Everything's Bigger in Texas!

This year for Easter we headed west for the great state of Texas! John's family is from there (he'll claim he's a Texan-though only lived there a few months) and his grandfather still lives there in Longview-near LA border. His grandfather-PopDaddy as we call him-turned 90 this year and so the ENTIRE family decided to try and make the trip Easter weekend. The party was at John's Aunt Brenda's house and she had the perfect place for 11 children to play in. A dirt patch! At one time, all 11 great-grandchildren age 3-11 were in the dirt together. We didn't get a picture of them all-but here's some of them.



It was a HOT, HOT day, even for Texas and the shade kept the play area nice and cool as Good Friday drew to a close. There was no stopping our boys, as you can see, they had dirt everywhere-and as the tub at the hotel that night knows, they had dirt ever-y-where! Even places a mommy shouldn't know about!

Conner after a few hours in the dirt

Since it was Easter weekend, Brenda (and a few other grandmothers I think) planned an Easter Egg hunt for the kiddos. Each child had a bucket full of eggs, that were hidden after dinner. The other moms and I kept the kids playing in the front yard while the daddies hid the eggs. Then we unleashed the beasts: yes I described that as I saw it. A few moms and dads helped the littler ones (Conner and Cousin Cohen) find the hardly hidden ones. As you see, Conner did quite well for himself.

Aidan had a pretty full bucket also. I think all the kids did. We had some pretty tired puppies that night after a bath. So glad there was a big tub, it was kind of less white when we were done with it. Our boys slept well and ate a huge breakfast the next morning, ready for more!


Since our boys wake early-wonder who they get that from-we headed to one of John's favorite parks he played at when he visited as a child. The boys played a while and posed for some pics on a fountain that wasn't working at the time.


Aren't they cute? Yes they know it! We had them promise to not get as dirty this time at Brenda's since we would be heading home that afternoon (actually only to Jackson, MS for another hotel stop halfway) and they tried to stay clean-but boys will be boys and Sims boys will be Sims boys-so we borrowed Brenda's tub for a quick wash down before we left. We all enjoyed a good lunch and then tried to get some good pictures with PopDaddy since we all have such busy lives now and don't get to make the 10 hour (or more for some) very often. Here He is with all 11 great-grandchildren.

Front: Conner, Aidan, Carter
Middle: Laura, Emily, PopDaddy, Shane, Grace, Ethan, Cooper
Back:Youngest Cohen, Oldest Samantha

Here's the Grandchildren
Jason, John, Steven, PopDaddy, Mark, Karen

And the daughters
Brenda, Carol (G'ma to us), PopDaddy, Jane

After 4 days of driving 20 hours total, 3 hotel nights, oodles of snacks and drinks and 2 very tired boys and 2 extremely tired parents-we made it home. John took off Monday to rest before the crazy week. Only we didn't know how crazy it would become. For those that read this and aren't in Bama, this was the week of the tornadoes. Our family was spared any damage or injury, but so many others weren't. We are so blessed to have our health and home and are blessed to have such a wonderful family to go visit. Looking back at TX, not one fight between any of the kids, not one fight with our 2 the entire trip, not one grumble, not one melt-down and that folks, is a record. I am so blessed to have my family and thank God every day and night for sending them my way.