Catch up -- Abilene

Cute little Ally spending the night with us at the hotel. She is adorable and such a sweet girl.

We were too busy having fun to post anything before leaving town! It's always hectic in Abilene since we not only have Susan, Corey and kids to hang out with, but I also have lots of friends there that I want to see and never manage to get to visit with everyone I'd like. We picked Aidan up from Kindergarten every day and met up with Susan for her lunch break most days. On Wednesday, Aidan got out of school at 12:30. He got into the car and told us he'd had a "tough day." I asked him what made it tough, to which he replied, "no recess and no nap." I know what you mean, buddy!


Since we were staying at a hotel, most of our activities seemed to revolve around eating out at various restaurants with people we wanted to see. One night we went to Abuelo's with Susan, Aidan, Ally and our friend Karen, her daughter Kaci and her son Kyle. Kyle used to live in Unalaska and worked for Rich but now lives with his wife Emily in Juneau. It was just one of those strange coincidences that we all came to Abilene at the same time. Rich and Kyle especially enjoyed catching up. I've known Kaci and Kyle since they were little kids and have enjoyed watching them turn into the lovely young people they are. Karen, Kaci and I also have social work in common and we were celebrating Karen's recent accomplishment of passing her social work licensure exam after graduating with her MSW last spring. Hurray, Karen!

Karen, Kyle and Kaci

As reported previously, the hotel folks told us that the pool was under repair but we could use a neighboring hotel's facilities. Aidan brought his bathing suit and we were surprised and happy to find out that suddenly our pool was open for business! He could not get enough of it and went swimming every day.

Saturday morning I met my good friends Karen, Kelly and Connie for breakfast while Grandpa Rich and Aidan watched cartoons and went back to the pool. This was the first time we gals had all been together since our sweet friend Rudene passed away a few months ago. It was really hard to be sitting there at a table with just the four of us instead of five. We miss her.

More swimming. :)

More spending the night.

Susan and I did some Christmas shopping--man, it was crazy. I have forgotten what it's like to fight the crowds during the holidays. The streets were packed, there were few parking spaces to be found and the stores were wall to wall people. I guess the economy is looking a little better, or at least that it what it seemed.

I spent most of one day in bed with some sort of tummy virus. NO FAIR to be sick on vacation. It really messes things up! I was afraid I was getting the flu but it finally passed without getting any worse.

More eating. We usually have a potluck with this group of friends, but Jim claimed his house was a mess and everyone was busy with work so we decided to go out for a change. Here are Sherri, Karen, Diana and Jim--where are Suzasippi and Randoman to round out the gang?

Ally was bright eyed and entertaining throughout the night while Aidan crashed on Karen's lap and slept through most of the fun. All that swimming wore him out.

Corey works out of town but made it in for the weekend and we were happy we got to hang out with him a little bit, too.

We haven't made it to a movie theater ONCE on this trip. We did watch "Inglorious Basterds" on pay per view at the hotel and thought it was pretty interesting. Definitely a Quentin Tarantino flick.

My friend Mary Lou came to see us at the hotel on Saturday and it was great to catch up with her. Unfortunately we were at the pool the whole time and I didn't have the camera, so no photos. And one more breakfast before we headed to Dallas.

Rich has not managed to get into many photos but here we are with Susan, Corey and Aidan. As always, our visits are not long enough and I hate the fact that I don't get to have the day to day contact with the kids and grandkids that I would if I lived in the same town. It would be nice if we all one day ended up living in the same place, but what are the odds of that? In the meantime, we have to be content with regular visits and making the most of our time together.

It was fabulous to see both family and friends--I love y'all and miss you!

After Sunday brunch, Rich and I made the drive to Dallas, where we are enjoying our time with Sarah, Miles and our other little cutie, Elle. Stay tuned!