A special photo

A few weekends ago, we met my cousins in Rusk at the Texas State Railroad to take a picture of all 16 great-grandchildren for my Grandpa. We dressed the kids in red, white and blue in honor of Grandpa's love for our great country and his military service. My Grandpa was diagnosed with lung cancer a few months ago. He has never smoked a day in his life. He is undergoing his third round of chemo and seems to be responding well to the treatments. He has an amazing amount of physical strength and an even more amazing amount of mental strength. At eighty-nine years old he has never given up, never lost sight of what's important and never stopped planning his future. He never ceases to amaze me! Having said this, we felt like this picture would be a special one for him to treasure. Trying to do these special things for him while we can!



It took quite the planning to coordinate a weekend for all of us to meet up but we finally found one. The kids did GREAT and the photographer got quite a few good shots. I was a little concerned about Sarah, but she did really well.
After the pictures we headed out to the deer lease to see the rest of the Eckel family. Most of the family was in town for opening weekend.

A rare picture of my Dad and his siblings with Grandpa.


Gotta treasure these pictures while we can.


And at 89 he still deer hunts. One of the uncles takes him to his stand, gets him settled in and then they wait until they hear him blow his whistle to signal when he is ready to be picked up.




Sarah found a 4-wheeler that she climbed herself onto.


Playing in a wild hog pin. Eek!


Nothing says "country" like riding in the back of a pick-up truck.


Sarah and Joseph admiring each other.


Kisses!


Best buds!