a trip to texas

on wednesday night we found out that brad's real father had a heart attack while riding his bike. brad really doesn't know him very well, he has only seen him twice in his adult life, and both times is since we have been married. we decided we should go down to the funeral. he lived in texas. we found a flight for friday and matt, jenn, bryce, sal and bentley all came with us. lauren met us down there since she lives in oregan. this is reese at the airport.

when our flight got in it was really late. we had to fly into dallas to get cheap flights but the funeral was in austin, so we drove three hours and didn't get into our motel til about 1 0r 2 in the morning. we shared a room with bryce, sal and bent. love how bentley is harrassing reese!

we did a whole lot of driving. the funeral was on saturday afternoon. it was really close to the hotel and in a lutheran church. first they had a viewing, we met alot of family that we didn't even know about. there were lots of aunts and uncles and cousins there. the funeral was different than any other one i had been to because the preacher was the one who spoke the whole time. every other funeral i had ever been to the family spoke. it's really sad that he died. it's really sad that brad has never felt love from him before. he wasn't upset. i know that sounds really bad, that brad wasn't upset at all. but vern never put forth an effort to get to know him. he never made any contact with him until about three or four years ago and by then it was too late. brad has other father figures in his life, that have taken his place.

that night we went to the cantwell's for bbq brisket, they lived in a little town called buda. it was out in the boonies and it seemed like something from a movie to me. the family was so nice though, they went out of their way to be friendly to us, telling brad and his brothers and sister that they were sad that they don't know him better, that they never got to see them grow up. there was a lot of love.

vern's wife donna came later and she is about the sweetest, kindest lady i have ever met. she was very strong through the whole thing and very Christ-like. i am keeping her in my prayers. i hope she knows that we would love to keep in contact with her. (also donna if you read this, sorry we didn't make it to breakfast on monday. i really wanted to say good bye and give you a big hug, but brad and i had to work some things out. we got in a fight and i am very sad that we didn't make it.)

sleepy reese

so on sunday we went out to a little town called round top. bryce lived there when he lived in texas. we ate at this great little restraunt called royers. bryce knew the owner and we actually ended up eating for free. it was awesome. the food was so delicous. this little town had a population of 77 people. it had the cutest little town square and darling houses of all different colors. i could live there... if there was a target nearby!

at royers

we walked around town and went in all the little shops and then played football at the park. i threw the football and it hit reese's stroller and scared the crap out of the poor little guy! what a mean mommy! oops, it was an accident.

reese and bent in their new matching strollers