Friday, December 4, 2009

Visiting Family and Friends In Texas........

We arrived in the great big state of Texas last Friday. (So, I am about a week behind in blogging)


We are now in Florida (the sunshine state) It's not so sunny here today....

We are praying the rain stops so we can go visit our favorite mouse!
and of course the pinsesses(princesses)or we will never hear the end of it from the princess herself, Miss Farrah Resse.

We haven't had to pay to stay anywhere.....We have had so many nice friends and family invite us to park in front or stay with them.

Here we are at our friend Kristina and her husband Brian's house. (They have a brick house) I love all the brick houses in all these states. We don't have that in California. Heather, who is Kristina's sister is from California but lives in Virginia was down with her family staying at her sisters along with her mom, Leslie and Grandma. Anyway, we all met up at Kristina's house. We rolled in at about 1:30am and they had a spot all picked out for us. A neighbor even greeted us saying we've been waiting for ya'll!

We woke up and they had breakfast ready for us.
We had a great time. Leslie and her daughters are the funniest people and had me laughing the whole time. The kids enjoyed playing with their kids.
This is Landen's new love...Summer Sky. Isn't she cute? Landen has been saying ....Summer Sky, Summer Sky over and over since we left. He can't wait to play with her again. Good thing we will see them again in Virgina in a couple weeks.


The girls and I enjoyed drinking sweet tea together....
Heather gave me a Pampered Chef stone that I can use to cook in my micro. Thanks, Heather I've already used it almost everyday since. Kristina made me a really cute strap for my camera. I'm trying to talk her into selling them......(hint, hint)

While in Texas we also got to meet one of my favorite bloggy buddies Tara from Too Many Kids In The Bathtub.
(visit her site and she explains our meeting exactly how I felt)
Amazing! We are like long lost sisters.
Now, we are life long friends!
She greeted me with a glass of sweet tea too!

She treated our family to pizza. She has 5 kids too! (pretty much the same ages as ours)

the kids played....

It was kind of scary how much we had in common. We talked and both felt like we have known each other forever.
Justin even took a little nap on her couch. We laughed later! I said, "you took a nap on her couch and never met her before." That's how sweet and welcoming Tara was! We plan to meet up with their family again very soon.

off to Great, Great, Grandma's house..........(we call her Gran)
I haven't see Gran in 8 years!

Gran lives in a very small town and a very old house.
The kids loved the inside and said it was like Little House On The Prairie.

Gran is 92 years young (don't you dare call her old!)
She is my Great Grandma and my kids Great, Great! (she can run as fast as her great, great grand kids too!)

I also got to see my Uncle Joe (my dad's brother) who I haven't seen in 15 years!
He is the nicest guy ever! We enjoyed hanging out with him. Justin and him got along very well.



Gran and I talked for hours......

It was so neat to hear her stories. She is so funny and witty for her age. She is also very stubborn (like me)

She says she doesn't go to the doctor or take any meds. She told me," when I die they can all just figure out why. "

She wasn't too fond of me homeschooling my kids but then I told her that I was stubborn like her and will do what I want. We both laughed!

She also told me I was a lot like her mom....
This is her mom:
She had 10 kids 5 boys, 5 girls. Interesting to hear all the stories of my Greats.
Gran kept teasing me saying I needed to have 5 more to catch up with her. haha!


The kids interviewed Gran while I video taped it.
Faith asked, "Gran, did you have running water when you were little?" Gran said, "Yes mam! We would run down and fill up the buckets and run back." LOL

My cousin Jodi came to Gran's to see us too! I haven't see her in 15 years! It was so nice to see her and her beautiful daughter. Her boys weren't feeling good so they stayed home with their Daddy:(


Uncle Joe and his nephews!

I'm so happy he finally got to see all my kids! Last time he saw me I was a freshman in high school and here I show up with a herd!


Austin with one of the animals Gran has hanging in her house....(hunted by family in Alaska)


Gran and Farrah playing dolls.

