grandma jean

we had been planning on a long weekend away

to illinois over the 4th of july since this spring.

it was time to go see ronnie's family.

we hadn't taken the girls back since i was pregnant with reid,

over two years ago.

normally, ronnie and i visit once or twice a year.

somehow times gets away from you and traveling with

a toddler and a baby seem like the worst option ever.

unfortunately, we missed seeing ronnie's grandma jean by three days.

she passed away the monday night before we were set to leave and
it was a bit heartbreaking for ronnie.

growing up, he spent a month every summer with his grandparents and he

has such fond memories of the farm and playing with his cousins.

it's a little hard to accept that we didn't get to say goodbye and  

i know he's struggling with the fact that our kids are so young

that they will never remember her and she didn't get to see them grow up.

i try to remind him how awesome it is that she even got to meet them at all.

not a lot of people live until they are 94 and get to meet all their great grandchildren.

what a blessing.

i'm so glad that they came to visit us in march and ronnie actually spent

an evening alone with his grandma taking her to dinner.

(she needed a break from the chaos, lol.)

i know he wasn't expecting it to be the last time he spent with her and

i'm so thankful he got that time to sit and talk with jean without

everyone else around.

it helped to go back and be surrounded by family all weekend and

although it was not the trip we originally planned, it ended being a nice weekend.

we took the camper so we had our own space, but

we spent the whole time with family.

we got to see old pictures of his grandma growing up and meet a lot of her

family that we normally wouldn't see otherwise.

we went to a tractor pull and swimming with his cousins.

we stayed up drinking, listening to don william and george strait.

it was exactly what ronnie needed.

he wasn't ready to leave and i promised that we would go back this fall.

she will definitely be missed and visiting the farm wasn't the same

without her, but i know she was ready.

and now my girls have a special lady looking down on them.