I think I could fit all of Thailand in your pantry

Day 135 (Tuesday):
First morning in Texas, my kids slept in till 9.  I don't care if I went to OU, and we hate Texas, we're moving here.  They've been getting up at 6:30 in Oklahoma.

Scooching down the stairs.

My cousin, Kathryn made breakfast.  I had about 97 panic attacks in her kitchen alone.  It's the size of Texas. At one point during the day, I zoned out in her pantry. I went in there to look for a snack because I am almost always starving, and I couldn't comprehend the amount of space in there.  Her pantry was bigger than my kitchen in Thailand and quite possible would fill half of the house.  I just froze.  Then I wanted to use her fancy coffee Keurig thingy and there were so many stinking choices.   I'm used to, "would you like coffee or water...maybe tea". This was like 40 different mugs, cocoa, 7 kinds of tea, 12 kinds of coffee, 3 kinds of cream, 2 artificial sweeteners, sugar, then once you chose all that you had to decide how much water to shoot through the machine.  After that, I needed a nap.

Bacon and eggs, yum, yum.

But, we headed to see her sister, my cousin Kandalynn and her new baby, just 6 days old, little Colton. He's their 4th boy.  He looks so much like his brothers.  I could have picked him out of a room of 100 newborns...easy. Cute as can be.  I got to see my Aunt Valeri, my mom's older sister.  Within 5 minutes I look over and she has given both of my children dum-dum suckers. I will give her this, she had a wash rag handy and kept them totally clean, that's an added feature you don't always get.  Kathryn, her two boys, Kandalynn and baby Colton, plus my kids, and me all headed to visit their brother's new baby.  Not sure how particular they are about security and such, so we'll call him baby B.  We got Taco Casa on the way.  If you've never eaten there you should, but I think they only have them in Texas, so that may impede that plan for 95% of you.  If you're there you must drink the sweet tea, you can thank me later.

Kora wanted to hold Adam's hand when we were in the car.

Kora was happy to meet Colton.

Colton getting some love from his 3 older brothers, on our way to see his cousin, baby B.

Taco Casa: Chilada (and sweet tea...yum)

I saw my cousin, his wife, and baby B, plus we got to put the two of them side by side, SO COOL!

Cousins!

So sweet.

They have these in America now, pretty genius idea.

We headed back to Kathryn's place to rest a while, then some more family came over for dinner to visit. I got to see my Grandma (mom's mom), we call her Moma T., and my mom's younger sister, Aunt Nette (Vernette), and Aunt Betty. Aunt Betty is their friend from high school, I don't even know which sister she was originally friends with, but she has ALWAYS been Aunt Betty.  My Aunt Valeri and her girls know all the ins and outs of all our relatives, I know next to nothing, so when I have questions they are nice enough to explain it to me, even if I'm sure they've told me before.  So they probably know exactly how Aunt Betty joined the family. Moving on. I also got to see a newer family addition, cousin Sarah. She is good friends with Kathryn and Kandalynn, they count her as a sister, so I get to count her as a cousin. She has been such an encouragement to me (via facebook) while we've been in Thailand and gave me the best hug I got while I was down there!  Love her!

I was a little overwhelmed in Texas. I know I've said this before, but I kind of hate it when Doug is right.  It might not have been a good idea to take my kids to visit so many new people (well, new to them) so soon after we got back to America and without help.  I'll die an optimist (I mean live a long and full happy life as an optimist), and Doug is such a realist.  Which means, I think of all the wonderful amazing possibilities and Doug just runs the logistics of all my pie in the sky ideas and shoots them down.  Anyway, it was so challenging. I wanted to have a chance to visit more with all my family, but taking care of kids is MORE than a full time job.  I was definitely missing the extra set of hands to take kids to the bathroom and put kids down for naps, etc.  I barely got showers on this trip. All this to say, it was fun, I'd do it again, but I'd stay longer and try to be more realistic with my expectations for my kiddos, and I'd wait until Doug was ready to go with us.  But honestly, I probably wouldn't, wait I mean.  I went when I went because they have come every single time, in droves, dropped everything to come see my babies when they were born (at the hospital no less) and I felt honored to be able to go see them, so yeah, the trip wasn't about me anyway!  And who doesn't love holding a fresh newborn, yes I said fresh, judge away.

Okay, so that whole paragraph was to explain that I didn't get nearly enough pictures of my family or with my family because I was chasing my kids around, but I did get a few.

Nap time, they didn't take a nap until a few minutes before everyone came over to visit.

This is Uncle Chris, Kora love, love, loves him.

Playing with Carson.

Adam played for us.

Kora tried to follow Uncle Chris out the door.

I left the room for about 5 seconds, when I left she was on the bed, when I came back I found her like this.

Day 136 (Wednesday):

I knew we'd be heading back at some point on this day, but I wasn't sure when I wanted to leave, in the afternoon or at night again.  I kind of wish I'd opted for another night drive.  More on that later.

We got up, had breakfast, and then went swimming.

Kora hoarding toys at bath time.

She likes to explore.

Love her crazy hair.

Exploring includes climbing.

Mom! I "dropped" something...

Based on the positioning of this duck and after a full autopsy, I think he was thrown from the table.

Yeah, he just keeps winding up on the ground.

Came back to Kathryn's house, ate some more yummy Mexican food, and Aunt Nette, Aunt Valeri, and Kandalynn (plus kiddos) came back over to hang out a while before we left.

We left around 3, I think...  We stopped to get gas on our way out of town, and guess what, I'm new here.  I have not pumped gas since who knows when, probably 3 years ago before we ever left for Thailand, can't remember for sure. They pump it for you in Thailand. I knew I would be getting gas, so I had rehearsed it all in my mind and felt confident I'd be able to do it just fine. I swiped my card, and then it asked for my zip code.  Um? I don't have a home, I have no idea what zip code might accompany this card. We usually use my parent's address, but I didn't know their zip code right off hand. I tried what I thought was their zip code and it didn't work. Then I had the genius idea to check my driver's liscencse because I knew it had their zip code on it. Thankfully it worked the second time.  We had to stop 30 minutes down the road for Kees to use the bathroom. I had handed Kora my sport bottle of water and she had squeezed 80% of it out onto her lap and carseat....awesome (sarcasm intended on that 'awesome').

On our way out of town, someone left their boots.

I like construction vehicles.

Kora investigating her lap, it's wet because of that water you dumped.

Bathroom break, we found trucks.

Love's...always makes me think of Grandpa Tawater.

This truck completely blocked my access to the exit, I had to turn around and go out the entrance.  I hate going out the entrance, makes me feel like people are looking at me like I'm stupid or can't read.

Kees had Skittles.

Then we stopped again because Kora was fussy and I thought she might need a snack or something. It did not end her fussing. She fussed about 20 more minutes, then FINALLY went to sleep. Making the last half of the trip much, much better.

I met Doug over at his brother's then we headed back to his mom's place to sleep.  I was plenty tired, but it's always so nice to be back together again.