Roadtrip to Odessa

Our journey to Gran's funeral in Odessa, Texas began with making cakes the day before we left. There was to be a reception after the funeral that Friday, and I volunteered to make Grannie's famous white cake and chocolate cake. Gracie watched...

We left at 5 on Thursday morning, the 21st of May. The girls slept some. Ivan slept nearly the entire trip. He barely left his car seat. We were so proud of them all for being such troopers.

Near Abilene, after being in the car for 5 hours straight, we decided to stop at a roadside park and have a picnic. The girls ran around and played with toys while I fed the baby and Casey made lunch. We put a blanket on the picnic table and let Ivan lay out to kick and play. This was really awesome because we didn't have to worry about getting them filthy in a McDonald's and they didn't have to sit still. They just played and ran their energy out. It was really nice.

At the reception following the funeral, I got to see some long lost family. My Casey got to meet nearly all of the rest of my family, and so did my girls. There was sandwiches and cake and LOTS of kids.


Here is one of my favorite people, Aaron Gregory. He wanted to hold Ivan so badly and patiently waited his turn. I only hope Ivan will be as good of a guy as Aaron is:




Nana, Poppie, Jackee, Me, Casey, and our three kids:




Just about every Harvey that could be found:




Lilly and some precious "Nana" time. The girls were begging to get to spend some time with Nana. It was a horrible, not to mention busy week, and they were very confused.




Jaime was a great help to us. We had left the girls for two days in her care all by herself. She did AWESOME! Also, she spent much time helping me with the girls during this trip.




Nana and Poppie came to visit us at the hotel after the reception. The kiddos were supremely happy about this.




Everybody was wore out. We all started winding down and relaxing. Ivan was so happy to be out of his car seat. I calculated that the poor kid spent almost 30 hours in his car seat in a span of a week. Poor Baby!

On the Saturday following the funeral, we had made plans to visit some of my Mom's family that we don't get to see very often. This included a VERY awesome visit to my Great Grandmother, Bea Moseley's apartment. We wanted to get photos of the kiddos with her because how many of us can say that we have sat in our Great-Great Grandmother's lap? I would wager that not many have.

Saying goodbye to Jackee and Jaime before the long trip back home.