On Friday evening prior to graduation Wes and Charlotte Thomas along with their children Michael, Ley and Crystal met with Jack Thomas, Dolly Iselt, Dale Baker, Brittany Hesskew and Candise Treiber at Rockin R Steakhouse.

On Friday, May 30, 2008 Jack Thomas and Dolly Iselt both from Conroe Texas, Dale Baker from Rockport, Texas and Leonard Denton from Johnson City came to Blanco for their granddaughter, Crystal Thomas’, graduation. Also at the graduation was Crystal’s Great-Aunt Delores Mobin from Johnson City.

On Saturday Wes and Charlotte Thomas along with their daughter Crystal and son Ley had breakfast with Jack Thomas, Dolly Iselt, Dale Baker, Brittany Hesskew and Candise Treiber at Hacienda El Charro in Blanco.

Doris and Robert Rahm have returned to their home in Hye after a month’s vacation. They left April 26 for Galveston, where they boarded Royal Caribbean’s Voyager of the Seas for a 13 day cruise to Barcelona, Spain with stops along the way in Miami, the Azores Islands, and Cartegena, Spain. In Barcelona, they took a tour of the city, which ended at Barcelona Airport. There, they picked up their rental car and drove through the snow capped Pyrenees Mountains to Lourdes, France. Frome there, they drove to Sarlat le Canada, where they stayed for several days visiting Robert’s cousin Ivan Riottot, his wife Rose Marie, their son Charles Riottot and his wife Sandrie and son Maxime, their son Laurent Riottot and his wife Maxine and daughter Lucie, and cousin Sylviane Riottot from Paris. They then returned to Barcelona to return the rental car and flew to Brussels, Belgium on May 17.

At the airport, they were met by their friend Joe Doenges, a resident of Brussels, who assisted them in renting another car and getting on the right highway so they could visit their good friend, Jean Claude Gauthier, in Mouroux, France near Paris. They visited three days and enjoyed a trip into Paris to see the Babylonia (the area between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers known as Mesopotamia - the cradle of civilization in what is present day Iraq) exhibit in Louve. They visited two different castles near Mouroux and spent time in Crece la Chapelle visiting with cousin Danielle Bourgeois and Jean Claude’s two sons Sabastien (who visited the Rahms in the U.S. two different times) and Faubian.

On May 20 they drove to Heiligenmoschel, Germany to visit cousin Adolf Leppla and his wife Hilde, son Achim Leppla and his wife Annette, their daughter Sarah and son Phillip, their son Axel and wife Martine and daughter Angelina, cousin Paula Rahm and cousin Hannelore Leppla. They visited Kaiserlautern, where Robert’s father was born and raised. In Durkheim, they saw the largest wine barrel in the world , in which a restaurant is located where they enjoyed lunch. They spent a day visiting in Heidelberg, the university city.

On May 23, they drove back to Brussels to visit with Joe and Martha Doenges, who had been residents of Boerne for many years and were currently with St. Johns International School in Waterloo. There they visited downtown Brussels. A day was spent visiting the battlefield where Napoleon was defeated in 1815 and a climb after 350 steps to the top of the memorial there. A day was also spent visiting Brugge, a medieval Belgian town.

On Monday, May 26 Doris and Robert flew home from Brussels, with stops in Philadelphia and Chicago, before landing in San Antonio shortly before midnight.