Lubbock Fun and Cousin Love

After our fun weekend in Fort Worth, we headed to Lubbock last Sunday. We had a wonderful dinner on Sunday night with Jane and Charlie and a fun week hanging out with family and relaxing during a week off of school. Greg worked in New Mexico while the boys and I stayed in Lubbock (he didn't have a such a fun week after driving over 3000 miles in 6 days). We were going to leave on Friday, but Greg stayed in NM an extra day so we didn't leave until this morning. The positive of that is we got to go to Jacob and Olivia's Fall Festival last night. The negative was that I didn't have the boys' costumes with me - but we did have new TCU jerseys, so we made impromptu football costumes.

Ryan took the roll of the tough football player very seriously.

My beautiful sister and her beautiful kids. Olivia was a fortune teller (although she wasn't willing to read anyone's palms) and Jacob had the cutest astronaut costume ever.

Probably the biggest hit at the Fall Festival was the endless supply of Silly String.

Jacob's astronaut costume was a huge hit with Ryan and Luke. Ryan was especially enthralled with it and played by himself pretending to be an astronaut for about an hour (he's not always very good with playing by himself and creating his own stories - so I was impressed). I got a cute picture of Ryan in the costume, but he didn't have the visor up. I know what we'll be getting him for Christmas this year.

The boys surprised Jacob on Monday by picking him up from school. He was so excited to see them and immediately embraced them both in a big hug.

Jacob's 6th birthday was on Oct. 4 - but we celebrated a little party for him on Monday.

Ryan was a big fan of the ice cream cake.

Nana made Jacob a quilt for his birthday - he had so much fun looking at each of the panels and telling Conny about the story on each picture.

Right before I took this picture, Olivia had her arms around Luke.

On Sunday night we went to a Jack-o-Lantern thing at a park - there were several hundred carved pumpkins-I really liked these Day of the Dead ones.

Grandad and Luke

The boys and Grandad painted their own pumpkins on Wednesday.




Nana and I took the boys to a pottery place on Tuesday to let the boys paint their own pottery while I made new Christmas plates for myself with Luke's footprint and Ryan's handprint. Ryan picked out a robot to paint and then later wanted to paint something for me - so he picked out a gingerbread ornament.

Luke made a mosiac and also painted a pumpkin.


Nanny and Mr. G came over for lunch on Wednesday - it was so nice to spend time with them both. Nanny hasn't been feeling too great the last couple of times I've been in Lubbock - so I've only been able to see her for a short visit at her house. It was great to see her feeling a little better and spend some time with her Wednesday afternoon.

Mr. G is such a delightful man. He is so good to Nanny and he enjoyed watching the boys play and draw pictures.

I finally got a somewhat decent pumpkin patch picture - after several attempts. Pictures from previous years - 2009 2008 and 2007



Below -the pumpkins each boy picked out to paint.



Not much in Lubbock is better than nightly bedtime stories with Nana and Grandad. My favorite part is that the boys then go to bed in Nana and Grandad's room and I get a night of uninterrupted sleep and I get to sleep in past 7 (I even made it to 9 one morning).


We're home just in time for Halloween tomorrow - we're not doing too much this year - but we are going to take the boys to the Wildlife Experience and then some neighborhood trick or treating.