Valentine's, A Visit, and Renewal

The last couple of weeks have been full of important memories and, most of all, full of family and love.  My in-laws renewed their vows at their 50th wedding anniversary!  Lance and his brother Link

planned a lovely reception for them and it was followed up by a great gathering at our house that night.  It was sort of like a mini-wedding in terms of getting to see so many family members on both the Tate and Vaughn sides.  I got to meet several of Lea's family for the first time, and it was great as usual to be in the company of the Vaughns, including Link and Deanna, Lyndi, Mamaw, Aunt Jean, and Aunt Pam.  It was quite touching to celebrate the wonderful marriage that my in-laws share, and the lives that have benefitted from their testimony.  

We were blessed to have Link around for another week after the party.  I am thankful that he is a morning person, so he happily got up with the boys and made them breakfast every morning!  Thanks uncle Link!  Of course the boys loved having him around and were constantly clamoring for his attention.  I'm pretty sure he didn't mind.  One of the best moments was our trip to the creek on his last day here.  Sticks, rocks, and boys!!

Another great memory from Link's visit was our great barbecue adventure.  We have always wanted to try Franklin's, a world famous foodie mecca, but were daunted by the need to line up early in the morning.  After all, I hardly have that kind of time to do nothing!  But we finally went for it and left the boys in good hands.  We arrived at 9:30 and felt pretty optimistic as we approached the line that trailed around the building.  We were quickly told that our projected service time would be 2pm, and later that we would likely not get any food.  Ok, so we quickly gave up and left.  However, redemption was right around the corner as we decided to try La Barbecue, a restaurant owned by a chef who had trained with Franklin.  I'm so glad we did!  The wait was easy, there was free beer (I didn't have any).  The brisket was definitely the best I've ever tasted!

Valentine's day also happened this past week.  I'll be honest, its not my favorite holiday.  It just causes so much pain and heart ache for so many lonely people.  Boo hoo!!!  But I am required to play along because the kids seem to enjoy it (the candy, that is).  I volunteered to make cookies.  It was fun and I think they turned out well!  Benjamin also made a gift for me and packaged it up himself.  It was my favorite Valentine's gift.

Finally, Sawyer had his first day of school at Bright Beginnings. He's not officially in school yet because they don't have room for him, but he spent the day there as a drop in when someone else was sick.  Evan was a sweet big brother, and it brought back sweet memories and Evan's first day joining Benjamin at school.  Sawyer did great and did not even cry.  He was ready to explore!

So much went on in the past couple of weeks that I left me feeling well, kind of like this: