finally, the trip to grandma's aka:longest post EVER.

a couple FRIDAYs ago, we were packing up to go over the river and through the woods to grandmother's house, when my cute boy and his BF (the cute neighbor boy who practically lives with us, in addition to his entire family: mom, dad, big bro, and self just got baptized and now attend church with us, and who upon meet-the-teacher-night we discovered that the 2 inseparable boys were also in the same 5th grade class!) got the brilliant idea that the cute neighbor boy should go on our weekend journey with us. the unanimous answer at the neighbor's casa was YES, and i was pretty comfortable with the idea myself..........so off we went with our extra friend. the boys slept the road trip away while i happily drove through the country roads. we were greeted at the end point by grandma, aunt lynn, and tacos.

SATURDAY felt like a weekend in itself. the boys were up, alert, and ready for adventure beginning at 7am. they were dressed with skateboards in hand at probably 7:02am. at which point i directed them out of the door. at the end of my grandma's street is a school (one of the 2 landmarks in my grandma's wee town other than houses...the 2nd landmark is a post office which is about the total size of my apartment living room). the school is K-12! to hear "i'm going down to the school" at my grandma's is super common. mostly it's to get a drink-treat from the vending machine. but for these boys saturday morning it meant to skate. and off they went.

after a while they did come back for some change, at which point they discovered a mango drink of some sort in the vending machine which got reviews such as: awesome! this is the best drink ever! & sparked the question, "how much change do we have?!"

there was also a lot of dog walking, which was actually running the little boston terrier around the block and up and down the football field, yielding a new reason to go to the school. soon the boys were smelling a bit like puppies themselves and living a bit of the small town country romping that i've been doing many summers at my grandma's growing up.

our trip was planned to celebrate joslyn's 2nd birthday, in addition to getting to hang out with a few other september birthday holders (joslyn's momma barbie, my aunt lynn, and my mother...who ended up having to work and couldn't even go but that we talked to a bajillion times during the trip). so the 2 year old fiesta gave us an excuse and an opportunity to be together in celebration. the shin-dig was at 3pm, but my super anxious self needed some baby lovin' so i(along with aunt lynn and gma) took joslyn off my cousin and her cute hubby's hands for the day. we drove into town to do a little small town shopping including my favorite always-must-go-when-visiting-grandma...CheapoDepot. UhHuh, i said it. i love this little place. i spent about $2.13 there and was very proud of my pile of purchases, including 2 kites for the boys. one was black & white checkered and the other a t-rex (which if you know my boy, you know how important dinosaurs were/are in his life). they were my best 59cent purchase in a long time. our morning outing ended with a trip to the local sonic. i can't get away from the drive-in.

the trip to sonic was an event in itself, but to make a long story short, my grandma FELL OUT OF THE TRUCK. the carhop needed us to balance the 6 drinks we ordered in our vehicle while she went back for the drink carriers (BIG MISTAKE & my warning to all carhops: NEVER do that...or grandma's will fall & people like me will blame it on you and yell at you out of fear and shere panic). while the drinks were balancing, my 2 year old cousin joslyn begins to panic for her drink. we feel like we need to suffice her in the same sort of panic, so begins the transfer of her lemonade into her sippy cup at which point my grandma opens her door so she won't accidentally spill it in the car during the pouring. guess what? the balancing drinks can't take it anymore...and one practically jumps into my grandma's seat. she quickly moves her bum and then tries to jump out of the suv (with sippy cup in one hand and lemonade in the other) at which point her foot gets stuck in my aunt's purse on the floor and my grandma's body lands flat on her back, head slammed down and all on the concrete beside the truck! my darn door won't open because (in all honesty) my grandma's suv is jacked up, and so i can't get to her in time for any rescuing. i finally figure it out, get out, and get grandma into a sitting position (yes, there is lemonade all over her face along with a totally scared look, and i am shaking with all of my being as I attempt to help her). what took my aunt so long? my grandma's jacked up suv. :) i will keep repeating it because it is somewhat of a death trap. my aunt was in the driver's seat & the seat belt is broken, and she couldn't get out. yep. we were trapped and watching my grandma fall. even joslyn was trying to push the button to eject her from her own car seat shouting "out!out!out!" which was just what the rest of us were feeling!

