The Valley

We had to take an unexpected trip this weekend down to the Valley in TX..McAllen/Hidalgo to be specific. My step-grandmother passed away on Thursday and we decided that it would be worth the trip to go down for the funeral. Ironically my mom and uncle were arriving that day for a scheduled visit anyway. They arrived to find out what happened while they were traveling.

So on Saturday afternoon we packed up the boys and made the 6 hr drive down. Evan's not such a fan of the car, but Connor had his videos and ABC sticker book and he was good to go. We got there much earlier than expected and were able to spend some time with my mom. We decided to stay at the same hotel for convenience, but when we got there it was little creepy. It was one of those with the doors all on the outside...which is a big no-no for safety. We got all ready for bed and discovered that the remote didn't work. So Dave went to the office to get a remote and when he came back a gigantic cockroach tried to take it from him! He fought it off and we agreed it was time to go. He walked across the street to the Comfort Suites and got their last 2 bed room for only $20 more! We packed up the boys at 9:45pm and switched hotels and it was the best decision we'd made in at least a month! The new hotel was very nice and no bugs!

We went to visit Grandpa the next day for a few minutes and eat at my favorite place in the Valley, El Pato. Then we had the visitation at the funeral home that evening. The funeral home had pews instead of chairs and every other pew had a cross on it. Connor ran right up to the pew and tried to pry the "letter t" off...guess we need a little religious education. The boys did pretty well there for about 30 min. until Connor shook his bag of letters all over the place and it was obviously time to go. We went back to the hotel and ordered pizza...another good decision!

The next morning was the funeral and the church had a "crying room" at the back which we walked straight into (after having a conversation that those "letter t's" were called crosses and we can't touch them). We made it about 3/4 of the way through the service but apparently missed the mayor of Hidalgo getting up and saying many wonderful things about Anita and all of her contributions to the community. Then we went to the cemetery which, ironically, is adjacent to their property line so you could see the house from her plot. We decided to say goodbye there and head home.

We are glad we made the trip and hope that my Grandfather's health continues after this loss...they had been married for 42 years...his 3rd marriage I think!