Road Trip

My folks had made all the arrangements and we would headed to Vegas in the morning, they would be stopping off to pick me up along the way. 
I was excited to be getting away for a few days and even more excited to see my grandma, I had not seen her in almost a year now. We used to go to Vegas at least twice a year for family trips/visits. 
She was all we had left, she was my dad's mom, his dad died when I was a senior in high school and just shy of 30 after he past away my mom's mother died as well. She lived on our property and was the one who cared for us when out parents worked. I ended up moving in with her her last few months so I could care for her and provide her nightly treatments.  My aunt and my oldest cousin were just not suited for it, I prefer to say they simply could not handle it, it was a cop out of all cop outs if you ask me, afterall I was just a senior who stepped up to care for her dying grandmother. 
My mom's dad had past away when she was 17 so I never knew him, just knew of him by the stories my mom had told us, my grandmother spoke very little of him, we just always left it at that.
This was a tragic time for me, for us all and a crucial part of growing up {fast}, I had never lost anyone of significance to me and my grandparents were my world other then my parents so to lose two within such a short amount of time was just devastating!

I did laundry most of the night and packed like I was going to be gone for a month, TOTALLY forgot what it was like to take a baby on a road trip.  My oldest daughter would be staying at the house with her sister, I was only going to be gone for 4 days and 3 nights.
David was 7 months old now and had quite the personality, very happy and always smiling and those HUGE brown eyes sunk right into your heart!  He travelled well, so I was hoping this trip would be a good one. I was taking him out of state and didn't even think to tell/ask his father, I think he knew I was going to see my grandmother an that was the extent of it.  He had his {make-up} visit last week and everything seemed to be in good standings as far as I felt/knew them to be.
 We were on the road by 8 a.m. and made pretty good time, my dad was driving while I kept David company in the backseat.  We made stops when David was hungry or needed to be changed, it made for a longer trip but it was nice to be able to stretch often.  We were less than 2 miles from our destination and "boom", literally, we were side-swiped, ouch!  I've never had a broken bone {knock on wood} but can now add a black eye to my list of ailments...I grabbed the car seat and it came up and popped me in the eye, other than that no other injuries to either parties.
My Aunt and Grandmother greeted us when we 'finally' arrived and they were in "awe" at this little guy who teary-eyed they confirmed looked just like his mother. My aunt grabbed him up while my grandmother cried and spoke only in Portuguese, she was fluent of course and the older she got the more she spoke it and intermixed it into her English dialogue.  My grandmother was not able to make it to the services and it was obvious she was seeing her through him at this very moment! 
We went to the hotel to get checked in and freshen up a little, then went back out to my grandmothers house for a family bar-b-que, we had a great dinner and the visit was much needed. David was such a good little boy and was asleep by the time we got back to the hotel, him and I shared a room and by the time it was all over with, I was exhausted and couldn't wait to lay my head down.

We had one more full day of visiting and catching up so it was time to sleep fast!!