First-time visits

I'm not sure if Kole had an eventful week, or if others had more of the eventful week involving him. Anyway - lots of people got their first gander at the little nipper. First was Wednesday, when we went to Graford, TX for a funeral of Kathy's aunt Linda - a great lady who was an old GP High alum and knew many members of my family. If you don't know your Texas geography, Graford is just west of Whitt - so we actually had the opportunity to drop Kole off at my mom and Gedy's house (just 15 minutes away) first for a few hours while Kat and I went to the funeral. We then picked him up, skipped the graveside burial service, then met back up with Kathy's family at her uncle Doug's house in Millsap. This time we brought Kole with us, and he started getting fussy and cranky right about the time we passed through the town of Cool, TX. It brought some needed comic relief to the car ("Cool! This is really Cool around here! I mean ... Dallas is cool, but this place is really, really Cool!!!" Pointing at nothing on the side of the road "Hey - COOL!!") It took 60 seconds for the joke to get old, but it was nice while we had it. Eventually we had a bottle in Kole's mouth when we drove up to the uncle's house. He lives on a hill on about 10 acres and his next door neighbor is Alice Walton, who Forbes currently has at #9 on their list of richest Americans - sitting on a cool 15.5 billion. She's Sam's youngest daughter. Kathy's uncle Doug is a state trooper and provides some security for Alice on the side, so he's the only neighbor she hasn't bought off (she apparently owns most all of the land along the I-20 corridor between Weatherford and Mineral Wells, raising and ranching horses) and they stay in very good graces. ANYWAY - long way to say that all of Kathy's mother's side of the family (the Wood family) got a chance to meet Kole and there was barely a moment when he wasn't being held and loved on.
Then earlier today, Kelley arrived from Omaha so she can turn right around tomorrow and leave for Mexico with my mom and a couple of her friends to go have her 40th birthday bash. I picked her up from the airport and brought her by the house and she got a nose-full of Kole for a couple of hours herself. So, lots of good times had in recent days - even in light of the unfortunate passing of Kathy's aunt.
Through Kathy's pregnancy she couldn't sit in our hot tub - since water that hot raises her body temperature, and thus of the baby, and gets dangerous. So, the hot tub has been idle since last October. Last weekend, I emptied it, cleaned it out, filled it up and balanced the water. With Kathy still in recovery and not quite ready to hop in a 104-degree tub, I just left it at its temperature straight out of the hose, about 88 degrees. Instead of putting on the normal lid - I put a tarp over the hot tub. The normal insulated lid has a hole in it, and disgusting rain water gets through it and into the hot tub. So, I just got a $20 tarp from Wal-Mart (have another dollar, Alice) and put it on top. Today, I mowed the lawn with it 104 degrees outside. My gift to myself was a little dip in my cool-water hot tub. I pulled the tarp off and confirmed that the heater had not been turned on. It hadn't. It was still set on 88. But the water temperature?? 106 degrees!! On the settings, I can only set it as high as 104! The tarp must have acted like a magnifying glass for the sun, then trapped the heat. It was damn-near boiling! So much for that idea. So, I dropped a few choice 4-letter words, came inside popped open a Michelob Light. Take THAT, hot tub!
(PHOTO 1: Kathy's cousin Laura with Kole at their Uncle Doug's in Millsap. PHOTO 2: Kole gives Aunt Kelley the smile she's only read about for the last few weeks.)