Important to Remember

For the last 6 days the Bowler's have been on a complete roller coaster ride. As expected it has been full of those life experiences that really define a family, which makes it all the better.
It began with the build up of an emmy nomination for some of my work that had us on cloud nine hoping to bring home the award. In order to ring in the night we packed up baby Pryce (while Jackson stayed with Jonathan) and turned her over to Grammie for a full night away from her folks. Grammie put up a BIG fight, literally grabbing her from our arms and announcing we were free to leave at anytime.
Unfortunatley we were not recognized with the statue, but it was an honor to be nominated. There I gave the cliche loser speech. Now someone please punch me in the face. IT SUCKS TO LOSE!!! All in all it was great for us to take a time out for ourselves, so I can't complain too much.

IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER: Your days of late night drinking, sleeping in and then hitting
some grease pit to recover are over. O-V-E-R. Don't be an idiot. LOL!!!

Returning home on Sunday we were still on a high from our little getaway, but reality would quickly kick in...
We got news Monday morning that Meredith's Uncle Dave had passed overnight. It was devastating! We knew the family would be gathering in his honor which meant we had to act fast. Meredith and her sisters knew how improtant their Uncle has been to Chalna and we all knew she needeed us to be there. It was a no brainer decision. So once again, only a few days later we packed up our newborn, Jackson and ourselves for what would be a family journey across TEXAS.

IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER: Don't kill each other.

I was proud to see how our family responded as a unit. Jackson was amazing. He watched some shows, played quietly in his seat and always let us know when his little sister needed something. Of course she handled that pretty well on her own. To be honest she was pretty impressive as well. We could only count a handful of cries.
Meredith and I switched off driving duties and never disagreed about the music, so that's a bonus. Right?
The real lesson however, came when we arrived. While we were there because of a death, Uncle Dave insisted that we celebrate his life. If that doesn't scream from the heavens what kind of a person he was, I don't know what does. His only wish was for the people he loved (and those of us, like me, lucky enough to be invited) to have a beer and some food in Lukenbach, Texas in his honor.
I was overwhelmed by this gesture. From what I could tell, it was exactly what his family needed too. Isn't that something? For a man to give his family exactly what they need exactly when they need it.
So here's to you Uncle Dave... a man I never met, but who somehow helped me discover some of life's greatest lessons after he was gone.

IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER: Life is always worth celebrating!!

All in all it has been a trying few days, but those are where the lessons in life come from. We are exhausted from it all, but mostly we are grateful.