Amarillo by morning

Early this summer we planned on taking a trip to Colorado. Justin's grandmother who had been ill for over 6 months suddenly took a turn for the worse. We decided to cancel our trip because we had a feeling she wouldn't make it long. Our instinct was right and our dear sweet Rosie passed away.

As part of our trip to Colorado, we wanted to stop in Amarillo and visit my grandparents. It had been since last summer that we had seen them so it was definitely time. So since our trip to Colorado was cancelled we took another weekend just to go and visit them. I'm so glad we did.

We made it in really late Friday night, but we filled our weekend with some quality family time. My grandmother's yard is amazing. She works so hard on it everyday and it shows. Her grass it like carpet.

And my kids love it too. They play like crazy barefoot and all because when else can you feel like you're walking on carpet outside in Texas?

It warmed my heart to see my kids playing her in backyard and loving on my grandparents.

 

And can you believe that I grew up in Amarillo and I've NEVER been the the Big Texan?

That's blasphemy in those parts. While we waited for what seemed like eternity for our food, they had some really great music and the kids loved it and we even got to see someone attempt to eat the 72 oz steak in under an hour. He didn't make it by the way. 

 

Losing Rosie really helped remind us how precious our grandparents are to us and I feel so lucky that I still have some of mine.

My grandmother is so beautiful, trendy, lively and so generous. She's always volunteering at her church and to help others. I hope I can be her when I grow up.

We love you Great Grams and Grandpa! 

Amarillo by mornin'

How do you start out the first weekend of summer right after you get out of school? Road trippin'! We packed our bags for a weekend trip to Amarillo the first weekend of June to celebrate my oldest nephew's graduation from high school. I'm in total denial that he is actually considered an adult now, seeing how I was a freshman in high school when he was born.

 

I realized after taking this picture that Warren is missing as well as my brother...oops. Guess that's what happens when there's such a large group there...someone is bound to be left out.

We all headed to the park and let the kids run wild. 

Ducks were stuffed liked turkeys that day for sure. I guess they like to grow ducks with mo-hawks in Amarillo. They like to rock it out. 

 

And it's not a picnic without some watermelon.

 

 

And we had the sweetest watermelon there ever was.

 

She's so sweet you can't help but want to eat her up.

The kids were having a blast playing with their cousins and we kept them busy with blowing bubbles.

And meet all the babies of the family...I'm the youngest of three, Avery is my sister's youngest, Aspen in my brother's youngest and of course, Landry Kate, is our sweet baby girl.

My sister and brother have another half sister on their dad's side, Carmella, and we've known each other since birth. Her boys are very similar to age with my boys and they play so well with my kids.

Carmella's youngest, Zalen, looked mighty interested in wanting to be a big brother. He was too sweet with Landry.

I think she's catching on that she's cute or at least she's using it to her advantage. Smart girl, I tell ya.

My grandmother, who we call Grams, put up with all of us at her house. My kids make me a nervous wreck in her house but believe it or not, I don't think anything was broken. Shocking, I know.

And while I'd like to say that it was full of happy memories, it was my first time back to Amarillo, where we grew up, after losing Tonya. It was very weird for all of us to be together without her because I know her, and she wouldn't have missed it for the world to be there with the family. I was so thrilled to have her two youngest there with us. We had the best road trip ever with them and even ran into a grass fire on the way home. That's pretty exciting stuff because that road trip to Amarillo is usually VERY boring with not much to look at.

Amarillo by morning...

or by midnight. We took off after an ALL day field day with 21 4th graders and hit the road with the boys to head to my grandmother's 80th birthday party. I was so nervous about how the boys would travel and already worn out when we starting driving. Thankfully, Justin drove the entire way. I think he could see my exhaustion. The boys were WONDERFUL in the car. Best purchase ever? Hands downs it's got to be our portable DVD player...worth EVERY penny of silence. Campbell on the other hand slept 5.5 hours in the car and woke up as we pulled up to the hotel-love that baby. The down side was we forgot our playpen and Campbell has never slept in the bed with us. So after a 5.5 hour "nap" in the car, we had the next two hours of trying to get him back to sleep. As soon as we did and put him next to one of us in bed, he would pop up like it was a slumber party and just giggle. It was really cute but not so cute at 1:00 a.m. I don't think we'll ever forget a playpen ever again on a trip. The next night we tried to put him to sleep but again he thought it was slumber party time so Justin ended up sleeping on the floor and Campbell had the big bed to himself while I slept and got kicked by Nolan all night.

The party was a hit. My grandmother's name is Byrdie Mae Hogendorn so it was only natural that she have birdhouses at her party and she has them throughout her fabulous garden of Eden in her backyard. Nolan was a little disappointed by this and told her that he wanted her to have a "hippomus" (hippopotamus) party. He's all about birthday themes right now and let's us know daily what he was his birthday theme to be in September. And yes, of course, it changes daily as well.

I'm so grateful and blessed that my grandmother is so healthy and active. You would never guess that she's 80. She's on FACEBOOK! (No, I'm not kidding), just got back from a cruise, can out-garden you any day of the week, and is pretty much up at her church anytime the doors are open volunteering. What an amazing and beautiful woman.