Vacation - Part 1

We just arrived home from nearly three weeks of vacation. Is it possible to feel both exhausted and refreshed at the same time? The traveling part was exhausting, but the time off of work and away from the hum-drum of the daily routine was exhilarating.

Here's Jane waiting in the airport:

She was a trooper! She is definitely a well traveled 8 Month old!

The first leg of our journey was spent in Pampa, a small nook of a town in North Texas where my Mom’s side of the family lives. We were there for about 5 days, enjoying spending time with my grandparents, mom, sisters, cousins, aunt, nephew and my new baby niece. Isn't she just precious??

They live in an underground house my grandpa built before I was born which is affectionately called, “The Bunker.” It was fun to take pictures of Jane in the same corner cabinet that I used to play in as a toddler. How time changes things!

We loved the lazy days full of conversation, homemade ice cream, exploring old memory spots, going on long walks, shooting guns, swinging, and staying up late watching movies. It was great to play with my three year old nephew, Elijah who has a tender way of bringing back the “kid” in everyone. An unexpected dose of excitement was added to our trip in the form of an accident involving this irresistibly sweet boy and his Grandma. They were riding on a heavy duty tricycle together down the slopey driveway that leads to my grandparents home, when my mom realized too late that they were going too fast. She jumped off, hoping to save Elijah from an even worse fate, but she couldn’t find her feet and crashed face-first onto the concrete pavement. Elijah raced on and ran into the house, fell off the trike and bonked his head. Other than a bruise on his head, he was just fine. My poor mom, on the other hand, took the brunt of the accident. Her glasses shattered and gave her an ugly gash on her forehead. Her nose looked so bad that we thought it was broken, and her elbows and knees were bruised and bloody. Thankfully, my Grandpa is a doctor (and used to be the head manager of an ER) and had the necessary supplies to give her stitches at home. Mother lay on the kitchen table and “Daddypearl” stitched her up right there! (Shocking… I know, but this is certainly not the first time he’s stitched up family members on the kitchen table… the stories are numerous!)

The hardest part for my mom was the inability to see without her glasses. She wanted to play with her grand kids and be able to see what was going on, and instead ended up in a fuzzy blurr for the rest of her time in Pampa.

When Elijah asked what was wrong with his grandma, I told him, “We think she might have broken her nose.” His response: “Does she have to get another one?”

Here’s the classic four generation picture, of Jane, me, my mom and my mom’s mom…

And here's a picture of me and my two beautiful sisters...

After our visit in Pampa, Aaron and Jane and I made the long ten hour road trip down to San Antonio with Mother and my younger sister Lori. You just don’t realize how long ten hours in the car really is, until you actually do it. The road trip would have been okay, except that the air conditioner broke when we were just about half way there. Let me remind you that we were driving in Texas. It was only around 100 degrees… so we felt a little melty, but we survived to tell the story.

Our week long stay in San Antonio was a delightful blurr of visiting family and catching up with old friends. We ate at Aaron’s family owned Thai restaurant, enjoyed real Texas steak with his Grandad and drug Jane all over town to visit with loved ones. She did pretty well all things considered, but towards the end of each day she got a progressively more fussy and clingy. While we were in our hometown, we left Jane with my mom overnight so that Aaron and I could have some "alone-time." It was the first time we'd ever left her overnight. She and her Grandma did great and we had a wonderful time! (Though I must confess that we did miss her and were very happy to return to her!) We decided that we definitely need to make a habit of getting away regularly.

As if a week and a half wasn't a long enough vacation, after we said our goodbyes in San Antonio we got on a plane and flew to California where we joined Aaron's parents and his dad's side of the family to set sail on a five day Montgomery family reunion cruise!

TO BE CONTINUED....