Landen kept asking for cookies and I would tell him no more! Then Gran would sneak him another one and say he needed some milk to go along with it.
Landen loves Gran even though he just met her:)


We had the best visit. I'm so happy I was able to see Gran, my Uncle and Cousin. I'm SO happy they got the chance to meet my husband and kids too!
Gran might out live all of us the way she's going, but I do hope to make it out to see her again soon.



Gran wanted us to stay the night in her house. So we did. She was so cute. Checking on us all night. Everything was very old. I love old things that have history....
I especially loved this scale in her bathroom.......


Even after eating the Worlds Biggest Chicken Fried Steak at Mary's and drinking all this sweet tea, I only weigh 85lbs!


(We did so much in Texas, I will have to do another post on it)
stay tuned........

15 comments:

Celee said...

Sounds like fun! How's the homeschooling on the road going? Is it distracting for the kids or easier to get them to pay attention?

Brianna said...

Oh I wish I was there to see all the family! I'm glad I know what I'm gonna look like when I'm 92 now :)

Jo Jo said...

So great! What an amazing experience you guys are having!

Laurel said...

Sounds like a lot of fun.

So ... your Great-Grandma is 92 and my dad is 91. Therefore, my 7 year old (and older siblings) has a 91 year old grandpa and your kids have a 92 year old great-great-grandma. Weird!

Love the scale. I'd step on that 5 times a day. :)

How cool to see relatives that you haven't seen in years. On our road trip, we visited relatives in TX that we hadn't seen in awhile, either.

Enjoy that Sweet Tea, y'all.

:) :) :)

Anonymous said...

I've got to get me one of grandma's scales! xxoo IceQueen

Ice Queen said...

We had so much fun visiting with all ya all! Love you guys!

Jennifer said...

Sounds like you are having so much fun! I love that you are getting a chance to catch up with family, as well as friends (new and old).

I LOVE 5 kids in a bathtubs table. I NEED one of those!

Side note: I cannot believe you are in Flordia already. I thought for sure you would be taking your sweet time checking out each state and therefore wouldn't make it to FL for another couple months. Can't wait to hear about your trip to WDW.

Damaris said...

What fun times! Thanks for sharing! =]

Heather said...

It is fun following your adventure =) My daughter and I were in TX visiting family last week too!! I can't wait to see what you do next =)

Jen@Scrapingirl said...

How awesome!!! You guys sound like you're loving it so far. :) I want that scale!! haha!!

Unknown said...

You guys looking like your having an great time. Thanks for the laughs...I really needed them today, (been a bit of a grouch!)Thanks for the update...Keep having fun and I'll continue to live vicariously through you!

Anonymous said...

Wow Bridget what a great post, these are the memories you, Justin and your kids will never forget...what a blessing to visit with your family and Gram. What a blessing this time in your life is....

Happy Trails and be safe

Have a wonderful weekend.

Marie

Loni's World said...

Gran sounds like a lot of fun!
All I can say is this is so great for you, think about all these memories you are creating and meeting up with family you would otherwise not have seen. This is great! Keep enjoying your trip :)

You are going to make me convince Saul to pack it up and travel lol!

:) Stay safe in the weather.

Too Many Kids In The Bathtub said...

I am so happy ya'll came to visit! SO MUCH FUN! Wish we could tag along with you all! How was your drive through Louisiana??? Did the Disney maps help???

Christy said...

I some how missed this post. Tht's so wonderful that you had the blessing of visiting your Great Gran and that your family was able to meet her and she meet them!! My Great Grandma died Nov. 2002, my oldest son, was born on her birthday. When she died she had 77 grandchildren, Jacob was the only grandchild (he was her Great Great) who was born on her birthday, which she always wanted (she called him her birthday baby), the last 3 years of her life we had the blessing of living only 30 minutes from her and saw her at least every other weekend with her and if my husband was out in the field for a week or longer I'd go up and stay with her at least a week or two while he was gone. I loved sitting on her back porch hearing stories of how she came to Kansas from Ok in a covered wagon and all the various stories she shared with me, including stories about my mom's mother (who died when my mom was 2). Such blessings we have and I hope my own children will have with their great grandparents and grandparents!!