This Memorial Day weekend, we headed up to Oklahoma City to hang with some of Sheena’s family. Mom and Shane came with us as well, so instead of cramming into one of our cars, I rented a minivan. 
I’m secretly in love with minivans. They’re so useful. It’s lower than SUV’s which make it easier to get in and out (and load up kids). So much room inside for people and luggage. Good gas mileage. Great features (like navigation, rear-view camera, 4 captain chairs, dvd player to name a few). It’s got sliding doors that open at a push of a button. That is awesome to me. With sliding doors, you have easy access into the space to load up and you don’t have to worry about dinging another car, or the lack of space in your garage when you’re loading up. The fact that I can push a button to open the door is awesome because our hands are usually full when we’re walk towards the car, so having the doors open for you is super useful. But alas, my ego will not allow me to actually buy a minivan…
Enough about minivans. We left Houston pretty late (around 6pm), so we didn’t get to OKC until around 2am. It was a tough drive being so late, but we made it in one piece! Once we got there, we really just hung out the entire time. When we woke up on Saturday morning, Sheena’s uncle brought out the flags to put in the front yard. Layla placed ’em like a champ.
After a little while, Sheena’s cousins came over for lunch. Layla had a blast with her cousins Tessa and Tyson. Here they are sharing a seat to watch something on the computer.
And here’s a shot of ’em holding hands while walking through Wal-Mart.
Quick story about our trip to Wal-Mart. After shopping, we headed out and it started to sprinkle. Andy and I decided to grab the cars while everyone else waited at the front of the store. While walking, Andy made the comment “It’s not coming down too bad” and before he could finish saying the word bad, the flood gates opened! It started pouring out of nowhere! It was raining so hard and was sooo windy that carts where zooming around the parking lot by themselves! Andy quickly put Ava (their youngest) in the car and I started loading up the groceries. It took roughly 30 seconds for us to finish loading, but in those 30 seconds, we both got soaked! It looked like we jumped into a pool with our clothes on! We then drove up to the front of Wal-Mart and rain was coming in sideways into the store! The rest of the crew ran out and in that short run, got soaking wet as well. After everyone settled down from from the fiasco, the rain stopped. So basically, if we waited 5 minutes, we’d be dry as a bone…. but then I wouldn’t have a fun story to share.
The next day we went to church, had lunch and Vinod’s house and just kicked it for the day. Andy set up a “Hollywood Game Night” style game for us. It turned out pretty awesome!
We also played some volleyball in Vinod’s backyard.
We got all the kiddos bathed and had dinner. During dinner, Tyson, Tessa and Layla watched shows on the iPad. 
I’m bummed that in all these pics, I don’t have one of little Ava! She’s adorable! I’m sure you’re able to imagine by how cute Tessa and Tyson are. The entire weekend was spent simply hanging out with family, which is awesome. It’s nice to not have to rush around to be places and just enjoy each other’s company.
Monday morning, we had breakfast, kicked it for a lil bit and headed out. We hit the road at around 10:30am. From OKC to around Dallas wasn’t too bad, but shortly after passing Dallas the rain started and never let up. One part of I-45 was standstill traffic. Everyone was already going slow because of the rain, but on top of that, there was apparently an accident ahead of us. According to the map, it was backed up for about 14 miles. I needed a pee break so I exited at 179. During the pee break I looked up if there was an alternate route, so we took 179 to 75 and it was clear!
Everything was going really well, until we noticed a few cars stopped ahead of us…. 
Flooding! Luckily, we were able to go through it. The picture above doesn’t give it justice. The water was probably halfway up the tire, if not more. Once we passed up that patch, we merged back on to I-45 through the small town of Buffalo, TX. We were back in action. As far as traffic goes, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be, but because of the rain, I was driving extra cautious. I get really nervous on that stretch of I-45, especially when it’s raining. We ended up finally getting home at around 7:30pm, making it a total drive time of 9hrs! But we made it, and that’s what really matters.
Other than all the rain, it was a pretty great weekend!
Sajan Abraham 