Spring Break Rocked!!!!

I had the. most. wonderful. spring break!!! Julie and Cooper came for a long weekend and during that time my mom arrived and stayed for just over a week. We got to show her around our little part of Texas. We also had Barry's family down for a get together one day then went and stayed a night with his parents so we could take my mom into Oklahoma City. We went to the OKC Memorial and to Brick Town. The memorial is extremely moving. It's my second time to visit it. Barry was actually a Red Cross volunteer who was there shortly after the bombing helping where needed. It brings back a lot of hard memories for him to go there, but he provides a lot of really good information. I just can't tell you how much fun we had during our visit with Barry's parents! They are just amazing!! I didn't get a lot of rest during my break, but that's ok. I got to spend it with the people I love the most!

I have to share a couple funny things about Sam (my black lab). He adores my sister!!! I mean he really LOVES her! I think it's because she's always lets him break the rules about human treats and she spoils him as much as I do. When he was a puppy and I was teaching, she used to go to my house and get him every Friday (her day off) and take him to her house to play so they've always been pretty close. When we were home at Christmas he was thrilled to see her. I should add that he is just about as crazy about my mom as he is Julie. When he saw grandma at Christmas he tried to claw his way out of the Tahoe to get to her. Anyway...back to my story. I knew that he would freak out as soon as he saw Julie after we picked them up from the airport and got back to the house. I carried Cooper in just so Sam wouldn't jump and hurt him. Sam didn't disappoint. He heard Julie's voice when she walked in the door and started whining and barking. Once we took the gate down from the room he was in, he made a MAD dash to Julie. He practically knocked her down loving all over her. She a big time dog person and loves him too so she had to sit down so she could return his love. It was a great reunion. Then Saturday rolls around. We warned my mom about Sam's response to seeing Julie. I wanted my mom to sit down so he didn't knock her down before we let him free. She has a stress fracture in her toe and we didn't want to make that worse. She sat down, we let him out and she called him. He came flying....he jumped into her lap....remember he's a lab. Of course he thinks he's still the 5 lb baby he was when I brought him home and he's sure he is a lap dog. The whining was unbelievable...it was that...I'm sooooo happy to see you grandma kind of whining. It was another beautiful reunion. :)

Here are some pictures of our visit. Someday I'm going to learn how to make a slide show....I think it would be easier than posting several pictures.

I kind of started at the end of our visit and worked back. ha!

Looking out at the chairs that represent the people who died that day.

The Living Tree...the only tree to survive the blast

No other words needed.

My husband is a goofball...not much else to say.

Posing with my mom for a picture along the river in OKC.

We also took the River Tour by boat.

It was such a windy day, but oh so beautiful.

Us posing in the same spot.

Did I mention Barry has a garden in the back yard? Here he

is with his nephews and niece showing them the finer points

of gardening. Notice KC is watching her kids.

They were really enjoying it! Barry was doing an

amazing jobexplaining everything tot he kids.

He is going to be an incredible teacher!

See the Sonic Cup? We are Sonic loving gals! They don't have

them in MI so we went every single day my mom and sitster were here!!

Julie might kill me for posting this, but I really like this picture of her.

A Bath in the sink...he LOVES the water!

Drying off. He's not crying, he's actually laughing.