Home Again, Home Again Jiggity Jig

The past week wasn't spent moping and crying, I promise.  And as much as I would like to report the lack of blog posts was due to sharing too many bottles of Chardonnay with friends, that's not the case either.  Actually, my reason for being MIA was much more therapeutic.  The Hudson household escorted Bert on a business trip.  Some of our dear friends recently bought a Vet clinic and hired Bert as their new CPA.  When I learned Bert would need to spend a couple of days at their practice, I immediately packed up half our house and batted my eyes as I begged to tag along.

I love true friendships.  The kind where no matter how much time has passed, you can pick right back up the moment you lay eyes on one another; The type of friendship where there is no competition of any type, just excitement for one another when there is news to share.  Sherry and Dave are most certainly those kind of friends.  We have children around the same ages, and I love that our kids seem to follow this same friendship pattern.  We are so happy for The Alford Family, and truly enjoyed their company and hospitality for a couple of days.   

From there, since we were practically "in the neighborhood" (2+ hours away) we continued traveling and went to see my oldest brother and his sweet family.  I have two nephews, who are four and three years old.  So, you can imagine, our children are always thrilled to see each other.  We got to celebrate a birthday while we were there too.  It's so hard to believe that "X" is now three years old.  We were there the day he was born, with Her Highness, Thunder and Lightning (Hail in-utero).  And three years later, we got to be there to celebrate X's three precious years of life.  Time certainly flies when you're having fun. 

The weather was absolutely perfect.  Zero humidity and temps in the low 80's.  The only change I would make to the day was for it to last longer.   We went to a splash park and let the kids run wild.  We laughed and told funny stories about our children. 

We loved spending a couple of days with Matt, Angie and their precious boys.  Hey, can y'all just move closer to us please??  Hail and X would be most definitely be bestest friends, and the rest of us would enjoy having you as neighbors too.

Continuing our theme of visiting with old, dear friends and family, we made sure to squeeze in a (much too short) visit with one of my favorite cousins of all times.  Misty and her super cute crew met us at a nearby park.  Again, if I could have frozen time that day, I most certainly would have.  We laughed and laughed, until my sides hurt, and hugged and hugged, until my sides hurt, then caught up on life and told funny, and not so funny, stories about motherhood and child-rearing.  We talked about growing up, and memories of summer trips our moms made to see each other.  Misty, could y'all move a little closer too??  Thanks so much.

We also made sure to visit with my dear sweet Granny.  As with every stop we made, our time there wasn't nearly long enough either.  My Granny is a remarkable woman, and I am so proud to say I am her grand-daughter.  We love you, Granny! 

We made a mad dash back to the Hudson Hacienda, so Bert could squeeze some more real work into the last part of his week, and so I could see an Orthopedist.  Turns out, my knee injury that has forced me to hobble every where I went for the past week and a half, is due to a torn meniscus.  The doctor scheduled an MRI for Wednesday of this week, and said surgery was most likely in my near future.  Sweet. 'Cause I have time for all that jazz.  Sigh.

 

We were in a huge hurry to get back to our humble abode, but since we were passing right by the old stomping ground, I called and begged my sisters and Momma to meet us along the old beaten path.  We ate a super quick brunch, kissed all their babies a million times, squeezed their precious cheeks (both sets) and hugged and kissed each other, again squeezing sets of cheeks.  It's just our style.  I always get in the car and cry after leaving my family.  And this time was no different, but a little more intense since our time together was less than an hour. 

Flash Flood is pictured above with my niece, who is the daughter of my other brother, Nick.  She is 13 months old, and Flash Flood is already bigger than her!  We had so much fun.

I have the sweetest, chubbiest and most adorable little nieces and nephews you ever did see.  The top left picture is grandbaby #14, who was born to my sister, Kate, back in April.  Her Highness is the oldest.  Did you catch that??  There were FOURTEEN grandbabies born in SIX YEARS.  The other pictures are of my sister, Kelly's twins, and older daughter, who is only 2 years old.  Can you imagine? Kelly handles it all beautifully.  And, she looks GREAT to have just had twins!!  I'm joking.  I mean, she does in fact look great.  But that comment ranks right up there with annoying things people say when you have a mess of kids running around.  That one and "You got your hands FULL!"  Go ahead and mark it down as things NOT to say.  Ever.  I know folks are generally well-meaning.  But, to a tired Momma, some things are just better left unsaid. 

Unfortunately, I never got a group shot of the 12 cousins there together.  The Storm spent their entire time chasing Nick's boys around the playground, so they never got still enough to snap a shot.  It was the best pit stop in the history of Hudson pit stops, that's for sure. 

The car trip got a little long at some points.  But definitely worth every tortuous moment.  On the way home, I may have lost my mind momentarily, and screamed to the back seat of fighting/whiny/LOUD children, "THIS IS THE EXACT REASON WE NEVER GO ANYWHERE!!  WE WILL NEVER GO TO DISNEY WORLD IF Y'ALL CAN'T LEARN TO RIDE ON LONG TRIPS WITHOUT DRIVING ME NUUTTTSSSSS!"  They shut up after that.  So, it was only for approximately three seconds, but there were those three seconds of silence anyway. 

We are still trying to recover from our tour of the South.  The time spent with all our dear friends and family ranks super high on my list of Summer favorites.  We appreciate so very much everyone taking time to visit with us, feed us, and provide a place for the weary traveling circus to rest.  I know our group can be over-whelming at times, so to agree to take us on shows what great friends you all are.  WE LOVE YOU!!!