Lunch With a Legand

Marty Akins, Chuck and Coach Royal

Thanks to Chuck's good friend Ron and to Coach Ken Dabbs, Chuck had the opportunity to join legendary Hall of Fame Coach Darrell K Royal along with former All American QB at TEXAS, Marty Akins at lunch at one of Coach Royal's favorite mexican foods spots in Austin.

Coach Royal and Marty are both class acts, shared some great stories and treated us like old friends not like the bunch of teenage groupies we all felt.  It is not a pun to say we all felt like we dined with royalty that day.   An opportunity to have lunch and a beer with Coach Royal is an incredible thrill for any Longhorn fan and Dad couldn't have been prouder.

Coach Dabbs had more in store for us, escorting our crew out to the Horns final pre season practice before they broke for a long weekend.   Besides seeing the '09 team going through their paces, the highlight of practice was getting to visit with Coach Mack Brown.  Along with Coach Brown, Chuck also got to visit with Horn Strength and Conditioning coach Jeff Madden as well as Coach Ken Rucker.    Not to hard to see why Coach Mack's staff is made up of such quality individuals, they take their lead from the head man.  Not surprisingly,  Coach Brown was recommended to TEXAS by none other than Coach Royal

While at practice, Chuck was able to spend a few minutes with Frank Denius.  A very interesting man and long time supporter of the Longhorns (duh, they named the practice facility after him).  What is most impressive though is that he landed at Normandy beach on 6 June 1944 and went all the way to Berlin.  Along the way he became one of the Top 10 most decorated WWII servicemen.  He regretted to inform me he had missed his first Longhorn game since 1946, ironically the Missouri game which was Travis' first.  He was in Dallas accepting the Medal of Honor Society's highest honor.  

To be able to visit with 4 such legendary Longhorns was truly a once in a lifetime experience and it will be a day Dad will share with us for some time to come.

Back to School

The new school year is off to a running start. 

Mason started his junior year at Wakeland.  Finally, an upperclassman.  We can hardly believe in less than a year we'll have a senior in the house.  Mason is excited about his class this year.  He's made both Honors Art and Honors ASL (American Sign Language).  He's also taking Physics this year, something mom never had to take in high school.  Makes my head spin even thinking about it.

Travis started Kindergarden this year and so far is loving it.  His teacher Ms Jennings is in her third year of teaching and really great with the kids.  It's been nice having Travis finally fall asleep at 8:30 every night rather then 10:30 or 11:00.  I haven't been able to get him to do that since he was 1.  The kid just doesn't like to sleep.  Ok, maybe he just doesn't want to miss anything.

It will be a big year for him, gymnastics after school twice a week, karate twice a week and another year with his Fighting Frogs soccer team that he really enjoys.