Then I realized we had less than 24 hours to do laundry, clean (b/c who likes to come home to a messy house?), pack and get ready for the 16 hour drive to Houston the next morning.
Why didn't we fly, you ask? I was all for flying....until I looked up last minute airline tickets over Memorial Day weekend. Even out of Omaha or Kansas City, we were looking at $700-$900 per person! My family has made this trip so many times growing up, that I figured we might as well start the tradition with my little family, so we packed the car (with food and movies, in hopes Presley would not hate us) and headed south.
We left about 10 am Thursday morning, stopped for a late lunch to let P get out and run around for awhile and drove until about 7 pm when we decided to stay overnight just south of Oklahoma City. We ate dinner at Punkin's (where Elvis never leaves the building....at least that is what the billboard said!)....a real ma/pa restaurant...no alcohol (bummer) and they close at 8 pm on Thursdays nights?! Presley did great, we basically let her watch whatever movies she wanted, for as long as she wanted. I know growing up we didn't have this luxury, but if I'm going to strap a 2 year old in car seat for 16 hours...I might as well let her watch Monsters Inc 2500 times.
We got on the road by 8 am Friday morning and met my parents at our hotel at about 3 pm. Ask me how many hours Presley slept in the car during these 16 hours? Go ahead, ask me!......ZERO!
Everyone was gathering at my uncle Danny's that night so we decided to give Presley some pool time before we headed over there. Surprisingly, Presley did pretty good considering she was around a lot of family she hasn't seen since last summer...she even made a new best friend with my 12 year old cousin Luke!
It was nice to see everyone, if only the reason we were gathering wasn't to say good-bye to Dirty Dort (as many of us called her!)
Saturday we slept in and woke Presley up at 9 am and were able to get some more swimming time in before the service at 2:30. The service was so nice! My uncle David and cousin Lee gave great eulogys, extremely tear-jerking. It was a very, hard hour. Steve was very helpful with keeping Presley occupied, even taking her and Boston out to the hallway when they were getting restless during the service.
(September 2007 - we were lucky enough to have my grandparents fly up for our wedding day)
August 2009 - Four generation of girls
June 2010 in Wisconsin
After the service, we all gathered at my Aunt Ann's house for dinner and drinks. We had a toast to my Grandma with brandy manhattan's, her favorite drink. It was a nice, relaxing evening. We were able to talk and laugh and enjoy the great warm weather! Even Presley's hair had fun....spiral curls, out of control! (she is doomed to have bad hair for the rest of her life)
Unfortunately, we had to get back on the road Sunday morning. We drove from 8 am until about 6:45 pm and stayed between Wichita and Kansas City. P actually slept for 2 hours in the car! And we finally arrived home about noon on Monday, exhausted!
So 100 gallons of gas later (you can do the math on how much we spent), 3 different hotel rooms in 4 nights, hours of Monsters Inc and Toy Story 3 and we are finally back home. It was a long weekend but I am so happy that we went to say goodbye to my grandma. We love you Grandma! We will miss you!
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