Sunday Grad Party

Sunday morning we headed back to my mom's house for a brunch with the family again. We ate A LOT and it was all awesome. I gave Aiden a little of the egg casserole even though it contained egg whites (I'm a rebel) and he loved it. At the end of the brunch, we said goodbye to the family and headed off to get ready for Alex' graduation.

The ceremony was great. It was HOT, but it was nice to get back to the old school and see Alex finishing up this part of his life. I asked him how it felt knowing he was done with high school. His reply was "Ask me again when I'm done with track. Right now it doesn't feel any different because I'm not completely done." The state track meet (and Alex' final track meet) is this weekend. Then it's all over!

Sunday after Alex' graduation, my dad through a party for Alex that was aimed more at friends. Travis invited some of his family to come, so it was great to see them one last time before we left for Texas again.

Ariel, Aiden and Joyce (Travis' grandma)

My dad, Bill (Travis' grandpa) and Travis


Alex playing bags with a friend from high school
(He was playing against another friend and his band teacher! I couldn't believe a TEACHER came to his graduation party. So funny.)



Aiden stayed up really late, but he was a trooper. Travis FINALLY got him to fall asleep around 9:30, but then he didn't want to risk him waking up again.

The next morning we got up and ate breakfast. We hung out at my dad's and packed up our luggage. Then we headed over to Steak 'n Shake for lunch. We went all out with burgers, fries and shakes. Ugh, mouth-watering. I originally thought Steak 'n Shakes were only in the north, but I found out there is one north of Houston. It's not really something I would travel that far for, so basically this is something we can only get when we are in Illinois. There are two restaurants in the Champaign-Urbana area alone. They are everywhere up north. Yummo! Although, not really something I'd like to work into a regular part of my diet. We weren't hungry again until landed in Houston after 9pm.

Aiden did great for the plane trip back. Unfortunately, we did not have Ariel and her MP3 player to help put Aiden to sleep. In the end, Travis was able to get him to settle down by covering up his ears as he cradled him. There were three seats together, so we knew some unfortunate soul would get stuck sitting next to a baby on the plane. We were able to claim a row first, that way whoever sat next to us was most likely doing it by choice.

A guy who had been traveling all day chose to sit next to us. He said he had kids (who are already grown at this point) that he had flown with when they were little. He said he knew what it was like and didn't mind sitting next to us. In the end, he bought US drinks. We told him that WE should be the ones buying HIM a drink since he got stuck sitting next to someone else's fussy baby. He insisted and we graciously took the adult beverages.

There was a little bit of a fiasco after we arrived in Houston. Ariel had a layover in Tennessee that was postponed an hour, so we went to pick up the car from parking and then pulled back around to grab Ariel. On her way out of the baggage claim, some guy was following her picking stuff up off the ground. Turned out, Ariel had $100 worth of quarters in her bag and she had sprung a leak. She ran back to pick up as many as she could find, but was still upset when she jumped in the car. There was no way to tell how much money she had lost during the flights until she could get home and count it. I still haven't heard the verdict.

We stopped for fast food one last time (oh I get SO TIRED of it during vacations) on the ride home. Robert met us at our house so we didn't have to drive Ariel all the way down to Galveston. When we walked in the door, Aiden's face lit up and he actually sighed in relief.

Visiting family is always a much needed trip, but it is GOOD to be home.