Five Days

           
Last Friday, Callan and I embarked on a journey to Texas.

It was a short stay of only five days, but in that time we did quite a lot.

We celebrated the life and mourned the death of my Uncle "Buh,"

my grandmother's only brother.

It was a nice service, and I was glad to be there to support the cousins and other family members who were there for me when my grandmother passed away several years ago.

We ate a lot of food. A LOT of food.
Oh, Texas BBQ, real barbecue, how I miss thee....

We posed for pictures...

My cousins and I took lots of pictures.
I don't get to see these girls nearly often enough.

We laughed...

We cried...

We carried on...

We rejoiced in the news that someone is pregnant (not me!!)

We stayed with a cousin I hadn't seen in several years, and met his new wife. I really enjoyed getting to spend a good chunk of time visiting and catching up.

I got to see another aunt and uncle, and the house they are working on renovating.

I saw my cousin Kristian and the house he recently built for himself.
My favorite part was the room with an entire wall painted in
diagonal yellow and black construction stripes. Nice.
And just like Kristian.

Callan got to meet his Opa.
They hit it off and had a great time just hangin' out.

This is in the car waiting for Omie to come back from the bathroom.

Opa was not pulling a Britney Spears,

justsoyouknow.

We drove over to Galveston one afternoon for lunch, and so I could try and find the houses that Kyler and the teens worked on during their mission trip this past summer to help victims of Hurricane Ike.

I found one house and took a picture:

But it wasn't the house they worked on. Darn. 

Someone has worked on it though,

probably another Good News Galveston group.

Doesn't it look great?

On our way out of Galveston,
we drove by the shipping yard and docks.

We saw this:

Seriously. Is that not huge?! I was in awe. Maybe you've been on a cruise; I have not. I literally could not believe how big this ship was. It was evidently just about to leave port. Pretty cool.

Maybe someday...

I hung out with my darling nephews.

Cool cats, both of them.

I can't wait to get all five of the boys together.

 

 

They belong to him. The one with the camera.  

And his wife of course,

who is surprisingly adept at ducking out of pictures

at just the right moment. 

 

Callan met his great-grandparents on both sides of my family.

It was so fun sharing my beautiful babe with them.

It was a good trip.

A happy and sad sort of visit.

Happy for the opportunities, sad for the occasion...

but a very good visit.