Yes, my brother is a rock star

My cousin, Anna, was in Austin last week for work, and we had the pleasure of her company at our house for a few days. What an agreeable guest she was! No matter what prior commitments we already had on our calendars, she happily joined us. From signing up a few weeks beforehand on their schedules, on the last night before Anna went home to California, I had arranged to feed the Mormon missionaries for dinner, Sister Harris and Sister Winters, and Anna was totally hospitable and gracious about it. They weren't here for long, but Sister Winters was very excited when she heard that Anna's brother, Billie Joe Armstrong, is the lead singer in Green Day, so I asked her if she wanted to have me take their picture together, and she did. While she was here, we also had Christopher's end of the year football game and their team celebration at a local pizzeria. Again, Anna happily went right along with us (see her below in the background shot with Lindsey). These three boys, Malik, barely showing on the left, then Adam and Rusty, were some fun teammates of Christopher's. Adam's and Rusty's moms were two of my favorites this season. Terri, Adam's mom, and Lisa, Rusty's mom, were constantly yelling out "Whose baby is that?" any time their son would do something praiseworthy on the football field. Anna caught on really fast.

She realized that there was a boy on the team with the same last name as her, Kyle Armstrong. So any time Kyle did well, Anna would stand up jokingly and shout out "Whose baby is that?" We all got a good laugh out of that. Kyle didn't have a clue, as he was on the field while all this took place. We tried to explain his temporary adoption by Anna at the party, but he thought it was all just strange. Here is Kyle sitting with Christopher at the party.

Kyle went ahead and posed with Anna afterward, probably just so we'd stop bugging him. Actually, he seemed to kind of like the attention.

Here's a great shot of Anna when I picked her up from the airport in Austin.

We went out that night to downtown Austin for a concert, and since Kelly was working late, Lindsey got to be the lucky extra guest.

We saw Monsters of Folk in the outdoor concert area of Stubb's Barbecue. It was a nice show and the band members each had a lot of talent. It pays to have a world famous rock star for a brother, because Anna just made a couple of calls prior to the show, and instead of about $100 of tickets, we got in for free. As a return favor, Anna set it up so that a couple of others could see Green Day perform in New York at an upcoming show.

Lindsey had so much fun being out on the town with her mom and cousin at a concert.

Afterwards, we took a ride in a pedicab around the gorgeous capitol of Texas and the Austin nightlife.

The three of us squeezed into the cart and really gave the guy a good workout. It was a lot of fun.

The next day, Saturday morning, we each woke up fairly early to get ready to attend my friend, Caroline's memorial service. Anna was happy to hear that I didn't expect her to attend that. I was impressed that she was polite enough to get all ready and be willing to go if the day's plans had put us in more of a rush. Here's sleepy Christopher above.

And sleeping beauty, Anna, above.

And the last person to awaken, was Kelly. I did get a picture of Lindsey, but it looked like she had no neck, so she would have killed me if I posted it.

Lovely Anna!

We took a scenic route near Kelly's office on the way to our late lunch, or early dinner, before Christopher's exciting football bowl game. Kelly stopped along the road to get some pictures of Lake Austin.

I told Anna she might as well get out too, since he'd be snapping a few photos.

So she did a few poses for me, and I taught her the "Hook 'em Horns" gesture to match her burnt orange shirt she was wearing for the University of Texas game that day, as well as the Warriors game. Lindsey's high school colors also feature burnt orange, so we were all in sync.

A picturesque overlook. Kelly's office building is up ahead, right below where the water ends, close to the 360 bridge.

Work with me, work with me.

Dining on some tortilla soup and mushrooms.

And the traditional feast at The County Line. It's all good.

Standing on the dock in search of turtles to feed.

Throwing caution to the wind. Or maybe that was turtle food.

Anna didn't score too high on the love meter.

But we sure did make the three little pigs sign look better. Next, we headed to the big game at the Palace. Christopher was elated to be playing there.

Doing some warm-ups prior to the game.

Coach Lee is going over some defensive moves with Christopher, 91, on the field.

In a close game, the Warriors won! They beat the Bastrop Bears by two points, something like 27 to 25. Christopher and the entire team and all the parents (and my visiting cousin) were thrilled, after a rough season, to end in a big victory.

One small bucket of ice and water to celebrate the end of the season. He actually asked Anna to do it.

To add to the list of nice things Anna did to go along with our family's normal schedule, she attended church on Sunday morning with us. It was her first time ever to attend a service at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and it happened to be stake conference that day, which is only twice a year. She was very open-minded and non-judgmental about being there with us, so that meant a lot to me.

None of my pictures are in order here. Sorry. This was on Saturday night after the big win. We heated up our swimming pool for the weekend while Anna was in town, and enjoyed warming up in the hot tub too. It was toasty!

Back to Sunday....Lindsey missed out on Christopher's game because she was in Houston watching her high school in a state championship play-off game. Their team lost. This photo of Lindsey was taken the next day when we took a little stroll up to Mount Bonnell.

Anna enjoyed the 100-step climb to the top with us.

We always lose track when we count the steps to the top.

Here's the gorgeous view. I told her that she ought to suggest that Billie Joe buy one of these awesome homes along here for a vacation spot.

Here's one of the family poses where none of us felt photogenic.

Let's just enjoy the views.

But first, one last photo op with my sweet, loving, kind cousin, Anna. We hope to see her next summer with her two sons! Thanks for visiting us!