Well, we did make it out to Texas this summer. In addition to just wanting to see as much family as we could, the trip had a special sense of urgency because our son-in-law Nathan was due to be deployed to Germany in late August for up to three years. The possibility of not seeing our three grandchildren for that long made everything we did a little more urgent.
We did get to spend our grandson's fifth birthday with him, which was a blast. Just a nice, small party, but it was fun to watch Michael open his presents, play with his friends and be the center of attention. I thought about how cool birthdays used to be when we were young. He had a grand time, and we got some great pictures.
It was great spending time with them just playing or reading or doing absolutely nothing. I got to re-meet the middle child, Bailey, who was just a small baby when we last saw her. She is quite precocious, and loves getting her picture taken and just hamming it up in general. Aislynne is just a handful of weeks old, so she won't remember us, but it was nice to get to know her too. Diane is preparing some video and picture montages to send to them so they will at least sort of know who their maternal grandparents are.
We took a break on Wednesday, rented a Jeep Liberty and drove all over the state trying to see as much family as we could. We went to Lake Livingston in East Texas to see Diane's dad and his wife, who were doing all right. Carla's had emphesyma and some other problems, but Carl seemed to be the same feisty old redneck he has always been. He also got to meet his great-grandson, who rode along with us.
We drove down to my hometown of League City to see the house I grew up in. It was sold when Mom passed away, and it doesn't look the same. The people there are really not taking care of it very well. I guess you can't go home again. I also stopped at the cemetery and paid my respects. The town really looks different...it has grown so much. We drove by NASA and aroun dthe lake as well. We got to see Diane's brother Curtis and her niece Michelle, then drove up into Houston. Talk about looking different! We hadn't been downtown since they put the monorail in, and we also saw Minute Maid Park and the Toyota Center for the first time up close. Then we went to my brother's house. I was very, very upset that time constraints prevented me from seeing my sister Maggie. We didn't have the time to double back to Friendswood, and she couldn't make it up to my brother's house since it was a weekday. It took me a while to get over that. I swore to myself that the next time I came out here that I would spend all the time with my family since they got short-changed again this go-round. I did have a nice visit with my brother and his wife, and we spent the night there. The next day we drove back to our daughter's house.
We really are very proud of Jennifer. Trying to make ends meet, raise three kids as a stay-at-home mom and keep it together while Nathan was in Iraq...she's doing it all, and doing an awesome job. The kids are so wonderful, and we found it very hard to say those final goodbyes.
I like living in South Carolina, and I'm doing well here with my job and the band, but a large part of me wil always yearn for Texas. There's no place like it in the world. And yes, we did have Mexican food and barbeque while we were there!