You know you're in East Texas when...

-- You go to the local burger joint and the other two customers look like this: one is covered in splattered mud, head to toe and is wearing his crisp clean cowboy hat; the other is a good ol' boy with his sunglasses perched on top of his head and his mullet is trailing down his back.
-- As you leave town driving on the highway you see two younger teenagers (a boy and a girl) dressed in camouflage, carrying riffles waiting for traffic to slow so they can get to the field on the other side before it gets dark. (Granted it was the last day of hunting season.)

I just had to share that with you. We did all go the ranch this past weekend and had a great time, rain, mud and all! We even got the kids down to bed early one night so we could play some card games. That rarely happens out there. Elijah did some hunting with Jim and Rebekah got to ride the 4-wheelers some. One evening Elijah went out hunting with Jim in a deer blind, they usually go tracking which is much more entertaining. After sitting in his chair a little while, Elijah asked if he could lay down on the ground and take just a little nap. Jim helped him get settled and then went back to hunting. Jim said he'd look down at Elijah from time to time and always get greated with an Elijah grin and twinkling eyes looking up at him. Oh, Elijah truly adores his daddy. What great memories. My heart is warmed thinking about it.
On Sunday evening, after the Maslows had already left, we decided to go ahead and drive to Palestine, TX. Jim had a FEDOT meeting the next day at 9:30am over there, so we decided it would be best to drive straight there and spend the night, rather than go back to Austin and him head out the next morning. It was a good drive. The kids slept and Jim and I got a lot of talking done. That was good for both of us. We finally got in bed at a hotel around 2:00am or so. The next day went pretty smoothly. We took Jim to his meeting the next morning and then came back to the hotel for breakfast. After baths and checking out of the hotel we headed into town to a park we had seen earlier. It was a fun little park and the kids enjoyed running around. I had fun, too. Then we headed to the library to warm up and read some books. The kids really enjoyed that! But there's a sad part. I took my novel with me to the park and I think I left it there. Boo-hoo! I can't find it anywhere. I've been so sad over it. I'll have to find a copy of it somewhere and read the last few chapters. I was almost done with it.
So, that was our weekend. I'll try to post some pictures later. We're having Missy and her family over for lunch today, so I've some last minute cleaning to do!