So I know I'm late {our photo program has not been working at all!} but last month, for spring break, our family had the pleasure of taking the fifteen hour drive to the Lone Star State.  I'd always heard the phrase "Everything's bigger in Texas," but I'd never thought that was actually true till we drove into the state past a "Welcome to Texas" sign bigger and more decked out than any other welcome sign for a state I've ever seen.

  My mom's whole family on her dad's side used to live in San Clemente, CA, but after the prices went up they uprooted decades' worth of beach life to live on the outskirts of Austin. So my whole family stayed with my mom's dad and step-mom {our Grandpa Paul and Nana Hanny}, except for Rachel and I who stayed in the basement of our sweet great-grandmother a few minutes away.   Both homes are on the golf course overlooking a beautiful Texan lake with so many dear running around my siblings went insane trying to feed them oranges (when they weren't turning their feet bright blue by playing on the off-limits section of the golf course).

   We really had a lot of fun in Texas.  We visited the Oasis, a really artsy-modern shopping center / restaurant on a cliff overlooking the most beautiful part of the giant lake...  We hiked up to see a view of Austin from afar...

 We drove to Austin amidst the chaos of South-by-Southwest where countless musicians filled the streets with music and rebellious-looking twenty-year-olds made me understand the saying "Keep Austin Weird."  There we also had a picnic by a river and walked around the capital...

We also drove up to San Antonio, where the big city booms with beautiful architecture and world-famous history.  We watched a 4-D video and saw the world from 622 feet in the air...

We took the gorgeous River Walk and dined on Mexican food while being serenaded by a mariachi band...

And of course, we can't forget the Alamo, where men showed the highest of honor and bravery in order to bring freedom to their land.  Even amidst hundreds of tourists, an aura of reverence filled the old church.

The rest of the time, we just chilled with all the relatives.  We played let's see how many chairs we can squish around one table and laughed our heads off over good-ole Texan steak {grilled over mesquite wood!}, or played with the panoramic camera, or looked at old pictures in tattered scrapbooks...  we listened to family stories and became proud of our blood.

Tragically, my great grandfather passed away a week before we came.  I only remember meeting him once when I was probably nine or ten, but he was an incredible man, a World War II hero and the kind of guy who jumped out of planes and could survive and thrive despite all odds.  He was the man who, in a accident during the war that drowned hundreds, managed to cut himself and another man free and become 1 of 4 survivors.  He saved a general on D-Day, a scene shown in the movie A Bridge Too Far.  While training for the Korean War, he was in a horrible automobile accident that left him paralyzed, yet he refused to accept that and ended up gaining back his strength to the same or even stronger than before.  Listening to the stories told by his beautiful sweet wife and his son, my grandpa, I am honestly so honored to be his great granddaughter.  

 I love these family trips that we get to do.  No matter how exciting or exotic the famous sights we see are, there's nothing better than having those people next to you you can call your own.