drama.

meanwhile, carhop comes back and i decide it's her fault. never mind that the last time i was with my grandma she fell and broke her shoulder. she handled me quite well, i must say. she nodded and did everything i asked her to do while we inspected grandma assessing whether or not an ambulance was needed. it was not needed, and grandma was totally ok...not a bit sore or bruised or anything. and so we left the drive in and that whole awful experience. and none of us were even hungry anymore. about 15 minutes into our 30min drive home, we began to laugh uncontrollably.

after regrouping at home, and welcoming my cousin courtney and uncle tom, we partied some hours away celebrating birthdays...particularly joslyn.

grandma & courtney

court, barbie, aunt lynn, me
us with barbie's love, reagan, who snuck into the background (we love him, too)
mother & daughter

joslyn & i having a moment

this pic of jos was a totally adorable moment. the second that pinata was open she charged it for 1 tootsie roll & then sprinted to me to show me her treasure. totally worth all the whacking away of that guitar pinata!
joslyn's daddy, reagan, is a drummer. he's even toured the world on his own drumming adventures, and she is quite enamored with his big banging

well, my uncle (her grandpa) was given specific birthday gift instructions by barbie (his daughter) because we are quite bossy women in my family, and he purchased the perfect gift. it was clearly her favorite. and her daddy's too. it was so cute!

London

Reagan

Joslyn

Barbie

totally

adorable

little

family

the evening brought more adventure back at grandma's. alec and his amigo headed down to the school to spin on the seats in the announcer box, and to view the happenings in the small town from the box above the announcer box. even i climbed atop and sat with them for a bit. it was beautiful and peaceful and totally fun. i was flooded with gratitude for all the time i had spent there growing up, and excited for my boy who was experiencing these adventures himself. there was a huge pile of wood burning, children playing, and a continuous ride to and fro in an old derby car frame. yeah, no doors, or back, but a running motor and oober fun ride for all. imagine a totally unique golf cart. it was way better than any golf cart i've ever seen, but i couldn't muster up the courage to ask for a ride myself...or for the boys.

what i could muster up the courage to do was to allow these boys to skitch. they hopped onto their skateboards and i drove around and around the blocks of my grandma's tiny town about 5-11 mph while the boys held on tight to my civic. i kept hearing about who all was missing out, declarations of my grandma's town being the best town ever, and squeals of shear delight and laughter combined with a lot of whooaaa!!'s.

and while they were skitching, along comes a riding lawn mower with a trailer full of kids...at which point my own crew hopped on for another adventure. alec was beside himself: "i never knew there were KIDS here!" he's only been visiting grandma his entire 10 year life. i don't know how i sheltered him from the other children, but he found them out, and i'm so glad.

after our outdoor adventures and showers for the boys, the family plopped in front of the tv to watch PENELOPE. ohhhhhhhh! you must must must must see it. all ages, totally adorable, we could not get enough. i will own it the second it comes out. i loved it.

finally, SUNDAY morning after a big scrumptious breakfast my grandma and i found ourselves flying kites with the boys (back on the football field). it was so exhilarating...i LOVE flying kites. and it brought me to tears to see my 71year old grandma at the end of the string looking up at her kite. no pictures other than a big heart full of memories. it was a very special morning and i had to soak it all in as it was happening. (therefore no visuals for the records)

that afternoon, after a few ah man's and sighs and lots of hugs and goodbye's, we hopped in our car and quietly headed to austin. there was a lot to process, and keep soaking in about our wonderful weekend. there were a lot of feelings that were strong and happy and filling our whole selves. i think the 3 of us knew it would likely get covered once we were back in austin, back in the grind, back to our day to day. we had a lot of simple, wonderful adventures. we made memories. and in that moment, all was right in the world.