On Tuesday, July 14th, 2009, our family welcomed in it's newest member when Kelly, my brother's wife (firework photo couple) gave birth to Scarlett London. Scarlett becomes my 2nd niece to Kenny and Kelly and is an absolute doll, as you can see.
This trip also was a reunion of sorts, as it was planned to be my brother's R&R from Afghanistan for Scarlett's birth, so I drove my parents down to see him, Kelly, Fiona and Scarlett. The trip was down was great, minus one little scare with a "LOW FUEL" light lingering on a little too long in the wee hours of the morning. Regardless, we arrived safe, had a great hotel in a great location in Houston, and other than a little heat...
Okay... A LOT OF HEAT!, it was a great trip. It was really good for Kenny to get to come home and see everyone, and to not have to rush from Texas to Indiana just to see us, so it was well worth the drive.
Kenny only had a few weeks of leave, so we didn't want to impose and take up most of his time to be with his wife and daughters, even though we would have enjoyed every second we had together. While down there, I did get to take Fiona to go see "Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" at on of Houston's Studio Movie Grill's. If you ever get a chance to take in a show at a venue like this, it is really cool. It is a restaurant theater, where you have a wait staff come serve you from a menu, just like at a restaurant, but while sitting at a table in a theater. Good food, good movie, Great Company. But for some reason I still feel like I only took Fiona along as an excuse to see the cartoon movie myself, without looking too bizarre. I loved the movie, quite possibly more than Fiona did, but did have a great time hanging out with her.
It was hard to leave, to say the least, but we wanted to let Kenny enjoy the rest of his time back from the war, at home, with his now larger family. As on the drive to Texas, I played chauffeur to my parents, as I have been dubbed "a road-trippin' fool" by some of my friends. The drive home was a normal road trip for me, with the exception of the one Texas state trooper pulling me over for doing 54 MPH in a 50 MPH zone, that I don't believe was posted. I was stopped 10 yards short of the 60 MPH speed limit sign. He let me go with a warning, after interrogating each of us and slowing my drive by 20-30 minutes. 10 miles after getting stopped, we hit the Louisiana state border.
Showing the world who her favorite uncle is...
Cute Side Story:
So from the first minute that Fiona knew she was going to become a big sister, she has given Kelly, Kenny, and the family plenty of memorable quotes. She first told us that she wanted a little sister, and if she had a little brother she was going to throw him in the trash. She eventually warmed up to the thought of having a sibling more, and was excited to know that she was going to have a little sister.
Monday night, the night before we knew the baby was coming, Fiona had a sleep over with 'Mimi' at the hotel. We were all hanging out at the hotel on Tuesday when I got the text message to start bringing everyone up to the hospital to meet Scarlett. So I asked Fiona if she was ready to go meet her little sister. She suddenly got excited and was really anxious to get up there. Please note that the hotel was about 10 minutes from the hospital. I got Fiona strapped into the car seat in the back of my Truck and left the hotel. As I turned onto the main road to get to the hospital, some 100 yards from where we got in the truck, I looked back and caught this shot with my phone's camera.
Obviously overwhelmed with emotion