One of my cousins passed away on December 30th. It was 'Little Matt." He was 24. I found out New Year's eve. We spent the week waiting on word of when the funeral would be held.
When we did hear, my original plan had been to drive down with Patrick Monday morning and return Tuesday evening. I wanted to miss the minimum amount of work, because it was the first week back and SOLs were the week after. I, also, wanted to have the minimum impact on Carrie and Shane. I didn't think Shane would understand that I was going to visit Nana and Pop's for serious reasons instead of showing up to play.
Carrie insisted she wanted to go with me for support, though. She knew what it would mean and we drove down Friday to allow us time to be with family beforehand.
Matt, Renee, and Aiden were already there! Pop opened up the garage door when we walked up. He and Aiden were playing in the car. Aiden and Pop bonded while they were in St. Louis for Urbana and now he's the favorite.
Matt and Renee had planned on driving home after the New Year's, but chose to stay until after the funeral.
More family means more fun on my side of things!
Uncle Matt made sure to put in some bonding time with Shane.
Indy is always happier when more kids show up, too.
Pop started teasing Shane and Cole right away.
The rules are a little different at Nana and Pop's than at our house. Furniture is climbable!
Evelyn and Tenley went straight to dinner. Kathleen had picked up bbq on her way over. Aiden joined.
Eventually, the whole clan settled in to eat.
The older boys just had to run off their excitement first.
I took a few pictures and gave everyone time to get their food before I put my phone away to grab my own.
We ran out of table space at the big kid's table, so some of us had to move elsewhere!
Shane and Cole hopped on the Switch when they were done eating. They played Splatoon.
Carrie and I said our goodbyes and went to check into our hotel after a while. Matt, Renee, and Aiden were still in the upper room and with all the comings and goings we decided a little quiet would be a good idea.
We stopped at Walmart on the way and found a nice outfit for Shane to wear at the funeral for about $20. I laughed and took a picture of a rack full of "Shane pants."
There will be time to mourn later, but for now it was all joy seeing everybody.
Audiobook note: One the drive down, we listened to The Wizards of Once, by Cressida Cowell. She's the author of How to Train your Dragon, so I thought it would be a hit with both Carrie and Shane. Carrie's pickier with audiobooks than Shane, so when I saw it was narrated by David Tennant? It helped keep us entertained for the drive!
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