Centennial Celebration

Yes, I'm behind...

In March, we flew to Texarkana, Texas to witness Great-Grandma Stewart turn 100 years old. She is the mother of Tim's grandmother on his father's side. She stays up late into the night playing Crazy 8s and Rummy at the retirement home she lives in. It is a lovely facility and they did a wonderful job honoring her. It was Madeleine's first airplane flight.

Me, Jared and Mads drove down to pick up Tim from work and after an awesome burger from In-N-Out, we headed off the the airport in San Diego. The weirdest thing happened! We actually saw a white Dodge Magnum drive by us on the 15 South with our destination emblazoned on the back. What a trip! What are the chances that we would see a car from Texarkana (pop. ~37,000), driving beside us as we departed for the town? Weird. Granted it was from Texarkana, AK...but, still.

Madeleine and Dada have some fun:

Mads did fabulous going to Texas, she stayed up really late, but still was a sweetheart. Here we are driving in the tram from the Dallas airport around 10pm. I am singing the "Wheels on the Bus" to her.

Tim's aunt, Lyn, was so gracious to let us crash at her house in the Fort Worth area so we could enjoy a few days of touring the area before meeting up with his sister, Kim, to fly to Texarkana. We decided to take in the Ft. Worth stockyards. Tim and Mads met some nice horses.

Madeleine also met some nice Longhorns too.

I met a very big Longhorn!

This here's Billy Bob's, the world's largest honkey-tonk. And since we actually listen to country music, we decided to go in. They charged us $3 to just visit, and no one was in there, but they do have a rodeo ring, a mechanical bull, three stages and tons of bar stations. It was interesting.
Next, we headed downtown Ft. Worth to check out the water gardens. It was a large, multi-level concrete park that featured different water elements throughout.

This was a very cool exhibit, you had to walk down these detached steps to the center and it was fairly deep. The water was rushing and quite loud.

We met Kim at the airport the next day, and headed out to Texarkana. While waiting for our flight, we found some fun toys for play.

Since we had flown most of the morning and she skipped her nap, Mads was fairly tired and prone to fussing towards the end of the flight to Texarkana. I nursed her to quiet her and she fell asleep. My own weariness with the first trimester pregnancy is evident in this picture:

Once we got to Grandma and Granpa Bergon's house, everyone got cozy and Grandma Bergon showed Madeleine how to rub Papa Gary's head. Only at family events, when you are the precious little grandaughter, do you get to stand on the dining table. (Love Mads' face here!)

It was a late night when we met Great-Great Grandma Stewart. Here are the two ladies, separated by 5 generations! So awesome!
Lois Stewart, Madeleine & Tim
The next day, we freshened up with a bath in the lovely hotel room.
Later that day, we convened with about 20 other family members from Arizona and California and Texas to celebrate Grandma Stewart. She received a standing ovation, a lovely cake, roses and a certificate honoring her 100 years here.

We also saw Tim's cousin, Chris, and his wife, Leslie. They are due with their first child June 26th! Yay! It was great to see them again, and Chris gave a wonderful prayer for Grandma Stewart.

Of course, Madeleine was the belle of the ball; everyone wanted to hold her and talk to her.
It was a real joy to have so many family members reunited to celebrate their friend Lois.
Happy 100th Grandma!
We were spoiled with dinner at Johnny Carino's; I guess they haven't shut them down in Texas. Madeleine, again, was the center of attention...and I think she started getting the idea:

It was a little difficult to get everyone to look at the camera at one time =)

After a nice visit and some resting at the hotel, we left for home- at 5am. Unfortunately, we had to wake up Madeleine at 2am California time to make our flight. She was pretty much on melt-down the last hour of the flight home after catching two plane connections. Even so, the attendant said she was "perfect"- huh...she must not have been around too long because we were working very hard, and giving her a lot of food to keep her happy!

Finally, home sweet California mountains!

It was a wonderful trip and we were so fortunate to get to celebrate with Grandma Stewart.

Love, Lauren