Hangin' with fam

My brother in law, David, graduated with his master's degree in marriage and family therapy this last weekend.  My parents and my brother drove out to Fort Collins to be there for the graduation.  I thought about taking the kids and driving up there too so we could  hang out with the family while Brandon is away.  But a quick check of the travel time on mapquest convinced me of the craziness of that decision. Even if we had been able to survive the 15 hour drive I don't think I would have enjoyed staying in a hotel with three kids and no husband.  

So I planned the next best thing - A trip to Lindsey's house!

The kids were very excited to go visit Lindsey, John, Rocklond, Knoxx, and "Gwetta too."  When we packed up the jeep on Tuesday night Lydia climbed into her car seat and started buckling herself in.  She was heart broken that we had to sleep one more night at our house.  

 Soon enough morning came and we were on our way.  I had hoped to get the living room clean before we left, but it never happened. We were all just too excited to do something so mundane as clean the living room (or do the dishes, or make my bed, or clean up the hall.)

On previous trips to Houston we've always left early in the morning so the kids could sleep during most of the drive.  But that always makes me super tired during the rest of the day.  So this time we left around 9:45.  During the first 20 minutes of the drive I was seriously regretting my decision to leave so late.  The girls kept asking for things and I even had to mix up a bottle for Derrick while driving.  I told myself at least we weren't driving all the way to Colorado.  After a little while all the kids fell asleep and things were better..

Once we got to Lindsey's house we could focus on our jam packed weekend of doing nothing.  I told her I didn't want to do a lot this weekend.  Just hang out at her house and the splash pad.  And that's pretty much what we did.  Here is this week in pictures.

As usual Lindsey fed us lots of yummy food.  Here is Derrick enjoying some of it.

Charlotte remembered that she loves Gretta the dog.  She loved playing with the dog, but I think she liked playing in the kennel even more.  She'd go in there all the time.  Derrick learned how to unlock the kennel and let Gretta out.  

 Lindsey teaches preschool for Rocklond and 4 other kids.  Thursday was their last day for this year.  It was a bike day at the splash pad parking lot.  I went down there with my kids for the first half hour or so.  Then we went grocery shopping (at Kroger yay).  When we came back we joined in on the last half hour of preschool.

 Later that evening we went down to the splash pad for some fun.  Lydia has been looking forward to this forever.  She is the type of girl who would wear her swimming suit all day long.  When I told her we were going to go to the splash pad she yelled, "Swimming YAY! Get Wet!"

 Charlotte wasn't too sure about the water.  She spent most of the time sitting with me and Derrick on the bench.

 But she did go have some fun.

 Lydia couldn't get enough of the water.  She and Rocklond played and played and played in it.

 She called this her "house."

 Lindsey and I randomly decided that we wanted to take the kids to the beach at Galveston on Friday.  But Derrick came down with a high fever on Thursday afternoon.  After a rough night with him I wasn't up for any big adventures.  So instead we met up with some friends at a park.

The park had four baby swings.

 I had so much fun pushing all three kids in the swings.  Usually we are lucky to find a park with two swings so this was heaven.

 And the park had sand too.  It was just as good as the beach - and it had shade.

 After the park we went to the splash pad again and had some more fun.  Well at least Lydia did.  Derrick was back to not feeling so well and Char just didn't like the water.  So Lydia stayed with Lindsey and her kids and I took Char and Derrick home.

It's a good thing I did because not even 5 minutes after we got home someone rang the doorbell.  I looked through the peep hole and saw some lady holding flowers.  I thought, "She much have the wrong house.  No one here would be getting flowers - WAIT, it's MY anniversary!"  I opened the door and sure enough the flowers were for me.

 One of the reasons I came to Lindsey's this weekend was so I wouldn't be alone on my anniversary.  I should have known that Brandon would still find a way to make it special even if he wasn't home.

 Saturday we again planned to go to Galveston.  We had even told the kids about it.   Lindsey was telling me about the ferry that we could possibly take as part of the trip.  That reminded me of a story about a ferry that Brandon's parents rode on when Brandon's dad surprised his mom with a trip to Washington for their anniversary.  I told Lindsey the story.  Then Lindsey said, "OH NO, John's brother is surprising his wife for their anniversary and I promised to watch their kids TODAY."  She had completely forgotten until that moment.

So that nixed the trip to Galveston once again.

Within a few hours Rocklond's other cousins showed up.  We ate lunch and then went to a different splash pad to play.   I love how grown up Derrick looks in this picture.

One reason we kept going to so many splash pads is because John was picking up some extra shifts at work and needed to sleep during the day.  So we were trying to stay out of the house as much as possible.  

We had fun at the splash pad.  This one had a play ground right by it.  Charlotte spent a lot of time filling up a water bottle, running it over to one of the slides, and then dumping the water down the slide to create a water slide for the older kids.  

Everyone had a good time until Lydia slipped off a bench.  So I made another early exit with my kids.  We went back to the house and cooled off with graham crackers and milk.  

In the afternoon Lindsey sent me out for some personal time.  I'd watched all the kids for her on Thursday and Friday night so she could do stuff and she had promised that I would have some time on Saturday.  I felt bad leaving her with 8 kids, but she assured me that Rocklond's older cousins weren't that hard to handle.

I went out to do some much needed maternity/summer clothes shopping.  My belly totally popped this week and I couldn't fit into my jeans anymore.  Which was kind of okay because the weather heated up and I really didn't want to wear jeans anymore.  I did lots of window shopping at the outlet malls by Lindsey's house and then went to Ross and bought a cute maxi dress, a shirt, and two pairs of capri pants.

Later that night I went out again and watched Iron Man 3.  It was a very good movie.  I hope I'm not giving too much away when I say that the movie had some people who could heat their bodies up like fire.  I came home and discovered that I had two little fire people of my own.  Charlotte and Lydia had come down with Derrick's fever.  Knoxx had it too.

Since the fever was obviously contagious my kids and I stayed home from church on Sunday.  Rocklond came down with fever after church so most of the kids spent Sunday afternoon just laying around and sleeping.  Lindsey and I enjoyed talking and talking and talking.  Which is what we do anyway on Sunday afternoons, but it was nice to do it in person rather than on the phone.      

 By this morning everyone seemed to be doing better and it was time to go home.  I could tell the kids were ready to be back in their own space.  Once we got home the kids were so happy to see all their toys and other things again.  Derrick seemed especially happy to be home.  I think he was afraid we were moving again.

To celebrate being home he showed off that he can now climb up onto the counter from the ladder back chair.  

 He later climbed the piano to try to get to my flowers. (Sorry no picture of that one, I was saving the flowers)

 And he also can climb up the stool in the bathroom to see himself (and play with an empty toothpaste tube.)  This kid is turning into a hand full.

It was such a nice weekend.  I am so so so so so grateful that Brandon was assigned to a place that was close to family.  Especially family as awesome and accommodating as Lindsey.  I'm glad I get to see her often enough that we can spend 5 days together just chilling out.  I'm also glad that our kids are able to spend time together and get to know each other.