Grandma Butler's 90th Birthday party

We drove to MN this past weekend to celebrate Florence Butler's 90th birthday. Dave and I drove up there on Thursday night really late. We intended on leaving our house later than we had planned, but packing up with kids always takes longer than I anticipate. We ended up leaving our house at 8 pm. I drove the first three hours of the trip and Dave worked a little on his computer. We knew the drive would be 4 hours at least...so we were somewhat prepared for how the trip would go. We thought the kids were going to fall asleep around 9 or so...but nooo...Violet was so talkative, she kept Calvin awake. They eventually konked out around 10:30 pm. Dave drove for the last hour of the trip because he is really familiar with the roads up there. We stayed the night with Aaron and Christina. When we transported the kids from the van to their beds, thankfully, they were happy to go to bed. Calvin fell asleep right away in a pack and play crib that Christina set up for him, and Violet told me she was happy to be cozy in a bed sleeping. It was a chilly night - close to 50 degrees. We always pack a fan with us when we travel because the kids like to sleep with them on for white noise. As soon as the fan turned on in that room, she was asleep. We were fortunate to not have to stop at all during the trip up there. Dave and I slept on an air mattress in their basement living room area. The whole reason we went up there on Thursday night was because Carrie Rowe was planning on hosting everybody in the family for lunch on Friday. Dave had a little work to complete before the weekend arrived, so he worked a little on Fri morning. Christina made us a yummy blueberry coffeecake and sausage patties for breakfast, that was so sweet of her. Our kids woke up on Friday morning pretty cheerful, so that was a blessing considering how little sleep they were running on. Lunch at Carrie Rowe's house was really nice. She grilled some steaks for the adults and served hot dogs, macaroni and cheese, chips, and chocolate cupcakes for the kids. We knew lunch would be short, since the kids had to nap. And the weather was terrible! It was so cold, windy, and kept drizzing rain. Calvin didn't make it to lunch. He fell asleep early at Aaron and Christina's house so he took a nap while everybody else had lunch. Sean and family were at lunch, Josh and Carrie and family were there, Martha, Jeff, and Dave and I and Violet. Carrie did a great job hosting everybody. Once lunch was over, Dave stayed back at Carrie's house with some family to help with some things, and I took V back to A&C's house for a nap. She slept on our air mattress (I had to find another fan for her, since Calvin was using the one we brought in another room). Once I found a fan, she knocked out. We moved all our stuff from A&C's house over to Phil and Jenny's house. Phil and Jenny live next door to A&C - and they were out of town for the weekend at their family's reunion and told us we could stay at their house. Sean and family were also staying there - they took over the basement. It was a fantastic set up though, we were SO happy to be staying there instead of staying at the hotel where everybody else was. For a number of reasons: 1. Violet had her own room. 2. Calvin slept in his own space behind doors (in P&J's closet), and 3. Dave and I had our own bed and bathroom to ourselves. So nice! Originally we thought to spend the rest of Friday at a park so the kids could all play and we could grill out or something, but it was just TOO cold to do anything outside. It is JULY, and we were too cold! The weather was crazy weird for that time of year. It was windy, cold, drizzly wet, and just not pleasant. We all planned instead to spend the rest of the evening at P&J's house and all split the cost of ordering a bunch of pizzas for dinner. That turned out to be a good plan...everybody was happy to hang out there. Kyle, Brad, Kala, Sheri & Chad, Victoria, Hannah, and Andy & Sara and new baby Evelyn all joined us. The rest of the family were all staying at the Holiday Inn close by - the one with the enormous water park in it. We got up on Sat morning and ate breakfast really fast, and took off for the water park, knowing the kids would thorougly enjoy themselves. Tim and Deb hooked us up with water park passes and we let the kids splash and play all morning. They absolutely loved it. The area for little toddlers only got a foot or so deep with a zero depth entry. Violet loved running up the ramp and going down the slide all by herself. She was screaming with excitement every time she got to do it again, I think she went down the slide about 50 times. It was relatively big for a little kid. It had shooting water down the slide so they would go fast and turned a couple times. She seemed to not be too bothered by the water in her eyes. One time she stood underneath a bucket that periodically filled up and dumped out - she soaked her head - and got over it ok. Calvin was uneasy about the water to start with, and for about an hour, I held him all wrapped up in towels. He soon got brave, and started splashing and crawling through the water having tons of fun. Kala swam with each kid for awhile. Soon they got really hungry, so we got some hot dogs at the snack bar near by and fed them lunch and put them down for naps in Tim and Deb's hotel room. They slept for 2 1/2 hours each. The party for grandma Butler was at 2 pm at a park 15 miles or so away. Not so convenient of a time for the kiddos...but such is life with little kids. I stayed back at the hotel (and talked with Carrie L. since her kids were taking naps, too) while they slept, and then drove to the park when they woke up. Jeff's girlfriend baked a beautifully decorated cake and he cooked a fabulous pulled pork sandwich meal. Since I was late bringing the kids to the party, I didn't get to eat with everybody, but I still had some of the yummy cake. Deb took a bunch of family pictures with Grandma Butler, and the kids spent some time on the playground. We had some time to kill for the rest of the evening, so we decided to take everybody back to the water park at the hotel. This time I grabbed by swim suit on the way back and got in the water. Dave took the kids for awhile and Kala and I got a chance to go on the water slides. They were so cool! We had to climb up about 4 stories to start, then had three choices of slides to go on. I got slightly injured on one of them - Dave and I were on a double innertube and I ended up going backwards. The side of my lower back smashed into a solid part of a slide - its hard to explain - but its bruised! Sunday morning we spent at Trott Brook. The family gathered for lunch at Old Country Buffet, then we went back to P&J's to clean up and pack. We left at 3 pm - later than we wanted (of course, haha), but that is OK. Both kids fell asleep almost immediately once we got in the car, and I think Violet slept all but 30 minutes of the drive. She was SO tired. Calvin woke up before she did in the car, and he was getting irritated that Violet was sleeping. He could see her head bob side to side against her car seat head rest, and if he thought she was waking up, he would happily say "hi!" to her. But she'd stay asleep, and he would cry, it was really cute. Once she woke up, he was SO happy to see her interact with him. They got all giggly when Dave would drive the van to the side of the road and her the loud bumps that alert a sleepy driver. They screamed in laughter, they both thought the sudden loudness of the sound was so funny. Again, we didn't stop on that car ride. I was surprised we didn't have to stop. We got home somewhere around 7:30 and gave the kids a bath and got them back in bed. Yet another weekend where I will remember our children. Violet was a little happy social butterfly, acting goofy with her cousins and loving all the time to play. She was happy to see baby Evie, very happy to see her favorite cousins Emily and Alyssa and Austin and Renee, she called Brad a sticky lollipop, went down the slide all by herself at the water park, and spent some time on Sunday "reading" tons of books with her cousin Lynnea on the couch. Calvin became famous for lugging his blankie and paci around with him while sporting his Linus with blue blankie shirt. Its Tuesday already and I'm feeling back to normal. Laundry is done and put away, and I went grocery shopping and already have a dinner plan. Grilling cheeseburger and having macaroni salad with cucumbers on the side.