A Weekend Away

Max went on his first road trip this past weekend and got along amazingly well in the car . . . he only cried for about five minutes out of the entire 14 hours we were on the road.  We drove up to Burlington, Kansas, to see my grandparents, uncles, aunt and cousins.  My grandparents recently moved from Medicine Lodge, Kansas, a town where they both spent most of their lives.  They moved from a house in which they had lived for 40 years – a place that was special to my whole family.  But after staying the weekend in their new home and getting to see all that Burlington has to offer for them, I am so happy they made the move!  They have a beautiful home and such wonderful outdoor space; you can tell they’ve worked hard to make it feel like home.

 

My grandma gave Amelia a necklace and "slippers" so she could play dress-up.  They got to experience the continuous clacking sound.

It was great fun to see so much of my family, although I am looking forward to our next big family reunion where we can all be together.  I ate way too much good food and played even more cards (my family’s favorite past time).  We got an extra special treat of meeting my cousin Ashley’s four-month-old twins, Nate and Nora.  Amelia made the observation, “We’ve got lots of babies here!”  I could kick myself for not getting a picture of all three babies next to each other!

On Saturday, my Aunt Amy, Uncle John, Ashley and her husband John, plus their twins and their four-year-old Rowan drove down for a BBQ.  My cousin Kate had driven down the night before; her dad (my Uncle Bill) and Aunt Devra and my cousins Eli and Noah live in New Strawn, which is just a few minutes’ drive from my grandparent’s house.  It was great to spend a little extra time with Kate, Bill and Eli.  Amelia and Noah especially had fun playing with Eli!

In the words of my Aunt Amy, "How many men does it take to light a grill?"

Noah's first experience with "dead tree".  Amelia was more upset than Noah!

I haven’t had dairy products in almost five months, since the pediatrician and I discovered that Max doesn’t do well when I include dairy products in my diet.  Well, unfortunately, I completely “spaced” on not having dairy -- I had both lasagna and pizza on Friday, and poor little Max suffered majorly on Saturday!  I felt so badly for him . . . he was not the same baby we’ve had the last six months, and I felt so bad that my family who was meeting for the first time had to see him like that.

I feel so lucky to have such a big family that gets along so well!  My grandparents were so gracious for hosting us; having three little kids in your home for the weekend isn’t for the weak!

I’m also including some pictures from Amelia’s dance camp, which she loved.  However, they had a little performance for the parents on the last day, and poor Amelia was so scared that she totally froze up and looked like she was going to break out in tears.  However, she says she wants to go to dance camp again, so I guess the experience didn’t “scar” her too much.