On the Road (Part One)...

Slightly behind on this one, but we had a very busy July, logging over 2,000 miles between here and Texas and South Carolina.  With Jackson fully potty-trained, long trips become even longer due to the frequent stops and, more often than not, false alarms.  

(One of my favorite pictures, and also taken by Riley)

Trip one was to Nana and Granddaddy's house in Texas for the 4th of July.  The first leg of that trip took us to Houston to see Greg, Jenny, Maddie, and the newest cousin, Abigail.  Riley was all about the baby, wanting to hold her at every opportunity.  Jackson liked her as well, but wasn't quite as interested as Riley at this point.  Was very nice to get some real Mexican food again.  Plenty of good food where we live now, but  Mexican is not among it.  To be fair, when it comes to Mexican done right, there just aren't many places that can top Texas.  Except maybe Mexico I suppose, but that is up for debate.  Along the way I taught Riley the fun of having 18-wheelers honk their horn as we pass them.  We didn't fare too well, but we did get maybe a dozen on the drive down.  

(Quick visit to see Riley's buddy Ralph)

After a day in Houston we journeyed over to Fredericksburg for the remainder of the week.  Among the most amusing parts of the trip happened at a gas-station just outside of Austin.  After going in for a break, Jackson lost control of his aim, and came out pretty much wet from head to toe.   So we pull over to a side street to get him some dry clothes while he waited...completely naked...on the side of the road.  

Once in Fredericksburg we spent the majority of our time there playing outside, and of course swimming in the pool.  This trip was a big step forward in the swimming department for sure.  Previously Riley would not venture off the steps in the water unless I was holding onto her.  But with the floaties on her arm, she was ready to venture out a bit further this time around.  In no time she was swimming from one side of the pool to the other unassisted (except for the floaties of course).  Was nice to see her take a big step like that considering how hesitant she has been on previous trips.  

We were treated to some good Texas brisket while we were there as well.  BBQ in Memphis is fantastic, but when it comes to Brisket, I'd say Texas again gets the nod in that culinary department.  Speaking of brisket, we ran up on some very nice longhorns while out riding in Granddaddy's jeep.  We are accustomed to seeing a variety of animals crossing the road and just hanging out along the side...deer, cows, sheep, goats, etc, but we'd never driven up that closely to longhorns before.  At any moment I was envisioning the scene from Jurassic Park with us in the back of the jeep and an angry steer playing the part of T-Rex.

Probably the biggest highlight though was the kids' first fireworks show.  Riley had seen fireworks at a distance before, but we had never gone to any shows until now.  We met up with our usual cast in Fredericksburg...Alice & Andy, Sandra & Billy, and Janet & Larry...for a BBQ picnic at Lady Bird Johnson State Park.  A good time had by all, and priceless reactions from the kids watching and hearing the spectacle of fireworks up close.  We had a great time.  That made for a late night though, followed up by a very early morning...up at 3:30am to leave by 4:00.  

On our trip back home we stopped off for a visit to their old school, Whistle Stop.  Now that we are in a new school here, we are reminded of just how special that place really was.  We knew it then too, but even more noticeable now.  Everyone was so happy to see them again, from Renee to Brandy (Riley's teacher and Jackson's for a little while), and possibly most of all Miss Lana, who held Jackson for a long time.  He snuggled right up to her and seemed quite content to just stay there with her if we had left him.  It was obvious he not only remembered her but missed her as well.  Was very touching to see the heartfelt emotions from people we already knew had cared about our kids, but seeing it again reminded us how much so.

After that we were back on the road again, taking another long detour in Texarkana for....Whataburger.  You would think that the last Whataburger in the state on that route would be well advertised, but no.  But seeing as how we can't enjoy that goodness in MS, we decided it was worth it to pursue it, even if it meant going out of the way.   From there it was back home for a few weeks until the next leg of our journey.