Back in Phoenix

Well, I haven't even finished my posts about our trip to my Aunt's funeral, but I have another funeral to blog about. We got word that Dave's Grandfather passed away on Sunday August 10th. I thought it interesting that my Aunt passed away on July 10, then Dave's Grandpa exactly one month later.... Strange.

Anyway Dave had decided that he would travel to Arkansas to the Funeral. Due to the short notice, an airplane ticket was going to cost an arm and a Leg. So he decided to drive. However after a bit of thought, I realized that I needed to go with Dave to be his support, and help him in the 20+ hour drive. We left on Monday morning, drove for way to long and stopped in the middle of Texas. We then drove 8 hours on Tuesday and arrived in Austin Texas to stay the night at my sister's house. We instantly fell in love with Austin. We had a great night eating ourselves silly, then watched a bit of Olympic swimming and gymnastics.

Wednesday morning we left early and drove 8-9 hours to Eldorao TX. What an interesting little town.
The viewing was Weds night, then the Funeral was Thursday. Here is a picture of Ethan standing in front of the Mortuary, he had a hard time being still. But who can blame the boy, he had just been in the car for 20 hours.
The funeral was difficult on everyone. Why is it so hard to say goodbye to those we love? How blessed we are to know that we will see our loved ones again.


It was a sad day, but what a privilege to spend time with family. Dave had a great time being with cousins that he hadn't seen in years. As well as getting to see where his Dad had grown up.

The worst part of Thursday wasn't the funeral though... It was when we went hiking with Dave's mom and aunt through the forest. After hiking for over an hour, I was hot sweaty, and checking for bug bites on my leg, when I noticed a tick. I felt so yucky that we decided to go back to the hotel to shower and change clothes. We are very glad we did for we found....1 on Ethan 3 on Me and 14 on Dave. YUCK!!!! I don't remember ever feeling that grossed out! Here is a picture of the beautiful Tick filled forest!
Friday we enjoyed spending time with the family, and having a fantastic lunch. Ethan had eaten a lot of food, and was in the process of eating his dessert, when he pushed it aside and asked for more Chicken and Dumplings. In the end he had 4 large helpings. I think we have found a new favorite food:)
After saying our goodbyes to the Meadows family we headed for Shreveport Louisiana. On our drive Ethan realized he could read a map. He amazed us at being able to find Austin, Denver and Phoenix. What was most amazing though was that he was able to find the states' pages in the book then find the city.

This is Dave enjoying the drive while Ethan is trying to navigate.
So we finally arrived in Shreveport. We enjoyed what we saw of the city. Unfortunately we needed to keep driving to Austin so we didn't get to spend much time there.


We spent some time on Saturday with my Sister's family in Austin. But I will save that for the next post.

I loved watching the scenery change as we drove East. I have traveled to many states over the years, but I have never been to the southern states. I loved the difference in culture in Arkansas and Texas. I did enjoy the "southern hospitality". My favorite part was driving East and watching the landscape go from brown to green.

We had such a great trip, well as far as funeral trips go.... But how does that saying go... There's no place like home!!!