We had a great time!

Pictures from our trip...

Gretchen brought the tools of her trade and gave haircuts.

David, Heidi, Gretchen, Madeline, Aunt Mary and Uncle Tom in front of the church where Chad and Amanda were married.

David and I with our three girls and two of the grands.

We've just returned from a wonderful trip to Texas. I'll just list what we did... it's easier that way. These are all the reasons we had a great time:

• 1. We went to our Cox nephew's wedding, which was one of the "happy" weddings where you're quite sure that this union will be a blessing to both of them (Chad and Amanda) and the world. It was in a lovely old church in downtown Dallas.
  
• 2. First we went to the rehearsal dinner, where we met up with all three of our daughters and husbands (unfortunately Chris wasn't able to be with us in Texas). We hadn't all been in the same place together since GG's wedding, almost 2 years ago. We also saw 2 of David's brothers and their wives and some of the other nieces and nephews.
  
• 3. I learned how to do  "Horsez" Nintendo game. Madeline taught me, very patiently!
  
• 4. I enjoyed reading several chapters of Mrs. Pigglewiggle to Madeline and Abigail, as well as babysit while David went with Heidi and William and Uncle Tom and Aunt Mary to see a movie. I got to put the girls to bed and pray with them.
  
• 5. We were able to go to church with Erin and Jim, hear their new pastor and see the nursery where Garrett hangs out.
  
• 6. We went to the new gorgeous Walmart. Olive bar, gourmet cheeses, wide aisles... it was nice!
  
• 7. As already mentioned, Gretchen and Anders were in Texas at the same time! It was really nice to have all of our grandchildren in one place, and we had some family pictures taken.
  
• 8. Erin and Heidi, with Gretchen's help, threw a very nice surprise party for David at Erin's house! Some of his family who were in town for the wedding were able to come. Several played bocce ball and we had lots of fun with cards, letters, gifts and many great stories.
  
• 9. I got to hold Garrett a lot and feed him, as well as babysit a little while Erin ran errands.
  
• 10. I was able to spend large parts of a couple days working with Erin on her website. We have a new problem with the site... for some reason we're unable to load images, either from her computer or mine at work, so that part is still out there, but we were still able to do lots and it's slowly getting more and more detailed. She continues to answer quite a few reader letters.
  
• 11. We had a nice breakfast with all the family together at the Cracker Barrel.
  
• 12. We had a noisy and fun dinner together with all the family at Cristina's, a very good Mexican restaurant in Flower Mound. Kid's eat free on Tuesday nights and they put those noisy families in the same big room with the people buying the $13/pitcher margaritas!
  
• 13. We went out for breakfast with the DeHarts and Barneses at a classy McDonalds on the morning we left and had a wonderful time.
  
• 14. There was lots of other nice stuff... just living... and we were so glad we were able to go!
  
• 14. Coming back was a string of a flight cancellation, several delays and getting a new crew once we were on the plane, but we made it home at 2:30 in the morning (instead of 3:00 in the afternoon), tired but happy. (We also had colds.)