Gunpowder and What?

This past month we celebrated Richmond, TX.  We also celebrated the county in which Richmond resides, Fort Bend.  (And yes, to my Louisiana friends, county is a strange word better replaced by parish.)

So what have we learned from our celebratory experiences?  Well, let me tell you...through a series of pictures and captions.

Festival celebrating Richmond's 175th year of incorporation:

Richmond Texans love America...and Texas.

Poodles and cowboys clearly go together.

These were some of the possible clothing styles worn between the years 1837 and 2012.

This old timey firetruck is pretty cool.

American flags make any parade better.

Not everything in Richmond is old or historic.  There is a Zumba class.

Did you know there are cowboys here?

Miss Daisy is here, too.

It's totally cool for kids to ride these things.

Jail isn't really a joking matter.

This wagon is one (or two) steps away from having a bicycle pull it...Troy Becker.

There is an old timey barbershop in town and it's totally fine for the manliest men to go there.

American flags really do make any parade better.

That was fun.  All 20 minutes of it.  Even though I jest, I really do like the people here.  I also like the history.    It's like trading in Cajuns for cowboys.

Now onto the 76th Annual Fort Bend County Fair:

You can get a gallon of milk from one cow in one milking...!

Baby ducks are about the cutest, most cuddly thing!

I spoke too soon.  This pig is pretty darn cute.

And big.

The FFA and 4-H are alive and well here.

Auctioneers talk fast, even ceiling fans are bigger in Texas, and did I mention that there are cowboys here? 

What a fun time.  I think we'll all need a pair of cowboy boots before we can really feel at home.  I don't know that we'll be raising any animals anytime soon (do bees count?!).  And another thing, I'm not sure that any amount of time spent here, no matter how long, could convince me that girls are made of gunpowder and lead.   I don't know that I will ever get into country music.                                     

So there you have it.  A small taste of our small country life.

Don't Mess with Texas!

Houston, TX.  Fourth largest city in the United State of America.  The Bayou City.  Home to what might be the largest urban bat colony that doesn't migrate in the winter.  And now it is home to the Beckers.  We are the Tex Becks.

Houston has been good to us.  We came here for work and have found plenty of opportunities.  When we were struggling to find a diagnosis for Isaac's disease, we found the Texas Medical Center.  We have made friends and found a great church community.  Diversity and friendliness are just a couple of things that we love about Houston.

As all things, with the good comes the bad.  We really dislike the traffic here.  It's a concrete jungle where people rely to heavily on their cars and not enough on public transportation (which is lacking and probably the reason that people don't rely on it).  It's a dirty and sometimes violent city.  Open spaces with green grass and fresh air are hard to come by here.  

So today we hopped on over to Fort Bend County.  A neighboring county, Fort Bend is home of the George Ranch.  Here, a piece of Texas history has been preserved so that future generations can get an up close look at what life was like for early settlers of this land.  The historical park sits on 500 acres of a 23,000 acre ranch.  Wide open spaces are easy to come by here. 

The 1890's Victorian Mansion

Walking with the sun on our backs, we explored homes from the 1830's, 1860's, 1890's, and 1930's.  That's 100 years of preserved family history.  We saw cowboys on horses roping cattle and longhorns.  We caught a glimpse of the bulky dresses the women wore and felt the heat they would have had to endure.  While the majority of the park focuses on generations of wealthy families that were not the norm of the time, we still managed to learn about what the majority of folks probably went through during the times of sharecropping.  

The park also has blacksmith demonstrations and historical re-enactments.  Many common farm animals live on the grounds, as well as common (to the South) reptiles that like to prey upon them.   We had a wonderful time learning more about Texas history and the cowboy lifestyle.  The boys had open spaces (although due to drought, they weren't technically green) to get their wiggles out.  I can see a stick pony in our future, as well as a couple of cowboy hats.  I heard a "yee haw" or two in the gift shop.  

"Beware of Alligators and Snakes"

I hope that no matter where our path takes us, our kids will develop a sense of state pride for whatever state they end up calling "home".  I certainly have a strange love for Louisiana.  Troy loves his home state of Idaho.  For now we will work on loving Texas.  Learning about its rich history and culture.