Baby Brynnlee - First Family Visitors!! BOOYAH!

Others might don the title of 'Greatest Teacher in the World', however, the Texas Bings' don the self proclaimed title of 'Baby Brynnlee's First Family Visitors!' (exclamation intentional)

On Saturday November 7, 2009 we made the drive up to Altus, OK to see, hold, and enjoy the newest baby in the family -- Brynnlee Bingham! She was a joy and beautiful is an understatement. My only regret is that she will be raised cheering for a loser......no not her Dad.....her Dad's pathetic NFL team 'the saints' (left in lower case intentionally). Maybe with any luck Payton and I can get her to see the light and cheer for a proven winner....no not her Uncle Ryan, although that is true....but her Uncles NFL team, STEELER NATION! (all CAPS intentional out of respect)

Anyhow, Abby loved Brynnlee and Shalisa was kind enough to allow her to hold her.



Here are a few more pictures of cute Brynnlee.....

Brynnlee has the coolest hair out there of any newborn!



While most of the Texas Bings' dotted, oohh'ed, and awe'ed at Brynnlee, good old Payton snuggled with Winston for most of the weekend.....boys rule (& are interesting).



We love you Brynnlee and are so glad you are part of our family!

Texas Bings

Payton 10th Birthday Party - Ice Anyone?

Payton had a small party with his closest friends on Saturday 11/7/09. We had the party early as November weekends were getting very busy.

He chose to go ice skating at a local rink. Here are some pictures.....interestingly enough I didn't get any of Payton on the ice....the girls were just too cute!

I did get the party goers following skating holding their ice skates. All had a great time!

April and I cannot believe we have a 10 year old! I guess it is time to reconcile ourselves to the fact that we are getting older.....the journey still seems to get sweeter the older we get.....I know, I know, wait till they become teeanagers! :-)

American Girls Soccer - Fall 2009

Abby finished up another successful year of soccer where she donned her favorite brand, 'American Girl' on her uniform. That is right, her team name was The American Girls after the popular American Girl Doll. If you know Abby she could not have planned it better had she tried!

Abby really did a great job this year! She hustled, never gave up by asking the coach to take her out of the game, finished strong what she started, and scored seven (7) goals!

Here are a few pictures, enjoy! Gram White was able to make the final game of the season -- Abby loved having her there when she received her trophy.

Great season Abby -- you are our real life American Girl Doll & we love you!!!!

Halloween 2009

We had a great time yesterday trick or treating throughout the neighborhood. Here are a few pictures of the event.

We loved having Gram with us!

Here are pictures of each of the kids individually.

Home in the USA

I made it home last night around 6:30pm and boy is it good to be back home. Here is a picture of me in Germany once we landed.

Here is a picture of the kids with their souvenirs that I brought them. It was sure good to see everyone!

Dinner @ Rohan's and The Beach

Sunday night Rohan invited me over to his home for dinner. It was a two hour drive to get there and he only lives about 12-15 miles away from the hotel. Traffic is indescribably busy and bumper to bumper is an understatement.

It was great being with his family and meeting his wife Merlyn, and his daughter Christina. We brought little Christina a baby doll and she loved it.

Christina is such a cutie, here are some other photos of the dinner. It was an honor to be invited to Rohan's home and eat dinner with this family. India is only 2% Christian, and Rohan and his family are Catholic. Rohan's wife offered the prayer over the food and expressed her thanks for me being in their home and prayed for April and the kids. It was touching and very kind. Here are some additional pictures from dinner.

They set the table with a fork, knife, spoon just for me. Indians eat with their hands (right hand only) and never use utensils. They asked me if they had set the table correctly and they had. It was incredibly thoughtful of them to do this for me.

Here is a picture with me and the entire Menezes family.

Today I went out to Juhu Beach just outside of the hotel property. The water is polluted so we did not get in.

Here is a picture of the hotel from the beach.

Only two days left before I get on a plane.....but only three days until I see my family.

Love you guys!

Dad

Taj Mahal

Yesterday morning we left our hotel rooms in New Delhi early and hired a driver to take us down to the Taj Mahal. You may have heard of the 7 Wonders of the World, of which the Taj is one of those.

The Taj Mahal sits in the city called Agra about 4 hours drive to the south of New Delhi. The drive down was mostly country mixed in with a town or two along the way. I still cannot get over the driving here in India! There basically are no rules and everyone honks at everyone. On the way down at one of the check points we saw a snake charmer with a live cobra snake. It was something out a Walt Disney movie for sure.

We arrived at the Taj Mahal around 11am. A young Muslim boy names Zeshon (pronounced Zee - Shawn) offered to be our tour guide for 20 rupies (.60 U.S. cents). The Taj Mahal is amazing and these pictures do not do it justice.

Here is a picture split three ways of the Taj, our tour guide (middle), and my work associate with the tour guide.

King Shahjahan hired 20,000 workers to build the Taj Mahal which took 22 years to complete. It is made of marble from Pakistan brought on the backs of elephants. The laborers etched the marble by hand then layed in precious stones. Even by today's standards it is amazing craftsmanship.

There are four pillars one each of the corners of the Taj. King Shahjahan ordered that these pillars be built slightly outward so that if a earthquake came they would fall outward and not on his wife's body inside the Taj.

When the Taj was completed King Shahjahan ordered the arms of the laborers be cut off so they could never produce a building so magnificent again. Muslims do not believe this occured and will deny its truthfulness. Zeeshawn, our tour guide, denied it and kind of began to be upset when we asked him about it.

Taj Mahal means Palace Crown or Crown Palace. It was started in1631 and completed 22 years later. Kings Shahjahan's body as well as his wife's are in the basement of the building. You cannot go to the basement, however, he had built a replica of their caskets on the main floor. They asked that we not take pictures inside, so I cannot show that to you. It is considered a holy place by Muslims and we had take off our shoes prior to going in. Here are a few more pictures.

When we bought our tickets to go inside, there were two prices. One for citizens of India (Indians) and one for foreigners. Indians cost 20 rupees (.60 U.S. cents) while foreigners cost 750 rupees ($15.00 U.S. dollars). I thought it was funny how they have such a variance in costs depending upon one's nationality. I definitely don't think you cold do this in the U.S.

Only 4 days left and I will be home with my family. Love you all!

Ryan

Mumbai to New Delhi

Here are few more photos of traffic in Mumbai (Bombay). It is a crazy city that seems to go on for ever and ever and driving really has no rules. Cars do not stay in their lanes, if there are lanes at all, and obeying light signals stops after 8pm at night. It is definitely a place where offensive driving is key or you will not make it.

I also took some photos of a typical apartment building. This would be considered a place where someone who was upper middle class lives. These building go on and on in Mumbai.

Yesterday afternoon we flew from Mumbai to New Delhi to visit our site in that part of the country. The flight took about 1.5 hours here are a couple of pictures. The first is at the airport in Mumbai.

In New Delhi I have seen a lot more animals in the street although I prefer the open spaces that exist up here as compared to Mumbai. Here is a picture of pigs in eating trash in the middle of the city. Also, here is a picture of a mode of transport on a bicycle.

We are staying at the Trident Hotel in Gurgaon here are a few pictures from the outside, it is absolutely beautiful.



As you can see the hotels that I am staying at are not like their surroundings. Well, we are off to the office today to observe some processes then we are headed down to Agra, India. I'll keep everyone updated.

I miss and love you,

Dad