From the Road

Greetings from the road, blogosphere!

Brandon and I and the kids come to you from the beautiful La Quinta in Brenham, Texas, where the best thing about the room is the halfway decent internet access. We have also manage to spend some quality time in the hotel pool and hot tub, since no trip out of town is complete for my boys without a dip in the hotel pool. I have no doubt that when we return home after our three day mini-cation, no matter what we have done in the three days, what family we see, what beach we visit, what brand ice cream we see being made, how many trips to Buc-ees, we cram in, the highlight of the trip will undoubtedly be that time we braved a microbiological buffet of germs and swam in the indoor hotel pool.

I know it's not considered "wise internet etiquette" to mention that you're out of town, in case all the hoodlums that routinely read stories about my family, such as things we find in Dane's pants at picnics, decide to break into my house and steal our valuables. Well, I have a couple of tips for you, would-be-thiefs: 1. That 11 year old Camry in the garage hasn't passed inspection in 8 years because it has an engine light on that will not go off. Ever. Even when you spend six hundred dollars in your quest for solving The Mystery of the Engine Light and the privilege of driving a car that's, you know, road legal, the light still won't go off. Numerous mechanics will tell you that there's nothing wrong with the engine, they just can't make the light turn off. 2. That giant TV in the living room that we bought 7 years ago, right before all the cute, lightweight flatscreens came into fashion weighs a ton. Bring a couple of buddies with you to help you lift it or you will do irreparable damage to your lower back. Also, it will only fit through the front door. Lift with your legs, boys. Lift with your legs.

Any-hoo. Onto Mini-Cation 2010.

First stop, lunch at GG's house.

I can't tell you how much I love this picture of big girl Harper in this rocking chair. I have one about a year old of GG holding little baby girl Harper in this chair, and this year we had to use every trick up our sleeve to get Harper to hold still for a split second in GG's lap so we could snap a quick pic.

Then we moved to the couch for some pictures, and GG let me know that she wanted her antique "Olena" cigar box in the background.

This little tea set Harper is playing with is the same little tea set that I used to play with when I was little. It's almost as old as that cigar box.

This cigar box, which has endured for over 100 years, and almost met an untimely demise at the hands of Harper Sloan.

When it was almost time to leave, I told Harper it was time to go change her diaper, so she headed straight for the dog bed. I would love to tell you the name of the dog, but in the course of the afternoon, the dog was called Hyundai, Sam, Spot, and Timothy, and I'm pretty sure he didn't actually answer to any of those names.

The kids found this globe, which has been in this house long enough to have a little country called "U.S.S.R." on it. Needless to say, I had a hard time trying to explain the fall of Russian Communism to Dane, since I barely remember that week in history class myself. There's a very good chance I skipped school that week, in fact, if it was taught at any point during my junior or senior year of high school.

So far, our mini-last-minute-on-a-shoestring-budget-cram-it-in-before-school-starts vacation has been a roaring success!

More updates later this week about Family Mini-Cation 2010!