End of Summer Family Fun

Every summer, my mother's family has a big family reunion in Arkansas. It's the only time of the year that I get to see my grandparents who live out there. Unfortunately, my family has had some crazy goings-on this year that led to the cancellation of the reunion. My aunt spent her summer fighting a battle against cancer and my grandpa recently fell and broke his hip. While it wouldn't make sense to try and have a huge reunion, I still wanted to see my grandparents this year. So my mom and I made the 14 hour drive out to Marshall, Arkansas.

An Arkansas frog.

Without a lot of other family around, we had plenty of time to visit. In fact, with my grandpa recovering from his hip surgery in the nursing home, my mom and I had Granny all to ourselves.

Granny, cooking us breakfast.

Unfortunately, before I could enjoy myself too much, I had to finish up some homework. Our first day in Marshall was also the last day of my summer school session. That means it was the last day of my three classes. I worked all day long and felt completely amazing when I was done. Mom treated me to a coney and banana shake from Sonic as a reward. It was awesome.

Once I was able to start to forget about grad school a little, I turned my focus toward checking out all of the important Marshall, Arkansas sights. These include Fred's Dollar Store and Ferguson's Country Store and Restaurant. And that's pretty much it...

Shopping at Ferguson's while some of my family eats below.

Of course, the most important thing on our schedule was visiting with Granny and Grandpa. We went to the nursing home a couple of times each day to chat. Grandpa enjoyed being ornery for the nurses. I think he won't know what to do with himself when he gets to go home in a couple of weeks!

Outside the pretty nursing home.

Granny, entertaining us with the Chicken Dance.

Looking at pictures I loaded onto the digital frame. We wanted Grandpa to show off his beautiful family to the nurses.

Granny and Grandpa.

Me and my grandpa.

It was great to visit with family, and being in small town Arkansas was pretty relaxing, too. As soon as I returned to Colorado, I headed back to work. Now I'm back to being so busy that I wish I could spend a few more days with my grandparents in Arkansas.