Alana's Day

Alana's birthday is July 6th. Unfortunately, this year her birthday was the same day as my mother's funeral service. We had celebrated a few days early with the family cookout, but being off my game, I never took my camera off of my desk. What is up with that? I am known for being the obnoxious person who is always taking pictures.
The morning of the 6th Alana got dressed nicely to show respect for her grandmother. Hair out of her face; wore a skirt. Not one complaint during the early morning 90 mile trip to her grandparents' town for Mass. Was perfect in church and brought up the gifts.
Burial was 90 miles away at the National Cemetery. The day was now heating up to record breaking temperatures with heavy humidity. There are not enough thanks for a working air conditioner. Things were starting to catch up with my birthday girl. She plugged into her iPod, pulled the hair back, and dozed a little during this leg of the journey.
More perfect behavior at the cemetery. She helped pass out drinks to the family so that noone would get fluid low during the day.
Afterwards we bowed out of visiting with everyone so that we could begin the 170 mile return trip home and try to have a few minutes for Alana to have her birthday dinner. She was back into her "real" clothes and cooling off at the Outback over a huckleberry iced tea.