Family Road Trip

** Sorry for the long delay.  I have tried many of times to complete this update.  First we were all sick for awhile.  Daddy, then Squishy, then Buggy, then me and finally Annie.  We all fell sick within a few days of each other.  So, although I was only down and out for a little over a week it felt a lot longer since we all were sick during different times.  When we were finally all better it was time to go to the lake to recover from the all-out, no-stopping, road trip and then from the nasty cold/virus we all had.**

I mentioned in the last week post that we arrived home from our road trip with all of us sick.  This turned out to be a whopper of a cold or virus.  It knocked me out for a week.  I generally never get sick or when I do it's never bad but not this time.

 

So here is the skinny on our road trip:

 

We've been talking for some time about taking another road trip.  We were either wanting to head back to Idaho, take a camping trip in Colorado, or head back to Louisiana to visit with some extended family who are getting up there in age.  The decision was made for us when we found out that the family in LA would be celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary and had invited us for the celebration.  The Daddy-O I had been back there together once before ten years ago and then just the Daddy-O again four years ago.  We know this family and the southern hospitality means so much to us that we felt it was important for our kids to experience it before it became too late. 

 

We packed up and headed east on June 3rd  Our goal was to make a two day mad-dash drive to LA.  We planned for a slight detour in Texas to visit with some family.

(Bug & Annie with great-grandma)

(Buggy)

 

While there it was determined that our dog developed a bladder infection during our dash to Texas so our stay there was extended by a few extra hours so she could be seen by a doctor.

 

We finally made it to LA mid-afternoon of the 6th.  The weather of course was hot and humid but once I accepted the fact that I would no longer need my curling iron because we were all going to look like a hot mess then I was fine. 

 

The folks that we are visiting with are on my husbands late grandfather's side of the family.  So this makes it the Daddy-O's great uncle and aunt.  Their property is just as amazing and breathe taking as it was ten years ago...

 

 

The boys enjoyed playing with their extended cousins, this tire swing and of course, the fishing!

 

  

 

Great Uncle Leon was a bit smitten with our baby girl. 

 

Before we left she finally became a little smitten of him.

 

On our last night in Pineville, LA the family came together for a crawfish boil.  Of course with the intense humidity it really felt like a family boil but we survived.

 



 

 

(My boys are like their daddy....you can always find them near a tractor or a pretty girl)

 

In this family there isn't many boys left to carry on the last name.  There are our two and then only one biological.  I tried a few times to get a good picture of the generations but never got a good shot:

 Here: at the 60th wedding anniversary celebration....

 

Here: while trying to find some fishing worms.....

 

 Here:  while on the hunt for good worm soil....

 

Here:  on our last day with family....

 

 

We left LA with exactly everything we had hoped for:  A heaping dose of good, authentic southern hospitality.  All of the "Yes, Ma'ma" and "No, Sir's" we could have asked for.  All the love and feelings of feeling like a close family that never spends a day apart but rather years apart.  Feeling the love from a man & women who represent and embody what grandparents are like even though they are not our own.  Feeling a true appreciation for just being us!

 

That is part one of our trip.