visiting alabama

This last week Joey, Hudson and I along with my parents and Mikayla drove to Birmingham, AL to visit my grandparents and my uncle kevin and his family.  This was our first road trip with Huds and so we decided to drive through the night so he could sleep the whole time.  Hudson was a rock star and did awesome but it kicked the rest of our butts and Joey and I are still trying to recover from the lack of sleep.  But it was a sweet time with family.

The main reason for this trip was to spend some time with my Papa and my Grammy, who was diagnosed a few years ago with Dementia   She hasn't been doing very well lately and was longing to meet her first great grandson.  So we loaded up and made the trip.  It was so fun to watch my Papa and Grammy love on Hudson and share their excitement over meeting their first great grandson.  They wanted to show him off to all of their friends and even showed him off to some strangers.  But it was also heartbreaking to see my Grammy not always fully understand who Hudson was.  She loved him regardless and followed him around relentlessly, always making sure he was ok.  She smiled a lot, giggled at his sweet little faces and, in true grandma fashion, pinched his cheeks every chance she could.

It's hard to see someone you love so much go through this but it was so beautiful to watch my Papa love her so well through it.  He is patient, kind and understanding. He is helpful and affirming.  And he continued to speak his love for her openly in front of his family.

My favorite thing though was hearing my Grammy laugh and watching her dance.  She has always been a joy filled woman with a great love for music, and I love that this disease has not robbed her of that.  I am thankful for the wonderful God loving woman that she is and for the sweet time we had with her this week.  Here are some pictures from the week.  (Sorry for the quality.  They are just phone pictures.)