Granny Maurine

"Graveside services for Maurine Hudman, 90, of Post, will be at 2 p.m., Sunday, Aug. 15, 2010 with Rev. Grady Shytles officiating. Burial in Terrace Cemetery will be under the direction of Hudman Funeral Home of Post.

She died on Friday, Aug. 6, 2010 at Golden Plains Care Center. She was born April 30, 1920 in Pilot Point, Texas, to Robert and Lena (McSpadden) Russell. She was a graduate of Southland High School. She married Hansford Hudman on June 3, 1941 in Garza County. She owned and operated Maurine's Flower Shop until her retirement.

Survivors include her husband of 69 years, Hansford Hudman of Post; three sons, Bob Hudman of Post, Randy Hudman of Lubbock and Bill Hudman of Plano; four grandchildren, Jenny Hudman, Sara Hudman, Brooke Thomas and Kenny Hudman; and four great-grandchildren, Rachael Roberts, Reese Roberts, Garth Thomas and Gavin Thomas."

Long Time, No Blog

Pictures first for those of you who lose interest quickly and don't really want to read about our summer:

We stated at National Harbor, right on the Potomac River for our D.C. trip, this is a picture of the walk from our hotel to the river. Those teeny people are Garth Lee in between Mimi and Papa Randy.

There was a "buried" sculpture on the shore called "The Awakening" and Garth Lee had fun playing in/on it.

Garth Lee's signature pose on one of the docks.

One of Gavin's naps with Garth wearing the wrap, a nice break for Mama.

He was OUT...so cute!

Our reason for going...Garth Lee decided he wanted to go to Washington, D.C. to see the "original" flag, and here was the exhibit. (No photos were allowed of the actual flag)

Smithsonian Air and Space Museum

"The lawn"

The famous ruby slippers at the National Museum of American History...periodically, someone has to clean each individual sequin (not actual rubies) of the slippers.

Each state has 2 statues in the Capitol and here we are with Mr. Stephen F. Austin himself. An interesting tidbit of info is that the other states made their statues very large and grandiose, that Texas is actually the only state that made their statues life sized, which is very interesting considering everything is supposed to be bigger here.

Washington Monument

The oldest existing statue of the Father of Our Country, located in the Capitol building.

Love Garth Lee's face here

Lincoln Memorial...there are A LOT more steps than it looks like in this picture...This was the one time that Papa volunteered to stay at the bottom with Gavin in the stroller.

Arlington National Cemetery

Mimi and Gavin having a conversation on our river cruise

Gavin giving Mimi kisses

Bad angle?

Mommy, you did not seriously just post that picture of my thighs, did you?

Well, at least get a picture of my good side :-)

Gettysburg reenactment soldiers

So one of my friends threatened to delete me from her favorites (literally and figuratively) if I didn't update my blog, so I better get to it! We have had quite the eventful summer, we took 3 major trips: In June we went to Washington D.C., in July we went to Utah and a couple of weeks ago we went to San Antonio.

Of course all my pictures have yet to be downloaded, but I do hope to get them on here ASAP.

Gavin is 6 months old now, which is hard to believe. He is sitting up very well and I think he will probably be crawling in a couple of weeks. His biggest loves are his jumper/exersaucer and to nurse. I just came back to work after having close to 2 months off and he is now on a bottle strike, so Daddy is having to bring him up to work to nurse. Luckily, he is a good eater of pretty much any baby food and he also loves baked potatoes and little baby crunchy snacks, so I'm pretty sure he will survive one more day "without" me (I'm sure I will see him at least 2 more times today to nurse ;-). Gavin hasn't met a food he doesn't like, he loves his garden veggies and he hoovers squash, of course he also loves the fruits. He is such a well mannered baby, always quick to smile at anyone willing to look. His only issue is sleep and probably according to everyone but me, his sleeping issue is actually my sleeping issue, he does exactly what I've trained him to do...sleeps right next to me nursing on and off all night long. Go ahead, judge me, at least I am a little more confident now since I can at least argue back that this isn't my first 'rodeo' and yes, I do know EXACTLY what I have created because I already have a 6-year-old version :-)

Speaking of the 6-year-old...Garth Lee is now officially a first grader (and no longer sleeping right next to me nursing on and off, thank you very much). He just finished his first week of school and he is doing a little better at getting up in the mornings. After the first day he said he had fun BUT he didn't like that they didn't get nap time or recess anymore. They still have P.E., but not the same recess they had in kindergarten. He always got in trouble during nap time last year because he never slept and was disruptive so I really didn't get the longing for that except that he was just tired from not being used to getting up in the morning. He likes his teacher and has some of his old friends with him from last year, so I'm pretty sure he will do great.

Our Washington, D.C. trip was AWESOME! We went almost everywhere we could. Gavin traveled great, never cried on the plane. He was a good little travel companion. He didn't love the stroller, but he still rode in it a little and other times was either carried or in my wrap (on me or my mom, and even on Garth some). My parents went with us and it was truly an awesome trip, everyone had a great time and we learned a lot too. I never would have attempted this trip with a 4 month old with just Garth, me and the kids, so I am sooooo grateful for my parents for going, making it not only possible, but actually VERY enjoyable.

We went to Utah in July for Garth's Dad's wedding in Logan. It was a 21 hour trip to Clarkston, UT and there was less than half an hour of crying and at least half of that was me ;). Gavin and Garth Lee did so great on the looooong trip. We met a lot of nice people up there as Betty Ann's family was having a reunion/baptism/blessing/wedding so everyone was there and they were so welcoming and nice, it was so great. Clarkston is a teeny town, but it was so beautiful! We drove to Highland, UT after the reception and stayed the night with Garth's cousin Michelle in their new 12k sq.ft. house, it was AMAZING and we had soooo much fun with them, even seeing one of my missionary friends from 10+ years ago. When we left there, we went south to St. George, UT to stay with Garth's Aunt Tammy for a couple of days. It was HOT!!! We had a great time with the family there and it was sad to leave. We took 2 days coming back and it was also enjoyable, even the kids did fine, but we were so glad to get home.

We went to San Antonio to visit Kelton and his family and to see their newest addition, Auva Mae, be blessed and to celebrate Garth lee's 6th birthday with his cousins there. Garth Lee got to go to Six Flags with Autumn and Daddy and to Schlitterbahn with everyone but me and Sarah and the babies. It was so great to see them and to meet baby Auva. We had such a great time and we can't wait to see them again when they come visit us, hopefully soon!

Thanks everyone for such a great summer that I will never forget :-)