Papa & Nancy, A Big Iowa Help

As I told you in my last post Brian's Dad, Tom (aka Papa) and his wife Nancy came to lend a helping hand, all the way from Larchwood, Iowa!  They made the 19 hour drive and were able to divide it up and catch the Wichita, Kansas baseball series in the - brrrrrr... cold weather and then came to see what the Texas Tornadoes had in store for them. They had NO idea :)

Reinke-Kerkvliet Wedding 9.10.2011

Let's rewind a little first, our family grew back in September - as you can see - WOW!!  Who knew Papa would be feeding 26 people for the Holiday's or just a Cardinal baseball afternoon game.  I can see us walking into a restaurant, "table for 26 please" (and we're not even with the baseball team!) I bet we won't be fighting to pick up that check anymore, lol!  While many, many miles do keep us apart and those times of having us all together will probably be very seldom one fact will always remain, cue the music.... WE ARE FAMILY!!!!

Lincoln & Cousin Samantha performing their duties well.

Lincoln was Lincoln!

Brian's sister Bridget & her husband Mike; Brother Shane & his wife Michelle

Bianca & Brooke had the pleasure of serving punch

We Danced and Had Fun!

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Blayr had fun smiling and passing out leis

Those are just a few from the hundreds of pictures I could have shared  but hopefully you experienced a little of what we did.  Now back to our recent visit. Papa and Nancy were able to spend a total of 15 days with us and experience one chemo treatment.  Brian had an away trip during that time so Papa was able to learn what we now all comically call the "bus route" so they could help with the drop off and pick-up of the kids during school time.  Not only did they help out with that, but with meals along with fixing and cleaning everything in site. Talk about handy man and woman, well our neighbors wanted to hire them at one point!  Don't worry, it wasn't all work and no play, they did get to enjoy the 80+ degree weather on most days and get several days of golf in, even Brian joined in on the fun after a three year break.  He says he shot an 89, not sure if that is good, since I'm not a golf player, but something tells me that's OK. Two home baseball games were also part of the trip, not bad considering snow was still on the ground upon their return.

Needless to say a big Texas THANK YOU is due to Papa and Nancy for all of their help, all the way from Iowa!