Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Over the River and Through the Woods

...to Grandmother (and Grandfather's) house we went.

{If you are coming here to view the blanket sets for our Haiti mission trip fundraiser, you can click HERE or just scroll down.  We still have lots left to sell!}

On Monday, all of the kids except Molly and Taylor, accompanied me on the 13 hour drive to Ohio to see my parents.  Jeff, Molly and Taylor will be joining us on Friday and then next week we will be continuing on to Iowa to see Jeff's family.  {Molly had camp this week and didn't want to miss it.}

I have no hilarious, horrible stories to tell of the trip here because...well...the kids were great in the car.  As in...perfect.

I have only one complaint.

There was an event that took place where I WANTED them to cry.  To throw a fit.  To act fearful and ask embarrassing questions, like, "How are we going to have enough money for gas, now?"

It happened in New York.  I was driving along...having stopped using the cruise control because everyone kept riding my tail.  I was happily thinking about who-knows-what but apparently not paying attention to the speed limit.

I suddenly noticed a cop sitting by the side of the road, glanced down at my speedometer and knew I was caught dead in the water.
Yeah.
He clocked me, alright, and pulled out behind me.
Of course I slowed to a respectable 60 m.p.h. in a 65 but alas....it was too late.
He pulled me over, at which point the kids should have started crying, right?  And wailing things like,
"He isn't going to drag you off to jail, is he, Mommy?"
But no.
They sat there, still as stones. Behaving way too respectably to have been the cause of my speeding.
Drat.
Mr. Police Officer was polite.
But he had no mercy.
It was my first speeding ticket EVER.
Gah!

It definitely put a damper on my mood for the rest of my drive but thankfully, we made it the rest of the way without mishap.

My dad has not been feeling too great and has continued to have some issues so we are staying close to home.  Yesterday, Jillian, Chloe and I helped my mom paint her kitchen and then my brother and his wife brought their kids over so the cousins could play.
And have Grandma spoil them with ice cream cones.
And sparklers.
How she still had the energy, I do not understand.
She's like the Energizer bunny.
She handed out the sparklers like candy and the kids had a ball.  I sat slumped in my chair after all that painting until she instructed me to get my camera.

So here are a few grainy pictures of them having fun....it was really dark so the pics are a bit blurry but its still fun to remember these fleeting summer moments.  I could edit them to make them look better but I don't have time because we need to finish the painting this morning so that we can take the kids to the park this afternoon.




I loved this moment of the kids helping to light the others.

My nephew is famous for making hilarious faces and did this for me on cue.  He has a future, I'm telling ya...


The aftermath...