Baton Rouge

A few weekends ago, we made a trip to Baton Rouge to see Stephen's grandma.  We found out she has lymphoma (cancer of the lymph nodes) and has been moved to Hospice.   We drove in late Friday night and then went to see her on Saturday.

The Hospice facility she is in is so nice and was decorated so nice for Christmas.  The family room was occupied, so they wheeled her out to the lobby so we could visit by the Christmas tree.

They had a great room for kids to play in with books and toys.  Stephen loved bringing different books to show Mamaw.





I was really worried about how he would react to seeing her, but he warmed up to her quickly and was so sweet with her.













Stephen got tired of playing in the kids room, so Stephen occupied him with Caliou on his phone.



Then he played hide and seek with Mamaw.  This was such a sweet moment.  He loved this and just laughed and laughed.



I love this picture!



We were staying with Stephen's Aunt Jan and Uncle BJ (Jan is Steve's sister), so we went back to her house so Stephen could take a nap.  The rest of the family had been at Mamaw's place packing so we went over there to see them for a while.  It was hard for Stephen to be in her room since there were boxes and lots of stuff everywhere, so I let him walk around for a while.  He found this piano and loved playing it.



This is Stephen's cousin Grant.  He is Johnice's son.











We went and saw Mamaw again that afternoon and then went and met Aunt Jan, Uncle BJ, Kim, Philip, Brent, Julie, and the kids for dinner.  Afterwards they all came over to Aunt Jan and Uncle BJ's house so we could visit some more.  Stephen loved playing with the kids.



This is Callie (Brent and Julie's oldest daughter) and Jan with Kim and Philips's new dog, Sophie.



We attempted to get a picture of all the kids together and this was the best we could do.

From right to left is Callie (Brent and Julie's oldest), Peyton (Kim and Philip's oldest), Sydney (Kim and Philip's youngest), and of course Stephen.  Bryce (Brent and Julie's youngest) was already at home with Julie so he is not in the picture.







They have a train around their Christmas tree that Stephen absolutely loved!



All the kids took turns operating it.















When anyone leaves, everyone else goes to this window in the kitchen and waves.  It was dark and raining, so Aunt Jan was helping Stephen cup his hands around his eyes so he could see them and wave.



We had such a great time with everyone this weekend and were so thankful to Jan and BJ for letting us stay with them.  Jan keeps all of the grandchildren during the week so she has a crib for Bryce that Stephen got to sleep in so that was wonderful!  We stayed up until 1 am both nights talking and they even made us a fabulous breakfast each morning.  They were such great hosts!

Sunday morning, we went and saw Mamaw again and then met Annette, Jim, Johnice, Bryan, Grant and Will for lunch.  We had a really nice time with them.

Then it was time to head home.  The weather was awful all weekend.  Cold and rainy.  This is what most of our drive home looked like. Yuck!



Stephen was so good in the car.  He slept a lot of the way there and back home.



Even though this was a hard trip as we don't know if it will be the last time we see Mamaw or not, overall it was a really good trip.  I am so thankful that Mamaw was feeling well and in good spirits.  It made our visit with her a really great one!  And we had so much fun with Aunt Jan and Uncle BJ and all of their family.