Dallas Visit and Nathan and Charlotte come to Austin

Last Thursday was Western Day at school, so Pearce wore his cute cowboy boots and a shirt that used to be Nay Nay's and he looked ADORABLE!!!  He told me wearing Nay Nay's shirt was "like getting hugged all day by Nay Nay."  After school, we drove to Dallas to see Grandma and spend a few days there before bringing Nathan and Charlotte back.  As soon as we got to Mama and Papa's house, Pearce gave hugs and kisses and then asked Mama to make an Orange Julius....he loves making those with Mama :)  We had so much fun just hanging out and playing with Annie.  Pearce loves going down the bench by the little lake in Mama and Papa's neighborhood and he really wanted to take Annie, so Mama and I took them and took Pearce's scooter and Pearce and Annie had the best time running around.....and getting very muddy!  Oh well.....Pearce loved giving Annie a bath when we got back!  On Friday we went to see Grandma.  I know I always say this whenever I talk about visiting Grandma, but I'm going to say it again because I'm so proud of Pearce.....he is always SOOOOOOO sweet and loving towards Grandma and it just melts my heart.  Although Grandma has Alzheimer's, I've always felt like she was still really great with communicating and still had a good sense of humor, could move around and sit up to talk, and all in all, "with it" mentally.  Yes, she repeated herself a lot and asked who we were (although, she always remembered "the little boy" which is Pearce), but she was on the pleasant/happy side of Alzheimer's, if that makes sense.  This visit with Grandma was totally different and so sad to me, because she has crossed to the "other side" of Alzheimer's.  She was very weak and could not sit up.  She went in and out of sleep and her speech was slurred.  She was almost delirious a lot of the time.  Just made me so sad.  BUT, "the little boy" still managed to make her smile and play some games of peek-a-boo :)  At one point Pearce realized she wasn't quite the same as our other visits and even said "Grandma, don't you buhmember me?"  We stayed with Grandma for a while and then Ashley and Nathan and Charlotte came.  It's just so sweet to me that our little kids can give Grandma a little energy boost....they even sang some songs to her and played another round of peek-a-boo with her blanket :)  I loved our visit with her.  I took some really sweet videos of the kids playing with her and singing and talking to her, so I'm really glad to have those.  I do have to share a funny thing Pearce said....he was looking at a picture of Grandma and Grandpa and in a totally innocent way, he said "Grandma is this your husband?  Is he dead?"  Oh geeze, Pearce!!!!  Saturday, Mom and I picked up Nathan and Charlotte and took the kids to the Arboretum.  They had so much fun exploring the children's section of the Arboretum.  Mom and I just watched them play and we got to talk which was perfect!  Nathan and Charlotte spent the night with us at Mama and Papa's house, so of course, there was lots of craziness, but it was fun craziness :)  We left Sunday morning and Pearce couldn't have been happier to have Nay Nay and Charlotte on either side of him for the ride home!  There was endless laughter coming from the backseat and I just loved it!  Sunday night, I tried to get them to go to sleep, but they just weren't having it, so my rule was they could stay up as late as they wanted, but had to plug their iPads in and turn off the light when they got sleepy.  They totally stayed up WAY too late, but at least they were having fun....and they didn't wake me up in the morning :)  I took them bowling Monday and then to a fun new park that afternoon.  It's so fun for me to see how much fun all 3 of them have together.  Tuesday, we went to McKinney Falls State Park to play in the water and have a picnic.  We went to the upper falls as well as the lower falls.  I must say, Charlotte is a no fear type of girl, LOL!!!!  Nay Nay was a little more "careful" going into the water, but he quickly warmed up to the idea of getting in.  Charlotte was basically swimming!  I wanted to take them to the "haunted house" which is basically a really old house that burned down in the early 1900's, but we had to cross a creek to get to it and with the recent rain, I felt like it was a little too high for us to cross, so we just went to the other swimming hole by the lower falls and the kids had a blast playing/swimming in the COLD water!  After that, we headed to Urban Air!  Charlotte chose bowling for her fun activity and Nay Nay chose Urban, so he was really excited to finally go.  This was a perfect activity for them because they were busy jumping and having fun and I just sat and relaxed :)  We left Urban Air, but of course, the kids were hungry for dinner, so I asked what they wanted to eat....McDonald's!!!!!!  Ok, what the heck, let's go to McDonald's.  Then they asked if we could go in so that they could play.  How do these kids have so much energy?!?!  So, inside we went and they ate and played :)  That night, they played some more and then it was lights out for me.....I have no idea what time the kids actually went to bed.  Wednesday morning, I woke them up and when Pearce opened his eyes, he immediately got a frown on his face and his little bottom lip started quivering.  Poor little guy knew it was almost time to take Nathan and Charlotte back :(  We met Ashley and Chick Fil A in Waco.  They got one last playtime in before we had to give our final hugs and kisses.  I was proud of Pearce that he didn't hysterically cry like last time because that totally broke my heart.  He was definitely sad, but was a big boy about it.  We all had so much fun together and I'm so thankful Pearce, Nathan, and Charlotte love being together.

*Auntie Ashy, just let me know when you want Pearce!!!!