Abilene

The next stop on our journey was Abilene, TX, to see my brother Matt graduate from ACU. We also enjoyed reconnecting with our old friends, Steve and Wendy (from our days as AET's in Japan). It was such a delight to see how their family has grown since the last time we saw them. The kids had a good time playing together. (Sadly, though, we took no pictures of our time with Steve and Wendy.)

My sister and her three girls were able to travel to the States from Bolivia for Matt's graduation, and then spent a little over a week with us in Detroit before they went back. Here are a few pictures of our time in Abilene:

The Stephens family (plus two grandkids)

The lovely lady in the black dress is Janille, my brother's girlfriend. It was a real treat to (finally) meet her while we were there.

We were in Abilene over a Sunday, which happened to be Mother's Day. Since Julie and I now have 5 kids ages 4 and under between us, we decided to forego going to a nice restaurant (which can be torturous when you have young children) and just got a bucket of chicken and went to a local park. The kids had a great time, and the adults were able to squeeze in some good conversation while they were playing.

My mom with all her kids and grandkids on Mother's Day

"Dude... they tell me we're related." Stephen and Uncle Matt getting to know each other

Uncle Matt is super fun!

More pictures of our time with Aunt Julie and the cousins to follow. I am working on a slide show and should have that up in a couple of days.