Trip to Texas

Jim and I went to Texas the end of May over Memorial Day weekend. We got to Odessa on Saturday afternoon and had a nice visit with Mother and Daddy. We went out and ate some good Mexican food and sat outside in the yard for a while until the mosquitos attacked us!

We took this sign as we were driving. I think it is kind of cool that they named a County after our family! haha

Gary and Sharon came through town Sunday afternoon and stopped in for a visit. We took a few family pictures in front of the fireplace. Do you realize how many family pictures we have in front of Gaines fireplaces in how many different houses in how many different towns? And that same painting is always hanging there on the wall behind us. haha Kind of strikes me as funny for some reason. Good times!

Here is where I went to school as a kid. Crane Elementary. How many years ago was that? Forget it. Don't even ask.

And here is good ole' Crane High School. Everyone in our family went to school there including my mom, except for Daddy. He went to school in East Texas at Mildred High School, I think.

Here I am in front of our Lena Drive house in Crane. Still looks the same. Lots of memories in that old house! I lived there from the time I was born until I left home and went to college. This is the fruitless mulberry tree in front of our house that Daddy said he planted in 1959 right after we moved in there. That tree was huge when we lived there and it is still growing!!!

I remember when we had the light post added out in the front yard. I was just a little kid then. I thought it was so cool because it came on automatically when the sun went down and went off in the morning when the sun came up. Modern Tech-no-logy. haha

This is a picture of Sammie and Marion's house. Does it look familiar? Kind of but there's a lot more greenery around it than I remember from back in the day!

This is Grey and Grandpop's house right next door to Sammie and Marion's house. It looks totally different than it used to. I wouldn't even have recognized it. It is really cute how they have it fixed up though. They added the covered front porch to it and changed the front entrance.

This is the first house Mother and Daddy ever bought. They said it was brand new when they had it. WOW! I'm pretty sure the nice trucks weren't part of the original real estate transaction! haha

After we got back from Crane, Jim decided to trim some dead branches off one of the trees in Mother and Daddy's front yard. The ladder wasn't quite tall enough to get all of them but he got the bottom two at least. Next time we need to take a taller ladder with us! We about came unglued when we all went inside for a moment and then came back out and Daddy was up on the ladder trying to reach the next branch! Reminder to Daddy--STAY OFF LADDERS!