Tiny-Town Texas

We spent the second half of June in a tiny town called Bowie, Texas. That's where Grandma & Grandpa Dahle live these days. While Aaron learned oodles in his rural family practice experience, the kids and I enjoyed the pace of small town life. The biggest adjustment for me was no internet access or cell phone reception--for two weeks! One of my favorite parts was watching Xander bond with Grandpa Dahle. Xander loved to just follow Grandpa around. With all that space, there were plenty of interesting places to follow--to the pond in the corral, to the garden to pick vegetables, even to the driveway to check fluids in the Jeep.

Xander and Grandpa especially loved picking berries together out behind the horses' corral. Unfortunately, Xander liked those berries so much that the bowl always returned to the house as empty as it had been when they left. Grandpa just chuckled, but, hey, I never even got to taste one berry! Grandpa was also Xander's favorite because he knew how to fix the chain that kept breaking on the pedal-powered John Deere. And Grandpa helped Xander make his idea of hauling the wagon behind it a reality. Xander's little cousin (technically, first cousin once removed, but who wants to be technical?) Jaxson was happy to be hauled behind the tractor.And he was equally happy to hop out and help push when the tractor got stuck. They had a blast together!Jaxson and Elodie bonded, too, although Elodie only considered Jaxson and Logan and Braxton and Zach and Cody Xander's cousins, since they are all boys. There were no little girl cousins in Texas, but she was excited to have her "tousin" Tanielle, who's 13, sleep in her bedroom one night. But Elodie really did play well with Xander's cousins, too! Grandma Dahle and Aunt Marj generously threw Xander a Texas birthday party. He came away with numerous new trucks, one of which was a John Deere with various attachments which he informed me today is his best truck. We all had loads of fun with Ryan and Keira's cute little family, even though Ryan and Aaron's hog-hunting plans never quite materialized. (Awwww, shucks!) We really enjoyed the time in tiny town Texas, mostly because we got to really reconnect with people we love most!