Grandmama's viewing was Sunday evening, and she looked beautiful. She was buried in the dress she wore to our wedding. She searched high and low for that dress and was so proud when she stumbled upon it. She had to show it to me and get my approval before the wedding. I told her over and over that she could wear whatever she wanted and not to worry about me. I was not going to be that bride, but she was such a sweet woman... She knew it was "my day", and she wanted me to love everything about it, including her dress.
Collin said she was "ah-seeping". You can imagine that almost brought on the waterworks for everyone.
Monday afternoon was her funeral. Afterward, we spent a little more time with Jarrod's family and then we packed up and got ready to leave town. We made a few stops on our way out and I found myself incredibly crabby along the way. I finally slowed down long enough to realize I was upset that we had to leave so soon. Jarrod and I both love Abilene. We went to college there. We met life-long friends there. We fell in love there. And for Jarrod, most of his memories of Grandmama are there. So we drove by her house on the way out of town, and we stopped for gas at the gas station down the street where she used to buy scratch-off lotto tickets. Jarrod bought one for his self and one for his sister, Kristen. (Ours was not a winner, and we've been tempted to scratch Kristen's!) Jarrod even complained as we were getting onto I-20 to head back toward Dallas, "I don't even want to speed!" I know, it's pretty sad, huh?!
We spent that night at Jarrod's mom and dad's house and had breakfast with them the next morning before getting back on the road to come back to Arkansas. It's a 6 hour drive. It was not fun. Collin is facing forward now, and he spent most of the trip saying, "Mommy...mommy...........mommy....mommy!" Here's an idea for you of what it was like:
I will gladly take any ideas from people who have suggestions for road-trip activities! I was constantly handing Collin another snack or toy to play with, and after several hours he got tired of what was available and just whined. He hasn't figured out how to just sit in his seat and be. He also struggles with how to comfort his self and asked several times for his "bite", aka the paci. I kept reminding him we didn't have one because it broke, and he would just get upset up all over again.
We arrived back in town just in time to unload Collin for the babysitter, who literally pulled up to the house right after us, so we could head over to our small group that night. I have never done anything like that before. I usually cannot operate without a good buffer of time to let ourselves unload the car and detox, but I think we just really wanted to milk our time in Texas!
Here are some pictures from our visit - enjoy!
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| Mommy/Aunt Nicki taking a picture with the babies in PawPaw's barn |
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| Collin Henry looking at some donkeys |
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| Mimi and Collin |
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| Tinsley and Collin trying to skip rocks. I love this picture. I'm sure if we dug enough, we could find similar ones with my brothers and myself near this same spot. |
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| Austin showing them which rocks to pick up. |
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| Two silly gooses laughing at Jarrod. |
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| And probably my favorite picture from the trip. Don't they look like they're telling secrets?! |
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| Collin throwing pennies into the hotel fountain with his Papa in Abilene. Collin had so much fun doing this! **Full Disclosure: Cave cannot tell Collin NO, so when he ran out of his own pennies to throw, Cave dug some more out of the fountain. This repeated until we had to leave. I couldn't decide, does that bring bad luck or does it cancel out some poor person's wish?!? |
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