Wonderful Weekend

As I may have mentioned once or twice on my blog, I spent the last few days in Texas visiting my niece (and brother and sister-in-law).  Specifically, I flew out there Thursday and flew back yesterday.

Now, what was wonderful wasn't the heat, although it was a big of a shock to come back to weather in the mid-80's yesterday.  They are going for a record of triple digit days in Dallas this year, so it was hot.  And unlike good old California, it doesn't cool off at night there like it does here.

This was the first time I'd seen my niece since Christmas.  I wasn't sure what kind of reaction I would get.  When she first saw me at the airport, she wasn't quite sure what to make of me, but we were halfway back to the car when she started looking around like crazy to make sure I was coming with them.

And that's prety much how the rest of the weekend went.  If I left the room she was in, she started asking about me, yelling for me, or searching for me.  Some times, she'd do all three.  And shen she was ready to leave a room, she'd grab my hand and pull me with her.

As I told some of their friends at one point, I was eating it up.

Okay, so it seemed like it was split between being called Uncle Mark and Uncle Mike, but I'm not going to quibble over minor details like that.  This is the first time I've seen her when she really was calling me Uncle anything (she's just over two), so I'm quite happy.

It really doesn't seem like I was there for three days because there was a lot going on.  Thursday, I got there in the middle of the jr. high meeting at their house.  Friday was the only normal day.  We played at the house for a while and then headed to a splash park near their house.  Basically, it's a play area with water jets of all kinds.  It was fun and cool, at least for a little while.

Friday night, the youth group at their church was having their all nighter.  My brother, the youth pastor, had originally planned it for a few weeks ago, but it had to be postponed.  I went too, and I had a blast.  I even managed to stay awake.  We played broomball, and I scored the winning goal in the adults vs. youth game.  Then we went to a place with lazor tag and whirlyball, a comination of bumper cars, lacross (with the plastic track balls and catchers) and basketball.  It was fun but pretty tricky.  Our final stop was bowling.

Naturally, that meant B and I were tired, so we slept some Saturday late morning/early afternoon.  And again Sunday afternoon.  But Sunday was church in the morning and then a meal with some people from church afterward.

So as you can see, it was busy.  And even though I can get more sleep here at home, I would go back in a heart beat and do it all again just to hear "Uncle Mark! Uncle Mark!"