part1.

MISSOURI BOUND

in the middle of our thursday afternoon, after work (me) and school (alec), we situated ourselves nice and cozy and road trip prepared. pillows, blankets, shoeless, twilight (audio of books on ipod), music, and a great desire to get the heck out of town. my aunt had this fantastic recognition/induction ceremony taking place, and the trip had been floating around as a possibility for months. but i started to realize it as one of those things that if you don't just commit and do it the moment will pass. and so we did...and my how everything fell into place for us to be able to. my family filled 2 cars and we left at different times, but it was fun for alec and i to feel hot on their trail. the drive alone was a million times better than many of my 45 minute trips to san marcos. although i thought it was going to only take 9 hours and it ended up taking 12. even still, my whole self was ready as ever to take ourselves out of our everyday and be with family. when we left our great city of austin it was 90degrees, and we slipped into lebanon, missouri (in our shorts and flip flops) at 25degrees....and onto my grandma's sister's farm in time (3am) to eat a piece of homemade apple pie with grandma and slip into the bed by the fireplace. this was perfect because my last 3 hours or so in the car i blasted the AC to keep my tired body from nodding off to lala land. a yummy treat, a fire, and closeness to warm my body...asleep in seconds.

WAKING UP TO HEAVEN

whispering voices woke us. they were trying to be quiet as they visited (7am...3hrs after we closed our eyes). yet it was vacation. getting up meant something different. and so we easily popped out of bed. seriously.

alec was dying of curiosity and asked uncle (great great uncle to him) to show him around the farm. at which point alec (my city boy with a country heart..it's in layers under the skater boy) found himself driving a tractor to feed the cattle and the horses their hearty breakfast. later (on my own tour of the farm provided by my cute boy he opened the doors to the barn to show me the tractor...i swear the tires are the size of my car!).

alec made friends with a few neighbors (all dogs :)).

and while aunt lynn and i were away getting her geared up for the evening festivities in her honor, my boy was still going on adventures with the great great uncle. want to know where? well, when i arrived home and asked the same question the answer i got was "in the sky!" yes, friends, my cute boy landed himself a seat (one of 2 seats) in my uncle's plane. they took a tour of the town, searched for mom (me) and did a low swoop to wave hello to the sisters (my grandma and her 2 sisters). "we waved with the plane!" he told me later. it was quite a big decision to make without mom's approval, but he was in good hands and simply thrilled about it! (he who is afraid of heights and gets awful motion sickness...and me who is traumatized from nienie's story)

INDUCTION into the HALL OF FAME

all dolled up we gathered to hear wonderful things about aunt lynn and her high school athletic career. she was beautiful in that room...her jazzy trendy hair, her cute classy attire, and that smile that owned the phrase "fake it til you make it." she was so darn nervous. but she faked it, and before you knew it the evening was over (her speech and all). she made it. so so proud of her!