4 sweet sisters

we had a great trip to texas, but are very thankful to be home after all the traveling. here are gayle and her 3 sisters enjoying catching up and being together. we were so thankful they all got to meet and be with maddox and thomas also. they were true lights and made us feel welcome and special.

so, the travel was challenging, but we did it! the funny highlights (not so funny at the time) were…

- maddox trying his best to get away from me in the birmingham airport which was tiny and crowded

- maddox reaching out and lunging desperately for a male flight attendant as if to say “please take me from this woman!” i wondered how to convince the guy that i was not a kidnapper because that is how maddox was acting.

- maddox learned pretty well to be gentle with thomas and loved patting his hair

- brooke’s comfy, cozy, completely relaxing ride through friday afternoon dallas traffic to denison, texas. she had about 1 foot of room to sit between the car seats and dealt with getting seriously strangled by a seatbelt, beating sun, screaming boys, annoying toys, bottle and snack feedings. she was a rock. see more pics of our fun here

suddenly,

we are doing a big trip – for us – tomorrow! don’s aunt stanline has shockingly been given only a few weeks to live, if that. we have not seen her nor his other texas family since before we had maddox so we’re going out to commerce, texas to hopefully give her some sweet memories before God takes her home. see if you can follow this: we are driving to don’s sister’s house in birmingham tomorrow with don’s parents, don and gayle. don, his dad and david (bro in law) are continuing tomorrow to drive to texas. the 3 girls and 2 little boys will be flying from b’ham to dallas on friday where don will pick up and drive us to commerce. we will do it all in reverse on sunday/monday. got that? if you read this, we covet your prayers for safety, wisdom and patience while traveling and for stanline’s pain level to be low and for peace to be present.

in the meantime here is a fun video of maddox’s latest favorite pastime. he cannot even see don now without getting him to pick him up and reaching for the couch or bed so they can wrestle. this was yesterday and was the last known picture before we gave the wings on each side of his hair their first trim. fyi – if you don’t have 4 minutes, the middle to the end is the best part.

the 3rd year, it’s a tradition

for the 3rd year in a row, we went along with the douglases, mcbrayers and defeos to courtney’s parents’ beautiful lakehouse in south carolina for the weekend of the 4th. we had such a fun time playing, cooking and relaxing. here are our pics, although courtney’s pics actually have pics of the 3 of us and are much more thorough and all-inclusive of what went on at all times. for this reason, she may be my mom’s long lost daughter.

adults only

so, our vacation away from maddox was glorious; i am not afraid to say it! yes, we missed him, etc, but i was thankful for every day we had to do whatever we wanted at whatever time we wanted to do it. that is such a foreign activity in our real world now. it really does make vacation more special. we were in key biscayne, FL outside of miami, where we spent 90% of the day in the pool or on the beach. we did venture to south beach one night. the highlight was an AMAZING meal and beautiful beach, but the scene wasn’t quite as crazy as i’d pictured. i mean, we were there at prime time – a wednesday night from about 5-10pm. isn’t that the partying hour these days? all our pics here

THANK YOU to our amazing family who made us be able to enjoy every second of this vacation. we knew that your sweet love to our son – and some whipped cream – could solve any problem that might have come up. [pics of the mice's play (maddox, didi, big mo and fam) while the cat was away.] and THANK YOU to our easy and fun friends ron and courtney for letting us have our own time but also for helping this vacation be more fun than it would have been if it was just us 2 bums. you add spice (and kindness) to our lives and we love being with you.