We are here visiting James’ family.  We left Friday afternoon, and began the 10 hour drive out here. I was hoping for an easier time then our drive to Chicago at Easter. Alex no longer screams in his carseat all the time. But we discovered he has about an hour to an hour and a half time limit of how long he can be in it—even at night, when he normally would be sleeping.  So we had a number of stops, and it ended up taking 12 hours. And (this might be why he was waking up), he appears to be teething (or has a cold).  He’s gnawing on his hands (or anything else he can grab), drooling, and has the runny nose/watery eyes, sneezing and slight fever that his brother would get every time he teethed. Yesterday we tried to catch up on sleep.  

Today we went to church, and then visited James’ Grandparents at their nursing home.  James’ Grandmother is not doing well at all.  She had a series of strokes last week, and is unresponsive right now.  We were told to bring funeral clothes to the trip. Right now her condition is the same. She has lost her pain reflex (for those who know…for those who don’t know, that’s one of the last things to go).  Anyway, it’s a bit of a sad touch to our family vacation, but not as sad as it could be. She lived a long life, and was a strong Christian.  She’s had Alzheimer’s for awhile now.  But please keep her and the family in your prayers. All of James’ aunts have come to town for the weekend, and it has been a nice family time as we get together each night, sit outside, and they share stories about the past.

 

On a lighter note, we also got to go on a REAL train ride today. We drove out to a near-by train museum, and we got to ride on a 6 mile section of the old Reading Railroad.  Will had a fun time, though he thought the whistle was loud.  We rode on the caboose, which was pulled by the diesel engine right in front of us on the way up the track. Then the engine went on a switch track and moved to the other side of the train, and pulled us back, and the caboose was at the end of the train, where it belongs.  Sadly, I didn’t bring my cord to connect the camera to the computer, so pictures will have to wait.