Monday, August 30, 2010

Looking back at our summer...starting in May

Spring and summer have gone by and I haven't posted anything. I thought the best way to start would be to go back in time and share a little of what we've been doing the last several months. I'm going to start all the way back at the beginning of May when the kids and I went to Texas to visit Aunt Rachie. I really wanted to be with Rachel on May 1st which marked the one year anniversary of Justin's death so the kids and I packed our bag and caught a flight to Austin Texas. Matt had to stay behind due to work, and I was a little nervous about taking both kids by myself on a long trip. Thankfully, it was by far the best time we've ever had in Austin. Rachel was very happy to have us there and I was so happy when she told me that was the happiest she had been in the past year. I really wanted to go to distract her and just be with her. We went to San Antonio for a day, we went on a "drive through Safari" and to a cave. The kids had a blast with their Aunt Rachie. When we went to the cave I wasn't really sure what I was expecting, but as soon as we got out of the little train car that took us down into the cave, I started asking my sister why I agreed to do this. I started thinking what's going to happen if the lights go out in here (believe it or not I'm still scared of the dark at 30, pathetic, I know) or what if it collapses and we are stuck in there...my anxiety level was a bit high for the first 10 minutes. The kids did great. At one point towards the end of the tour they turned all the lights out for about a minute and a half so we could see how dark it was in a cave. I thought this was a horrible idea, but nobody cared. The lady turned the lights off and I was sure the kids were going to flip out, but instead they didn't make a sound. I was begging them to cry or something so they'd turn the lights on as I clung to them and my sister. My sister loves making fun of me for this.
The Safari thing was so much fun. My sister and I laughed so hard during that drive. It was the hardest I think both of us laughed in a long time. They gave us food to feed the animals and of course all the signs say to drop the food on the ground but I don't think there was one animal that didn't shove his head in the car waiting for food. One of the Zebras put his head in the car, grabbed my bag right out of my hand and ate the whole thing including the bag! I screamed, my sister screamed and then the kids started screaming 'roll up the windows!" It was hilarious. The Ostriches were actually really scary too. These HUGE birds (3 of them) walked right towards us as we drove up towards them and came right up to the window. They stuck their long necks into the window and that actually freaked me out as well as poor Kaela who hated every moment of this. I thought it was a good idea to try and convince Rachel into having one of the Ostriches feed from her bag and she agreed when one came up and pecked the heck out of the bag. I wish I would have had it on video because my sister literally jumped from her side of the car into my seat! It was the funniest thing I've ever seen :) Kaela literally hated every moment of this drive, but the rest of us had so much fun.
I am so glad we were able to spend this time with my sister and so glad we were able to give her a happy long weekend when she's had so many bad ones over the last year. We continue to miss Justin every day and I know my sister struggles every single day so I just have to do my part in taking care of my little sister now. We can't wait to go back to see her hopefully soon.