuscon, AZ, but had not spent time with the family since the early 90s when Robert (in photo above) was about 5 years old.  Three weeks before Christmas, we met their oldest son, David, in the Dallas Temple.  Then the week before Christmas, we attended a Ward in San Antonio, and met Robert, their second son, and his family.  They were kind enough to invite us to have Christmas dinner with their family, making our Christmas a most memorable event.  Robert has the most beautiful and talented family you can imagine.  They include his sweet wife, Julia, and their children, Shaylon, Caroline, Scott, Levi, and Jack.  They had the most amazing Christmas lighting on their home we have ever seen, with a synchronized Christmas Story and music that would bring the Christmas spirit to the most dispassionate scrooge.  Robert, and Julia, Thank you again for giving us such a beautiful Christmas gift, that of inviting us into your lives.  We will not forget.