InstaFriday | Texas Family Reunion

Hey there! Apparently, I'm only posting InstaFridays about once a month (since the last one was a recap of June). I started out to do a recap of July in this post, but there's so much from just the first week, that I think I'd better split it up. So... here's the first week of July:

 2013 Week 27 | July 1-7 

We had some nice days to play outside. I'm collecting plates for a plate wall. I don't have the wall picked out yet, but I've got a nice stack of plates! :) Cam put on this hat from an old Lightning McQueen Halloween costume, and I just thought he looked too cute! He's started sucking on his fingers and thumb occasionally. David and I were both avid thumb-suckers when we were little, but I wouldn't call Cam one.


Braden's trying to do pull-ups like his dad. I can't believe he's tall enough to reach the top of the swingset! He set out and organized all the clothes and stuff he and Cameron needed to take to David's family reunion in Texas (which was a HUGE help to me!). He also set out a collection of patriotic toys on the coffee table to decorate for the Fourth of July. :)


Hanging out at David's parents' house. I love the hammock on their back deck. I grew up with a hammock in my yard, so theirs brought back a lot of memories -- like taking turns with my friends "riding" the hammock. Basically, you lie down on your back, stick your hands and feet through the holes, hold on to the wooden cross bar, and then wait for the other person to swing the hammock as hard as she can until it does a full 360. Good times...


We got out the dominoes and played some 42. Their new puppy was entertaining (though our boys are pretty much terrified of all dogs, no matter how adorable). After a couple of days at David's parents' house, we all drove down to Texas for the reunion. David and his granddad, James, looking at old pictures. Here's one of David and his sister with their great grandmother (she passed away when we were in college). Her name was Clara, and David says she ate raw onions after every meal. :)


Here's Clara and "Shorty" (David's great grandfather) when they got married. Then David, Melinda, and his grandmother, Bobbie, looking at more old photos. Cameron had met his great grandparents before, but he was much too young to remember. The last photo is James and Bobbie with all their great grandchildren. There were a few absent, but still quite a quiver! :)


One of David's aunts is a professional photographer, so she set up her gear in the church sanctuary (David's granddad is the pastor there), and took portraits of each family group (Melinda took this one for me with my phone). Next is a picture of Melinda and David when they were little. A few people commented that Cameron was a "little David," and I agreed. :) One of the cousins was smart enough to bring a big bucket o' Legos to keep the kids entertained. Most of the adults crammed into the sunroom to visit after we went back to the house. It was too hot for me in there, so I hung out in the back/old part of the house where it's cooler. It was 93 outside (which actually isn't bad at all for Texas).


While everyone visited, I wandered around the house and took pictures of interesting things. I took a bunch with my big camera, but I'm just sharing the iPhone ones for now. This first portrait is of David's great-great grandparents (James' grandparents on his mother's side). David's granddad told me that the lady pictured here (his grandmother) died in childbirth when his mother was born, and that his mother, Clara, was raised by her aunt and uncle (her father's brother and his wife). The small picture is the lady James knew as his grandmother, who was actually his great aunt. The portrait in the oval frame is David's other great-great grandparents (James' grandparents on his father's side). The house was built in 1926, and is the house James was raised in. David's dad was born in the front bedroom! Needless to say, it has a lot of character. I love this built-in buffet. They have big old pecan trees outside, and the whole front yard was shaded by late afternoon. All the kids (and a bunch of the adults) had a baseball game. When we've been there in the past in the fall, they send the kids out with buckets to "pick cons" (pick up pecans). David's grandparents pronounce "pecan" PEE-kahn. Before I met them, I thought there were only two ways to pronounce pecan -- either pih-KAHN or PEE-can. Apparently, there are three ways. :)


Time to say goodbye. We had a really nice visit. We stopped on our way out of town to eat dinner at Pizza Hut with Melinda and her son, Corbin. The boys were being silly with the paper napkin rings, and Melinda said they looked like Uncle Ricky (one of David's dad's brothers). I had to swipe this Instagram off Melinda's Facebook page with the side-by-side. Pretty funny! ;) Uncle Ricky is a hoot. :) We went back to David's parents' house after the reunion, and then headed home Sunday afternoon. The drive home is pretty scenic at times. Arkansas, you run deep in me (more on that later if I ever get around to posting the pictures from MY family reunion, which was at the end of July). :)