Visiting Josh / Reunion

My dad decided he would rent an RV so that Jett, Krista, Colton and I could make the trip to Ft. Sumner for the 25th annual Kenyon reunion. I had a lot of trepidition about going.. it was the first time to go home since Josh died AND the reunion was at the lake.. so I had a lot of anxiety, but my family was so strong for me during that time, and I needed to go back. Krista and I talked alot about it, and we knew it would be hard. We also talked to my dad and knew that if we all stuck together, we would get through this.

Dad came to Baton Rouge on Tuesday and we picked up the RV on Wednesday. I got off work at noon and Dad and I packed a whole lot more stuff than we actually needed, but, what the hell, it is an RV!! Jett and Krista got home around 5 and we left. Jett drove first and it was SO funny.. have you seen the movie RV?? He took off quite a few tree limbs down our street.

Then something bad happened, both Dad and Krista all the sudden started feeling really sick. They both slept the 6 hours we drove that night. colton and I sat up front and kept Jett company. We pulled into Shreveport that night.. into a TRUCK STOP!! I cannot believe we stayed in a truck stop, but we did!! Krista and I laugh because all night we heard "Shower number 32 is now ready, shower 32". We woke up the next morning and hit the road.

We drove to Abilene and waited in the Wal Mart parking lot for my cousin Kyla. While we were waiting, I took a shower in the RV in the Walmart parking lot.. can I tell you how strange THAT was?? Kyla and her bf got there, we ate a quick lunch then it was on the road again. Kyla and I had a great time catching up and it seemed we were in Lubbock in NO TIME at all. We took the RV to Dar and David's house, dropped us off and Dad and Kyla went to Mike and Darlenes. I later went and got Kyla and drove her to the hospital to go and see her mom, my Aunt Terri, who was not doing good after her medical ordeal.

We had a great night visiting with Dar, David, Aric and Ashley.. they could not believe how much Colton had grown. We went to bed, got up and headed to Ft. Sumner. When we got there, Dad and Ky dropped us off at Nana's for a bit of visiting. We had lunch and then they came back and it was time for the inevitable... we were going to put flowers on Josh's grave. That was the most surreal experience of my life.. I could not believe that it was happening. The headstone that Nana and my mother had picked out had been put up.. it was beautiful.. a lot of tears fell from our eyes at that moment, we were all somber and sad... I am so thankful that I know the Lord, and I firmly believe that Josh is in heaven.. that alone helps me to deal with my grief.

A much quieter group, we headed out to the lake. Quite a few people were already out there, and they all came to watch us pull (what I dubbed) the Hilton on wheels into camp... we were the biggest RV out there!!

The weekend was so much fun. Jett, Krista, Zach and Reed actually went BACK to Lubbock on Saturday night to go to the TTU game. Jett was not going to miss a chance to visit Jones Stadium if he was that close.

Sunday we spent all morning looking at the radar and realizing that Gustav was heading straight for Baton Rouge, and we felt the need to get home. Now, I know (thanks Molly) that it seems stupid to say "a hurricane is coming, let me head into it" but I just wanted to be close enough so that when it passed we could get in and assess the damage. PLUS the RV place wanted us to have the RV back.. IDIOTS. So we left FS that morning around 11, dropped Ky back off in Abilene and stocked up on supplies and drove until about 2 30 that morning, we got to Vicksburg, MS. The next morming, we woke up and started watching the radar. We decided to get a generator, just in case.. that was the best $800 we have ever spent!!

I will write more about the hurricane in the next post!

The trip was a lot of fun.. yes we got on each other's nerves, and yes it was long.. and yes I was glad to be home, but I am so glad that we went, and so thankful that my dad thought of doing this for us, so that we could spend time together.