Her Familia

Two weeks ago Claudia and I hopped into my car and drove to Del Rio, Texas to visit her family. On Friday we drove half of the way and spent the night in San Marcos. Our night ended up being free since Claudia killed a roach in our room, and no we didn't stay in the Roach Motel. We actually stayed at a decent hotel. Even a nice place can have a roach now and again. Saturday we continued our trip to Del Rio and arrived at around 11:00 AM. This gave us plenty of time to visit a large part of her large family.

Our first stop was at her Aunt Rosie (aka "Chayo"). We spent some time with her and her Uncle Jack (A white man who paved the way for me a long time ago). Next we stopped by her cousin Dale's (a man who carries a gun for a living) and I had the chance to meet "the girls" (Dale's daughters: Ashley, Leigh and Brook). After that we stopped by Sara's house (Claudia's mom's boss, and someone they consider family) and I got the meet all her animals. This included a small poodle, a 100 pound dog (that looked more like a small bear), two donkeys, three sheep, and a dwarf steer. One of the donkeys tried eat my shirt and the bear...I mean 100 pound dog tried to bite my neck as I stood-up from a chair; All-in-all good times. Afterwards we went by her Aunt Olga's (aka "Ma" because she helped raise Claudia) & Tio Ricardo's house. Her Uncle Joe was there and her cousin Joe's kids, Natalia and Alonso. Her cousin Sofia was working that evening so we went by her work to visit for a few minutes. That night her cousin Dale had a cookout and invited us to party with him for a while.

The next day we played a practical joke on her cousin Sofia at work. Sofia works at a gas station and I walked up to the counter with flavored condoms and baby oil. She about flipped out! After that we went to the lake with two of her girls (Leigh and Brook). Following our trip to the lake we stopped by Letty and her husband's house. Letty is like a second mom to Claudia. She can't speak English so Claudia and her mom translated for the two of us. Letty asked me lots of questions. Her first one was "Well, do you love her?" Claudia says she is a bit bold and loves her lots; even the language barrier couldn't hide that. Next we went to the Plaza for gorditas at the Cinco de Mayo celebration. The food was very good and very fattening. Just as we were headed off to bed her cousin James (another gun carrier), and wife Julissa, called to let us know he was 2 blocks away from her mom's house and were going to drop in to meet me. So we stayed up and talked to him for a bit.

On Monday we met two more cousins, Joe (aka "Jojo"), and Sofia's daughter Mireyah. It was sort of a lazy day for us. We sat around and did nothing for most of the day. That evening we went to watch Ashley play softball and hung out with the Dixon's some more. We stopped by their house after the game and her cousins all played a little game of "hide Mom's keys"....Brook and Claudia made it seem like I had taken them when they were the ones up to no good. Claudia says it was because I wouldn't help her while her mom searched her for the keys.

We woke up early the next morning and headed home, but not before she made me stopped in San Marcos for some fun outlet mall shopping. I must admit it was a good stop because I too bought new clothes. Our day ended around 10 pm because of a softball game I had that night, and we were back to our regular schedules the next morning.

Every time we visited a part of her family they would tell me how the rest of the family is crazy. I think the whole family, excluding her mom, is crazy but in a wild and fun way. Claudia says I fit right in :).