We Love you Grandma!

G-oing the extra mile to let you know your special

R-eally good at spoiling

A-lways ready for a hug

N-ever too old for teasing

D-oesn't take time for granted

M-akes really good cookies

A-lways willing to lend an ear, teach a lesson, share a story

What's New

Robert and I went to CA two weekends ago. We flew to Houston and met up in the airport with his sister, her husband (Matt), his mom and his dad. From Houston we flew out to CA, Orange County.

From the airport we drove to our hotel which was just a few miles away. Once we were settled in our first stop was to get ourselves dinner seeing as it was past my bedtime (east coast time) when we landed. Our first stop.....

Then we walked around Hollywood Blvd after driving in circles for no joke probably an hour looking for parking. But once we jumped that hurdle it was a good time walking around seeing the red carpet for the premier of "Street Kings" and then looking around the rest of the Blvd and realizing how incredibly dreary it is and how diverse the population of that one street is. I was a little bummed though because the last time I was in LA with my sister and brother in law we were able to walk right up to the doors of Mann's Theatre and even bought tickets to watch a movie inside.

On our ride back to the hotel Robert's dad was trying to get us to decide what we wanted to do the next day. I, being passed out in the back(I know you are all so shocked, me sleeping in a car) didn't have any response at the time. And apparently he wasn't able to get an answer out of anyone else either.

At about 11:00pm pt(2:00am et) the rest of the family decides it is time to eat - not me man. Which is shocking I know because I am always up for a late night meal, but I was so tired. So Robert and I went back to the hotel.

Once back at the hotel I asked Robert if Disney Land had been taken off the list of options. So, at 11:30pm pt(2:30am et) Robert calls his dad who is at TGI Fridays and asks him if Disney Land the next morning is out of the questions. After asking Robert's mom, sister and Matt if they were interested in Disney Land we settle on waking up at 7:00 am pt(10:00am et) the next morning to head to Disney Land at 9:00am pt(12:00pm et).

Friday :

We wake up load ourselves into the van and head out to Disney Land. We spent the entire day at the park. This was incredibly fun for me mostly because Robert's dad grew up in Southern California for part of his life and therefore grew up going to that park. It was a lot of fun to see Robert's mom and dad come alive.

After spending the whole day at the park, we head out to the Angel's Opening Game. That's right. We decided to spend the entire day at Disney Land Park when we knew we were going to an Angel's game that night. Crazy, I know. But entirely characteristic of the family. I love it. the game was really funny in a "I don't care if the Angels win" sort of a way. So they were playing the Texas Rangers from Dallas Texas. What you don't know already is that Robert's mom is from Texas and Barbie and Matt are from outside of Dallas. Here is a short fun down of why this is funny.

Robert and I always, out of respect, try to route for the home team when they aren't playing the Nationals. But at the bottom of the 6th inning the Rangers were winning 6-0. Now, Robert and I hardly ever leave games before the end, but it was bitter cold, I was under dressed for the cold, and the guys behind Mom and Dad were being crude. So, we left at the top of the 7th. As we are walking out to the car we hear a huge ruckus in the stadium. When we woke up the next morning and checked the score here is what happened.

Top of the 7th Rangers scored 5 more runs making it 11-0 Rangers.

Bottom of the 9th the Angels scored 6 runs making the final score 11-6 Rangers.

They creamed them, even with a 6 run bottom of the 9th.

Incredible, needless to say all of the Dallas folks were very happy the next morning to find out how the game ended up. Especially Mom, who had to listen to some rude/crude comments throughout the game. Oh well.

Saturday:

We woke up, packed up our bags and moved on south towards San Diego. Finally, after all of this time I was going to get to meet Norm and Barbara. Norm has played such an awesome roll in Robert's Dad's life, and in Robert's life as well. There are too many things to mention, we will leave it at that. I had such a great time being with them. I found a home in San Diego, in their hearts.

I don't know if you have ever felt like this before, but I felt like the saw me. The real kind of seeing, that has nothing to do with how well you perform, or if you perform at all, but entirely to do with your heart and who you are. I felt seen. It was so beautiful. I cried a number of times because their hearts were just so sincere and wonderful. Not only did they see me, but I knew that I was truly seeing them. I guess we don't get a lot of that here in DC, even with the most well meaning people.

Sunday:

We woke up and had just a little bit of time with Norm and Barbra before we went to the mountains to visit Aunt Linda. The entire trip to Linda's took about 15 Minutes to get there. It was awesome. If where they live had corners it would be described as around the corner.

To Be Continued.....