Dallas and Austin

Though the circumstances were unwelcome, Gabby and I were both glad to go see our family. I hadn't seen my aunts, uncles, and cousins in over 4 years so I really glad to see them again. I have so many happy and fun memories of going to Austin to my grandparents' house. I'm glad Gabby is old enough to hopefully retain some memory of it.

Gabby and I flew to Dallas Tuesday morning. Gabby is going through a phase of speaking whatever comes to mind. Our flight to Dallas was full and a man sat down next to me. Gabby asked me who he was and why he was sitting by me. I told her the plane was full and someone had to sit by me. She leaned forward, looked the man up and down, and said, "I don't like him, Mommy. I don't want you talking to him." Fortunately, the stranger thought it was hilarious and wasn't at all offended. How do you teach a child self-censoring? Gabby is also intrigued by determine and defining the differences between men and women. She asked why a man (sitting right by me in the airport) had long hair like girls. He immediately stood up and walked away. It's an entertaining phase!

Grandpa B's casket was open prior to the funeral beginning and Gabby and I went to it to pay our respects. I had explained to Gabby he had died. Gabby said, "But Mommy, I don't want him to be dead. How can we make it so he's not dead?" I explained in as simple of terms as possible that was why Jesus lived, so that we could all have new bodies one day and not be dead, but we would have to wait a while for that to happen. She seemed satisfied with the answer. At the burial, one of the ministers was an older man with white hair like Grandpa B's. When Gabby saw him standing there, she exclaimed to me, "Look, Grandpa's not dead anymore! Jesus did it!" The faith of a child!

Gabby, Madison, Adabelle, Kaylee, Matthew, and Thomas loved all the cousin-time.

Gabby and Thomas playing hopscotch in the backyard

Here are all but 2 of the great-grand children. Jen was able to travel without David and Maggie and I think really enjoyed her kid-free time. There are only 4 non-DeVauxs in the bunch

Madison and Gabby.

I love my grandparent's house. It has the coolest landscaping. They live West Lake hills in Austin. There are all these paths around their house and it always felt like such an adventure to explore them. It was fun watching Gabby and her cousins discover and enjoy them.

There was a fantastic thunderstorm just as we were leaving Austin. I LOVE storms. Utah doesn't get too many thunderstorms so I was glad to have one while I was there. There was even a rainbow afterwards.

Marji and Jim were moving to a new house. Originally, Jen and I planned on flying home from Dallas on Sunday. We realized we were a bit in the way and were able to switch our flights to fly from Little Rock. We rode back with Pam Thursday night. There were 6 of us and 5 seat belts so we doubled up Gabby and Madison. Gabby feel asleep quickly and Madison was pretending to sleep in this picture.

She finally went to sleep and I thought they were so cute sleeping together.

Madison and Gabby, still BFF!