Travel and BIG Life Moments Update

Let’s start with the most exciting news. Mr. Sanders graduated from LSU this weekend with a degree in Construction Management and is employed!

Todd and Nick welcomed several of Nick’s family members into their home this weekend to celebrate the occasion. Nick’s father even flew in from Alaska.

After the ceremony, Nick, Todd and family drove up to New Orleans for dinner at WINO (second time mentioned on the blog..remember Christmas?) and then some gambling. There was a fancy dinner thrown in there somewhere in which Todd ate ox tail and some sort of liver.

The next day, they were off to Pensacola where I believe they are right now. They’re likely sitting on a beach and drinking something delightful.

Dad is overseas this week in The Hague. I have no idea what he’s doing over there but I do know that it’s pretty because he sent us this nice picture:

I also know that Dad forgot how to tell time because he called mom at 1:30 a.m. one morning thinking that it was 10:30 p.m. and that Mom was in Alaska. Both Dad and I got an earful about that one. Remember, family, Mom does not like to be woken up by phone calls in the middle of the night.

Dad returns at the end of this week, so we wish him a safe and worry free flight. This coming weekend, according to the Mom report, she and Dad are going to a dinner at an important political figure’s house. The gallery is impressed.

Meanwhile, Mom and I drove up to the Underwood ranch this weekend for Kaitlyn’s birthday celebration. It was a BIG moment because Mom has never met the Underwoods, well any of them other than Jarrod. Though odd sidenote, she met one set of his grandparents on a random trip to Houston a while back.

Anyway, we arrived Saturday midafternoon. Mom swears that I “almost rolled the car” when driving into the ranch. I admit that I was driving a bit on the fast side and I was coming up a gravel road. I totally forgot that the road splits (I admit that I forget every time) and, with gusto, yanked my wheel to turn the car to take the other road. Well, now I know, when on gravel, don’t yank the wheel. We skidded a bit, though I believe that we were never in terrible danger. I directed the car into some rougher terrain and it quickly came to a halt. Just wanted to put that all out there on the Internet before Mom goes spreading rumors that I almost killed her in the Matrix.

Per Kaitlyn’s birthday request, we had an evening crawfish boil. Mom, to my surprise, went along with my plan to rescue one of the crawfish and walked with me down to the pond to let it free. Though she has told me several times since then that the crawfish is likely dead, drowned in the mud. I’d like to think that he’s happily scuttling along somewhere doing his lil’ crawfish thing, thanking his lucky stars for the big, white rescuer.

I saw Mom off in her rental car, Sunday afternoon and quite honestly have been chilling like a villain since then. I had grand designs to wash my car and laundry yesterday afternoon, but ended up taking a long nap on the couch with the little dog and the going to the grocery. But hey, it can always wait until today, right?