The girls and I returned from our 6-day trip to Texas yesterday. We had a great trip. The actual travel was a bit challenging at times, to say the least ;) Lots of luggage and car seats to lug by myself, 2 kids to keep track of in a busy airport, flight delays and some turbulence, but we made it there and back safely and it was worth the effort.
Before I get too far into this post I just want to express a special thank you to Richard's cousin Pat who gifted us her air miles so we could get our plane tickets at no charge. This was a huge blessing and our trip would likely not have happened if it had not been for her generous offer of the miles which initiated our travel plans.
The girls and I hadn't seen Corey's parents since last August when they made the trip up here the morning after learning of Corey's passing. I wasn't sure how hard it would be for me emotionally to be in Texas without Corey. Every trip I've taken there up until this one has been with him. Corey was born in Texas and spent about half of his childhood living in Wylie, Texas up until the seventh grade. It was at that time that his parents moved the family to Shelburne, Vermont where Corey lived until he came here to NH in 1997. The first time I visited Texas was during my junior year in college. Corey and I were not engaged yet but were dating. We spent Christmas 1996 in Garland (a suburb of Dallas) with Corey's family and then flew down to Austin to see some family of my own who I had never visited including an aunt, uncle and numerous cousins. My uncle owns a ranch in the country (real Texas country - their town doesn't have a zip code). It was a real Texas experience complete with horseback riding and a cowboy hat. If I'm counting correctly we made 3 more trips over the years, making the last 2 trips down there to attend funerals for Corey's grandfather and then grandmother. This would have been our fifth trip together but sadly I was making it without Corey.
I have lots to share. I think it will work best if I share the highlights in several separate posts. Some parts might be a little sad but for most of them you won't need Kleenex nearby ;) The girls and I really had some good Texas fun!
Here's an overview of our trip's highlights:
- Getting to sit outside in the sun without a winter coat on! The weather was wonderful. I'm not sure it was stellar weather for Texas but it was SO wonderful just to be out of the snow and cold. The temperatures hovered around the high 60s with a couple of days seeing low 70s. The girls loved getting to play outside!
- A number of relatives came over to have lunch with us on our first day in town. It was wonderful to catch up with them all! Mema (Grandma) Gladys stayed with us at Richard and Cindy's for a couple of nights. She is an amazing and dear 92 year old woman! She lost her husband after 60+ years of marriage just about 3 years back and is all too familiar with the grief of widowhood. We also got to visit with Aunt Lin, Uncle Dan and Cousins Matt and Kelly and kids. Am I forgetting anybody??
- Abi and Ali visited the Children's aquarium in downtown Dallas with Grandma and Grandpa. They got to pet sting rays!
- We ate real Tex-Mex on a couple of occassions! Yummy :)
- We visited the Dallas Zoo on one of the warmer, sunnier days. We fed and pet giraffes...cool! I've got some great pics of this to share. Stay tuned...
- Shopping!!! Jill spent about 8 hours out and about by herself...lotsa shopping with some Mexican food in the middle.
- Abi and Ali went to the movies to see the kids movie Gnomeo and Juliet. They ate popcorn and drank lemonade.
- I got to meet and have lunch with my boss who lives in the Dallas area. I've worked for Anissa for 3+ years now and had never met her face to face so this was really a cool opportunity and she is a wonderful lady! What made it even better? We ate Mexican for lunch ;)
There's more to share but for now I'm off to bed. It's approaching midnight...church tomorrow morning. G'night!
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